An announcement from Fiona Macnab

Informal Pre-lunch Brightling Choral Concert
12-12:30pm, Sunday 23^rd March, St Thomas à Becket Church, Brightling 

I heard a local say – a London musician used to bring his singing friends to Brightling to sing in the church – and an idea germinated.  

It wasn’t however until I read the new fabulous church guide, that I found out this musician was William Shield, appointed Master of the King’s Music to George IV in 1817 and Composer in Residence at Covent Garden. Shield’s large-scale operas include Robin Hood (1784) and his most popular English light opera Rosina (1781).  It was this latter opera that creates ‘much controversy’ in the music world. Shield was a great plunderer of folk tunes and there continues to this day questions whether Shield’s Rosina was the basis for the ‘Auld Lang Syne’ tune, or not.

Shield, a friend of John Fuller, was a frequent visitor and performer here in Brightling, and while Shield is buried in Westminster Abbey, Fuller commissioned sculptor Peter Rouw to create a memorial for him, now in Brightling church. 

Thus, together with a Ninfield friend and singer, a small group of choral singing friends are rehearsing in village hall and Brightling church for the weekend.  

In Shield’s footsteps we are offering a ‘miniature pre-Sunday lunch concert’ to anyone who’d like to come.   While we are singing less operatic works than Shield’s compositional style, we hope to sing a mix of early and contemporary choral music.

12-12:30pm, Sunday 23^rd March, St Thomas à Becket Church, Brightling

If you enjoy the product of our weekend’s efforts, there will a retiring collection in aid of the church.