We now have a blog. We'll be putting announcements of meetings, gigs, etc. there. Anything that is of interest for more than a few days and less than a few months will go there rather than on this page.

DO YOU HARBOUR A SECRET BELIEF that a lot of Handel would sound great when sung like a pub tune? Do you think the church choir would be more fun if you could play along on your fiddle? If so, come and join us! Find out what the English were doing while we were evolving the Shape Note tradition, and hear what Thomas Hardy’s characters, or Jane Austen and her preacher father, heard on a Sunday morning!

FOR THE FIRST TIME in America, a group has been formed to sing and play the anthems, psalm-tunes, and hymns of the West Gallery tradition. Bruce Randall, a leading authority on Early New England music and a member of Britain's West Gallery Music Association, leads monthly workshops in the Boston area. Now in their ninth year, these meetings are open to all interested singers and melody-instrument players.

WEST GALLERY MUSIC is traditional sacred music from English village churches of the 18th and early 19th centuries. As an attempt to introduce church music into rural areas, choirs were formed from the local residents. The village instrumentalists were often also recruited as a means of assisting the singers. The mixed ensemble of singers and players usually performed from a gallery at the west (rear) end of the church, so this music is now known as West Gallery music.

Novelist THOMAS HARDY came from a family of church musicians, and referred to this music frequently in his novels; in particular Under the Greenwood Tree which depicts the life and death of a typical church band and quire.

THE MUSIC is powerful, hearty and rhythmic. Some of the tunes sound like folk-Handel (also known as "Barnyard Baroque"), others are stark and simple (much like Appalachian folk-hymns), and many are in the fuging style which also became popular in late eighteenth-century New England.

INSTRUMENTS were quite commonly used, both to support the singers and to play interludes and verses on their own: bowed strings, flutes, woodwinds, serpents, trombones, and concertinas are the most suitable, but anything that can play a melodic line is usually welcome.

Meeting Schedule

The meetings take place on the second Sunday of the month, from 1:30-4:30 at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, 258 Concord St., Newton Lower Falls, Massachusetts.

The scheduled meetings for the Winter/Spring 2008 season are:

• January 13
• February 10
• March 9
• April 13
• May 11
• June 8

Other Appearances:

DOWN EAST FESTIVAL

Bruce Randall will be leading a West Gallery workshop at the Down East Country Dance Festival in Topsham, Maine, on Saturday, March 19th. See the DECDF web site for more information.

NEFFA

The West Gallery Quire will be leading a West Gallery workshop at the New England Folk Festival in Mansfield, Mass., on Sunday, April 27th. See the NEFFA web site for more information.

What we sound like

There's a video clip from our September 10, 2006 rehearsal.

On November 19, 2000, we played and sang for the service at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Newton Lower Falls. We did the anthem, Harvest Home, by Anonymous, with the St. Mary's choir Here's the last verse.

At the same service, we also did Stocks with voices only. Here's the first verse.

These MIDI files are awfully mechanical, but you may get some kind of idea of what the music is like by listening to them:

• Gibraltar
• Cranbrook
• Old Foster

Mailing list

You can sign up for the mailing list to receive notices of meetings and other events here.

Photo Gallery

There's a gallery of pictures taken at our events, including folk festivals, church services, and the Pub Carol Sing.

Song List

If you come regularly, you should take the notebook of songs home with you and maintain it when new things are added. Here's the list of songs that should be in the book. If you are missing anything, let Bruce know before the next meeting.

Other links:

Be sure to visit the West Gallery Music Association site. This includes a articles about West Gallery music, descriptions of current West Gallery Quires, information on publications, and links to other sites of interest to West Gallery musicians.

http://www.gallerymusic.co.uk/ is a site by Sue Glover with many items of interest, including free music downloads, biographies of important West Gallery musicians, and several other interesting items.

Matthew McConeghy maintains a website with a very comprehensive list of places you can play folk and traditional music in Southern New England.

Suggested reading and listening:

BOOKS

• Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy, 1896. Depicts the life and death of a rural church band and quire. Available from libraries and bookstores in several modern editions; there is also a text version of this book online.
• Good Singing Still: Handbook on West Gallery Music, by Rollo G. Woods, 1995. ISBN 1-8999-47-00-0. It can also be found at Amazon.uk
• Praise & Glory, a West Gallery Psalter, edited by Rollo G. Woods, Edwin Macadam and Sheila Girling Smith, 2000. ISBN No.   0 - 9538319 - 0 - 6. Published by the West Gallery Music Association. There is also a selection of MIDI files of tunes from this book.

RECORDINGS available in the US

• The Mellstock Band and Quire have several recordings available from commercial sources in the US. These recordings include:

• Under the Greenwood Tree: the Carols and Dances of Hardy's Wessex (Saydisk CD no. 360);
• Tenants of the Earth (Wild Goose Records CD no. 281);
• The Dance at the Phoenix (Beautiful Jo CD no. BEJOCD-28).

  These recordings present a selection of rural English church and village music, including dance tunes, hymns, carols, and traditional songs and ballads.

  Several West Gallery Quires have released their own recordings, often including compositions from their region, but most are available only from the group itself. See links on the WGMA web page for more information.

  Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band have a recording, Sing Lustily and with Good Courage, featuring arrangements of 18th- and 19th-century hymns, accompanied by various instruments. Although many pieces lack vocal harmony, and some of the instruments and performance styles are not found in the West Gallery tradition, most of this music can also be found in the West Gallery repertoire, and some pieces come very close to West Gallery style (Saydisc CD no. SDL 383).

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  Last modified: 2008-02-07 10:17, 2008
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