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...performing great choral music in Salisbury since 1923 |
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President: Sir David Willcocks CBC MC Vice-Presidents: Major General (retd.) Patrick Brooking CB CMG MBE DL The Reverend Canon Jeremy Davies MA |
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Salisbury Musical Society |
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David Halls |
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The History of the SMS Taken from the 75th Anniversary Booklet 1923 - 1998 It was in October 1917 that Sir Walter Alcock, the Organist of Salisbury Cathedral, suggested the formation of an Orchestral Society which would give concerts with "Dr Alcock's Oratorio Choir". In 1923, after successful concerts in the two previous years, the choral and orchestral sections united under the name of the Salisbury Musical Society. Later, in 1931, the orchestral players split off again under their original name. The Salisbury Orchestral Society now regularly accompanies the SMS for the final concert in each season and the two societies also often combine to perform on behalf of local and national charities. Founder members, had they known of the enormous advances in recorded music and its broadcasting by the then recently formed BBC (and later competitors), might have doubted that SMS could survive and continue to attract audiences. However, we are happily still here and, thankfully, so is our audience, although we may not recently have had people queuing into the High Street, with 4000 seats in the Cathedral insufficient, nor notices in The Times reporting that 1922 concert. In 1972/73 the Diamond Jubilee programme noted with awe the increase in the costs of putting on concerts. Brahms' Requiem in 1931 had cost just £48:17:1d to perform and Janet Baker had sung Gerontius in 1960 for a fee of 18 guineas! Concerts today regularly cost more than one hundred and fifty times the 1931 price and a soloist for Gerontius in 1998 received perhaps forty times Dame Janet's 1960 fee. Even those singing in that Diamond Jubilee year, of whom many are happily still with us, would have had considerable fears for the future if told that we would lose our generous sponsor, Friends Provident, and all our other funding, including Local Authority and Arts Council, before our 75th Anniversary and be dependent entirely upon our own resources. So we have to thank, perhaps first of all, our faithful audience, without whom it would all be in vain. We must thank too our equally faithful Patrons, whose reward must surely be in heaven. We are also grateful to the local firms who have generously come forward to support our Anniversary programme, to the members of the Delius Trust, who for a second time have kindly supported our performance of his music, and, also in their 75th year, the Oxford University press. But in the end, above all, we must thank our founder and all those who succeeded him as Conductor, together with their deputies and our rehearsal accompanists, without whose patience, effort, inspiration and encouragement our performances would not make our survival possible. Past Concerts Works performed in past concerts can be searched on spreadsheet (Microsoft Excel required) |
