The Parish Magazine April 2024

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6 The Parish Magazine - April 2024 Please mention The Parish Magazine when responding to advertisements Whatever you want to store... ...for whatever reason - house sale and purchase not coinciding, travelling, house building work, paperwork overload or even “de-cluttering” to sell your house more quickly - we offer a friendly and flexible local service. With competitive rates, secure storage and hassle free 24/7 access, contact us now! 0118 940 4163 www.barn-store.co.uk Only 5 minutes from Henley on the Reading road! Banish limescale with a TwinTec Water Softener • Enjoy a scale-free kitchen and bathrooms • Protect and improve the efficiency of your boiler • Lower your energy bills • Reduce time spent cleaning • Enjoy softer skin and shinier hair No buttons or routine maintenance: it’s easy Call for a free installation survey or quote Twyford: 0118 9344485 Finchampstead: 0118 9733110 thamesvalleywatersofteners.co.uk 10 YEAR GUARANTEE THAMES VALLEY WATER SOFTENERS Reading’s local charity caring for older “putting care before profits” Call 01252 979111 today, to discuss your care needs and availability at our newly refurbished Maitland House care home care | compassion | companionship “The place is always fresh, clean, cheerful and vibrant. The staff are friendly, helpful,caring and always available for a chat. There is a lot of laughter and silliness which is greatly appreciated” Rosemary (89), resident Maitland House | 11 Maitland Road | Reading | RG1 6NL Email | admin@abbeyfieldweyvalley.co.uk www.abbeyfieldweyvalley.co.uk
the parish noticeboard — 1 Church and churchyard building works In recent months essential work has been undertaken on the interior and exterior of the building by specialist contractors. Some of this has been kindly funded by FoStAC (Friends of St Andrew’s) and the majority from PCC reserves. A major outstanding project is the large red brick wall (below) going up to the lych gate and this will take 2 months to complete, starting in May. The total cost will be over £30,000, and we are most grateful to the Sonning Fire Station Trust for making a grant of £10,000 towards this. For your prayers in April — His Majesty the King’s treatment for cancer — All recently bereaved — The release of the Hamas held hostages — All preparing for exams Tom Farncombe Eric Gevaert, dreamstime.com Finding your voice part By Richard Meehan Singers who find themselves involved with the European Choral Tradition will generally identify themselves according to a voice part. This enables choirs to be organised in standard configurations and access the repertoire in much the same way an orchestra would with its instruments. It is here I notice that the different expectations of the composers can reveal themselves. While, for example, a cello has its four strings in standard tuning, and a broad consistency of tone thanks to common design, each individual 'bass' is a human animal with a distinct voice, whose differences our ears are primed to identify. One of my favourite phrases for how European classical music and the styles it informs works is, 'The bass is the controlling voice in Western Tonality'. This means the lowest sounding part and the way it acts tells the listener the context in which the other sounds are heard, and therefore gives the music 'meaning'. BEDROCK Surprisingly, this is a recent innovation. It derives from the later 16 th Century in which organs started supporting choirs by playing the lowest notes and added the other notes of the chord through an improvised technique known as figured bass. As a bass, there is a particular joy in being this bedrock foundation, and in feeling the sheet music you are holding vibrating in sympathy with the sound emanating from you. Sopranos usually lead the texture, and so are prized if they have a clear pleasing tone and an ability to reach the high notes. Learning to be a good choral soprano involves keeping the intuition gained from many years of singing the melody line, while improving reading and navigating those times not singing the tune. Most people start on this part as children, when their learning is most imitative, so this can sometimes be a tricky transition to make. The Parish Magazine - April 2024 7 From the organ bench Altos often begin by trading off their preference not to sing the high notes of the soprano parts, with an ability to read and navigate the nonmelody part. This is usually not the highest note of the texture, and therefore more difficult to imagine and locate. It is always a pleasure to hear the rich tone of a good alto section on which the rest of the choir can securely pivot. Although most alto sections are female, much of the English choral repertoire was written with male altos, or countertenors, in mind. Their lines encompass a smaller range, and sometimes leap down an octave in single-line textures to join in with the basses and tenors, rather than meet the higher soprano notes. TESSITURA Tenors have a certain prestige, due to their taking of the heroic roles in opera, their rarity, and perhaps their ease in being arranged for, and engineered in a more pleasing way in pop music. The challenge of a tenor part is much more to do with the tessitura — the general place in the voice a line will take — rather than the high pitch of any one note. Also, unlike the bass part, which often follows set patterns, or alto lines, which can frequently be quite static, they can follow expressive, less intuitive shapes. Stereotypes can develop for the singers of various voice parts within a choir. Although not wholly untrue, it is important not to allow them to become restrictive in the music we make. They are merely a way of helping a group of singers access the amazing music of the tradition we inherit, getting us to a certain point more quickly but not, I hope, getting stuck there.
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Page 29 and 30: FASHION BY HARRIET NELSON The Paris
Page 31 and 32: THE ARTS Poetry Corner Breath Besto
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The Parish Magazine April 2024

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