Carols for Choirs (Wilcox)

gwyn · Post by **gwyn** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:43 pm

Hello everyone.

Does the series "Carols for Choirs" (Wilcox) come only as seperate volumes or can they be gotten in one lump?

Gwyn.

dunstan · Post by **dunstan** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 9:48 pm

I've got it in one lump, but wouldn't recommend it - the two volume set stays open on the stand better.

The two together is called "100 Carols for Choirs" IIRC

gwyn · Post by **gwyn** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:23 pm

Thanks Dunstan. I hadn't even considered the organ music desk calamity potential of a one big volume. :lol:

I'll take your advice on that one.

Gwyn.

mcb · Post by **mcb** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 10:26 pm

100 Carols for Choirs doesn't contain the whole of Vols 1 and 2 - it's a selection of the best from Vols 1, 2 and 3, plus some new ones. But most of the best ones are in there. We have CFC 1 and CFC 2, and we do an annual joint Carol Concert with a choir which only has 100 CFC. I find that virtually everything I've chosen (by way of audience participation numbers, at any rate) over the four years we've been doing it has been in 100 CFC.

M.

gwyn · Post by **gwyn** » Mon Nov 19, 2007 11:52 pm

Cheers MCB. 100 C.F.C's it is then.

nazard · Post by **nazard** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 11:57 am

If you worry about thick hymnbooks overbalancing and falling of the music desk with embarrassing consequences, there is a useful trick which can help.

Get some 25mm wide elastic and make a band which goes right round the music desk horizontally just above its bottom. You can then tuck open hymnbooks into the band and they stay open securely. You can't always get away with it because sometimes the music goes right to the bottom of the page, or you need to turn over, which it utterly prevents. Nevertheless, I find it very helpful for such weighty tomes as HO&N and AMR.

Some organ builders fix the reading desk into the structure of the organ so then you cant get anything right round it, in which case you will have to be ingenious. It does work well on piano type desks and floor standing desks for instrumentalists and singers.

docmattc · Post by **docmattc** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 1:01 pm

nazard wrote:Get some 25mm wide elastic and make a band which goes right round the music desk horizontally just above its bottom. You can then tuck open hymnbooks into the band and they stay open securely.

That's a good idea Nazard- I'd not thought of that. I have experienced the embarrassing consequences you mention, on swell then great. I then hit the great with my head reaching down to pick the book off the pedals and sounded it again :oops:

I use a combination of my mobile phone and swiss army knife to prop the books open. There is a draught in our church which blows right over the desk and lifts the pages. As the desk has a light built into its base the result is that the page becomes backlit and I can see the tadpoles on the other side as well as the ones I'm trying to play.

We have 100 CFC too, might not come out of the cupboard much this year though as it happens.

docmattc · Post by **docmattc** » Tue Nov 20, 2007 11:13 pm

While we're on the subject of Willcocks and carols, does anyone have a copy of the brass fanfare to 'O come all ye faithful' that I might be able to have a look at?

I believe its published in "Eight Carol Accompaniments for brass quintet, percussion, organ" but that's about sixty quid.

dunstan · Post by **dunstan** » Thu Nov 22, 2007 11:47 am

On Wilcox, they also published a 50 Carol version called "Carols for All" which has simpler arrangements, and is designed for assembly singing rather than choirs. I use my copy a lot.

On balancing thick books, the ones I find a pain are the big Kevin Mayhew instrumental selections. I end up using a closed volume of Laudate each side to keep it open in the right place. For hymn books which open flat, a big blob of blu-tak either side is enough to stop the pages wafting over.

lesley wright · Post by **lesley wright** » Fri Nov 23, 2007 11:26 am

dunstan wrote:On balancing thick books, the ones I find a pain are the big Kevin Mayhew instrumental selections. I end up using a closed volume of Laudate each side to keep it open in the right place. For hymn books which open flat, a big blob of blu-tak either side is enough to stop the pages wafting over.

A kind friend once gave me some "paper clips" with treble clefs on - these are flat white plastic about half the size of a credit card and they slide on to the side of the appropriate page in the hymn book; then I can anchor the page with blutak. I sympathise with the correspondent who complained of draughts; one year I had all the music arranged in photocopies interleaved with the readings (our Midnight Mass always starts with half an hour of carols and readings while people assemble and we find extra seating) and the draught caught it and the whole lot landed in the orchestra pit. I had kind members of the congregation rescuing them for me while I played Once in Royal from memory :lol: