WESTMINSTER GLEE SINGERS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18822, 27 March 1923, Page 2

WESTMINSTER GLEE SINGERS

BURNS HALL. It is often a matter for discussion among the many who taken an intelligent interest in that most beautiful of all forms of vocal | music, the unaccompanied performance of i part-singing, why it is so rarely heard in : anything like un acceptable form, always excepting the public concerts by large choral j bodies, and tho reason is simple. Hike tho I performance of chamber music for instni- { molds, singing of. this class can only be ren- 1 dered to perfection by highly-trained | vocalists, who must of necessity be’ pro- ; fessionals. The difficult questions of in- j tonation, expression, taste, and phrasing ! are much more accentuated in the perform- | ance of quartet work than is tho case with ; choruses with instrumental accompaniment. ; And to attain any skill in the rendering is j a matter of infinitely more trouble and | difficulty than Would be so'for the proper I preparation, of a solo. It is really a question of a number of skilled soloists performing together with one mind as to what effects they intend to produce,-and naturally the amount of rehearsing to be got through is enormous. -■ ■ It used to 1 be said of Henry Leslie’s' Clmir, one of' the mofct celebrated choral organisations in Upndon. that no -piece pUmfisic was publicly performed until it had been rehearsed at least 60 times. In tho case of Mr Edward Branscombe’s Westminster Glee Singers, who are . due to .commence’. their Dunedin■ season next Saturday at theBurns Hall, it is safe to say that this number is very often greatly exceeded. 1 1 Then the whole repertoire to be performed by Mr Branscombe’s singers is done from memory, and when it is remembered that this runs into some 120 different pieces of part-music, the gigantic nature of the undertaking will bo readily perceived. Thoi box plans opened this morning at the Bristol, and already there has been a large demand for seats.