The 25th Intervarsity Choral Festival: ADELAIDE, 19 Aug.-31 Aug. 1974

Patron: Sir Mark Oliphant
Chorusmaster: Graham Dudley, Michael Goodwinn
Accompanist: Anne Quilty
Camp Venue: Holiday houses in Port Elliot, RSL Hall (rehearsals) and Town Hall (meals)
Participants: FUCS, AUCS, MUCS, MonUCS, UWAUCS, SUMS, TUMS, QUMS, UNCS, NUCS, SCUNA, MMM

COMMITTEE

Convenor: Matthew Mitchell
Secretary: Mary Davey
Treasurer: Peter Coppin
ConMan: Sue Lower
Public Relations: Mary Nettle
Librarian/Orchestra: Peter Ruys
Camp Officer: Michele Galazawski
Transport/Billeting: Andy Pearce
Social Sec: Julie Young
Minutes/Archives: Jacki Wesselingh
Resident Composer: Malcolm Fox
Cooks: Mary Davey, Paul Wilkins

CONCERT

8pm, 31 Aug., Festival Theatre
Conductor: Graham Dudley; Michael Goodwinn
Soloists: Margaret Macpherson, Neville Hicks
Program: Vaughan Williams Mass in G Minor, Malcolm Fox Three Steps in a Lush Lunar Foxtrot; Orff Catulli Carmina
Notes: Tape operator [Fox]: Tristram Cary
Review: Ralph Middenway, “Getting the best from amateurs”, n.p. 3 Sept., 1974. “Inter-varsity choral festivals are addictive, becoming for a time a way of life. The 25th annual festival culminated in a very full day in the Festival Theatre on Saturday with a long morning rehearsal and an outstanding evening concert. Choral singing can be tremendously satisfying. The proverbial bunch of amateurs can reach together a level of musical achievement ordinarily well beyond most of them as individuals. Conductors Grahame [sic.] Dudley and Michael Godwinn can be very please[d] with the high level of achievement on this occasion."
Helen Covernton, “260 voices raise belch”, n.p., 1 Sept. 1974. “Adelaide composer, Malcolm Fox , likes to entertain and also to shock – and he prefers to do it on a grand scale … In a sense [his new work]could be described as ‘the ultimate artistic chunda’. The work … ends with a finale of well orchestrated belches, stomach rumbles, and Bazza Mackenzie vomit noises. It is what he describes as ‘music theatre’ and is being presented under the auspices of the Inter-Varsity Choral Society [sic.] This event, held annually around Australia – has attracted hundreds of students to Adelaide."
James Renfrey, “Choirs in lush new work”, n.p., 3 Sept., 1974. “University choirs from all over Australia had their 25th get-together in the Adelaide Festival Theatre on Saturday night. This one will remembered for the commissioned work … a piece of unparalleled nonsense which clearly stamped the 28-year-old composer as a flourishing genius … For unbridled imagination, boldness, vigor and a certain robust vulgarity it couldn’t be improved upon … Of course his forces were first rate. University students are never noticeably reticent in behaviour when they are in the public eye and any lurking inhibitions were entirely shed on Saturday with telling results … It showed too that a sing-in is much more worthwhile than a sit-in when it comes to gaining goodwill and sympathetic ears.”

OTHER COMMENTS

Twenty-fifth Intervarsity Choral Festival, and celebrating the centenary of the establishment of the University of Adelaide. Small groups (workshops) were held at camp: Malcolm Fox “Found Sound”, Viv Steer “Recorder”, Ralph Middenway “Consort Music of the High Renaissance”, David Boehm “Jazz or Modern Fun Singing”, Barb Williams “Percussion”, Michael Goodwinn “Choral Conducting Technique”, Alan Crooks “Gilbert & Sullivan”, Robert Kay “Canon”, David Blight “Bach”, Eric Kowarski “Folk Harmony Singing”. Items from the workshops were given in two concerts: 8pm, 20 Aug. Port Elliot Town Hall; 8pm, 24 Aug., Victor Harbour.