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Immanuel's Ground,
through
help to recreate the life and times of
the old church quires and bands as they sang and played both in church
and in their weekday activities. Secular and sacred music from about
1700 up until 1850, together with regional history and quotations, help
to paint a lively picture of the life and times of both village and town
environs.
Individual requirements for concerts and
services always need
discussing beforehand, so please do
contact us to discuss your needs and preferences.
Angel from a window in All Saints,
Cheltenham, where we held a
Carol Concert. in 2009.
Concerts
Concerts are usually
scripted with the concert venue in mind and include, where
appropriate, psalms, hymns, anthems, carols, glees and other secular
music of the time. We try always to include one or two items for
audience participation. In particular, themes for these concerts may
include the following:
-
The Church's Year
-
Through All the
Changing Scenes of Life
-
Going the Rounds
-
Thomas Hardy
-
Admiral, Lord Nelson
-
In time of War
-
Harvest
-
July 4th
-
The Georgian Village
Quire
-
Carols and Christmas readings
-
Other,
see below
Usually concerts are of about 90 -
100 minutes duration, excluding interval time, but this can be
shortened to suit the occasion.
Workshops
Immanuel's Ground
are happy to run west gallery workshops, either on their own or in
conjunction with a church service, (Evensong or Carols), or in the case of SingBirmingham!,
followed by a showcase of the music prepared during the day.
Workshops have recently
been given at
-
Bishop's Itchington
(carols)
-
St Mary's, Banbury
(carols and Evensong)
-
Northgate Methodist
Church (Evensong)
-
SingBirmingham! 2007
and 2009 at Moseley, in conjunction with RSCM and WGMA
-
Warwick Folk Festival
American psalmody, or
Sacred Harp / shapenote music, can also be workshopped, either alone
or with
Babylon
Lane, who specialise in this form of
psalmody.
Workshops usually start
in the late morning with breaks for lunch and tea, and will include
the necessary music for a west gallery service or concert,
transposed parts being available. Woodwinds and strings are the most
suitable instruments, with light brass only, not heavy bass
instruments. Accordions, melodeons, keyboards and guitars are not
suitable. Hopefully instrumentalists will be Grade IV or above,
unless they are used to playing as part of an ensemble.
Folk Festival workshops are
usually about 90 minutes in length, accompanied
by instruments and singers.
Church services in the West Gallery
style
Every church
service is different in approach and content, although most commonly
from a west gallery point of view based on the Book of common
Prayer. Music includes either metrical settings of the Palms and
Canticles, the latter also through-composed by local composers, as
well as hymns for congregational use. Please do
contact us to discuss your needs
and preferences.
-
Evensongs
These services are especially suitable for country churches (the
music was specifically written for 'country quires'), and are
also useful for Deanery services, and Patronal Festivals.
We have taken part in a number of parish Celebrations to which Bishops
have been invited, and we are, of course, always
delighted to share the music with whomsoever is officiating.
-
Weddings
-
Harvest Festivals
-
Carol Services
-
Non-liturgical
services
Other performances
and concerts we have carried out:
-
Harvest Suppers
-
American Psalmody
Evenings
-
Bromsgrove Proms
-
Black Country Museum
-
Cogges Manor Farm, Witney
-
Filming at Wolfhamcote, Warks.
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Our repertoire
includes west gallery carols,
together with the best known psalm and hymn tunes in the West Gallery repertoire. It also
includes music by local composers and quire
masters, such as
William Perry, organist and quiremaster at the
Congregational Church, Brook Street, Warwick;
Joseph Key of
Warwick and Nuneaton, whose Psalms and Anthems stem from an earlier part
of the west gallery period;
John Hill, also of the same period as
Joseph Key, who started his musical life at Lydd in Kent, but who moved
to Rugby where much of his music was written;
William Tans'ur, baptised 1706 in Dunchurch; and
Joseph Watts
of Fenny Compton, who was one of the earliest local composers to use
fuguing tunes. Works by newly discovered composers from just over
the border in Oxfordshire,
Amram Taylor of Ambrosden, nr.
Bicester, and
Francis Saunders of Thame, were included in the 2006 Mid-Shires'
Quires' Day at Byfield, together with more favourites from the composer
Thomas Jarman, from Clipstone in Northamptonshire.
Read more about these composers and their music
here.
Recent additions to the repertoire comprise a growing
number of Psalms from the Shape-note tradition in America, notably the
early New England composers such as Daniel Read and William
Billings.
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