This is a story in search of information about a Belfast-born pianist and composer.
A strange search because, certainly at the outset, not one note of his music had been traced!
- Amongst Irish composers, William Rea was one of the earliest to explore 12-tone techniques, winning a Festival of Britain prize for his Piano Sonata 1950.
- In 1952 he was one of four composers chosen by an international panel (Arnold Bax, Jean Martinon and Dag Wirén) on behalf of Ireland’s Cultural Relations Committee to have their submitted works recommended for immediate publication. The three other composers were Brian Boydell, Aloys Fleischmann and Frederick May.
- Rea played a key role in 1956 in the search for a national anthem for the about-to-be newly independent Malaysia (31 August 1957).
INTRODUCTION
I’d been researching the first century of concerts promoted by the BMS (the British Music Society, founded in 1921 and rebranded as the Belfast Music Society for the season 1983/84 onwards) when, in a serendipitous moment, I read about the composer William Rea.
Rathcol, music critic of the Belfast Telegraph didn’t appear to be a fan.
Belfast Telegraph, Wednesday 25 October 1950, page 4
The British Music Society’s ‘Members’ Night’ in the Smyth Hall, Belfast on Tuesday evening was specially notable in bringing to a first hearing some piano music written by a Belfast composer, Mr. William Rea.
This consisted of four pieces — three Improvisations and a Fairy Tale — which were played by the composer himself. Their ‘wrong note’ harmony, it must be confessed, sometimes grated on the ear, and at first seemed merely perverse. They none the less contain some sincerely felt and expressive music which shows considerable power in capturing a specific mood, and the harmonic acerbity even adds to the effect at times, as in the puckish second piece.
The remainder of the programme raised no problems of the same kind and provided a good deal of music that made very pleasant listening. …
This consisted of four pieces — three Improvisations and a Fairy Tale — which were played by the composer himself. Their ‘wrong note’ harmony, it must be confessed, sometimes grated on the ear, and at first seemed merely perverse. They none the less contain some sincerely felt and expressive music which shows considerable power in capturing a specific mood, and the harmonic acerbity even adds to the effect at times, as in the puckish second piece.
The remainder of the programme raised no problems of the same kind and provided a good deal of music that made very pleasant listening. …
I’m not convinced that the uncredited music critic of the Belfast News-Letter was much more receptive!
Belfast News-Letter, Wednesday 25 October 1950, page 4
… The programme of music performed by members was delightfully unusual in character. Most of the items were in duet form, the exceptions being the pianoforte solos of Mr. William Rea …
Mr. Rea gave the first performance of some of his own compositions, Three Improvisations, and Fairy Tale, these showing an imaginative outlook and individual approach to tone colour. The facile playing fell very pleasantly on the ear.
Mr. Rea gave the first performance of some of his own compositions, Three Improvisations, and Fairy Tale, these showing an imaginative outlook and individual approach to tone colour. The facile playing fell very pleasantly on the ear.
Both reviews may be read in full in the PDFs on the right. They’re of interest because of the mentions of other locally-based musicians, including Evan John, Mary Johnston, Ivor Keys and Havelock Nelson.
|
BMS reviews 1950 William Rea.pdf Size : 180.817 Kb Type : pdf |
An internet search provided a further gem: a collection of essays, Music History and Cosmopolitanism, edited by Anastasia Belina, Kaarina Kilpiö and Derek B. Scott (Routledge, 2019).
This excerpt is from the chapter entitled Mapping Musical Modernism by Prof. Björn Heile:
… Finally, my correspondent Jun Zubillaga-Pow managed to track down the Festival of Britain award-winning dodecaphonic Piano Sonata by William Rea, a Belfast-born composer who settled in Singapore (A New Musical Language, 1952; Attenborough, 1952).
As these examples show, there was a wide network of dodecaphonic composers, most of whom operated in relative obscurity and few of whom are recognised in established music histories. Nevertheless, their work is an important aspect of the history of musical modernism. …
As these examples show, there was a wide network of dodecaphonic composers, most of whom operated in relative obscurity and few of whom are recognised in established music histories. Nevertheless, their work is an important aspect of the history of musical modernism. …
The first reference above is to an article authored by ‘Presto’, being an interview with Rea about his use of 12-tone techniques, published in The Singapore Free Press, 23 April 1952, Page 4.
The second reference is to: Attenborough, Islay, 1952. ‘A Composer in Malaya’. Straits Times, Sunday 17 February 1952, p. 10. Both articles add significantly to our knowledge about Rea and they are reprinted farther down on this webpage.
The second reference is to: Attenborough, Islay, 1952. ‘A Composer in Malaya’. Straits Times, Sunday 17 February 1952, p. 10. Both articles add significantly to our knowledge about Rea and they are reprinted farther down on this webpage.
There’s a further closely related online mention for William Rea, also from Prof. Björn Heile.
It’s also entitled Mapping Musical Modernism and is available, in full, here.
From a different perspective, the Belfast-born and largely forgotten William Rea (uncovered by Jun Zubillaga-Pow) can be said to have introduced dodecaphony to Singapore, although there is no certainty of any further compositions after his Piano Sonata from 1950, composed when he was still living in Britain. He appears to have featured dodecaphonic compositions and advocated on their behalf tirelessly, however.
I am grateful to both Prof. Björn Heile and Dr Jun Zubillaga-Pow for their assistance with this composer search.
Some family background
Composer William Rea’s grandfather, also a William Rea (1841-1919), was born in Seagoe, Co. Armagh.
On 7 April 1871 grandfather William married Annie (1846-1902), ‘fifth daughter of the late Mr William Carlisle [1804-1859], Harryville, Ballymena, at Berry Street Presbyterian Church, Belfast, by the Rev. Hugh Hanna’.
Hanna, an evangelical preacher who attracted large crowds, incited sectarian tensions, was renowned as ‘Roaring Hanna’, and opposed the Home Rule Bill in 1886.
The Berry Street congregation moved to the new St Enoch’s Church at Carlisle Circus in 1872 and many years later its organist would be the young William Rea.
St Enoch’s, specially built for ‘Roaring Hanna’ was one of the largest Presbyterian churches in the north of Ireland. It had a magnificent theatre-like interior with two tiers of galleries around three sides. The church stood opposite Carlisle Memorial Methodist Church, but was destroyed by a malicious fire in 1985.
RH pic: St Enoch’s in 1931. Note the statue of ‘Roaring Hanna’ on the plinth on the roadway on the left.
Pic credit: copyright owner not traced as yet.
During the 1890s, the Rea family lived on Belfast’s Shankill Road. Grandfather William worked as a ‘cloth-passer’, an inspector or quality controller who would have been respected and maybe even feared by the linen weavers. Presumably he worked for one of the local mills.
He was still listed as a cloth-passer in the 1897 Belfast Street Directory, but around that time, or earlier, he became a missionary connected to Argyle Place Presbyterian Church (originally built in 1864, then replaced by a new build in 1911 and now renamed as West Kirk) on the Shankill Road – just a few doors along from the family home.
The 1901 National Census has the family, with three sons and three daughters now living on the Crumlin Road. The two eldest boys are both listed as watchmakers and finishers.
By the 1911 National Census all three boys were still living at home: Joseph, 34, a watchmaker and finisher; William, 27, also a watchmaker and finisher; and James, 23, a traveller in jewellery. This youngest son, James Rea, in due course would be the father of the pianist and composer William Rea.
Meanwhile, the eldest son Joseph Rea had been running his own business from at least 1898 (later public advertisements state ‘from 1895’) from his home address.
Belfast Telegraph, 5 March 1898, page 1
WATCHMAKER. – Wanted, a practical Man.
Apply at once to J. Rea, 256 Shankill Road.
Apply at once to J. Rea, 256 Shankill Road.
These were the earliest years of what became the well-known Belfast business: Joseph Rea – Jewellers.
Sadly, Joseph died in 1918 and so the business was carried on by his brothers William and James, with branches in Ann Street and Castle Lane.
LH pic: Newspaper advertisement from 1915.
For some more details of the Rea family background, see the PDF on the right.
|
|
Rea family background.pdf Size : 206.704 Kb Type : pdf |
MUSIC EDUCATION
Retracing our steps slightly, the youngest of the three Rea brothers, James (1887-1957) married Mary Jane Macartney (1887-1971) in June 1913. Their son, William Andrew Rea was born in Belfast on 30 March 1914, the first-born of three sons and four daughters.
Young William attended Forth River Public Elementary School on the Cairnmartin Road and then progressed to Methodist College, Malone Road, Belfast.
He left school at 14, as so many did at that time. He would have worked in the family jewellery business had he not become seriously ill in his teenage years with tuberculosis, which kept him at home, presumably practising piano!
There’s a period, 1929-1934, about which we know very little and which was presumably filled with most of his musical education and piano practice.
We do know that William Rea travelled to Bangor for lessons at St Comgall’s Parish Church with its distinguished organist, Dr Ernest Heathcote Emery, a Mancunian who came to Bangor in 1919 after his demobilisation.
Dr Emery (see RH pic) taught class-singing and gave piano lessons
in Bangor Grammar School from 1923 to 1956 (composing its school song
in 1950); he founded the Bangor Operatic Society in 1919 and remained
its musical director for 38 years. He was organist of Bangor Parish from
1919 to 1960 and gave regular organ recitals for the BBC, beginning in
1925 just a few months after the British Broadcasting Company’s Belfast 2BE station opened (September 1924).
RH pic credit: Trevor Gray, History of Bangor Grammar School, 2006, page 92. See here.
Most interestingly, Dr Emery gave his first BBC piano recital (Brahms - Intermezzo in A, Op.118; Rhapsody in B minor, Op.79; Arensky - Caprice No.6; and Debussy - Reverie and Jardins sous la pluie) on Friday 17 October 1924, just a matter of weeks after the station opening.
Indeed, following from this next press cutting, perhaps William Rea may also have taken piano lessons with Dr Emery.
Lisburn Herald, and Antrim and Down Advertiser, Saturday 28 July 1956, page 4
For many years he [Dr Emery] was best known as a pianist and his frequent recitals from the old BBC studios in Linenhall Street, Belfast, brought him appreciative letters from all over the British Isles. His organ recitals were heard even further afield. He was one of the first organists to play in the newly opened BBC Empire Service in the early ’thirties and it seemed like a miracle, he recalls, when someone wrote to him from the American Middle West saying how well it had ‘come over’. After more than a quarter of a century, Dr Emery’s recitals from Saint Comgall’s are still a regular and much appreciated ingredient of Northern Ireland broadcasting.
The PDF on the right offers a selection of newspaper cuttings about Dr Ernest Emery.
|
|
Emery, Dr Ernest and more.pdf Size : 250.208 Kb Type : pdf |
Apart from Dr Emery, other candidates for being William Rea’s piano teacher across these years might include the likes of Bertram Jones or Norman Hay. Indeed, there were plenty of Belfast-based teachers to choose from, judged by the annual membership of the Society of Professional Musicians in Ulster, listed annually in the newspapers.
Perhaps Rea was influenced by the articles and books published by one of the leading British pianists at this time, James Ching. Renowned for his many BBC broadcasts, particularly of Bach, and an influential proponent of good teaching and technique, Ching was also a regular visitor to Northern Ireland.
Above: Pic from the Northern Whig, Saturday 9 July 1932, page 1. The caption reads: ‘Mr. James Ching, M.A., the celebrated Pianist, making a Gramophone Record of his own playing at Messrs. Hart & Churchill’s Recording Studio, Wellington Place, Belfast.’
Above: Advertisement from the Belfast News-Letter, Saturday 02 April 1927, page 1
Along with concert appearances in Belfast (e.g. Beethoven
Third Piano Concerto (first and last movements) plus Chopin works from
the Belfast studio on 25 September 1930; and the Delius Piano Concerto
from the Wellington Hall on 6 February 1932), James Ching adjudicated at the
Larne Musical Festival in 1931 and 1932, and he lectured on ‘Pianoforte
Teaching and Playing’ at the Ulster Summer School in Music at
Stranmillis College, also in 1931 and 1932.
The suggestion of James Ching as a potential influence on the young William Rea’s piano-playing came from one of his aunts remembering (or misremembering) that Rea had studied with Ching at the RCM (though Ching didn’t actually teach there). The address of Ching’s Hampstead flat was also recently found in Rea’s address book, though Ching only moved there around 1950.
OK, this is jumping ahead of ourselves, but in January 1951, William Rea, A.R.C.M., advertised in the Belfast Telegraph as a ‘Teacher of Piano Interpretation and Technique (James Ching Method), 18 Cliftonville Avenue’.
Which would seem to have been in competition with Douglas
Brown, husband (and piano-duo partner) of the composer Dorothy Parke.
The newspaper advertisement on the right is from the Belfast Telegraph, Friday 10 October 1947, page 1:
For more about the pianist James Ching (1900-1962), see the website maintained by his daughter Mary Bonnin, here.
In fact, James Ching and William Rea crossed paths in 1932 at the Larne Musical Festival.
Ching was adjudicating the Intermediate Pianoforte Solo class, age under 18.
There were two test pieces: Brahms’s Capriccio in B minor, Op.76, No.2, and Debussy’s Clair de lune.
There were two candidates: William Rea from Belfast and Betty Finlay from Templepatrick.
The Belfast News-Letter (Saturday 19 March, page 11) reported that ‘Mr.Ching said the standard was hardly high enough. He withheld the first prize [a silver medal], awarding a second and third.’ William Rea received the bronze medal, Betty Finlay received a certificate.
Not the most encouraging start.
The next reference I’ve found to Rea, and a competitive festival, was when Alec Rowley (1892-1958) adjudicated at the Londonderry Feis in 1935.
The Derry Journal (Friday 01 March 1935, page 13) reported the results of the Advanced Pianoforte Interpretation for the Doire Cup. Only two prizewinners were listed – perhaps once again there were only two competitors.
First with 166 marks was Miss Margaret M. M. Browne from Belfast who played the Presto from Bach’s Italian Concerto and one of Liszt’s Études de Concert. In second place was Mr. William A. Rea, also from Belfast, with 164 marks. He’d played Brahms’s Rhapsody in G minor, Op.79, No.2, and Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A flat, No. 41 from the ‘48’.
The Derry Journal noted, ‘Mr. Rowley advised the competitors to let themselves go, stating that this was a quality the English did not possess. If the Irish competitors let themselves go, they would become more brilliant than the average Briton, who hated brilliance because he thought it was not respectable. (Laughter.)’
Meanwhile, thanks to the Ballymena Observer (Friday 23 March 1934, page 9), William Rea was sighted on the homeground of his grandmother (the Carlisles, on his father’s side).
‘Under the auspices of Kells Presbyterian Church Boys’ Auxiliary a delightful variety concert was given in Connor Orange Hall on Thursday last ...’ Alongside the Woodvale Male Voice Choir, a ventriloquist, a conjuror, selections on the piano-keyed accordion and violin, a contralto and a tenor, there were ‘pianoforte selections’ by Mr. William Rea, who also acted as accompanist.
These were busy and formative years. Islay Attenborough, in his interview, ‘A Composer in Malaya’ in the Straits Times, Sunday, 17 February 1952, p. 10, tells the story up to 1935:
In a quiet street in Belfast about 32 years ago, a six-year old boy was running along, looking furtively over his shoulder. Suddenly a ground-floor window shot up and a head came out.
“Bill, come right back here at once. What do you mean running off? You’ve got another hour’s piano practice left. You wait till your father comes home.” But Bill’s heels had already disappeared around the corner and he was fast on the way to Mrs. O’Leary’s sweet shop.
You may say ‘That’s not particularly unusual. Small boys are invariably like that.” This small boy, however, grew up to win the First Prize in the Festival of Britain Competition for Piano Sonatas, and he is now in Singapore with Radio Malaya.
When William Andrew Rea reached the age of fifteen [1929], he changed his mind about the piano and began practising four hours a day. By the time he reached sixteen it was 10 hours a day. He listened to all the classical concerts on the B.B.C. and bought as many classical records as he could afford.
He then began to play the organ and started studying music and composition at home after school with books borrowed from the local library.
Bill Rea was only twenty when he broadcast for the first time. He attended an audition for pianists and came through with flying colours. He was to give a fifteen minute piano recital.
Centre column: Radio Times billing for Northern Ireland regional programme, Monday, 15 April 1935.
Far RH column: Radio Times billing for Northern Ireland regional programme, Monday, 16 September 1935.
BUILDING A PORTFOLIO OF WORK
On 27 September 1935 the Shankill Road Mission Church advertised for a Choirmaster and Organist.
‘Mr. W. A. Rea’ was the successful candidate, listed in the press advertisements for that year’s ‘Carol Service by the Church Choir’.
He was also credited in the press reports of the annual meeting of the Shankill Road Mission congregation: ‘A musical programme [was] arranged by Mr. W. A. Rea, organist and choirmaster [with] the Church Choir, [various soloists] and the Girls’ Club Choir, under Miss K. Simpson.’
LH pic above:
RH pic above:
Inside the Albert Hall of the Shankill Road Mission with
seating for 2,000. The Hall was opened in 1898 and an organ by the Yorkshire builder James Jepson Binns (1855-1929) installed in 1910.
Doorway of the Shankill Road Mission. Pic © Albert Bridge and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
The PDF on the right has the specification of the Binns organ which William Rea played, plus a potted biography of F.H. Sawyer, the organist of Elmwood Presbyterian Church who helped draw up the specification and played at the organ’s inauguration.
|
|
Albert Hall new organ 1910.pdf Size : 383.979 Kb Type : pdf |
The Albert Hall organ was removed before the hall was demolished c.1982
and it found a new home in the Church of Saints Peter and Paul,
Monasterevin, Co. Kildare. My thanks to Alistair McCartney for
information.
On Saturday 26 October 1935, W.A. Rea and Doris Ritchie were the accompanists for one of that season’s series of municipal concerts in the Ulster Hall: the Warblers’ Concert Party in ‘A Night Out’. It included a miniature revue by students of the Gardner School of Dancing, and organ selections played by the city organist, Capt. C.J. Brennan.
On Friday 27 December, two months later, the Belfast Telegraph critic (not signed, but likely Rathcol, a.k.a. Dr Norman Hay) enthused on page 5 about a Boxing Day concert given to ‘a big crowd’ in the Wellington Hall by the Excelsior Male Voice Choir, conducted by J. Crossley Clitheroe. The choir proved ‘itself one of the best in Ulster and one that should be heard in public more frequently than it is. The repertoire is wide and varied and the singing has charm and distinction’.
Also taking part was the Belgravia Male Voice Quartet, and Miss Evelyn Gibb – ‘Ulster’s leading soprano at the moment’. The critic continued, ‘There has not been in Ulster for some years a more pleasing tenor than Mr James Johnston. His songs last evening were delightful.’
The review ended: ‘Mr. William A. Rea, the accompanist of the evening, is a young Belfastman, whose playing throughout was marked by beautiful technique and skilled understanding.’
Another of John Crossley Clitheroe’s choirs, the Oriana Singers, ‘made one of their rare appearances in the Irish-American Hall, Belfast’ on Wednesday 5 February 1936. The Belfast News-Letter critic was suitably impressed the following morning (page 9) and mentioned the soloists, Miss Evelyn Gibb, Mr Hooton Mitchell and Miss Lucy Young, who deputised at the last minute for Miss Nora Kirkwood. The final paragraph reads:
One of the features of the concert was the pianoforte playing of Mr. William Rea. In this young pianist Belfast has a soloist of real ability. It is safe to say that a great deal more will be heard of him. There was a fairly good attendance, and it is to be hoped that the Oriana Singers will persevere with their good work for there is a definite place for them in the life of this city.
Belfast Telegraph, Thursday 05 March 1936, page 5
FEATURES OF PROGRAMMES
NORTHERN IRELAND (307.1 METRES)
A concert by the City Y.M.C.A. Male Voice Choir will be heard at 7-15 tonight, the soloists being William Rea (pianoforte) and Harold Holt [sic] (oboe).
Edward Selwyn became the principal oboist of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and had a distinguished career. Harold Holt played oboe and cor anglais with the 2BE Orchestra in 1925 and 1926 - not to be confused with the impresario of the same name. Holt was probably replacing Selwyn at short notice.
William Rea’s work at the Shankill Road Mission continued with normal church services, special music for the annual congregational meeting in February, the Children’s Choir in May, and the carol service at Christmas.
‘W.A. Rea’ was listed as the accompanist for the musical contributions (which included some by the Shaftesbury Male Quartet) during the Jubilee meeting of the Belfast and North of Ireland Branch of the Commercial Travellers’ Christian Association, held on Saturday, 4 December 1937 in the Presbyterian Hostel, Howard Street, Belfast.
Was Rea tempted by the press advertisements in May 1936 for an organist and choirmaster for St Enoch’s Church?
Its much-respected and long-standing organist George Lilley had accepted the organist’s job in May Street Presbyterian Church. It was surely too soon to apply; not least, because he needed to supply qualifications, testimonials and state the salary he expected!
In the event, St Enoch’s appointed William Blackburn A.T.C.L.
For whatever reason, that appointment didn’t last for more than a year. Then came this advertisement:
Belfast Telegraph, 21 September 1937, page 1
Qualifications? William Rea had gained experience - broadcasts, church services, concerts, good reviews ... but he lacked some letters after his name.
Nonetheless he got the job. Perhaps he’d given an undertaking about those qualifications, for he set about working for his A.R.C.M., in teaching rather than performance. His son remembers that ‘he intended it to be performance but “nerves got the better of him”.’
Newspaper reports of St Enoch’s annual congregational meeting in mid-February 1938 recorded that the Rev. Gordon Young had welcomed ‘Mr. W.A. Rea who succeeded Mr. Blackburn, A.T.C.L., as organist and choirmaster’.
That April, Rea was examined for his A.R.C.M. in piano teaching and ‘was found proficient therein’.
RH pic: William Andrew Rea’s ARCM diploma certificate.
LH pic: A pic from the Belfast News-Letter, Saturday, 27 October 1923, page 8. It was entitled Belfast War Memorial Organ. The caption underneath read: ‘A beautiful three-manual organ, built by Messrs. Evans & Barr, Ltd., of the City Organ Works, Belfast, has been installed in St. Enoch’s Presbyterian Church, and was opened last night.’
The PDF below offers contemporaneous newspaper accounts of the opening of St Enoch’s new organ in 1923 – including its specification and details of Capt. Brennan’s playing.
|
|
St Enoch's organ.pdf Size : 239.684 Kb Type : pdf |
From the organ’s installation in 1923 up to May 1936, St Enoch’s had only one organist – George Lilley. When he took up his post the duties of the organist were laid out by the Kirk Session:
Leading the Praise -
1. The Sabbath Services
2. Afternoon Senior Sabbath School
3. Congregational Prayer Meeting [weekly]
2. Afternoon Senior Sabbath School
3. Congregational Prayer Meeting [weekly]
Conducting -
1. Weekly Choir Practice
2. Harvest Thanksgiving and Festival
3. Christmas Service
4. Easter Service
5. At least one Recital
6. At least one Concert
7. Young People’s Day and Junior Choir
2. Harvest Thanksgiving and Festival
3. Christmas Service
4. Easter Service
5. At least one Recital
6. At least one Concert
7. Young People’s Day and Junior Choir
Then, in 1934, the Session ruled that the organist should also be responsible for placing the numbers of the psalms and hymns on the hymnboards.
The role must have kept William Rea busy.
On Sunday afternoon, 13 March 1938, the St Enoch’s Choir with their new organist took part in a service in the Assembly Hall, Fisherwick Place, Belfast, where the preacher was holding forth on ‘Betting and Gambling’.
At the end of March, Rea was performing in a concert in the Albert Hall of the Shankill Road Mission in aid of its church funds – ‘Mr William Rea delighted the audience with his original piano solos. The [Mission] Church Choir also contributed to the programme under the leadership of Mr. Arthur Martin [Rea’s successor].’ (Belfast News-Letter, Friday 25 March 1938, page 12). Press reports mention that the speeches included one by Mrs Jack Thompson – the mother-in-law to be!
And there was this (raising funds for the National Trust to save White Park Bay for the public):
Belfast News-Letter, Saturday 02 April 1938, page 12
Hooton Mitchell ‘was unfortunately unable to be present owing to throat trouble, and James Johnston (tenor) appeared in his place’. The Morellis were a ‘novel item’ being expert accordionists. Master Mortimer was a boy soprano and the Belgravia Male Quartet ‘sang in their characteristic style’.
And there was also this: on Monday 11 April 1938, accompanying from the organ, Rea conducted Stainer’s The Crucifixion and other Passiontide music, ‘rendered by the church choir’ and with sopranos Olive Stronge and Muriel Linton, tenor George McCartney and bass Samuel Edwards.
Northern Whig, Tuesday 12 April 1938, p.8
It was the first time that the choir had attempted this work, and there was an appreciative attendance.
After weeks of assiduous practice the choir gave a very creditable performance and interpreted with the proper feeling the story of Gethsemane and the Cross. ... In addition to Stainer’s work, the anthems ‘O Saviour of the World’ (Goss) and ‘Jesu, Lamb of God’ (Mozart) were given by the choir. Mr. Edwards sang ‘There is a Green Hill’ (Gounod).
After weeks of assiduous practice the choir gave a very creditable performance and interpreted with the proper feeling the story of Gethsemane and the Cross. ... In addition to Stainer’s work, the anthems ‘O Saviour of the World’ (Goss) and ‘Jesu, Lamb of God’ (Mozart) were given by the choir. Mr. Edwards sang ‘There is a Green Hill’ (Gounod).
On Monday evening, 25 April 1938, William Rea was accompanying the after-dinner musical programme for the 20th annual meeting of the Excelsior Male Voice Choir in the Imperial Hotel. Its conductor, John Crossley Clitheroe, would certainly have been a good choral mentor for Rea.
|
|
Clitheroe, John Crossley.pdf Size : 320.968 Kb Type : pdf |
Clitheroe conducted several other choirs, including the Derry/Londonderry and Newry Philharmonic Societies, the Carrickfergus Choral Society and also the Belfast String Orchestra. He was organist and choirmaster of St Peter’s Church, Antrim Road, and principal of the North Belfast School of Music.
Read more about J.C.C. in the PDF on the left.
Occasional broadcasts continued for William Rea. A Ballad Concert was broadcast on Tuesday evening, 2 August 1938 and there was hymn-singing from St Enoch’s on Saturday evening, 8 October 1938.
