SCUNA history » Groups with a link to SCUNA » Cantores ex SCUNA
In the early 1970s, Andrew Barker (tenor) and Susan Barker (soprano) returned to the UK and lived in Warwickshire. Julian Brown (baritone) and I (soprano) moved to London. Annabel Wheeler (alto) moved to Warwickshire. It seemed a reasonable idea to sing together whenever possible, so Cantores ex SCUNA was born.
Our first performance took place at the Leamington Spa Competitive Music Festival. This was held in a big, damp building like a boatshed on the River Leam. I don't think that building is there any more.
I can't remember when we sang what. I know we did Thomas Weelkes' great six-part madrigal As Vesta was from Latmos Hill descending at one of the festivals.
Anyway, we cleaned up in the Open Choral section at our first festival, winning the £5 prize but, more importantly, the enormous silver trophy. Audience members said we were "like the King's Singers".
The standard of choral singing at the festival went up considerably in subsequent years. We were pleased, although it was harder to win!
- From Erato 12 of October 1973
STOP PRESS FROM ABROAD - reprinted from OYEZ No.4/1973
An interesting press-clipping came from over the sea recently and is reproduced here in its entirety:
"The Courier Cup - the top award at Leamington Music Festival - has been won by the Leamington-based six-member Cantores ex Scuna choir under Conductor Dr. Andrew Barker. It achieved several successes at the festival including the open class for mixed choirs. It was highly praised for its all-round performance, and it was also awarded the F. A. Chandler Cup."
Cantores ex Scuna are, in order of "exscunification" (sic!) :-
The sixth member of the group is a tenor, who is not ex-SCUNA but who is apparently quite good, even so!
The ranks were swelled when Christopher Burrell (tenor) and Margaret Burrell moved to Edinburgh, and Gary Hovey (bass) moved to the Midlands.
I don't know if we sang twice or three times in the Leamington Music Festival. We ended up losing, mainly because we had the hubris to sing Sideways through the sewers of the Strand1 as our final number.
The piece leaves you hanging on a classic "I don't mean maybe...", which on this occasion was followed by a deathly silence rather than the riotous applause to which we had become accustomed. The adjudicator opined that it was the sort of piece that "needed a band".
He also cast gratuitous aspersions on Gary's beard. Nothing an adjudicator does can surprise me, having seen my church choir lose in the (Australian) National Eisteddfod for not singing in uniform.
The Cantores ex Scuna will be giving a concert of renaissance vocal music in Cubbington Church on Sunday December 9 at 2.30pm. This will be the group's first full concert, though they have already made themselves known to music lovers in the area by their successes at the Leamington Spa Music Festival. This year they won the Courier Cup for the best choir in the Festival. The group's name means 'Singers from Scuna', 'Scuna' being the name of an Australian choir in which five of the group's six members one [sic] sang. They are Susan Barker and Val Brown (soprano), Annabelle [sic] Wheeler (contralto), Andrew Barker (counter-tenor), and Julian Brown (bass). The odd man out is Christopher Davey (tenor).
POPULAR
Their programme on this occasion will include songs from the court of Henry VIII - catchy, popular stuff for the entertainment of a merry monarch - the Mass in four Parts by the Elizabethan composer William Byrd, and a varied selection of music for the Christmas season.
The Cantores ex Scuna will next be appearing in the area at midday concerts at the University of Warwick and Coventry Cathedral, early in the New Year.
A Concert of Renaissance Vocal Music
And a variety of Christmas Music
Will be Presented by the
CANTORES EX SCUNA
| Susan Barker Soprano | Andrew Barker Counter-Tenor |
| Val Brown Soprano | Christopher Davey Tenor |
| Annabelle Wheeler Contralto | Julian Brown Bass |
in ST. MARY'S CHURCH, CUBBINGTON, Nr. LEAMINGTON SPA
on SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9th, 1973 AT 2.30 p.m
Tickets (25p) From Gough's Music Shop 6 Gloucester Street Leamington Spa
We performed in the chapel of a castle which was the home of the then Professor of Computing at Warwick. It was terribly cold, so we wore hats, gloves, coats - whatever we could stack on. That was the second of two occasions when I saw my breath condensing in front of me as I sang.2
In 1974, the University of Warwick paid us for some concerts on campus and reimbursed train fares from London, which was nice. I don't remember singing in Coventry Cathedral, as foreshadowed in the newspaper article above.
Also in 1974, we sang at a "mediaeval banquet" at The Porridge Pot (there's still a restaurant by that name in Warwick), not quite causing a riot.3
In 1974, for various reasons, Cantores ex SCUNA came to an end. It was fun while it lasted, and the singing was wonderful.
1For more information about this fine piece of music, see Note 3 of Sue Baldwin's Oyez of 13 March 1972
2The first was in 1971, when Canberra Opera's Dido and Aeneas went on tour to Goulburn and performed to an audience of several in the enormous Lilac Time Hall.
3They were not ready to hear a counter tenor. The amount they'd drunk perhaps precluded them from hearing anything at all.