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West Gallery Forum
This Forum has been set up for members of the West Gallery Music Association and any others who are interested in the music, the literature (starting with Thomas Hardy!) and the social life and times during which west gallery musicians played and sang in the galleries - usually at the west end - of our country churches. It is hoped that in time this may become the forum for debate on scholarly and not-so-scholarly matters. Please use this space wisely, however, and within the accepted bounds required for such a discussion group.
Click here to receive daily updates and notification of replies. Videos from concert — Fynn Titford-Mock, Mon Mar 8 1:02pm Dear all, There are now a few more videos of West Gallery Music on Youtube! They're from Stream of Sound's recent concert 'Come Let Our Voices Join', at St. Thomas' Church Stourbridge, on 20th February. Most of them are pieces by local composers, but some of you will recognise Jarvis's Psalm 69 from the 'Praise &... more
Progress on who composed Lydia — David Welch, Sat Jan 16 9:42pm Chris Brown has made a major breakthrough which he reports today on a thread of 29 Aug 2008. But I think it would be helpful to start a new thread rather than add to this or the other two related threads of spring 2008 - Francis Roads began the hunt for the composer on 20 May 2008. Last year we tackled two problems:... more
Joseph Nicholds — Fynn Titford-Mock, Tue Jan 19 12:19pm I am researching the composer Joseph Nicholds (c.1785-1860), of Coseley (Parish of Sedgley, Staffordshire/West Midlands); I am collecting material for a book on Nicholds (with a selection of his music) as my final university project. Some of you may have sung a few of Nicholds’s pieces from the Larks of Dean... more Lydia - an early Arnold attribution — David Welch, Fri Aug 29 5:15pm I have now visited the Aberdeen Spec. Coll. and can report: 1. No composer is named for New Lydia in the 1845 Bon-Accord Harmonist. 2. Lydia is included in Davie`s Music (1842), with composer named Arnold. 3. Davie`s Music contains another tune attributed to Arnold called Job. This is HTI 11779, and from William... more
Observation on Winifred Stokes article — Thurlow Weed, Fri Jan 15 5:36am I just came across Winifred Stokes' article about the Place of Methodism in Georgian Psalmody. It refers to both the Methodist Hymn Book of 1933 and a few PM hymnals. Since my exposure to WGM several years ago, I've noticed that the 1933 MHB and my 1889 PMH contain quite a generous assortment of WG tunes. The article... more query — anne willis, Tue Nov 10 9:50pm A letter in this weeks 'Ringing World' concerns some numbers cut in the stonework of on of the tower windows at Church Wicken, Northants. The current ring is in the key of F, and the back bells are 17th century, so the sequence could represent a psalm tune. Does anyone have any ideas what it migh be? If you take 1 as... more
7.7.7.8. meter — Edwin Macadam, Sun Sep 27 9:59am Can anyone please suggest a tune to fit something written in 7778 meter, or at least something that could be adapted to fit?
Music by Billings — Peter Meanwell, Wed Jun 3 12:21am Does anyone have the tunes Kittery, Morpheus and Emmaus by William Billings that they could let me have a copy of?
WG instrumentalists — separabit, Sun May 10 11:19am What happened to the West Gallery musicians when they were no longer required after organs had been installed? With singers they presumably just stayed as a choir, but there is a theory that many instrumentalists may have transferred to the local Methodist church where, perhaps, the hymns of the Wesleys were more... more Village Brass Bands — Separabit, Tue Apr 28 7:27pm I have just found your excellent site during my researches into the history of the village brass band. They could have been started from any one of three possible sources. The early Waits Bands; the mid 19th cent. volunteer military bands; or (my theory) from the defunct west gallery quires. Thanks for confirming my... more
TV programmes — David Welch, Thu Feb 12 7:19pm The church music documentaries I wrote about in West Gallery 48 start this Saturday at 8-9 pm, with a Wednesday repeat 7-8 pm. Programme 1 has medieval and Renaissance music, and Programme 2 more recent styles including our segment for part of the 18th Century. The programmes are titled Phil Cunningham`s Grace Notes,... more Oldham choir — Alan Hartley-Smith, Wed Jan 28 7:19pm In the programme The Choir on R3 there was mention of a Quire in Oldham in 1608. I have an interest in starting a WG activity in this area (I live in Saddleworth) and would be interested to get details of this particular group to approach the Local History Centre to research it with a view to reviving its activity.
The Choir — Sally Drage, Sat Jan 24 7:43pm I'm not sure what it will be like but The Choir, tomorrow Sunday, on Radio 3 at 6.30 is Dave Townsend and me talking about wg music. The playlist should include at least one WGMA track, also the Christminster Singers, the Gladly Solemn Sound, the Madding Crowd, Caarjyn Cooidjagh, His Majestie's Clerkes and Psalmody.... more
The gallery at Allington, Barsetshire — Edwin Macadam, Sun Jan 18 10:09am From a communication from John Martin, Boston, worth repeating here: Anthony Trollope (1815-1882) wrote a series of six novels set in an imaginary county of Barsetshire, with overlapping characters. The fifth one, published in 1864, "The Small House at Allington," contains a description of a village church. The... more
J.Durrant — Paul Gailiunas, Mon Dec 29 10:40am I've recently bought a book of hymn tunes printed and published in Newcastle in the 1840s by J.Durrant. There is no record of him around Newcastle (directories, 1841 census, IGI), but there are two tunes by him in the book: Shoreham and Worthington. This suggests a Sussex connection. Has anybody come across him?
Was the tune Hamilton published just once in America — David Welch, Thu Dec 11 9:45am I wonder if any reader in America knows if the tune Hamilton (HTI 7417) appeared again after 1797. According to HTI, its only citation is in Merrill`s "The Musical Practioner" published in New Hampshire that year. I ask because the tune is printed in an Aberdeen (Scotland) tune collection that I reckon dates from the... more A Manual of Instruction In Vocal Music, 1833? — Anonymous, Mon Nov 24 1:09pm Hello there Can anybody tell me anything about this book, I found advertised in The Hull Packet newspaper, for Oct 25th, 1833: It was in a list of books being sold by Godard & Brown, and they seem to have been published by the Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge: "A MANUAL OF INSTRUCTION IN VOCAL MUSIC, chiefly... more
Some WG on Radio 4 ?? — David Welch, Thu Nov 20 4:43pm I notice in Radio Times that on 25 November at 1.30 pm there is a programme about two unusual musical persons, Thomas Britton and William Gardiner. The latter is of interest from his publications in 1812 and 1815 of c. 200 tunes mainly adapted from classical composers [called Sacred Melodies]. So maybe we will hear... more MS Hymn book from Nova Scotia — Fynn Titford-Mock, Tue Nov 4 10:51pm http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/1827-Rare manuscript from Mill Village, Nova Scotia This looks very interesting, someone really ought to get it! These things are too rare! Seems to be a mix of just treble parts and three-part scores - Northfield will be familiar; Ballerina sounds intriguing! text: "Scarce example of a hand made ... more Stephen Jarvis of Dartmouth — Fynn Titford-Mock, Thu Sep 25 11:52am Stephen Jarvis’s “Twelve Psalm Tunes and Eight Anthems in Score” was published in London, c.1815, and he is fairly well-known (in the sense of 'I've heard of him') amongst us in the West Galleries. It is generally acknowledged that this is the same Stephen Jarvis, sailmaker, who married Ann Shearman in St. Saviour’s... more
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