SCUNA history » IVs and Minifests hosted by SCUNA to 1988 » 1977 IV » Organisation
*SCUNA also announces the conception of the 28TH INTERVARSITY CHORAL FESTIVAL which is to be delivered in MAY, 1977 in CANBERRA by thousands of eager IVers. I've heard the name Richard Rodney Bennett whispered on the wind for a commissioned work. The concert would be held in the School of Music Auditorium.
- From a report by SCUNA President Kathy Warth in Erato 19 of October 1975, p3
I expect you have all heard about THE news ... Yes I.V. 77 is on in Sunny Canberra, so there you are folks, for those of you like me who don't remember sunny Frensham and those balmy days of I.V. 71 in Canberra, please annotate your diaries now. At this stage I'm not at liberty to divulge whether you should annotate them for May or August but I think I can say with some safety that it won't be January. Canberra suffers a bit too much from summer drought and lethargy (but then 'praps a good dose of I.V. spirit is what is required).
- From a report by SCUNA President Alison Whish in Erato 21 of May 1976, p17
As you know, I.V. next year is in our lovely capital city, and although it is by no means official or decided yet, it has been suggested that the Monteverdi Vespers is a suitable work for the occasion. Unfortunately our steering committee has not seen fit to inform me of times etc. and this will depend somewhat on whether A.N.U. decides to adopt a semester calendar next year or not. Those who attended MAYHEM last year will agree with me when I say that a good time was had by all, and I think we ought to be able to improve on that by next year.
- From a report by SCUNA's Erato correspondent Christine Kallir in Erato 21 of May 1976, p18
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1. | Camp2: | 3 rehearsal sessions per day | 10-12 4-5.30 8-9.30 |
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{2: Monteverdi {1: Other groups - workshops |
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I'm easy how these are allocated. | |||||
Time should be allowed for I.I.3 rehearsals as well. | |||||
2. | Workshops4: | possibilities: | |||
↓ | {Group 1: 16 - best people | } | could be an A group and a B group - or 2 A groups ______________ |
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↓ | {Group 2: 16 - " " | } | |||
↓ | {Group 3: 30 | } | arbitrary divisions, perhaps? i.e. not graded? but probably SSATB or SSATBB in view of shortage of tenors | ||
↓ | {Group 4: 30 | } | |||
↓ | {Group 5: 30 | } | |||
↓ | {Group 6: 30 | } | |||
→ | emphasis to be on unaccomp. works (or + organ at most) → Prom. Concert | ||||
Conductors: | 6 needed | ||||
Suggestions: | |||||
Group | 1: | Charlie Colman | Any other possibilities? | ||
2: | Coralie Rockwell | ||||
3: | } | me, Ian Owens (?), Judy (?), John Nickson (?), .... | |||
4: | } | ||||
5: | } | ||||
6: | } | ||||
These would have to be paid [and] would be needed for 1 week ↑ |
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Other groupings: | SSA / TTBB | |||
These could rehearse for last 1/2 hour of each combined rehearsal - or of some of them. | ||||
3. | Prom. Concert5: possible venues: | |||
National Library Foyer Albert Hall (but with seats taken out) |
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- any other possibilities? | ||||
NOT Canberra Theatre or School of Music Auditorium | ||||
Programme: from works rehearsed by workshop groups - all groups to perform + SBA choir + TTBB choir + perhaps one Monteverdi Psalm from Vespers. | ||||
4. | I suggest short, informal concerts each night after dinner: workshop groups, barbershop quartets, instrumentalists, etc. etc. |
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5. | Vespers: | rehearsals | ||
(i) | Camp: | 2 sessions per day | ||
[Plan will be to rehearse 1st half of Vespers at Camp, 2nd half in 2nd week: this will enable people who can only come in 2nd week to sing in 1/2 the Concert. - if you think this is desirable?] | ||||
To be rehearsed: | {Deus in adiutorium {Psalms 1, 2, 3, 4 |
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Deus: SSATTB (+ Orch) 1st Psalm: SSATTB (+ Orch) 2nd ": SATB / SATB (+ cont) 3rd ": SSATTB (+ cont) 4th ": SATTB / SATTB (+ cont) |
{ { { note bashing mainly { { |
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[Sideways note:] Perform 4th Psalm at Prom. Concert - opposite ends, antiphonally.6 There are no solos in this one. | ||||
(ii) | Canberra: | rehearse above + | ||
5th Psalm: Hymn: Magnificat: |
SATB / SATB SATB / SATB SSATTBB + other combinations |
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6. | Another possibility for 1st week workshop sessions could be a group to sing Gregorian Chant - which I would take. Some of these people would then be selected to sing the Gregorian Chant Antiphons in the Vespers.7 | |
7. | In 2nd week the 2nd 1/2 of the Vespers could be rehearsed late afternoon & evening sessions? | |
8. | It would be desirable to have a second conductor on hand to take one of the choirs for double-choir sectional rehearsals. | |
9. | Instrumentalists needed would be something like: 12 violins, 4 violas, 4 cellos, 4 recorders, 2 oboes, 2 trombones, 1 bassoon, organ, harpsichord. |
- Notes by Brian Hingerty, Conductor of the 1977 Canberra IV
- Original held in the Manuscripts section of the National Library of Australia
Dr. H.C. Coombs
Sir John Crawford
Convenor: Rik Allen
Secretary: Janet Spry
Treasurer: Alison Whish
Production: Richard Dixon, Ann Hoban
Musical Director: Brian Hingerty
Publicity: Christine Kallir
Fundraiser: Colin Loughhead
Librarian: Laurel Burns
Participants' Secretary: Robin Bennett
General: Alison Currie, Rosemary Mattingley, Phillip Linford
- From the first page of the programme
[Caption:] Lamingtons to sing chorals by... making lamingtons for the SCUNA fund-raising drive,
ANU students (from left) Michael Ryan, Ruth Leiserson, Richard Barrett and Camilla Webster.
Every year, University choristers gather in a different city for rehearsals, workshops and performances of choral music. This year SCUNA, the ANU Choral Society, plays host to an expected 200 participants from around Australia, in Canberra between 20 August and 3 September.
Intervarsity Choral Festivals are unique in their blending of competent musical standards with the enthusiasm of their student participants, says the Festival Committee Publicity Officer, Ms Christine Kallir. 'Recent years have indicated that Intervarsity Choral Festivals are becoming a major part of Australia's musical heritage, and this year in particular we are making a special effort to take our singing into the streets and civic centres of Canberra and surrounding areas of NSW', she says.
This year, the Australia Council, a traditional source of financial assistance, finds itself with a substantially reduced budget and is unable to offer the Festival any funding through its Music Board. 'It has been necessary for the festival committee to work extremely hard to raise the funds required to allow the festival to proceed as planned. This has included approaching private industry for help, as well as the mammoth task of organising raffles and a lamington drive, which took place on 8 July', Ms Kallir says. More than 1,000 dozen lamingtons were ordered, and members of SCUNA spent long hours on two successive nights making all 12,000 lamingtons.
Although the lamington drive was extremely successful, the committee still has a substantial financial gap to fill. 'In view of this, we are setting up a group called "Friends of IV", which will operate similarly to Friends of the Australian Opera. By becoming a "Friend of IV" you can help make the 28th Intervarsity Choral Festival happen in Canberra this year', Ms Kallir says. People joining 'Friends of IV' with a minimum $10 donation will receive a ticket for the performance of Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610, at the School of Music on Saturday 3 September at 8.15 pm, a copy of the Festival Program, and invitations to the other festival activities which include a Prom Concert at University House on Sunday 28 August at 3 pm. 'Friends of IV' can be contacted through PO Box 10, Lyneham, ACT, 2602.
- From an unknown source and publication
A yearning wells within my breast
Longing, desire of hunger born;
No pie of meat nor bun of yeast
Can turn submission into scorn.
What is this pain, ardent behest
What is it makes me so forlorn?
'Tis a call from my tummy
for a lamington yummy.
And could I but take
a cube of sponge cake
then I would use
a brown chocolate ooze
to hold down flat
a coconut mat
glistening white
and ready to bite.
Thou acme of the kitchen's art, O Lamington!
With thee inside me I need never be alone.
Copyright © D.G. Colquhoun 1977
- Published here by kind permission of the author
- Original held in the Manuscripts section of the National Library of Australia
'Bushdances and recovery barbecues have been beloved features of IVs for such an extended period of time now that it is difficult to believe that they did not always exist. Canberra IV, 1977, is to be thanked for both of these innovations. Prior to 1977, it was customary to book a venue for the final PCP that would remain open until at least 5am the next morning. Most of the time this meant that non-licensed premises such as a church hall would be used, and a special permit arranged that would allow people to bring their own alcohol. For whatever reason, Canberra decided to shorten the PCP, but then to arrange a barbecue the next day. This had the advantages of lengthening the festival even more, allowing the participants to let themselves down more gradually, and ensuring that a greater percentage of interstate choristers met their arranged transportation on time and in (more) fit state. The first IV bushdance was held at the Yarralumla Woolshed in Canberra in 1977, and there has been one at each subsequent Canberra IV. In days gone by, one night of camp was traditionally set aside for a dance, and Canberra decided to do something a little different and make their dancing night a bushdance. In recent years, dances have played less of a part in festivals, but the tradition of an IV bushdance is still kept alive every time the IV visits Canberra, and also in Perth.
'Canberra IV is also memorable due to an oversight by Mary Nettle and Rob Kay, who were in charge of the sculling. The one important point they forg[o]t to organise was getting the kegs of beer. The entire boat races were thus conducted using bottled beer and, at the end of the night, after what was universally acknowledged as "a triumph of good management", there was a single bottle of beer left which the two of them drank in celebration.'
- Peter Campbell, Laudate: the first 50 years of the Australian Intervarsity Choral Movement,
PC Publishing, Canberra, 1999, p65.
-The full Laudate article about the 1977 Canberra IV is on pages 106 - 107 and on AICSApedia.
1Erato is the newsletter of AICSA, the Australian Intervarsity Choral Societies Association. Many of the first 100 issues can be seen on the Rob Kay Commemorative Electronic ERATO Archive.
2Camp was held at Bundanoon in the Southern Highlands of NSW, in the Bundanoon Hotel and Rosnel Guest House and possibly other guest houses.
3I.I. = Individual Items Concert, which according to Laudate (cited above) was held at camp on 22 August. See Note 1 of 1971 IV: Individual Items Concert for more information about Individual Items concerts.
4Workshops: "We abandoned the recent tradition (and a good one too) of commissioning Australian works, and revived an older concept of performance workshops. To most current IV attenders this would seem an innovation. It isn't, but I hope it sticks, because I think the effect of that total small group repertoire being spread around Australia must be great." - from Convenor Rik Allen's report to AICSA.
5From Brian's later notes, it seems that the Prom Concert was intended to be a proper Promenade Concert with the audience strolling about. The concert was held in the Albert Hall but I don't remember the seats being taken out. Rik Allen reports: 'The audience was small, probably because of the ancient feeling that "if it's free then it can't be good".' (Op.cit.)
6The 4th Psalm isn't listed in any of the Prom Concert programmes.
7Brian's Gregorian Chant workshop happened, and its members performed at the Prom Concert and sang the responses for the Vespers.