John Alldis RIP

[rauschwerk]

I was saddened to hear just now of the passing of John Alldis at the age of 81.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/music-obituaries/8217729/John-Alldis.html

I first became aware of the work of the John Alldis Choir in the early 60s when they were pre-eminent in the performance of contemporary choral music in the UK. I was dead chuffed to get into the newly formed LSO Chorus (I was very young but upper age limits had been set for recruits) and sang for John with great enjoyment in that choir and later the London Philharmonic Choir for 5 years. From him I gained a thorough grounding in choral singing which has benefited me enormously in my subsequent singing activities.

When we recorded RVW's Dona Nobis Pacem and Holst's Choral Symphony with Boult, he gave the concert performances to John, and very well he did them too.

Do any others have memories of John?

[ardcarp]

No personal memories, but I saw him conduct the John Alldis Choir many times in the 60s. 'Contemporary' music then was genrally ****** difficult to sing (not like the bland wafts from the pens of Part, Tavener, Whitacre, et al) and one could only boggle at the JAC's ability to pluck notes from thin air. The likes of Crosse, Smalley and Birtwistle didn't make life easy.

Of the present day choral ensembles, Exaudi is the only one that comes immediately to mind for tackling difficult stuff. For instance, they recently did a stint (all armed with tuning forks) at IRCAM.

[DracoM]

He once came to give an amusing and enlightening talk about choral singing to a music society I helped to run, and got everybody there singing a canon until we collapsed in laughter.

[rauschwerk]

John once told us about his professional choir, and how many of them felt frustrated because they thought they ought to be singing lead roles at Coven Garden (some of them, of course, went on to do just that or other things of equal significance). When singers complained that amateur choirs were stealing the bread from their mouths, he would put something horrendous (by such as Sylvano Bussotti) in front of them to sight-read and when they came unstuck he would say, "Call yourself a professional?"

He dismissed the main melody in the third of Bernstein's Chichester Psalms as a 'panto tune', and I am inclined to think he had a point.