Choral Works

Late in 2008, when we were planning the events for 2009, I heard some idiot say, “why not form a Copped Hall Choir?” and realised that idiot was me. In my defence, I already knew that within the extraordinary bunch of people who come up every Sunday was a hard core of singers, so I realised that we would have a nucleus to work with. What I didn’t appreciate is the hard work, organisation and planning necessary to put our dream
into reality. In order to make any progress at all I knew we needed a musical director. My first stroke of luck was to convince Katherine Fellowes, musical director of Erato, the local group of madrigal singers, to take on the task of leading us. Katherine is packed full of talent: an excellent singer, a superb musician, with a great sense of humour which was tested to the limit at times.

She also comes from an extremely talented musical family, so by “bagging” her, I also coerced her father, Stephen, to be our first bass. In October we held a music workshop run by Christine Gwynn and Frances Quintrell of Arbutus which was well attended and highly successful. This helped to gather together a group who would eventually become the Copped Hall Choir. From that workshop we netted Norman Lansdown-Davis to play the piano. Norman is one of the people who serenades us every Sunday, while we work. The first rehearsal was on 12 November, exactly one month prior to the concert. A motley crowd assembled in our house, completely filling the drawing room. To Katherine, who is not particularly tall, it must have seemed like rehearsing in a crowded tube train; every time we stood up to sing, she was herded into the bookcases. Of course, every choir member had conflicting diaries so it wasn’t until the dress rehearsal on the day of the concert that the whole choir sang together.

We also rehearsed at Copped Hall and for every day we chose, the weather conspired to be wet, or cold, or both. Still, we managed it – and with a programme that made no concessions to our comparative inexperience. Someone suggested we incorporate some readings into the programme and again we were lucky as two choir members, Foster Barnett and Margaret Gervis, have wonderful speaking voices and Sylvia Keith, who is in charge of the tour guides, volunteered to add her mellifluous tones as the third reader.

Great – off we go – except for a slight problem. We had been rehearsing in the first floor of the north wing, where there is a piano, but we were performing downstairs in the south room, where there wasn’t, so step forward RAC Pianos of Roydon, our constant and generous supporters, who not only loaned us a piano for free, but delivered and installed it as well. Thanks once again Richard!

The day of the performance was upon us all too quickly. As usual for the carol concerts, it was a packed house and some of us had never sung in public before (at least not sober) so a few people were a bit nervous. However, the performance went without any apparent hitches and the audience seemed pleased (or were just grateful it was finished!). So in just over a month we had formed and trained a choir to performance standard. Hard work, but also a lot of fun and very exhilarating. Will we do it again? Certainly! The Copped Hall Choir is already “booked” for the 2010 carol concerts and we might be doing other things if circumstances permit.

Anyone wishing to take part only needs to contact me (vicknope@hotmail.com) to go on the waiting list. Like most local choirs, we have some spaces for male voices, but an abundance of female voices.

Singing is fun. Your instrument doesn't cos you anything, it's good for your health, both physical and mental, and you meet such lovely people. If you’re interested in developing your voice, or just keen to see if you can sing, then I recommend the Copped Hall music workshop on Saturday 22 May.

Vic Knope