hoir activities 1967

On November 19th, the School choir made a return visit to Guildford, to sing Evensong in the Cathedral. Mr. Barry Rose, a Monoux Old Boy now organist and choirmaster at Guildford, accompanied us in the service-"Watson in E", and the anthem "O Lord the maker of all things" by John Joubert. The choir, although not on its best form, was again invited to return, and hoped to do so in June.
Our thanks go to Mr. Moffatt who has spent a considerable time training and rehearsing the choir, a task now made especially difficult by the comparative youth of its ranks.
Twice last term, the choir assembled to record items for London's International Audio Fair. The first session was unsuccesful for a number of reasons, but the second session succeeded both musically and technically, and as a result the choir was heard singing the Moravian Folk Song, "Vy Klacania" and Roger Wagner's arrangement of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".
The recording was made in an advanced form of stereophonic sound, called "Ambiophony". This is a method of recording sound in large buildings, which simulates the acoustics of the original environments, thus achieving a remarkable clarity.
The people concerned in making the tape intend to return in the near future to record an E,P. disc of the choir.
G. Carpenter, SG.

This term has been a very successful one for the Choir, although it has not given any public concerts.
Early in the term we learnt that the Choir was being broadcast on Budapest Radio following a recording it had made there just before it left. Unfortunately, only one person was able to receive the programme, and the reception, we are told, was disappointing, owing to other stations on the same wavelength. More positively, the Choir made the first of two recordings for a record it had long planned to produce. Both were musically successful, but the first had to be scrapped as the microphone was deficient. The second recording was made because of that. The Choir sang three- items (the fourth, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot", had been recorded last term)- "Ave Verum Corpus" by Byrd, "Sing We and Chant It" (a well-known "Fa-La" by Morley), and "Jesus Christ The Apple Tree", a carol from the newly published "Cambridge Hymnal", arranged by Elizabeth Maconchy. This record is expected to be on sale very soon.
Another recording date was fixed soon after this one, but this time for the B.B.C. programme "Let The Peoples Sing", an International Choral Competition. Here we were lucky enough to be picked to represent the whole of the South-East Region of England, by a panel of judges which included David Wilcox, the choirmaster of the King's College Choir, Cambridge. As a result, in January, the Choir will be heard singing four items : "Jesus Christ The Apple Tree", and "Ave Verum" as before, Percy Grainger's arrangement of "Brigg Fair" with David Chatterton as tenor soloist), and the late Sir Malcalm Sargent's arrangement of "All God's Chillun".
As usual, our thanks go to Mr. Moffatt for giving up four of his five lunch times and all of his evenings to turn the choir into something worth listening to.
G. Carpenter, 6iM