Swan Singers, Wells, Somerset
Tickets are now on sale for our next concert – The Musical Roads to Compostela at St John’s Church in Frome on Sunday 7 July. They’re available to buy in person at the Cheese and Grain in Frome, on the Frome Festival website or by scanning the QR code on the poster.
8:30am May 1st Ebbor Gorge. The annual outing of the Nuts in May Singers (Swan Singers and friends) was another triumph of musical optimism over slightly dreary weather as we walked and madrigalled our way from Deerleap Car Park to the top of Ebbor Gorge. There were frequent stops to admire the scenery/the slightly sad state of the willow bear sculpture/carpets of bluebells and to test out a variety of acoustics through the medium of the Oxford Book of English Madrigals. Of course, the best part is when we reach the top and sing with the Vale of Avalon spread at our feet with delicious homemade cakes emerging from backpacks as just rewards for our efforts. Now is the Month of Maying indeed!
Get those diaries out now! Booking is open for our Come and Sing day with Bob Chilcott. Join us on Saturday 2nd November at St John’s Church, Glastonbury (BA6 9DR) from 9.30 to 4.30. Tickets are £25, or £15 for accompanied under 18s and those in full-time education. Music hire is included in the ticket price. Repertoire on the day will include ‘Little Jazz Mass’, ‘Mary, Mother’ (a new Christmas sequence) and more!
Follow the link to book online – further details to come.
https://www.trybooking.com/uk/events/landing/53478
Our first outing since COVID-19 struck and prevented us gathering to rehearse, at St. Cuthbert’s Church in Wells, on September the 18th, was an emotive occasion. The programme had been voted on by choir members from material which we had been able to access in a Zoom moderated home karaoke fashion. In addition, our conductor commissioned a work by Ian Assersohn to mark and celebrate the return of some degree of new normality.
We opened the concert with the world premiere of Ian’s composition, aptly named ‘After’. Much of the music chosen felt as if it captured some of the depth of feeling felt during Lock-down – we sang of the desolation of Jerusalem, and a prayer for forgiveness. The concert moved us and the audience through some very rich musical scenery, culminating in the second performance of ‘After’. There were many moist eyes and lumps in the throat. For this writer at least, it must go down in memory as an extremely moving occasion, and one not easily forgotten.
By kind permission of the composer, a live recording of that second performance of ‘After’, written by Ian Assersohn and sung by the Swan Singers, can be found at his web site:
After last year’s prohibition of a real trip down and up Ebbor Gorge for madrigals, coffee and cake, a socially distanced small-group version took place in 2021.
A chance find of a willow statue provided this photo opportunity – too good to be missed!
Despite COVID restrictions the Swans have continued to sing together via Zoom. Of late we have been rehearsing items for our virtual choir concert in place of our traditional Carols and Cake Concert.
The Christmas spirit was very much in evidence during our final rehearsal, as the screenshot shows!
The Swan Singers will be at the Bishop’s Palace in Wells on Saturday 14th December as part of the Christmas celebrations ‘Christmas at the Palace’.
Between 12.00 noon and 12.45 pm we will be in the Bishop’s Chapel performing some wonderful sacred Christmas music by composers old and new.
At 1.15 pm the singers will move to the Gallery to indulge in a selection of lighter Christmas musical fare, with gems such as Sleigh Ride and Have yourself a merry little Christmas, and many other seasonal favourites.
Please feel free to come and join us!
Swans On Tour Yorkshire 2018!!
Monday 28th May – Carlisle Cathedral (evensong)
Skempton – Preces and Responses
Howells – Magnificat and Nunc ‘Collegium Regale’
Howells – Like as the Hart
Wednesday 30th May – Giggleswick School Chapel
Bainton – And I Saw a New Heaven
Blow – Salvator Mundi
Byrd – Sing Joyfully
Finzi – Lo the Full Final Sacrifice
Gibbons – O Clap your Hands
Harris – Faire is the heaven
Howells – Like as the Hart
Ireland – Greater Love hath No Man
Parsons – Ave Maria
Philips – Ascendit Deus
Purcell – Hear my Prayer, O Lord
Purcell – I was glad when they said unto me
Stanford – Beati Quorum Via
Stanford – Coelos Ascendit Hodie
Tallis – Loquebantur Variis Linguis
Tallis – O Nata Lux de Lumine
Thursday 31st May – lunchtime informal concert with tea and cake