"Serenade to Music"

The Cappella Singers outside Malmesbury Abbey, before the concert

The Stroud-based Cappella Singers were founded in 1960 by our friend of many years Mark Foster.

I was lucky enough to be there when they arrived to rehearse and soon realised that they were producing a beautiful sound and had singers - especially the tenors - that other choral societies would love to have singing for them. Philip Colls rehearsed them, much of the music unaccompanied, and demanded and achieved considerable precision.

The Cappella Singers brought with them as guest pianist Robert Houssart. He is, the Assistant Director of Music at Gloucester Cathedral and, during the afternoon he went back to Gloucester to play for a Confirmation after playing through his solos on our grand piano.

There were connections with Cambridge University - Ralph Vaughan Williams - the Serenade to Music and three folk song arrangements, Charles Villiers Stanford - Beati quorum via, and Magnificat; the Sonatina No 2, Second Movement by Kenneth Leighton and someone I had never heard of, Patrick Hadley who composed a setting of words from the Song of Songs, My Beloved Spake.

There were also Russian connections, Three Vocalises by Modest Mussorgsky - do you know, I never knew his first name. I do now! Then came Tchaikovsky's Nay, though my heart should break, arranged by Mark Blatchly, followed by Robert Houssart playing the Rachmaninov Prelude in D major op 23 no 4. Robert also gave his own Improvisation Maritime.

The finale was Old Joe has gone fishing from Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes and is in 7/4 time, which I found an interesting work and this especially caught my attention in rehearsal.

I have to confess that at the end of a concert sung by a choir with very good voices, I longed for something lighter and having a humorous resonance. Their programme that evening had something missing. It came over as much of the same. Please Philip Colls, give way to that unfulfilled wish - have your choir sing something jazzy in your programme and sing the solo part yourself!!.