MAKING A CHOIR. EMPIRE FESTIVAL OF MUSIC.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 90, 18 April 1911, Page 2

MAKING A CHOIR. EMPIRE FESTIVAL OF MUSIC.

DR. COWARD'S METHODS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 10th March. After nine months of close and assiduous practice, Dr. Coward's Sheffield Choir is on the point of embarking ou its great Empire tour, which will take it in June to New Zealand. It is on the solid, grinding work of the past i months that the success of the choir ' largely depends. From its embarkation at Liverpool next Friday it will be continuously travelling and singing for six months, and Dr. Coward has insisted on a conscientious previous preparation for the tour as the only means of allowing the singers to enjoy their surroundings when ou the way. "I am anxious." he says in the telltale va.de mocuni with which each member of the choir was supplied in May last, and in which the individual practices are carefully recorded, "that nothing preventible shall interfere ■with our pleasure and freedom from anxiety while, on tour, but the sense of inefficient preparation of any piece would be such an incubus on the whole party that I appeal to all te accept cheerfully the drudgery of persistent practice to secure prospective pleasure." "Method is the secret of success," the booklet says on every page, and the method of practice adopted, may be judged from Dr. Coward's instructions. THE IMPORTANCE OF WORDS. "Make special efforts to .memorise, the words, "he writes. "The most neglected part of a piece is the words. The part I lay most' stress upon being periect is again the words." To assist in getting the words perfect in pronunciation and articulation, they are reproduced in the booklet so as to be available in handy form for references "in. armchair, motor, train, or tram." Dr. Coward specially advised the singers to read aloud at least two pages of the part-song words per day, one payo mezzo-forte and the next pianissimo, with, smart lip and tongue action. Each singer has underlined in red ink the particular part he or she sings. Every bar or every third bar of every piece is marked according to the instructions of the master conductor as to how it should be sung. This has meant a great saving of time in the innumerable rehearsals, and has conduced to the wonderful unity of voice which is a feature of the work of all good choirs. The rule lias been to approach each piece as if the singer had never sung it before. Even m pieces like "The Messiah" and "Elijah," which most of them have known by heart for years past, Dr. Coward exhorted bis choristers to "sing every bar with care until it is absolutely correct. By this means many hoary mistakes will be banished from our performances." Since a choir takes its character from the lvay in which it surmounts difficulties, the singers aro parmitted to "let the easy parts take care of themselves," but all the difficult parts are encircled with red-ink danger signs, and the singersi are specially requested to grind at them until they are mastered. Five minutes is supposed to be devoted each day to practising a difficult or pianissimo passage, with special attention te maintaining the pitch, since ''nothing gives a choir away more that flattening. And so far as possible I have avoided accepting any singer who eitiier sang flat or showed a tendency to loss of pitch." • < ' . | THE HONOUR. OF THE MOTHERLAND. These requirements, spread over a period of nine months before opening the tour, might seem rather exacting to voluntary singers, but, as the conductor points out, " we shall give over 100 concerts^ and we have to remember that we have*the choral honour and dignity of the Motherland in our keeping." Miss Maude Willby, who has been chosen as one of the soprano soloists with the choir on its coming Empire tour, received her musical education at the Guildhall School of Music, where she studied under Mr. de Solla, and she has ha'dconBiderabfe experience in opera and oratorio, as well as on the concert platform.