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Picture - Rachel Conlon
Immanuel's Ground is a
Quire based in Warwick, was formed in the
Autumn of 2001, and draws members from the "Heart of
England", which, generally speaking, is Oxfordshire,
Northants, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. We also have
members from further afield.
As a
costumed quire, we sing music from the
West Gallery period,
ie roughly between 1725 and 1850, this including not only the
sacred music sung in rural parish churches, so well recorded by
Thomas Hardy in
Under the Greenwood Tree, but also secular
part-songs, glees and catches, and the popular music of the
period, with especial emphasis on
local
composers and musicians. This is accompanied by a small
number of instruments such as would have been found in any
village band of that time.
The other part of
our repertoire comes from a parallel and living singing
tradition in America, and especially New England, that of
shapenote music,
with its exciting and sometimes unexpected harmonies,
kept alive
since the time of the earliest settlers. We also include some of
the new compositions still being written today.
We take part in concerts, church services
(usually a form of evening service), carols - concerts, services
and pub sessions - and are happy to
share the music with
local choirs by workshops and other participatory events, either
on their own or as a prelude to a shared service. Local
historical material is included wherever possible.
See where we shall be in the coming
months.
We would like to encourage
additional players of appropriate instruments (strings,
bassoon, clarinet, flute etc), and ALSO singers - in order to strengthen the lead
lines. Much of the music is tenor-led, i.e., the tune
is sung by the Tenors, and the Trebles have a very
important counterpoint.
Do come along to a practice and see just how different
this music
is; details of how to contact us can be
found here.
Our repertoire and details of concerts and workshops,
etc, can be
found here.
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