A Shorter History of the Dunedin Choral Society (City Choir Dunedin) 1863- (as at 2013) The Dunedin Choral Society is New Zealand’s second oldest surviving choral society. The Society has its origins in the Dunedin Philharmonic Society, which was established by George R. West with W. Haydn Flood as conductor in November 1863, and gave its first performance – a truncated Messiah – on Christmas Eve of that year. The explicit purpose of the society was the performance of large-scale music such as oratorio. Another society – the Dunedin Choral Society – was also established in November 1863, but it operated more at the level of a singing class, and although possible amalgamation was discussed it never took place; the Dunedin Choral Society collapsed in mid-1864. West took over the conductorship of the Philharmonic in late 1864, but resigned in July 1866 after offensive remarks were made during a row about the postponement of a performance. Under West’s leadership the Philharmonic gave several concerts a year, and performed at the New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin in 1865. After his departure the Philharmonic was unable to maintain either the pace or standard of performance, and by the end of 1867 the Society had fizzled out. In early 1871 West started a new choral society, with the assistance of Arthur Towsey (the organist at St Paul’s) and a permanent committee of well-placed citizens, some of whom had been members of the Philharmonic. West conducted the Society for two years, before handing the baton to Towsey in order to concentrate on raising the standard of the Society’s orchestra. As the permanency of committee became increasingly vexatious to the performing members, however, the Society declined alarmingly; it was dissolved and reformed with an elected committee in January 1877. West returned as the conductor in 1879 while Towsey was in England, and the Society blossomed, but he resigned at the end of the year after thoughtlessly removing his jacket at a rehearsal. Only West felt it was a matter for resignation – which was accepted only on condition that he continue as conductor to the end of the season (May 1880); he refused to continue after that. In the continued absence of Towsey, Benno Schereck was appointed conductor. Schereck was a pianist, and during his tenure the performance of the orchestra improved dramatically, but most concerts were miscellaneous programmes, with prominent solos by Schereck, and little chorus work. Schereck was succeeded in 1885 by Arthur Barth, organist in quick succession of St Matthew’s, All Saints’ and Knox. The Society laboured with debt throughout the first half of the 1880s, but cleared their debts handsomely on October 1886 with a staged production of H.M.S. Pinafore, under the direction of Arnold Kelsey, which they also took to Oamaru. In spite of this triumph, interest in singing with the Society dwindled, and it was formally abandoned in May 1888 in favour of the choir for the 1889 New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin. The Exhibition Choir mustered some 450 voices under the leadership of Towsey. In the wake of the Exhibition a number of members - many of them former prominent members of the Choral Society – set up a new society which was voted into existence as the ‘Dunedin Musical Association‘ in June 1890, with Towsey as conductor. The Association lasted a year, by which time it had accumulated £135 in debt, although it had substantial assets from the former Choral Society and the Exhibition. Beggs music shop took over both the assets and the debt, holding the assets on behalf of the Association. With no prospect of a performance of Messiah that year (1891) Jennie West assembled an ad hoc group (mostly from the former choirs) to give the work. She had already begun rehearsals of Elijah in the New Year, with the intention of setting up a projected ‘Dunedin Choral Society’, when Beggs announced the establishment of the Gesang Verein – their
City Choir Dunedin – A Shorter History
replacement for the Musical Association – to be conducted by W.E. Taylor, the organist at St Paul’s, in February 1892. Miss West abandoned her plans in June. Taylor had been replaced by Raffaelo Squarise before the first concert, and the Gesang Verein gave only one concert before disappearing from view. Despite sporadic talk of revival the Choral Society was not resurrected until September 1897, by a group who were now rather experienced at re-starting Choral Societies. Jesse Timson, the organist at First Church, was involved in the initial organisation and had expected to be appointed conductor, but James Coombs, who conducted the Orchestral Society, was elected. The new Choral Society rapidly acquired – unauditioned - some 400 members, and embarked on a disastrous career of quantity over quality, preferring politeness over choral rigour in its conductors. Coombs was a violinist and a capable orchestral conductor, but had no experience of choral work and was not equipped to raise the standard of singing. Timson, who finally succeeded him in 1902, fared no better, and was replaced by Paget Gale, the new organist at Knox Church, in 1905. Gale also lasted only three years, and was replaced again by Coombs. Strong initial support by subscribers was lost as the disparity between the lofty educational aims of the committee and the audiences’ expectations continued to increase. Soloists (even members of the Society) now expected to be paid, and because the Society had few assets, costs could not be offset by hiring music out. Administration was improved in 1908 and the finances temporarily stabilised, but the Society was critically short of competent singers, especially men. It lasted another four years, unwisely gambling on use of highly-paid soloists to attract audiences, but by the end of 1912 it was paralysed by lack of resources, and was wound up in May 1914 after 18 months of inactivity. Salvation had already been at hand for 10 years, had the Choral Society recognised it, in the form of Sydney Wolf, who had moved to Dunedin from Timaru in 1902. Wolf was an established singing teacher and choral conductor, and had in fact applied for the conductor’s job when Timson was appointed. When he failed to get the Choral Society appointment he set up a choir of his own - which probably played a large part in reducing the number of effective singers in the Choral Society. When he began to advertise in April 1914, for singers for an entirely new society, which was intended to replace the Dunedin Choral Society, he met an enthusiastic response. Entry was by strict audition, and it was made clear from the start that the role of the committee the provision of administrative support, and they would have little say in the music - for the first time the Society was forced to submit to professional leadership. Permission to adopt the title ‘Dunedin Choral Society’ was granted by the former committee once the old society was wound up. Although the onset of WW1 meant a slower start than Wolf had hoped, the war seems to have had remarkably little effect on the choir. The Society formulated a policy of performing as much ‘national’ (English, Scottish and NZ) music as possible, which helped to stimulate public enthusiasm, quite apart from the decided improvement in performance standard. Even the 1918 flu epidemic had little effect, other than the cancellation of a performance of Messiah. In 1920 the committee suddenly realised that it was almost 50 years since the Dunedin Choral Society had first started – though the year ranged from 1870 to 1872 – but planned celebrations were cancelled when Wolf became ill, dying in 1922 after a protracted illness. During his illness his place was taken by Victor Galway who had arrived in Dunedin in 1919 as organist at First Church. After Wolf’s death Galway was elected conductor.
2
City Choir Dunedin – A Shorter History
It had been expected that Galway would be appointed as chorus master for the NZ & South Seas International Exhibition (1925-6), with the Choral Society forming the backbone of the Exhibition Choir, but the appointment went to Paget Gale, and the choir was formed from scratch, leaving the Choral Society at a considerable disadvantage. The committee was eventually able to negotiate a performance of Messiah and three joint performances with the Royal Wellington Choral Union as part of the Exhibition. Galway’s resignation as conductor in December 1925 on his appointment as Music Lecturer at the University of Otago came as a shock, and although the committee advertised in all the main centres they hastily reappointed Coombs, only to discover that after 11 years of expert choral leadership there was a painful disparity of expectation. Coombs retired in 1927, and Galway returned as concert conductor; preparation was done by H.P. Desmoulins. The administrative difficulties of the 1920s were compounded by the lack of a venue large enough to hold the audience, and the Choral Society campaigned vigorously for the building of a Town Hall. Its completion in 1930 appeared to open an era of stability, but the Society was then hit by the combined effects of Galway’s appointment as City Organist and subsequent resignation as conductor, major changes in public entertainment (including movies, radio and recorded music), and increasing economic recession. Fortunately the tenor Alfred Walmsley, who was well-known to the Society, was newly returned to Dunedin from England where he had studied as both singer and conductor. Walmsley possessed apparently boundless energy, and proved deeply committed to the Choral Society. He began by dragging the choir out of its Edwardian obsession with volume, majesty and grandeur at the expense of musicality, but the choir itself was in need of attention. The women – particularly the sopranos – not only heavily out-numbered the men but drowned them in every performance. Some voices were well past their best, and it was reported that many did not even attempt to hit the correct notes at the top of their range. The choir, in fact, was something of an embarrassment, and the broadcasts of its performances which had been customary since 1927 almost ceased. Walmsley formed a Madrigal Club of the Society’s most competent singers for the Dunedin performances of Percy Grainger’s broadcasting tour in 1935, and the group continued to perform as part of the Choral Society until 1941, with a brief resurrection in 1944. Two events in 1936 acted as catalyst for a purge of the main choir. The first was a visit by the Christchurch Harmonic Society, which had been established by Victor Peters in 1927 to present high-quality performances of short items from a range of styles and periods, with an emphasis on contemporary compositions. Dunedin audiences were stunned by both the quality of performance and the repertoire. The impossibility of emulating the Harmonic Society with the present state of the Choral Society was underlined by its humiliating placing in the Big Choir section of the Dunedin Competitions in August – fifth out of six. After an extremely painful process of auditions the choir was reduced from a number in excess of 150 to a mere 80, with the voice parts more or less balanced. The immediate rise in general standard of performance, and repertoire which brought the Society closer to the Christchurch Harmonic helped to renew interest in the Society’s activities, although its financial struggles continued. The 75th anniversary of the Society (now counting from 1863) was celebrated with a jubilee week of performances in August 1938. The Society took part in the national Centennial Celebrations in 1940, both at local level and in a performance of Elijah with the Royal Wellington Choral Union in Wellington, but as the grip of war intensified it became increasingly difficult for the Society to function normally. By 1942 several of New Zealand’s choral societies had gone into recess; the Dunedin Choral Society, determined to remain active, suspended subscription concerts and 3
City Choir Dunedin – A Shorter History
sang part-songs and similar items at the local military camps, with a single performance of Messiah at the end of the year, assisted by anyone who cared to join. From 1943 it was found possible to add periodic oratorio concerts to the annual Messiah, but performances were very much a matter of seizing opportunities. Walmsley was in camp from 1940, and rehearsals – and many minor performances – were conducted by C.F. Watson who was also the chairman of the committee; Walmsley attended when he had leave. Walmsley was released from the army in 1943, but transferred to Invercargill; he resigned from the Society, but continued to conduct concerts whenever possible. The holding pattern of the war years continued well after its end. Replacing Walmsley was not an easy task, and could not be done in haste. Applications were sought from overseas, and Charles Collins was appointed by the Choral Society and also as Organist of St Paul’s cathedral. He made a shaky debut in the 1946 Messiah having arrived in Dunedin that week; his conducting style and interpretation was quite different from Walmsley’s, and there had not been time for the choir to adjust. After a year the choir was auditioned all round and 20 voices weeded out. Collins’s tenure, which lasted until the end of 1953, provided stability in a world which was anxious to return to normal, but in which the old ‘normal’ had disappeared. Both performance and repertoire were generally conservative – only two new works were performed. The appointment of Collins’s successor, W.H. Walden-Mills, was another fortuitous piece of timing; Frank Callaway had just left the Technical College, and Walden-Mills was appointed there to take charge of the music. If Collins’s tenure was characterised by conservatism, Walden-Mills’s was one of technical and musical advance, accompanied by expanded and varied repertoire. The K.E.T.C. Madrigal groups were regularly included in concerts and the members of the College orchestra were brought in to augment the 4YA orchestra when needed. The proportion of younger voices increased. Walden-Mills’ appointment as National Advisor of Music to the NZ Education Department in 1958 took him away from Dunedin. There followed a two-year interlude with Elgar Clayton, who was better known as a brass band conductor, until the appointment of Peter Platt, Galway’s successor as Blair Professor of Music, in 1961. The disestablishment of the 4YA Concert Orchestra in 1958 presented the Society with a considerable problem as the cost of fixing their own orchestra was prohibitive; for several concerts the accompaniment was provided by two pianos (one of them played by Peter Warwick). Under Peter Platt’s conductorship audiences found themselves presented with a succession of new works ranging from Bach to Britten, via Orff, Prokofiev, Berlioz, and Beethoven’s ‘Choral’ Symphony, which - astonishingly - had not been performed in Dunedin before. His Messiah performances removed the last vestiges of what one reviewer described as ‘the Crystal Palace tradition’ from the society, abandoning Mozart’s accompaniments for the first time since 1877, and instituting harpsichord continuo played by Donald Byars, with the Dunedin Concert Orchestra, which had formed in 1960. The Society combined with other groups it had not previously associated with – the University Musical Union and A Capella Choir, various schools, and the choristers from St Paul’s Cathedral, where Byars was Organist. The Society’s Centenary in 1963 was marked with a heavy year of performances; St Matthew Passion in April, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the National Orchestra in June, and Messiah in December, with performances of Haydn’s Creation, Verdi’s Requiem, and Britten’s St Nicolas interspersed with social activities in a 10-day period in September.
4
City Choir Dunedin – A Shorter History
The close University connection continued with Jack Speirs (1966-73), leading in 1968 to the amalgamation of the Choral Society with the University Music Union and the adoption of ‘Schola Cantorum’ as the Society’s performing title. The effect of amalgamation was not entirely happy and the choir was auditioned throughout in October 1969, leaving a ‘considerably streamlined‘ group of 50. Performances with the NZBC Orchestra increased after 1969, and there was a steady expansion of repertoire to include lesser-known works by familiar composers, as well as works by composers who were new to the choir. Speirs’ tenure marked the last dramatic changes in the Society, though there have been some trying periods of financial anxiety as the Society has become increasingly dependent on grants to be able to mount concerts at all. Speirs was succeeded by Peter Warwick (1974-82), Raymond White (1983-6), Peter Adams (1987-96, with a spell as acting musical director in 1999), Judy Bellingham (1997-9), and now David Burchell (2000-), each of whom has brought particular interests to the programmes. Under the leadership of Peter Adams and David Burchell the Society has returned to the regular inclusion of works by New Zealand composers, and has premiered works by Jack Speirs, Anthony Ritchie, John Drummond, and most recently Christopher Marshall, with a venture into multimedia performance with Trevor Coleman and Alison Ballance’s Equator in 2007, as well as giving performances of other works by NZ composers. The Society has commissioned two works: Cantico del Sole by Jack Speirs for the 125th anniversary of the Society in 1988, For What Can be More Beautiful? by Christopher Marshall to mark this year’s celebrations. The choir has also toured to Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch this year, with around half the membership supplementing the other Civic Choirs in performances of Verdi’s Requiem with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. The performing name was changed to ‘City of Dunedin Choir’ in 1993, and then to ‘City Choir Dunedin’ at the end of 2012 as part of the rebranding for the 150th anniversary. Jenny Burchell October 2013
5
