FINE CHORAL WORK

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1935, Page 9

FINE CHORAL WORK

HAWERA COMPETITIONS FEATURE. VALUABLE AND INTERESTING. One of the most valuable and interesting sections at the Hawera competitions festival is that for choirs. Though the classes have not drawn the' numerical support envisaged for them by some judges they have always been well worth while from the musical point of view. This year the choirs were again popular entries at the festival and there was keen interest in the result, which in both classes lay between the Philharmonic Society (New Plymouth) and Mrs. W. A. Quin’s Hawera choir. The open contest was won by Mrs. Quin’s combination and the women’s event by the New Plymouth entry. Complete details of the awards are:— Open choir: Not necessarily church choirs, 20 to 25 voices, (a) Anthem: “0 Lord, Bow Down Thine Ear”; (b) hymn or part song unaccompanied, own selection. Mrs. Quin’s choir, anthem 62 points, own selection, (“Gallop Away”) 71 points, total 133 points, 1; Philharmonic Society (New Plymouth) 57, “Moonlight” 71, 128, 2; Scottish Society (Hawera) 56, “For the Sake of Somebody” 60, 116, 3. Women’s choir: For 12 to 15 voices: (a) Test: “Lift Thine Eyes”; (b) own selection unaccompanied. Philharmonic Society (New Plymouth) “Nanie,” 83, 1; Mrs. Quin’s choir (Hawera), “The Sea,” 78, 2; Hawera Convent Choir, “Rosebuds,” 77, 3. In his remarks generally on the standard of the choral work Mr. Stanley Oliver said the performances were interesting and good throughout. The anthem chosen for the open test was 16th century music and the choirs perhaps did not realise that each part had its own independent melodic curve and sway. The New Plymouth choir sang rather too ■ quickly and the Hawera choir a little too slowly. The New Plymouth choir achieved a beautiful pianissimo in the last chord of “Moonlight,” and it was a pity that more of this quality was not produced earlier. Mrs. Quin’s choir achieved more of the spirit of the anthem with greater sauvity, more curve and an easier flow. “Gallop Away” was spectacular in its effectiveness. It was placed on a par with the beautiful rendering of “Moonlight” by the New Plymouth choir. Referring to the Hawera choir, the judge said that the tempo was rather too slow, but a real attempt was made to capture the tone spirit of the composition. Tone was a little rough in places and quality needed a little polish. Ideas of interpretation were right. The choir’s own selection “Gallop Away” was,

splendidly conceived with excellent unanimity. The soft tone wanted more “covered” quality. The words were excellent and the work throughout very good. In the New Plymouth choir the tenor tone in the test was not covered enough and the tone in the forte passages was rather rough. Accents were overdone, the rendering not beinj entirely satisfactory as the choir lacked subtlety of expression and the graceful curve of the melodic line in each part. In “Moonlight” there was a better tone and the rendering was very good. The third choir had the tempo in the test almost right, if anything a shade on the slow side. The tone was rather hard and needed to be mellowed down to improve the blend. The altos were hard in tone quality in the own selection. In commenting on ;the work of all three choirs in the women’s class Mr. Oliver said he was faced with a difficult task. All were well trained and gave evidence of splendid rehearsal, the choirs producing good quality and tone with nothing in the execution of the numbers that could be described as slipshod. “Two chose piano accompaniments, but in my ion they would have been better without the piano,” said Mr. Oliver. “The percussion of the instrument was most irritating and spoilt what otherwise was a beautiful tonal effect.” The Hawera Convent choir, one of the two accompanied, had the freshest voices of the three and, in places the best blend, but they “went to pieces” towards the end. This choir was unfortunate in its choice of own sei .ction, “Rosebuds,” which was not a good piece, musically, for competition work. Mrs. Quin’s choir would also have done better unaccompanied. The singing of the test was full of vitality and there was some pleasing work in the selection, “The Sea,” with a tendency to just a little tonal “roughness” at times. So far as the New Plymouth choir was concerned the pitch and the words were good and the blend fair in the test. In the selection “Nanie” the balance was good, but blend could be improved a little by more attention to vowel quality’. It was a musicianly rendering. Mr. Oliver congratulated the choirs on their performances and asked why there should be only three entered for the competition. Choral work was valuable not only musically, but socially, and he appealed for more work of this nature in the future.