MEALS-AND MADRIGALS

Dominion, Volume 18, Issue 181, 2 May 1925, Page 18

MEALS -AND MADRIGALS

There flourishes to-day in London the ■ oldest musical society in the world; but few outsiders have ever heard its performances, and there are plenty of musical people who ar-j unaware even of its existence. This is the Madrigal. Society, whose meetings for the cultivation of the Elizabethan madrigal have an unbroken history since 1741. The Madrigal Spciety sings not for th o public, but purely for its own amusement—in the spirit, no doubt, of those for whom the great Elizabethan mujlrigals, Wilbye, Weelkes, Byid; Gibbons, and Morley, composed. In the old days the dining and the singing were held in a city tavern, but the members now meet rather more formally, in the handsome hall of the Carpenters’ Company, London Wall. They dine together, and then follows the madrigal singing, the company sitting table in the traditional way, with the part-books before them. They are city men Of different ranks and stations, and they are conducted by the organist of the Chapels Royal, Mr. L. Stanley Roper. There are 10 members, with. 4 professionals to lead’them, and 16 boy choristers come in from the neighbouring Church of fit. Stephen, Walbrook, to sing treble. Often an especially fine piece or a successful performance will be enepred by the singers—in the absence of an audience. Tudor madrigals have in recent ’years come back into a great, vogue and are to-day sung all over England—a revival which promises io make a new copter in our musical history. The Madrigal Society in the darkest time of general neglect kept alive the cult of this rno.-t exquisite musical form A tvpical programme during the present (185th) season included! 12 madrigals, all bv the old masters—Gibbons, Weelkes, Morlev, Wilbye, and Dowiand, with one unfamiliar name, Ellis Gibbons (brother of the great Orlando), and one Italian, Marenzio, among the Englishmen.—Richard Capel), in the, “Daily Mail.