The October meeting of the Shipston-on-Stour Music Society began with the business of the AGM and was completed in twenty minutes with only one major concern – that of a serious drop in membership, mainly as a result of the Covid pandemic. Several ideas and suggestions were noted in an effort to remedy the situation.

Refreshments followed before we sat back with keen anticipation for a Talk entitled “Discovering English Song” by member Barry Lingard.

“The Art Song” is a song of serious artistic purpose, written by a professional composer, as opposed to a traditional or folk song. The title is usually applied to solo songs, especially those of the 19th century. As his title suggests Mr Lingard had chosen to restrict his talk to English composers – and there are plenty from which to select his examples including Frank Bridge, George Butterworth, Edward Elgar, Gerald Finzi, Ivor Gurney, Gustav Holst, Hubert Parry, Roger Quilter, Charles Stanford and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Not only were we treated to recordings of so many examples by these composers but Mr Lingard had recorded them all himself. His beautiful voice with clear diction filled the Methodist church delighting the audience and making the event a truly personal occasion. To finish he chose “The Floral Dance”, not an art song but a popular ballad which encouraged some enthusiastic foot-tapping and was familiar to most of those present. As he explained, years ago there was a piano standing in most “front rooms” and trying to pick out the tune of a ballad heard on the radio would have been a normal pastime for members of the family. A simpler life!