Cambridge Timeline Choir will sing carols in the courtyard at Wimpole Estate as part of their Christmas celebrations on Sunday 2nd December. The singing runs from 2pm ’til 2:30pm and features light-hearted English carols and folksongs with a sprinkling of Christmas cheer! The event is free to attend and open to all.
Southern County Songs
All are welcome to an evening of traditional songs and festive carols from the southern counties, with Leith Hill Timeline Choir, on Saturday 24th November, 7:30pm, in Rusper Church. Sussex was at the forefront of the English Folk revival of the late 19th-early 20th centuries. Alongside their more famous peers Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams, the choir celebrate the names Burstow, Belloc and Broadwood: a shoemaker and bell ringer, an Anglo-French writer, historian and enthusiastic drinker of Sussex beer, and the daughter of a famous family of piano manufacturers, who was, more importantly, one of history’s greatest champions of English traditional music.
Henry Burstow boasted a vast repertoire of 420 songs, some of which he passed onto Broadwood for her first volume English Country Songs, published in 1893, as well as contributing to the folk-song collections of Vaughan Williams. Hilaire Belloc was one of the most prolific writers of early 20th century England. He spent most of his life in West Sussex, loving the county to the point of idolatry, and writing several works about the area. He loved Sussex songs (particularly the ones about drinking) and wrote about singing as if it were the soul of Sussex. Lucy Broadwood, the unsung heroine of the English folksong, bridged the divide between traditional and art music. Eschewing the conventional harmonies of the Victorian drawing-room ballad, she was instead drawn to the stunning simplicity of the folk song, believing them to possess “perhaps the most beautiful, original and varied cadences to be found in music”. She is buried here in Rusper Church. Interwoven with songs collected, written and sung by these three Sussex greats will be some favourite Christmas carols, lending a seasonal slant to the timeless themes of love, loss and compassion, which have been at the heart of the English folksong since time immemorial. There will be one or two opportunities to sing along!
Tickets cost £12, including a glass of wine, and are available to reserve by calling either Maggie (01293 851906) or Louise (01293 871600)
Leith Hill Timeline Choir is proud to present Southern County Songs in association with Rusper Church’s Belloc, Broadway and Beyond project: www.rusperchurch.org.uk/belloc-broadwood-and-beyond
Broadwood, Death and the Maidens – Connections
Connections – let’s see what they are and where they lead!
Leith Hill Timeline Choir soprano Hilary Hinks shares a word on our up-coming concert, 'Southern County Songs', inspired by two very special Rusper residents: Lucy Broadwood and John Maiden...
Timeline Choir are performing at Rusper Church, on Saturday 24th November, and the concert will include folk songs collected by Lucy Broadwood. She was the daughter of a famous family of piano manufacturers, and one of history’s greatest champions of English traditional music. The Broadwood family lived locally at Lyne House, which lies on the Newdigate/Capel Parish boundary. It is said that they were “christened at Newdigate Church, married at Capel Church and were buried at Rusper Church”.
So Lucy Broadwood is buried at Rusper Church, in the original old part of the churchyard, along with 14 more of her family who are buried in the vault under the nave.
John Maiden, the father of Ros Maiden, one of our sopranos, lived in Rusper for 22 years. Sadly he passed away earlier this year. He was well known in the village, and as was said of Lucy Broadwood, was known ”to be a brilliant talker and full of wit and humour”. He is also buried at Rusper Church, and we will be thinking of him as we sing in November, he always enjoyed our concerts.
He married local Rusper girl Audrey Warwick, in May 1949, so she became a Maiden, and she, along with her parents, is also buried in Rusper Churchyard.
Audrey Warwick was a singer and a few months after she married John, she won a talent competition in Horsham. Quoting from the West Sussex County Times of Friday November 18th, 1949, “Nineteen year old Mrs A Maiden, of Norwood Hill, near Horley, won first prize in the Capitol talent competition held to celebrate the 26th anniversary of the opening of the cinema. Shine Through My Dreams was Mrs Maiden’s choice and judging from the applause when the results were announced, the judge’s decision was a popular one”. Ros is now carrying on the family tradition of singing and Audrey would be proud of her!
Death and the Lady (also a Maiden!) is a song that has its origins back in the 14th century, and was one of Henry Burstow’s ballads, which he performed in Horsham. Lucy Broadwood said that he “despised it for being nearly all on one note”!! Lucy on the other hand described the pure English folk-tune as being “ exceedingly simple, usually only eight bars long, yet it has perhaps the most beautiful, original and varied cadences to be found in music”. We will be performing a version of this song in our concert in November! [1]
And the link to Stef Conner, our Musical Director. She came to Rusper to sing to John on his 90th birthday, accompanying herself on her keyboard, and for anyone who knew John, yes, a glass of champagne was imbibed! She, like Lucy Broadwood is a hugely gifted pianist and singer, and lover of English folk songs. She too is a local girl, having spent most of her childhood years in Capel.
And finally, she has also performed a version of Death and the Lady, which you can see here – http://www.stefconner.com/videos/death-and-the-lady-by-martin-sheuregger/.
We are looking forward to seeing you at Rusper Church in November and making more connections.
[1] Lyrics © Messrs Boosey and Co
Timeline Choir Autumn Term
Autumn Timeline Choir rehearsals resume on Tuesday 18th (Surrey) and Thursday 27th (Cambridge) September. As always, new members are most welcome to come and join us for the new term. This autumn and winter season sees a focus on medieval and renaissance Christmas songs in Cambridge, festive folk songs collected by Lucy Broadwood in Surrey and a look into our 2019 programme ‘Melodic Dissent’, celebrating music as a powerful weapon in the perennial fight against cruelty and injustice, from as early as the Middle Ages and including folk songs from the fens, love songs to trees from Sussex and songs of protest against land enclosure by the poet John Clare.
Timeline Choir is a community singing group with a difference: although it is open to all, with no auditions and no requirement for members to be able to read music, the choir is set apart by its specially-arranged and artistically ambitious repertoire, which celebrates the heritage of the local area, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day.
Cambridge Timeline Choir begins with an open session on Thursday 27th September, 7:30pm, at the St. Barnabas Centre on Mill Road. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Stef to sign up (Cambridge only) or read more here.
Leith Hill Timeline Choir resumes with an open session on Tuesday 18th September, 7:30pm, at Forest Green Village Hall, Forest Green, Surrey. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Stef to sign up or read more here.
Riddles Wisely Expounded!
NOTE: Online bookings for this event are now closed, but there are plenty of tickets available on the door. Please come for 7:00pm to be sure of getting a ticket.
Join Cambridge Timeline Choir for their third annual concert, a celebration of the joys of musical riddling… from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day…
From musical conundrums that must be solved to be sung to tales of witty characters riddling their way out of trouble, – or into a lover’s bed! – Cambridge Timeline Choir take on the full spectrum of riddles in song, in a vocal pageant of puzzles at Emmanuel United Reformed Church on Saturday 14th July. The widespread, perhaps even universal, art of riddling has been a part of human culture for at least as long as writing can attest, and this concert celebrates the way in which the ingenious practice has enriched intellectual and musical life in the British Isles. Tracing the tradition back to the riddles and kennings of the Anglo-Saxon world, the programme meanders into the mysteries of the Middle English lyric and embraces the challenge of the renaissance musical enigma, before pursuing the twisting and turning narratives of English folk ballads all the way to the present day. The choir mingle the medieval and modern, singing new works by composers Kerry Andrew, Iain Russell and Timeline Choir conductor Stef Conner alongside pieces by Thomas Morley, Richard Sampson and John Dunstable, as well as several centuries of beautiful traditional songs, collected and preserved by the local poet John Clare and composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, among others. Favourites like Scarborough Fair and I Gave my Love a Cherry can be heard alongside lesser-known songs like the Maid of Ocram and Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship. All are welcome to come and be both perplexed and delighted by this feast of musical mystery.
Spring Term Begins!
New Year Timeline Choir rehearsals resume on Tuesday 9th (Surrey) and Thursday 11th (Cambridge) January. As always, new members are most welcome to come and join us for the new term. This spring sees a focus on medieval, renaissance, traditional and even a bit of modern music based on riddles and games as this year we will be exploring the surprising history of the musical puzzle, including songs based on riddles and pieces of music in which the notes themselves are the riddle, including the use of composers names in music (B-A-C-H for example) and musical scores that form special shapes and conceal hidden messages.
Timeline Choir is a community singing group with a difference: although it is open to all, with no auditions and no requirement for members to be able to read music, the choir is set apart by its specially-arranged and artistically ambitious repertoire, which celebrates the heritage of the local area, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day.
Cambridge Timeline Choir begins with an open session on Thursday 11th January, 7:30pm, at the St. Barnabas Centre on Mill Road. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Meg to sign up (Cambridge only) or read more here.
Leith Hill Timeline Choir resumes with an open session on Tuesday 9th January, 7:30pm, at The Punchbowl Inn, Okewood Hill, Surrey. If you love to sing then come along and try out some beautiful old music… arranged in new ways! You can email Stef to sign up or read more here.
Beat the Winter Blues by taking up singing this New Year!
Surrey Hills Alive!
Come and sing a selection of beautiful folk songs from the South East with Stef Conner at Leith Hill Place, the childhood home of Vaughan Williams, whose passion for English traditional music inspired Timeline Choir’s concert later the same evening.
The workshop runs from 2:30–3:30pm and is open to all, with no requirement for sight reading or prior experience.
Book your tickets (£10) online with Leith Hill Place.
Fenland Folk!
Join Cambridge Timeline Choir for a very special performance of East Anglian folk music at St Barnabas Church, Mill Road, on Saturday 11 November from 7.30pm.
The Cambridgeshire fens provide the folkloric inspiration for much of the evening, but there will also be forays into Norfolk and Essex. Readings of poems, local sayings and letters, along with an atmospheric spectacle of historic photos projected onto the choir, will further bring the music and the history that inspired it to life. Thanks go to the Museum of Cambridge, whose valuable input has included providing photos and sources for local oral and written history, and to those choir members who have also provided testimonies and ideas.
Each of Choir Director Stef Conner’s brand new choral settings of local songs, ancient and modern, tells a unique story about the East of England. Songs chronicling land enclosure and the draining of the fens recall momentous events in our local history that forever changed the nature of the East Anglian landscape and the lives of fenland dwellers. Interwoven with these are traditional English folk songs on the themes of love, cautionary tales and nature, some of which were collected by John Clare, the early Nineteenth Century Cambridgeshire-born poet.
From beautiful, wistful songs of love and loss, to snippets of folk wisdom cautioning young women not to marry old men, and even a rousing sea shanty, the concert will take the audience on a sublime musical journey through our history. There will also be an opportunity for the audience to get directly involved and participate in the singing!
The Choir’s last concert on the theme of Shakespearean music was a sell-out, so make sure you buy your tickets in advance!
Not the usual Sunday bells…
A thoroughly enjoyable Sunday afternoon singing at Leith Hill Place prompted Leith Hill Timeline Choir member Hilary Hinks to uncover some hidden poetic talents and pen this little ditty, in part inspired by the unexpected (but rather lovely) first half of the concert, spent singing on the lawn outside while the fire alarm screeched indoors!
People came from far and wide,
Well, mostly from quite near,
A motley crew from Timeline Choir,
A singing for to hear.
All were seated patiently
Awaiting on the start,
What’s this I spy, it’s Margaret,
Crept in the room, oh so quie – art!
A Sunday in the Surrey Hills,
And Sussex Hils there too,
But before a note we sang, the fire bell rang,
Causing such a hullabaloo!
All outside into the sun,
And sitting on the grass,
Audience participation with some songs,
Helped the time to pass.
Finally we were back inside,
A false alarm it was,
Twice through we sang our programme,
Why? Well just Because!!!
Autumn Term Begins!
Following a long summer holiday, Timeline Choir rehearsals resume on Tuesday 19th (Surrey) and Thursday 21st September (Cambridge). As always, new members are most welcome to come and join us for the new term. This autumn sees a focus on traditional music from each of the two choir’s local areas, with some beautiful new arrangements of much-loved English songs.
Timeline Choir is a community singing group with a difference: although it is open to all, with no auditions and no requirement for members to be able to read music, the choir is set apart by its specially-arranged and artistically ambitious repertoire, which celebrates the heritage of the local area, from Anglo-Saxon times to the present day.
Cambridge Timeline Choir begins with an open session on Thursday 21st September, 7:30pm, at the St. Barnabas Centre on Mill Road. If you love to sing then come along and try out some new arrangements of folk songs collected in the East of England. You can email Meg to sign up or read more here.
Leith Hill Timeline Choir resumes with an open session on Tuesday 19th September, 7:30pm, at Forest Green Village Hall, Forest Green, Surrey. If you love to sing then come along and try out some new arrangements of folk songs collected by Dorking’s much-loved composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. You can email Stef to sign up or read more here.