MIDHURST CHORAL SOCIETY AND THE PETERSFIELD FESTIVAL.
A special meeting of the Midhurst Choral Society was held at the School last week for the purpose of re-considering the decision arrived at at the last general meeting to compete at the next choral festival at Petersfield. Mr. R. C. Fisher presided, and there was a fair attendance of members.
Post cards had been sent to all the members with a request that they should give an affirmative or negative answer to an enquiry whether they would promise to compete at the festival. Mr. E. T. Haynes (secretary) stated that 23 of those post cards had been handed to him and of these twenty replied ‟No” and three ‟Yes.” This, he remarked, quite showed the feeling of the society on the subject.—The Chairman said the voting was a matter of great surprise to him, and was, perhaps, somewhat disappointing. It was a pity that a large society of that kind did not feel itself competent to compete with other choirs.
Mr. A. G. Gibbs proposed that the resolution of the general meeting be rescinded. It was certain that if they decided to compete at Petersfield they would only have a very small choir.—Mr. Haynes seconded, and remarked that since the general meeting an entirely new set of circumstances had arisen, which, if they adhered to the decision then arrived at, would necessitate the engagement of an instructor in sight-reading. At present they had about three months before the festival would take place, and that was altogether insufficient for instruction in this subject. In three years they might probably be sufficiently well up in it to enter. He mentioned that the Society was about £9 to the bad on the last concert, and he thought it would be very unwise for them to enter into any further expenditure just at present.—Mr. Gibbs mentioned that the changed circumstances to which Mr. Haynes referred were that at the last committee meeting Mr. Werry had intimated that he would be unable to devote the necessary time to teaching the members sight-reading.—The chairman suggested that it would be as well if the individual members of the choir devoted a little of their private time to the practice of sight-reading —Mr. Gibbs’ proposal was then agreed to.