What We Do
Immanuel’s Ground, helps to recreate the life and times of the old church quires and bands as they sang and played both in church and in their weekday activities. This includes both secular and sacred music from about 1700 up until 1850, together with regional history and quotations, which help to paint a lively picture of the life and times of both village and town environs.
Individual requirements for concerts and services always need discussing beforehand, so please do contact us to discuss your needs and preferences.
Concerts
Concerts are usually scripted with the concert venue in mind and include, where appropriate, psalms, hymns, anthems, carols, glees and other secular music of the time. We try always to include one or two items for audience participation. Usually concerts are of about 90 - 100 minutes duration, excluding interval time, but this can be shortened to suit the occasion.
Workshops and taster days
Immanuel's Ground are happy to run west gallery workshops, either on their own or in conjunction with a church service, (Evensong or Carols), or in the case of SingBirmingham!, followed by a showcase of the music prepared during the day. American psalmody, or Sacred Harp / shapenote music, can also be workshopped, either alone or with Babylon Lane, who specialise in this form of psalmody.
Church services in the West Gallery style
Every church service is different in approach and content, although most commonly from a west gallery point of view based on the Book of common Prayer. Music includes either metrical settings of the Palms and Canticles, the latter also through-composed by local composers, as well as hymns for congregational use. Please do contact us to discuss your needs and preferences.
Evensongs are especially suitable for country churches (the music was specifically written for 'country quires'), and are also useful for Deanery services, and Patronal Festivals. We have taken part in several parish Celebrations to which Bishops have been invited, and we are, of course, always delighted to share the music with whomsoever is officiating.
Our Repertoire
Our repertoire includes west gallery carols, together with the best known psalm and hymn tunes in the West Gallery repertoire. It also includes music by local composers and quire masters, such as William Perry, organist and quiremaster at the Congregational Church, Brook Street, Warwick; Joseph Key of Warwick and Nuneaton, whose Psalms and Anthems stem from an earlier part of the west gallery period; John Hill, also of the same period as Joseph Key, who started his musical life at Lydd in Kent, but who moved to Rugby where much of his music was written; William Tans’ur, baptised 1706 in Dunchurch; and Joseph Watts of Fenny Compton, who was one of the earliest local composers to use fuguing tunes. Works by newly discovered composers from just over the border in Oxfordshire, Amram Taylor of
Ambrosden, nr. Bicester, and Francis Saunders of Thame, were included in the 2006 Mid-Shires’ Quires’ Day at Byfield, together with more favourites from the composer Thomas Jarman, from Clipstone in Northamptonshire. Read more about these composers and their music here.
Recent additions to the repertoire comprise a growing number of Psalms from the Shape-note tradition in America, notably the early New England composers such as Daniel Read and William Billings.