The final concert in the 2008-2009 “Music at Brighton Allston Congregational” series will be the West Gallery Quire performing on Wednesday, June 3 at 8:00 p.m. The concert will be held in the sanctuary of the Brighton Allston Congregational Church, 404 Washington Street, Brighton Center. The church is served by several bus routes, including #57 and #86; free parking is available next door in the Citizens Bank parking lot. For directions to the church, please see the column to your left.
The West Gallery Quire performs, not surprisingly, West Gallery music. This 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.
It is what Thomas Hardy’s characters, or Jane Austen and her preacher father, heard on a Sunday morning! 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 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 fuguing 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.
The suggested donation is $10 for general admission, $5 for seniors and students, and free to those of low income. Proceeds from this concert will benefit the renovation of the church’s Community Supper kitchen. Each week the Community Supper opens its doors to all who wish to join us for a tasty, nutritious meal. Every Wednesday evening at 6, approximately 60 guests are served.
