ST. MARY'S CHURCH CHOIR

St Mary’s Church Bottesford, also known as The Lady of the Vale is fortunate in that it has a regular choir to support worship.  

Although detailed records are difficult to trace, it is thought that a choir has almost certainly existed for several hundred years.

The rich heritage of  EnglishChurchmusic started in the 16th Century with the music of Byrd and Tallis amongst others.  It is inconceivable that, given the scale of grandeur of St Mary’s, this music was not from time to time performed during services.    We have 14 regular choir members, the youngest of which is 11, with 2 members coming from Allington and Bingham.   The choir is not exclusively for Bottesford people.

 With some of our members beyond retirement age it is important that we continue to recruit new members on a regular basis.

Dr. Nigel Day has been the organist and choirmaster at St Mary’s since July 2004.  Prior to coming to Bottesford, he had worked at several Nottingham Churches, one of which was as assistant at St Peter’s Church in the City Centre.    A music list is published each month and we try not to repeat a choir anthem during any one 12-month period.  

In 2005 and 2007 we sang full Choral Evensong in Southwell Minster and took part in the Ordination Service at Leicester Cathedral for Rev. Emma Davies, a former chorister.     At this service we sang ‘Ave Maria’ by Rachmaninov and shortly afterwards at our Patronal Festival we repeated it, on this occasion singing in the original Old Church Slavonic ‘Bogorditsye Devo’ 

At least once a year, (usually Palm Sunday), we team up for a joint service with our colleagues in The Vale Choir, which although it is based around the Harby / Long Clawson cluster of churches, it has members from across the Vale of Belvoir.   

During 2009 we look forward to supporting “Vale Fest” (http://valefestblog.blogspot.com), by promoting a ‘Come and Sing’ workshop as we look to recruit new members of all ages (from 11years upwards).  

 If you are interested in joining us then please see Nigel Day after our morning service, or come along to choir practice on a Thursday evening at 7.30pm in the Church and have a look at us.   Alternatively, contact the Benefice office 01949 842859.

V

THE VALE CHOIR A History
by Paul Willcock

In 1989 Colin Newell put an article in the Harby Journal to see whether there were any budding choristers who might like to get together to sing a service of Nine Lessons and Carols. From this very humble beginning was laid the foundation stone of today's Vale Choir, with some 20 people arriving at the school for the very first rehearsal.

For the first two years the Vale Choir only met in October in preparing to sing at Christmas, but they soon received requests to sing at weddings and they used the fees to buy blank cassettes on which they recorded the carol services. Profit from these sales was used to buy new music for the choir.

With Simon Bailey as Rector the Choir expanded, joining forces with singers from Hose and Long Clawson. This enabled the choir to take on a momentum of it's own and before long they were rehearsing all year round, singing on high days and holidays as well as at weddings, funerals and christenings.

In recent years, The Vale Music Festival proved to be a great success and has led the choir on to sing a lot of secular as well as religious music. The suggestions of music, which included music from Bach to the Beatles, is indeed something of an understatement as The Vale Choir frequently sings music which precedes Bach and some of which is written long after the "Fab Four" had gone their separate ways! They now regularly include compositions by their own organist Bob Harriss. We have 32 members who have sung in the choir with us in the past year from Long Clawson, Harby, Hose, Stathern, and Bottesford.

Over The last couple of years we have seen even more changes. David Cox, with whom Colin shared the role of choirmaster retired and the Newel family, Colin and Carolyn, have emigrated to New Zealand. In September last year Paul Willcock took over the baton, and working closely with our organist Bob Harriss, the choir continues to go from strength to strength.

The Vale Choir is the only choir in the Belvoir Team who sing in more than one church - singing regularly at Long Clawson, Harby, Hose and Stathern churches, undertaking the normal Sunday morning services, evensong, Good Friday meditative services, songs of praise services, weddings, christenings, marriage blessings and funerals.

The choir recently showed their great diversity with a very well attended and successful evening of music at Long Clawson Church. The music included the themes from James Bond, music from the shows such as My Fair Lady, Singing in the Rain, Hair, Hello Dolly, West Side Story and Summertime as well as including music from the Beatles. Bob's own "Rolph Harriss Trio" also treated us to their own special brand of music.

At the other end of the music spectrum the choir has joined forces this year with St. Mary's Church Choir, Bottesford (for Palm Sunday) to sing Josef Rheinberger's Kyrie (Mass in E b Major). Bob Harriss has also written a new setting for the Eucharistic Service which we have sung during evening communion service at Long Clawson.

This year we shall be joining forces again with St. Mary's, Bottesford for two events, a Festival of Anthems a programme put together jointly by Paul Willcock, Nigel Day and Bob Harriss (date to be confirmed but it is hoped it will be May/June time), and Palm Sunday Service at St. Mary's Church Bottesford.

If anyone is interested in further details of the Choir and it's activities David Cox at Long Clawson