The Journey  was presented on Saturday  December 17th at St Botolph’s Church in Colchester. This gig was a risk for Quire – doing a gig only a week after a previous one, in the same town, sort-of Christmassy as well and on the same night as other Christmas concerts. As it was, we had around 100 people, covered our costs and seemed to make an impression with what was a very serious rather than festive event. We used two Quire members and two readers from a local acting group to tell the story of the refugees.

Carols in the Courtyard
This was magic and memorable – singing in the inner courtyard of a country bungalow – absolute magic! Thanks to Sarah for hosting this informal and relaxing event.

Future work:
There are possibilities that we might revise and re-stage King Jesus – this piece, like The Journey, takes a biblical event and elaborates on it with dramatised readings and World Music. We last did this in Holy Week 2011 at South Woodham Ferrers but there has been a buzz of interest in us restaging it even since. Date and venue to be confirmed.

We have booked a concert in St Peter’s Church, Coggeshall for April 21st. This might be more ‘Olympic Year’ themed and might use children from local schools through our Quire in Education programme.

We are looking at a summer event idea that might just take off and involve other groups with us too. Meanwhile we have pencilled in Saturday June 30th for our Summer gig – no venue booked as yet.

I am looking out funds so I might record a few more numbers for my, as yet incomplete, personal project – the” 70th birthday retrospective CD set”. At this stage this may involve Octavia, instrumentalists and I would like to add numbers from The Journey, performed by Quire. No venue or date as yet.

Octavia and Towering Angels:
Dave has booked a slot at Slack Folk on 10th March for Towering Angels.  I am working on a venue for an evening concert a few weeks later with Octavia and Towering Angels.  Watch this space!

I am giving a talk at St Mary’s Peldon on Wednesday May 16th on West Gallery Music and I have asked Octavia and Towering Angels to provide the music examples.

If you like the sound of what we do on the ‘Songs‘ page and would like to help us continue to develop our repertoire, please contact Bill Tamblyn on 01206 735770 or email bill.tamblyn@quire.org

More information about rehearsals etc can be found on the Join Quire page

A heady mixture of gospel, world music and folk!

Quire’s new CD ‘SHOUT!’ is now available.

Music Director and founder of Quire Prof Bill Tamblyn says “Quire’s new CD is such a delight of sounds and songs – a real feast of musical treasures from around the world – songs which would have been lost unless Quire sang them. Now Quire has breathed new life into these songs with their infectious enthusiasm and lively exuberant style which audiences love.”

This CD reflects Quire as it is today; a choir that has grown from a modest beginning in a little classroom at an adult education college 6 years ago, to becoming a World Music Choir with a reputation for presenting world music songs in the original languages with passion and empathy with the people around the world.

The members of Quire share a love of music drawn from choral traditions around the world. World music buffs will recognise the influence of recent visitors to Quire: Larry Gordon and Northern Harmony from the USA, who gave us music from the Balkans, and Julian Raphael from New Zealand. We have expanded in number from the 60 members who made Festival to over 70 today. Where a large group would be inappropriate, we have introduced some music for smaller groups – ‘chamber’ music as it were. Towering Angels sing music from the Balkans and the Appalachians; Octavia sings African, Gospel and Hispanic songs. We also provide smaller groups to deliver our Quire in Education programme and to entertain at social functions.

We are what we are – a Community Choir exploring the World Music repertory, making cultural and artistic links with visiting singers from around the world and having fun in the process. We give inspirational concerts accompanied by professional pianists and percussionists to enhance our final performance. As the director I know that the best way to get the ‘Quire’ experience is to come to a live gig, or sing with us. Recordings like this only tell a part of the Quire story.

As for now – we offer you a token – our third CD. We hope it will intrigue you enough to want to come and be with us.

What you can hear on Shout!
In the section of songs headed ‘The Africa Connection’ Balaacoolwe was collected by ethnomusicologist Jan Marten de Vries; Fiela was notated from a field recording; Gabi Gabi was one of the first Zulu pieces to be published in the 1980s in the UK in ‘Freedom is Coming’. Shosholosa could be about the train I found at Livingstone (Zambia) taking workers from Zimbabwe to the mines of South Africa.

In The Pacific Rim we include a song of the disappeared collected by Maggie Hamilton, known usually as Yo te nombro, and two of the songs from Julian Raphael reflecting the spiritual side of that fierce people, the Maoris: He honore and Mihi mai ra.

Quire is determined to sing as many songs in the original languages but then there is the audience to think about!  In The European Dimension there is an example of a song sung bilingually – Deze Wereld , whereas we sing Huijbers’, ‘Soms brecht’ as Sometimes your light, so listeners can match the text (with its simple hymn-like melody) to the broad 19^th century piano style of the accompaniment (so ably realised by Daniel Law in this recording). Gwendal Moele’s interpretation of the Breton song Maro e ma mestrez sets the bar for us.

The music of The Caribbean can include both the Hispanic speaking lands and the islands where patois is the native language. So we present Soy Feliz from the Hispanic tradition of the USA and the song of the rebellious slaves from Haiti – Pain ou ça mange.

We celebrate the American  tradition with songs from their Spiritual Roots: two songs from the white tradition of the Sacred Harp – Hallelujah and Female Pilgrim, Marcy  Weckler Barr’s arrangement of My Lord, what a morning, Burleigh’s Faithful over a few things, the spiritual-inspired People get ready ,and finally Grayson Warren Browne’s exhuberant Shout Praise!

For your copy of ‘Shout!’ (price £10) contact Quire:
Email sales@quire.org
Call 07790 603744
Or visit Classics, 2a Osborne Street, Colchester

The beginnings – Gospelphoenix

In 2003 I was still an active professor of music at Colchester Institute.  I subsequently left to pursue other musical interests after 30 years in ‘the chair’). In my last years at Colchester I was asked by a group of students to start a Gospel Choir. I refused – “there must be better guys out there somewhere!” but then relented and took up the challenge. I had been collecting Afrikan and American song for years so it was time to turn an academic interest into a practical reality.

In 2003-4 the original group from Colchester Institute became Gospelphoenix – a small a-capella choir which also drew on the talents of a keyboardist and drummer. There were invitations to give concerts in local churches – Peldon and Abberton (both sold out) and Coggeshall (a healthy 160 in the audience). In the summer of 2004 I retired from full time academic life but by this time my enthusiasm in Gospel and World music was fired up.

In July 2004 I ran a short summer school at the Adult Community College at Greyfriars, and another at New Hall in Chelmsford. I discovered that this music appealed to many adults who were otherwise disenfranchised from choirs because they could not read music, and it appealed, equally, to other experienced choral singers who wanted to do something different. In the autumn of 2004 the BBC asked me to provide Gospel and World music for a week of broadcast services for One World Week. This was an opportunity to bring together some singers from the Institute and the Summer schools with my original keyboardist and drummer and liven up the worship scene.”  But also, by the autumn I had another choir in mind:

The forming of ‘Quire’

The Adult Community College at Colchester asked me to start a new group at the Wilson Marriage site – the group now called Quire . I wrote at the time: “The objective for Quire is to explore many styles of World Music. We have a repertoire of about African and African-American songs, Hispanic songs from the Latin-American repertoire, songs from the American Shape-Note tradition (called Fasola music.  (Later we would add a whole new collection of European songs ).

“It is really important that we enter into the spirit of World choral music.  To do this we need to shake off a few inhibitions: we will need to sing in the original languages, clap, click our fingers, stamp our feet, dance, and move when the song demands it.  This may be a bit of a culture shock to church choristers, but in the parallel world of Barbershop, singers have been moving to the music for the past 70 years! “

“At its roots, singing is a physical exercise. In Quire our members have fun; nobody gets too anxious if there are some changes to the  song  each time we sing it.  Improvisation is allowed, indeed, in some songs it is expected.”

so – how has it all developed?

Singers bring their friends to rehearsals to listen. Quire is gaining members all the time. The group began with about 13 members. By summer 2005 it had expanded to 20 regulars and by autumn 2006 there were almost 50 singers on the books now, in 2010 we have nearly 70 members.

Singing for the BBC

In the autumn of 2005 some members of Quire joined the original Gospelphoenix to take part in the broadcasts of world music for the BBC One World Week.  They repeated the experience in 2006 with a dozen members of Quire joining the group for the broadcasts and in 2008 Quire presented The Morning Service on Radio 4 from Birmingham Cathedral.

The small groups

Now the group is too large to perform in the smaller country churches so recently we have formed 2  smaller groups –Octavia ( 8 ladies who sing gospel, soul and indeed draw on the many styles from the Quire repertoire) and Towering Angels – 8 singers who specialise in Eastern European song and in the haunting music of the poor whites and blacks from the American South. We also have small groups to take part in the Quire in Education programme in local schools and to provide music for Weddings and Funerals and other functions when requested.

and finally:

We have achieved a lot in the first few years.  I hope Quire members will continue to explore new avenues as well as hone their skills in those aspects of World Music which they have made their own. To this end I have invited specialists to give workshops or record with Quire: Larry Gordon from Northern Harmony, Julian Raphael –folklorist from New Zealand; Siya Twani – African music and dance specialist, Miko Giedroyc –pianist and arranger from the 606 Gospel Club.

Bill Tamblyn ( Professor)

bill.tamblyn@quire.org