Next concert


Next Concert

Our next concert will be on Saturday, 28th March 2026 at St Mary's Church, Marlborough.

BUY tickets 
Join us

Join us!

We are a friendly and welcoming choir, who rehearse on Monday evenings in Marlborough. 

We offer free membership to under 25s.

Find out more

 

Spring Concert

Our Spring Concert will be on Saturday 28th March 2026
Rehearsals started on Monday, 5th January 2026.
There will be an additional rehearsal on Thursday, 26th March 2026.
Rehearsals run from 7.30pm till 9.30pm. 
Rehearsals are held in St Mary's Church, Marlborough

Please do not attend rehearsals if you feel unwell.

The programme is as follows:

Karl Jenkins - The Armed Man

 

 

Rehearsal Schedule
Week 1 (Jan 5) - 1. The Armed Man, 2. Kyrie
Week 2 (Jan 12) - Revise 1, learn 6 Hymn before action

 


 

Suggested Recordings:
The original Karl Jenkins recording is on youtube. Just paste the following into your web browser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc8bc-bA1JM&list=PL292A2AE7B9FD983A

Rehearsal Aids

Youtube
There is a Youtube link with all the parts to all the movements showing the music at the same time. Just paste the following into your web browser.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTsioMgTb48&list=PLkmEwdgCruO9t0_KWwReCuHsn3XBJsyDv&index=1
 

The Armed Man – Notes for singers

  1. The Armed Man

Translation of the old French:

The armed man should be feared

Everywhere it has been proclaimed

That each man shall arm himself

With a coat of iron mail

The armed man should be feared


 

Have page 2 open so you don’t need to turn.

I will beat 4 in a bar.

Start p – piano. Each entry then gets successively louder.

L’homme is pronounced with an acute accent on the “e”.

Douter is pronounced with an acute accent on the “e” instead of er.

No “t” on end of partout.

Viegne is pronounced Vee - An.

Haubregon – “Hau” is pronounced “O”.

Defer is pronounced with an acute accent on the “e” instead of er.

Sops and Altos only at bat 16. Tenor and bass come in at bar 22.

Bar 16 – make sure of Bflat (not B natural or anything in between).

Bar 25 (and similar) – hold long note right to the end.

Bars 24, 41, 63, 78,91 are one beat bars.

Watch out for repeats: bars 55 – 57, 83 – 85.

Crescendos as marked.

Last 3 notes - bar 95 – are accented and short.
 

  1. Kyrie

Page 17 is solo.

Have page 18 open so you don’t need to turn.

Bar 42 – Sops and Altos only. Very smooth. Comma after first Kyrie.

Dim bar 48.

Solo – bars 49- 56.

Kyrie should not have a hard “a” sound. The “e” should be light and pronounced as in egg.

Sops bar 69 and 70. G sharp is same as A flat!! Also 118, 133, 148.

Bar 75 – the note has a pause. Watch me for where to place the “n”.


 

I will give the basses 2 beats into bar 76.

Christus is pronounced cree not cri.

Some first basses swap to Tenor 2 at bar 85.

All tenors sing Tenor 1.

Sops – bar 83 has a G not a B. There is a misprint in some copies.


 


 

Subscriptions

Subscriptions are £45 per term and are due now if you didn't pay for the whole year last term. Please pay by bank transfer if possible, otherwise by cheque or cash to Jo, our Membership Secretary. 
 
Bank details: 
Account name:            Marlborough Choral Society
Bank:                           Lloyds Bank
Account number:        38663062
Sort code:                    30-99-50

If you are a tax payer, please consider completing a Gift Aid form (available from Jo).

Raise money for Marlborough Choral Society when you shop online.

 

Concert details

These are general details for our concerts.

The Saturday rehearsal usually runs from 2pm till 4pm. PLEASE BE IN YOUR SEATS and ready to sing by 2pm.

The concert starts at 7.30 but all choristers should arrive by 7.10p.m. It is a good idea to warm up on your way.

  1. There will be boxes at the back of the church in which to place all your borrowed music after the concert. Please do not take any home with you. If for any reason you do not return your music on or before the night of the concert, it is important that you get in touch with Beverley at beverley.lyle@gmail.com  to arrange its return. Late return of hired music incurs large fines for MCS.

  2. Dress code: Men: Dinner suits, bow tie, white shirt, black shoes. Ladies: Long black skirt or trousers, black shirt/blouse (no jumpers) and MCS scarf. You can buy or borrow a scarf from Jane Scott.

  3. HELP. We usually meet around 1.00pm in the church to set up.

  4. There will be refreshments (red and white wine, soft drinks ) in the interval.

  5. There will be a retiring collection for a local charity.

  6. You will be told where to sit for the concert and your name will be on the allotted seat.

Useful resources


Cyberbass and Other Learning Sites 

www.cyberbass.com provides a really useful resource. For a large number of works you can listen (for free) to the choral parts played with your part emphasised.

Other sites include:
Choralia - https://www.choralia.net/
Learn Choral Music - https://www.learnchoralmusic.co.uk/
John Fletcher Music is not free but has many useful rehearsal aids - https://johnfletchermusic.org/


Concert Music on the Naxos Music Library

If you a member of Wiltshire libraries then you have free access to the Naxos Music Library - an online resource of many, many thousand CDs! There are almost certainly recordings available of pieces in our next concert to listen to online.
 
Access is simple:  
Go to http://wiltshire.naxosmusiclibrary.com/page.library_cardno.asp
Enter your library card number without the spaces - 9 999999 001 becomes 9999999001
Once logged on you can search for whatever takes your fancy


Concert Music on Spotify

If you aren't a member of Wiltshire Library then you could try http://www.spotify.com/ which provides free streaming of all sorts of music - you have the odd short advert but probably less than on commercial radio.

Once you've signed up and installed the client you can access all sorts of content.

If you do install the client I'd suggest you look at your Windows firewall settings. Access these via 'Control Panel', 'Windows Firewall', then open the exceptions tab and unclick the selection next to Spotify. That will stop Spotify accepting incoming network connections.
 

Youtube

A useful tip when using Youtube:

If you would like to listen to the piece at a slower pace it is possible to slow down a  youtube video without changing the pitch. 
Go to settings at the bottom right (hover over the bottom right of the picture if you can't see it, settings is the cog in the middle). Click on settings and you will see an option called playback speed. It does sound a bit odd on the longer notes but is helpful although I wouldn't recommend going below 0.75 speed.