West Gallery Music Association
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Announcements

October 2023

    The new Red Book 3rd Edition is now available. It is A4 portrait coil bound to lie flat on a music stand. Details can be found via the link on the Publications page.

July 2023

    Details of and the booking form for the 2023 WGMA Autumn Singing Weekend have been added on a dedicated webpage accessed via the Calendar.

    The Trustees Annual Report (TAR) for 2022 has been added to the About Us page on the website and will be reviewed at the AGM. The 2022 Accounts will follow shortly.

    Annual General Meeting of the West Gallery Music Association, Registered Charity number 1171664
    Our 2022 AGM was held in May during a weekend event, and the trustees' intention had been to convene the 2023 meeting under similar arrangements. Planning for a May event this year in the Southampton area having proved impracticable it was then decided that holding the meeting during the Sidmouth Folk Festival would offer the best opportunity for the greatest number of members to attend, with least inconvenience. This also satisfies the obligation under the constitution that General Meetings be held within 15 months of the previous meeting. Accordingly, the AGM will be held in the Methodist Church in Sidmouth on Saturday 5th August at 16.00 following the concert performance by the Weatherbury Quire.

May 2023

    General Meeting of the West Gallery Music Association, Registered Charity number 1171664
    While it had been intended that this meeting would be held during May this has not proved practicable.
    The trustees will next be meeting on May 24th, and hope shortly afterwards to be able to announce the arrangements under which the General Meeting will be held.
    In the meantime, members are reminded that three of the trustees will be stepping down in rotation, and that nominations for trustees should be sent to the WGMA Secretary.

April 2023

    More details on the RISM database solution that the WGMA is looking at for use as a possible Anthems Database. The information contains some background material and two videos of a workshop that was conducted with the RISM database owner and a number of WGMA researchers. It also contains a timeline indexing the videos to enable material to be rapidly found. The information can be accessed via the Resources page - click on Research & Researchers and then on RISM under Resources for Researchers.

January 2023

    A new facility has been added to allow members and others to access Recordings made by the WGMA at events over many years. These recordings were made at West Gallery events and are the best that could be achieved after a short rehearsal and provide a record of what happened at that event. These recordings are located on a subdomain of the website and can be accessed via Event Recordings on the Resources page.

August 2022

    A new article has been added on the Smithson Manuscript which has recently been found and to which Francis Roads has been given access. This can be found under the General section of the Articles page.

June 2022

    A new article on Frances Anne Head (1788-1847) and her Choral Psalmody (1840) has been added based on research carried out by Tam Mucklow. This can be found under the General section of the Articles page and is available to members only.

May 2022

    A new article on Country Psalmody in Cumbria has been added based on research carried out by Paul Guppy. This can be found under the Regional section of the Articles page and is available to members only.

    A new article about Rev MacDermott and the 200 or so letters he wrote from 1917 onwards to Parish Church Choirmasters has been submitted by Paula Nicholson. This can be found under the Regional section of the Articles page and is currently available to members only.

    The Trustees Annual Report and Accounts for 2021 have been added to the About Us page.

    A new article on John Scurr's Manuscript in Durham Cathedral has been added based on research carried out by Paul Gailiunas. This can be found under the Regional section of the Articles page and is available to members only.

    A new restricted area has been added to the website and all members have been emailed access details. Initially, this provides access to two things - PDF copies of the West Gallery Newsletter (which can be found via the Publications page) and some new Research that is being made available to members only.

Bought by tyrants, sold by knaves

March 2022

    Paul Guppy has produced a new music book with material drawn from the National Chartist Hymn Book (c. 1840). This book will be of interest to WG enthusiasts and quires alike and to help with the publication costs, the WGMA is issuing a call to subscribers. For more details, click on the image to the right.

    The AGM of the WGMA will take place during the WGMA Spring Weekend (see Calendar)and the calling notice and agenda can be found here.

July 2021

    On 25th June, The Madding Crowd gathered at Brook in the New Forest to sing the Anacreontic Song at the request of Viral History. This song was the signature tune of the Anacreontic Society, a Gentlemen's Glee Club which flourished from 1766 to 1792 and eventually provided the tune for the present USA national anthem, adopted in 1931.
    Viral History made a video about the story of the anthem including clips of The Madding Crowd and published it, appropriately, on 4th July.
    A photo from the event along with the PDF score and parts can be found on The Madding Crowd website.


Past announcements and website update history can be found here

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