by John Huthnance
NWEMF Secretary
NWEMF members perhaps might know (of) me as NWEMF Secretary, as a (bass) singer and possibly as a violin player. However, historically and by intent these are in reverse order. I recall being told by a fellow pupil at primary school assembly that I was singing out of tune. Just possibly it was the other way around, because at age eight I passed an aural to begin violin lessons at school (Caversham across the Thames from Reading). A violin was acquired under the scheme but the family promptly moved to Tettenhall (just north-west of Wolverhampton). Staffordshire did not give violin lessons in primary school and I was fortunate to have private lessons with one and the same teacher all the way to the sixth form and grade 7. On the other hand, my treble singing range was limited and while my voice broke I even responded to aural tests by playing a note on the violin.
I took “O-level” music (yes, it was that long ago) but the earliest set work was a few numbers from Handel’s Messiah and I only recall the text book mentioning Palestrina and perhaps Byrd from the polyphonic era. However, in the sixth form I joined a madrigal group and much enjoyed that genre and some ability to sing a bass line – with no ability to sing falsetto.
At university I joined the orchestra but no choir for six years as concerts were typically joint under the baton of (later Sir) David Willcocks. Eventually in my last (PhD) year I joined a newly-formed college choir, again singing madrigals (even in a punt). During one year as a post-doc. in California I joined the UC San Diego orchestra and thereby a fairly regular string quartet.
It was only when coming to Liverpool, firstly as a post-doctoral research assistant, that I was able to join the University orchestra and choir, and via those in time the Liverpool Mozart Orchestra and the Renaissance Music Group (RMG) – again in that order. Morris Davies and I were both singing bass in the university choir and he asked me if I would be interested in joining RMG. I think RMG was a bit short of basses at the time; often, of course, the extra line in five-part Renaissance music is for a baritone. There were other novelties (for me); minims and even semi-breves for quite short-sounding notes, and C clefs with the C almost anywhere on the stave. I was also thinking that this was somewhat specialised – “niche” in today’s parlance – but then, I only had a three-year appointment and it might be something quite different thereafter. [I did have a 3-month sabbatical (sort of) in Australia and joined rehearsals of a Kodaly mass.] “But here I still am” after 51 years. RMG is now Liverpool Renaissance Singers (a somewhat more informative name) and properly constituted as a Charity. We still sing wonderful music.
I forget how I came to join NWEMF but clearly it must have been via RMG, probably as advertised by Morris and quite possibly when he took a NWEMF workshop. I was certainly a member in the days of Ambleside summer schools but never went to any; other “Early Music” holidays in the Lake District led by Aubrey Hill (sadly deceased; also via RMG) spent much more time exploring the mountains and led me to feel that the relative short free afternoon time at Ambleside would be frustrating. However, I have been to several subsequent summer schools led by Roger Wilkes near Chester (twice) and at Higham Hall in the Lake District; perhaps the years have taken their toll or mellowed me.
I have no pretence of any scholarship in the genre; for me it is all about the joy of singing (or playing). Thanks are due especially to Morris and to Peter Syrus for introducing me to such glorious music by many composers other than Palestrina and Byrd, including earlier English works inexplicably forgotten by the music O-level syllabus. Thank-you also Roger for your compelling choral conducting, to Aubrey for the holidays which became an important part of my social life, to Deborah Catterall for helping me to find a singing voice, including the nearest I ever came to a formal singing lesson (at Higham Hall), and to all those who have conveyed the beauty of the music and how it should be sung.
John Huthnance
Published in the April 2026 Newsletter
