University of Auckland Festival Choir

The University of Auckland Festival Choir, conducted by Peter Godfrey was formed in 1970 to represent New Zealand at the triennial International Universities' Choral Festival in New York in May 1972. It was the first time a New Zealand choir participated in the non-competitive Festival.[1][2] Two earlier Festivals had been held in 1965 and 1969.[2]

Brochure with choir logo 1972

In mid-1970 Godfrey formed a choir to audition for a place to attend the Festival.[2] Auditions were conducted by the Festival director James Bjorge who visited New Zealand in November 1970 to audition choirs in Auckland, Wellington and Dunedin.[2][3][4] The 40–voice choir had to fundraise to travel to and from the United States but once there the Festival covered their expenses.[1][3] Choir uniforms were designed by fashion designer Colin Cole and made of wool donated by the Wool Board.[2] In preparation for giving recitals the choir gave its first concert in May 1971 followed by a tour of the North Island in August 1971.[2]

During April 1972 the choir toured the East Coast for ten days giving recitals at high school and university campuses.[2][4] The tour included Long Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.[2] On 18 April they sang at Stratford College in Danville, Virginia.[4][5] At Ferguson High School, Newport News, Virginia the school library caught fire during the concert; after evacuating the choir continued to sing in the car park including the madrigal Fire Fire My Heart by Thomas Morley.[6] At a university in New Jersey there was a bomb scare during the concert.[6] After the tour the choir joined the 15 other choirs in Washington D.C. to perform in the Kennedy Center and attend a reception at the White House with Pat Nixon, First Lady of the United States.[7][2][4] The choirs then moved to New York for the Festival where they performed at the United Nations, conducted by Willi Gohl[8] and at the Lincoln Center, conducted by Robert Shaw.[1][2][4]

After the Festival the choir travelled to England performing at Westminster Abbey and in the chapel at King's College, University of Cambridge.[2][4] En route from London to Cambridge, the choir made an impromptu visit to the convent at Hengrave Hall, the home of composer John Wilbye, where they sang his madrigal Sweet Honey-Sucking Bees.[2][9] The choir visited The Maltings, Snape having been invited to visit by composer Benjamin Britten and tenor Peter Pears.[2] They did not give a concert there as the purpose of the visit was for Britten and Pears to meet a choir member who was the first recipient of a Pears-Britten Award,[2] a scholarship set up by Britten and Pears in 1970 on a visit to Auckland.[10] The choir then travelled to the Netherlands giving a concert in the church of St Servaas in Maastricht, followed by concerts at the Orangerie at Schloss Benrath in Düsseldorf and at St Andrew's Cathedral in Singapore.[2][4][11]

On its return to New Zealand the choir performed in Auckland at the closing of the Auckland Festival on 27 May[4][9][12] and in Christchurch in July 1972.[4][13]

Repertoire

The choir sang secular and sacred music including a number of works by New Zealand composers in their repertoire: Lord, when the sense of Thy sweet grace by John Ritchie; An heavenly song by Donald Byars; Qui natus est by Gillian Whitehead; People look East by Jack Body; Dormi Jesu by David Griffiths; Estas in exilium by Nigel Eastgate; Three of a kind by David Farquhar and Blow me eyes by John Wells.[2][13][14] Some music was composed especially for the choir: Tenera Juventa by Ronald Tremain (words from Carmina Burana),[15] And is there care in heaven? a motet by Thomas Rive (words by Edmund Spenser),[16] and Ghosts, Fire, Water by Douglas Mews (words by British poet James Kirkup.)[13] The poem from Kirkup's anthology No more Hiroshimas: poems and translations was based on three of the Hiroshima Panels.[2][4][17] Audiences and choral conductors were interested in the works by contemporary New Zealand composers and by Ghosts, Fire, Water in particular.[18] Mews also arranged Māori songs for the choir.[2][9]

The choir's standard repertoire for a programme consisted of Jubilate Deo by Orlando di Lasso, the Agnus Dei from the Mass for Four Voices by William Byrd, the double motet Warum Ist Das Licht Gegeben? by Brahms, Ghosts, Fire, Water by Douglas Mews and Tenera Juventa by Ronald Tremain.[4]

At the Lincoln Center concert the choir sang the following works: Jubilate Deo by Orlando di Lasso, Sweet Honey-Sucking Bees by John Wilbye, Tenera Juventa by Ronald Tremain and Ghosts, Fire, Water by Douglas Mews.[4]

Legacy

After attending the Festival the choir was renamed the Auckland University Singers and toured Australia in 1974 and 1980.[4] The choir made a recording of New Zealand choral music in 1972.[14][19][20] Godfrey retired as conductor in 1982 and was succeeded by Peter Watts and Karen Grylls.[4]

Alumni

Notable former choir members include composers David Griffiths and Derek Williams.

References
  1. "Appeal soon for choir". Press. 6 April 1971. p. 14. Archived from the original on 2 August 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via Papers Past.
  2. Salmon, Elizabeth (2015). Peter Godfrey: Father of New Zealand Choral Music. Eastbourne: Mākaro Press. pp. 99–112. ISBN 978-0-9941065-8-2.
  3. "Invited to New York". Press. 24 November 1970. p. 11. Archived from the original on 2 August 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via Papers Past.
  4. Blaschke, Anthony (1995). "25 Years On: the Auckland University Singers". Music in New Zealand. 29: 29–33.
  5. "Auckland choir to hold concert at Stratford". Danville Register. 16 April 1972. p. 15 – via Ancestry.
  6. "Fire! Fire! Sang the Choir". New Zealand Herald. 22 April 1972. p. 16.
  7. "First Lady's Press Office (White House Central Files: Staff Member and Office Files) | Richard Nixon Museum and Library". www.nixonlibrary.gov. Archived from the original on 22 March 2023. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
  8. VIDEO from 26'10": Third International University Choral Festival. ASSET ID 887083. United Nations
  9. Saunders, L.C.M. (29 May 1972). "Choir gives fine Festival ending". New Zealand Herald. p. 3.
  10. "Pears-Britten Award in Singing - The University of Auckland". www.auckland.ac.nz. Retrieved 19 September 2023.
  11. "Choir on way home". Press. 16 May 1972. p. 10. Archived from the original on 2 August 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via Papers Past.
  12. Mahoney, Desmond (29 May 1972). "Best choir NZ has produced". The Auckland Star. p. 5.
  13. "Supreme music from Auckland choir". Press. 31 July 1972. p. 14. Archived from the original on 2 August 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023 – via Papers Past.
  14. "New Zealand choral music". trove.nla.gov.au. Archived from the original on 5 February 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  15. "Tenera juventa". auckland.primo.exlibrisgroup.com. 1971. Archived from the original on 8 August 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  16. "And is there care in heaven?". auckland.primo.exlibrisgroup.com. 1971. Archived from the original on 8 August 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  17. "Douglas Mews: Ghosts, Fire, Water". RNZ. 29 March 2018. Archived from the original on 2 August 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.
  18. "University choir has won praise". Auckland Star. 13 May 1972. p. 3.
  19. University Of Auckland Festival Choir – Choral Works, 1972, archived from the original on 4 August 2022, retrieved 4 August 2023
  20. "N.Z. music on record". Press. 19 December 1972. p. 12. Archived from the original on 4 August 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2023.

Further reading
  • Bjorge, J. R. (1982). Choruses Of The World: Carrying on The Lincoln Center International Choral Festival. The Choral Journal, 23(1), 17–18. JSTOR http://www.jstor.org/stable/23546073
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