Budleigh Salterton Glee and Madrigal Society
C19
Budleigh Salterton
The Western Times reported on the first concert of this new Society which took place in the Public Rooms in February 1890 “to a large and fashionable audience”. There were over 40 vocalists, and the conductor was Mr F J Meredith from Exeter who also played the violin and was a tenor vocalist. The new Society was formed in November 1889 and had worked hard to be ready for this concert.
The sixteen items in the programme all went off without a hitch. The members of the Society started by singing “It was a lover and his lass” and followed this during the concert with, “Who shall win my lady fair”, ”Oh! happy, happy fair”, “Beware”, “Winds of the summer sea”, “The Red Cross Knight”, “You stole my love”, and “Good night, Beloved”.
Interspersed, were instrumental pieces, and songs sung by, Dr Brushfield, Mr Meredith, Mr A Guest, and Mr Parsons. The instrumental works included, a duet “Romeo et Juliette” by Bellini for piano (Miss Harbottle) and violin (Mr Meredith), a selection from “Les Huguenots” for two pianos played by Miss Hutchins and Mrs Evans, Joachim Raff’s “Farantelle” from Misses Harbottle and Pidsley, and “a long and difficult selection” for violin by Mr Meredith from “Il Trovatore”.
The members ended the concert with the National Anthem.
Another large audience was present at the second concert held in April 1890 again with Mr Meredith as conductor and a choir of over 40 singers.
The choir contributed the following pieces during the evening, “May-day” by Muller, “The clough and the crow” by Sir Henry Bishop, “Market chorus” from Flotow’s “Martha”, “For the New Year” by Mendelsohn (which the reviewer said was the gem of the evening), “A pensive hour” for 8 voices, and “Sleep gentle lady” also by Sir Henry Bishop.
Instrumental interludes included, Handel’s Sonata in E played on the violin “with much taste and pure tone” by Miss H Esme Griffin which was encored, a selection from Wagner’s “Lohengrin”, and a romance and mazurka.
The vocal soloists were, Miss Gosling who received an encore for her performance of Sullivan’s “Sleep my love, sleep” who also sang “A mother’s love” by Hope Temple, Miss Bond who sang “The gift” by A H Behrend, and was recalled after her rendition of Welling’s “The old lock”, Mr F Parsons sang “The helmsman”, and Mr Meredith relinquished his conducting duties to sing “Three jolly sailors (Theo Marzials) and J L Hatton’s “As I’d nothing else to do”. Dr Brushfield brought the house down with his song “Pepita” and his encore song was delightful.
The piano accompanists for the evening were, Mrs Evans, Miss Harbottle, Miss Parsons, and Miss Hutchins who did the majority of the work.
The Concert ended with The National Anthem.
A concert reviewed in 1st January 1891 edition was not well attended because of bitterly cold weather. Mr Shapcott LRAM conducted.
The first half of the concert was a performance of the cantata “The Story of Elaine” by William M Hutchinson (who died in Sidmouth in 1933). The soloists were, Miss E Bell, Miss A Hutchings, Miss M Parsons, Miss Hutchins, Mr Jewell, Dr Brushfield, and Mr R Arbury. They were accompanied by Mr F B Williams on the organ and Miss Pidsley on piano.
The second part of the concert consisted of a series of vocals. Mrs Price sang “Jock 0’ Hazledean” and as an encore “The blue bells of Scotland”. Mr F B William’s baritone voice did justice to Frank Moir’s song “Only once more”, and he also sang “Passing hence”. Miss Gosling performed “Children asleep” and as an encore sang “A bird that sang in a hawthorn tree”. Mr Shapcott received a recall for his rendering of “Take a pair of sparkling eyes” from “The Gondoliers”. Mr Arbury’s bass voice was very suited to the song “The village blacksmith” which seems to have ended the concert (but no doubt the National Anthem was sung as usual).
The reviewer was of the opinion that the concert concluded one of the best seasons ever held in Salterton, and concluded that the members of the Society should be congratulated on having secured the services of Colonel J W Lee as Hon. Secretary whos’ exertions had contributed in no small measure to the success of the event and the Society.
The Society held a joint concert with Revd. J Thomas and his family in March 1891 as reported by the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette in their 21st of March edition. The conductor in the Public Rooms on this occasion was Mr Shapcott and the Thomas family provided the instrumentalists. The pieces they played “were impressively rendered” and included “Le Dernier Sommeil de la Vierge” an orchestral excerpt from the fourth scene of the sacred oratorio "La Vierge" (the Virgin) by French composer Jules Massenet, and after strong demand they repeated the piece with even “more pathos than before”. The choruses demonstrated how well the Society had been trained and Samuel Wesley’s “Blessed be the God and the Father” was exceptionally good. The concert ended with “the heavens are telling” from Hayden’s oratorio “The Creation”, in which the choir were accompanied by the Thomas family.
At a concert of sacred music in March 1893 reported by the Western Times newspaper Mr Shapcott was the conductor “who by his able leadership and painstaking ability has done much to develop a taste for high quality music in the town”. The usual organist Mr Williams was absent for family reasons and the Revd A G Langdon stood in at short notice, The piano was played by Miss Julia Hutchins.
The program contained nineteen works by, Mozart, Sterndale Bennett (x2), Gounod, Mendelsohn (X4), Michael Maybrick, Frederic Cowen, Handel (x2), Arthur Sullivan, and a hymn from Churchman.
The soloists were, Mrs Price, Mrs Hall, Miss Florence Kempson, Miss Maud Parsons, Miss Breton, Revd. Langdon, Mr Shapcott.