Head's Newsletter - 17 January 2020

Our recording venue was the beautiful chapel of Merton College, in the centre of the Oxford, which also allowed the singers to visit a number of other bits of the city during their breaks. Right next to Merton is Christ Church Meadow, an enormous park-like area, which the Trebles made the most of, playing football between sessions and not taking quite enough notice of the times when the Meadow gates are locked. Being ‘rescued’ from the Meadow by both school and college staff was voted a highlight of the trip, closely followed by the evening ice-creams provided by Dr Selig while the Chamber Choir were still hard at work in the chapel. The recording took three days, during which the choirs stayed at a YHA next to Oxford Station. On the third day we were joined by another 60 singers from the school’s other choirs: Tiffin Children’s Chorus, Cambiata and the Oratorio Trebles. After a morning rehearsal with Mrs Cadogan in the chapel of Magdalen College, these singers joined forces with the Chamber Choir and Boys’ Choir in Merton to record four traditional Christmas carols: Once in Royal David’s City, O Little Town of Bethlehem, O Come All Ye Faithful, and Hark the Herald. The sound of 120 singers between the ages of 8 and 18 joining together was really special, and made for a wonderful finish to the recording before we all travelled back to Kingston to be ready for the start of term the following morning. The CD will be released this autumn, ready for Christmas 2020. Look out for more news!

Thanks successful Crowdfunder and a large number of very generous donations, the school choirs were able to undertake the very exciting project of recording a CD of Christmas music during the holidays. The Chamber Choir and Boys’ Choir travelled up to Oxford early on the morning of January 3 rd , and jumped straight into recording a number of Christmas favourites, including music by ex-Tiffin staff John Walker and David Nield, and the Tiffin-traditional Riu Riu Chiu . There were also Christmas classics, such as Harold Darke’s In the Bleak Midwinter , and more contemporary carols by Bob Chilcott and James MacMillan. Recording is extremely hard work: an initial sing-through of a piece is followed by listening through carefully, and singing bits over and over again until the producer has a number of takes where it is exactly right. It was a fantastic experience for the singers, most of whom had never recorded before, and all of whom rose the challenge of singing better and better each take. The countertenors, tenors and basses, who sing with both the Chamber Choir and the Boys’ Choir, had especially long days, and the Chamber Choir produced some fantastic performances, especially given that they have only been singing together since September! to our extremely