English Singers

Vocal group co-founded in 1920 by the singers Cuthbert Kelly and Steuart Wilson, which specialized in early English music. The English Singers made dozens of recordings of English madrigals between 1921 and 1955.[1]

Background and development

In 1917 the bass singer Cuthbert Kelly founded a quartet of singers following wartime concerts he had staged at the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields.[2] In 1920 the group was augmented to six singers, the members being Flora Mann, Winifred Whelen, Lillian Berger, Steuart Wilson, Clive Carey and Cuthbert Kelly.[3] The ensemble toured the United States in its inaugural year,[2] then in 1922 visited Prague, and later toured in Berlin, Vienna, Holland and the U.S.A.[4] For William Byrd's tercentenary in 1923 the group recorded five discs, singing one voice to a part.[5] The early English music scholar, E.H. Fellowes, recalled the impact of the English Singers' recording of Byrd's Short Service Magnificat, made on 29 January 1923: "The record of Byrd’s ‘Short’ Magnificat was a revelation in its beauty when rightly performed; it exerted a widespread influence in church-music circles."[3]

On the other hand, reviewing The English Singers' earliest discs, Harry Haskell notes the "lack of rhythmic definition" in the performances, though he allows that this may have been due, as Steuart Wilson recalled, to the acoustic process where they had to record with "six noses crowded into a single horn".[6] There was, says Haskell, an improvement with the group's electric recordings, though their singing still suffered from "flaccid rhythms and unfocused tone".[7]

In 1924, Whelen, Wilson and Carey were replaced by Nellie Carson, Norman Stone and Norman Notley.[4]

The New English Singers

In 1932 Kelly formed a new group, the New English Singers, whose repertoire was again Elizabethan madrigals but also including contemporary works by Holst and Vaughan Williams.[8] The members were Dorothy Silk and Nellie Carson (sopranos), Mary Morris (contralto), David Brynely and Norman Notley (tenors) and Kelly himself. The group toured in the United States, appearing at New York's Town Hall.[8] Both tenors were replaced by 1936, the new tenors being Eric Greene and Peter Pears who joined the group in time for its tour that year in the United States and Canada.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ Haskell, Harry. The early music revival: a history. Dover Publications, 1996: p. 115.
  2. ^ a b c Pears, Peter and Philip Reed. The Travel Diaries of Peter Pears, 1936-1978. Boydell, 1999: p. 1.
  3. ^ a b "E.H. Fellowes, the scholar and performer who “found” the English composer, John Dowland, and rediscovered the lute song. Part 2 of 4". Semibrevity blog. October 7, 2011. http://www.semibrevity.com/2011/10/e-h-fellowes-the-scholar-and-performer-who-%E2%80%9Cfound%E2%80%9D-the-english-composer-john-dowland-and-rediscovered-the-lute-song-part-2-of-4/. Retrieved 2011-12-05. 
  4. ^ a b Kennedy, Michael. "English Singers, The" in Oxford Concise Dictionary of Music, 5th ed. OUP, 2007.
  5. ^ Haskell (1996): p. 116.
  6. ^ Haskell (1996): p. 115.
  7. ^ Haskell (1996): p. 116.
  8. ^ a b B.H. Haggin (December 10, 1934). "New English Singers in First Christmas Program at the Town Hall". Brooklyn NY Daily Eagle. http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%205/Brooklyn%20NY%20Daily%20Eagle/Brooklyn%20NY%20Daily%20Eagle%201934%20Grayscale/Brooklyn%20NY%20Daily%20Eagle%201934%20a%20Grayscale%20-%203138.pdf. Retrieved December 17, 2011.