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Ilkley Choral Society
THE FIRST FORTY YEARS
Dennis and Margaret Warwick
On a very stormy night, 16th December 1949, Ilkley Choral Society, assisted by members of Otley and Heckmondwike Societies, performed Handel's 'Messiah' in Ilkley Parish Church. The conductor was Charles Bainbridge who had founded the choir during, that year. The audience filled the church despite the storm, and, as ever, 'Messiah' comforted and uplifted them. The organ accompaniment was played by Rupert Tong, and the soloists were Ruby Skinn (soprano), Freda Heward (contralto), John Tetlow (tenor) and Scott Joynt (bass).
Forty years is not long as choral societies go. The Halifax Choral Society, possibly the oldest of its kind in Britain with an unbroken history, celebrated its I50th anniversary in I967. P. M. Young (1981), who has traced the tradition of choral singing in Europe and America, suggests that “in the nineteenth century ….. music became not merely a distant delight to, but an activity for, the many". Choral Music was particularly popular in industrial communities and in the larger cities, areas where non-conformists were strongly represented. The new town halls, chapels and churches of the Victorian era provided spacious settings for the large choirs which developed. However, as Patterson, writing in 1902 points out, many of the choral societies folded nearly as frequently as they started. Major causes of decline would be financial over commitments, a run of poorly attended concerts and reduced patronage.Essentially choral societies seem to need not only good musical direction and committed singing members, but also efficient secretaries and treasurers, supported by willing helpers and fund raisers.
The choral tradition, despite its ups and downs, has been a vital component of our culture. Ralph Vaughan Williams, whose Serenade to Music is being sung in the fortieth anniversary concert, said that he believed;
“…a musical nation is not a nation which is content to listen. The best form of musical appreciation is to try and do it for yourself to get really inside the meaning of music. What makes me hope for the musical future of any country is not the distinguished nameswhich appear on the front pages of the newspapers, but the music that is going on at home, in the schools and in the local choral societies”.
(Vaughan Williams, 1934)
Ilkley has no mean musical tradition. In Sutcliffe-Smith's 1928 survey of Yorkshire's musical accomplishments, which obviously puts much more emphasis on the large cities and towns, Ilkley is commended for its choral music, its annual competition and its church and chapel organists including J. H. Clough, Issac Hirst,.J W. Ibberson, and (above all) A T. Akeroyd. Arthur Picket might also have been mentioned in this context. There isno mention however of any particular Ilkley choir. 0tley is recorded as having a nineteenth century Philharmonic Society which had unfortunately suffered a major decline by 1928. The present Otley Choral Society was formed in 1943 after a festival in which several church choirs came together for a joint performance. Charles Bainbridge (CW B), at that time the music teacher at West Leeds Boys Grammar School and conductor of the Heckmondwike Choral Society, was conducting the Otley Society by 1945.
Ilkley grew as a spa town from the mid-nineteenth century, and was a place of resort rather than of industry, in contrast with Otley and many other West Yorkshire towns and cities. It did not therefore have the basis for a large and flourishing choral society. Its churches and chapels were nevertheless centres of music as well as religious activity and there were often joint musical festivals and performances of 'Messiah'. Ilkley's annual musical festival, in which choirs and musicians from all over Northern England compete, grew from the local festivals in the twentieth century. An operatic society also gave performances in the 1920s, and restarted in the 1950s. A concert club promoted an annual programme in the King's Hall in which established professional soloists and musical ensembles performed. It probably grew out of the desire of the residents of the town to promote their own musical culture as well as to offer annual visitors and tourists pleasure in their holidays at the spa.
When CWB came to Ilkley in 1948, to teach at Ilkley Grammar School, he found that the musical tradition had not revived very vigorously after the Second World War. He was not alone in thinking that there could be more activity. The head of the Evening Institute at Ben Rhydding Secondary School, Mr. Parker, was a keen musical enthusiast. He encouraged CWB to take over an existing evening class in singing and music and to try to form a choral society. It would meet as an evening class during term-time and give concerts at appropriate intervals. A letter, published in the 'Ilkley Gazette', invited people to a meeting at All Saints School to discuss the founding of such a class in September 1949. Five people turned up to the meeting, including some from the previous class. Two of them are still singing in the choir at present, Lydia Pettitt and John Muncaster. Those present were cajoled into believing that they could form the nucleus of an Ilkley Choral Society, and fifty copies of Handel’s 'Messiah' were placed in front of them! "Go and find more singers" was the optimistic command.
CWB knew that he could also call on wider support. What he had in mind was that he would invite members of Otley Choral Society and Heckmondwike Choral Society to sing in Ilkley, so as to make up a large choir that would give a resounding performance.
In the event. there were about fifty members in the Ilkley Evening Class, meeting and rehearsing 'Messiah' by December 1949. They were a little unbalanced in terms of numbers in each voice part, but they were well supported by members of the other choirs, and when they sang on December 16th, 1949. in Ilkley Parish Church, there were about two hundred voices. CWB not surprisingly does not remember that it was a stormy evening outside. He had, using his musical connections to good advantage, engaged top class soloists, and the church was full to capacity. Entrance was by programme at two shillings and sixpence but a number of patrons who had each subscribed one guinea were also present.
The Ilkley members were invited to sing in Otley and Heckmondwike and the unique tradition developed of separate Choral Societies rehearsing a number of works and coming together for concerts under the baton of their tutor and conductor. Ilkley and Otley Societies have kept up the tradition to this day, regularly rehearsing chosen works and singing them either in Otley orin Ilkley, or in both. CWB's method was to repeat the rehearsal in each town on different evenings even to the detail of the "same jokes”. Though there have been suggestions of amalgamation from time to time, they have been found impractical. InIlkley we sing as Ilkley Choral Society, in Otley, as Otley Choral Society. This has meant that both Wharfedale towns now have a marvellous series of concerts to look back on. The range of works by different composers is tremendous. A complete list of them sung in Ilkley and ordered by composer follows:
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