I don’t have much going on at the moment to write about, but I see that someone searched this blog for references to the Exon Singers, so here is an account of my connexion with them.<\/p>\n
Some years ago I was recruited at short notice to sing in the Exon Singers’ summer West Country tour, conducted by Christopher Tolley. Over the week I was with them, we performed in venues including Buckfast Abbey, Truro and Exeter Cathedrals, and the barn at Buckland Abbey.<\/p>\n
It was clear that the membership of the choir was pretty stable, and for some years afterwards I had fun picking out the voices of people I recognised when the choir sang their Choral Evensong broadcast at New Year. There were also a lot of couples in it, which may have been connected to the fact that the free board and lodging laid on for us in Tavistock was only available to singers.<\/p>\n
Most of the music we performed was new to me. I recall three (very diverse) pieces in particular: Byrd’s Laudibus in Sanctis<\/I> (done on minimal rehearsal as everyone else had recently sung it with the choir), Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden<\/I> (since learning which I’ve never had problems pitching augmented 4ths\/diminished 5ths), and a setting of part of Dr Seuss’s Sleep Book<\/I> by Roderick Williams.<\/p>\n
The week was hard work because of all the new music, and in those days I was relatively inexperienced, but I enjoyed being part of such a good choir. I occasionally look back on it with nostalgia, especially at times when singing at that standard isn’t available to me. I see from the website<\/a> that now Jeffrey Makinson, whom I knew in my Manchester days, plays for them, but they don’t seem to assemble at Tewkesbury over New Year any more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I don’t have much going on at the moment to write about, but I see that someone searched this blog for references to the Exon Singers, so here is an account of my connexion with them. Some years ago I … Continue reading