Sherborne Close Harmony

The Close Harmony Group

A highlight of the school's contribution to the Abbey Festival has for the last few years been the Close Harmony Recital in the Abbey at 10.30 am on the Saturday morning. This year's large and appreciative audience on Saturday 30th May were treated to an unusually broad repertoire: amongst some Barbershop classics there were also arrangements for tenors and basses of sacred music by Palestrina and Lotti. The recital started with some very polished performances of music by Palestrina, conducted by Upper Sixth form pupil Ben Craw. Some particularly effective 1st tenor singing from Robert Folkes, William Glass and Joseph Hewetson carried the top line effectively and many afterwards commented upon the wonderful sound and the effectiveness of this music when sung by young voices. There followed a performance of a complete mass by Lotti, conducted by Lower Sixth form pupil William Ellis. This, too, showed the small choral ensemble's quality to best advantage in a three part texture of polyphonic and homophonic beauty.

Traditional barbershop fare surrounded some lively arrangements of well known jazz classics, some of which were accompanied by Organ Scholar Richard Dawson on the piano, and an unusual arrangement of "Lollipop" finished the recital and - to resounding applause - was performed again as an encore.

Innocentes Palestrina
Ave Maria I paribus
Mass for three voices Lotti
Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, Benedictus, Agnus Dei
Hi! And Thanks for Having Us Here
Have a Happy Day
Somewhere over the rainbow
Mr Sandman
Fly me to the moon Howard
Barbershop Show Closer
Lollipop The Chordettes (arr Lee)

Tenors: Freddie Blackman, Robert Folkes, Nicholas Glasse, William Glasse, Joseph Hewetson, Iain Smith, Henry Fowler
Basses: Henry Chadwick, Ben Craw, William Ellis, Charles Howes, Eunseog Lee, Richard Johnson, Richard Dawson

Posted: Tuesday, May 3, 2011