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Immanuel's Ground is a
Quire based in Warwick, was formed in the
Autumn of 2001, and draws members from the "Heart of England", which, generally speaking, is Oxfordshire, Northants, Worcestershire and Warwickshire.
As a costumed quire, we sing music from the
West Gallery period, ie roughly between 1725 and 1850, this including not only the sacred music sung in rural parish churches, so well recorded by Thomas Hardy in
"Under the Greenwood Tree", but also secular part-songs, glees and catches, and the popular music of the period, with especial emphasis on
local composers and musicians. This is accompanied by a small number of instruments such as would have been found in any village band of that time.
The other part of our repertoire comes from a parallel and living singing tradition in America, and especially New England, that of
shapenote music, with its exciting and sometimes unexpected harmonies,
kept alive since the time of the earliest settlers. We
also include some of the new compositions still being written today.
We take part in concerts, church services (usually a form of evening service), carols - concerts, services and pub sessions - and are happy to
share the music with local choirs by workshops and other participatory events, either on their own or as a prelude to a shared service. Local historical material is included wherever possible.
See where we will be in the forthcoming months.
We do still need additional players of appropriate instruments (strings, possibly a bassoon, flute etc), and one or two singers -
particularly MALE TENORS in order to strengthen the lead lines. Much of the music is tenor-led, i.e., the tune is sung by the Tenors, and the Trebles have a very important counterpoint. Do come along to a practice and see just how different this music is; details of how to contact the Secretary can be
found here. Our repertoire and details of concerts and workshops, etc, can be
found here.
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