Philip Matthew Legge, BSc Tas
Email: MailTo(philip.m.legge AT SPAMFREE gmail DOT com)
AICSA Roles and Affiliations
TUMS Member 1990–92, General Assistant 1990/91, ConMan 1991/92
HIV1992 Librarian
MUCS Member 2002–05
MIV2005 General Assistant
ROCS Member 2003–05, Conductor 2006–09
Festivals Attended
MIV1991, HIV1992, [:MF1992:SCF1992], CIV2003, PIV2004, MIV2005, AIV2006, BIV2007, SIV2008, [:60IV:60IV1999]
Potted History
As a Shiny Young Thing:
1990: Joined TUMS in 1st year at University, singing tenor. Highlights: Orff Carmina Burana, Beethoven Choral Symphony.
MIV1991: Fresher! Highlight: the fabulous PCP after performing Mozart's Requiem in the Melbourne Concert Hall.
1991: TUMS General Assistant. Highlights: world première of Donald Hollier composition with the TSO; Schubert's Mass in A flat with Chris Dearnley; singing the "bargain counter-tenor" solo in PDQ Bach's "oratorio" The Seasonings.
HIV1992: Festival Librarian. Highlight: Gabrieli in Launceston, and that PCP! Lowlight: catching the Dreaded Lurgi and losing my voice halfway through the Monteverdi Vespers.
1992: TUMS Concert Manager. Lowlight: having gone to a huge effort organising Mark Irwin's first concert to TUMS, our publicity sucked and we played to an empty cathedral. Highlights: none; which is why I stopped singing with TUMS after the second concert.
[:MF1992:SCF1992]: Sydney Choral Festival (supposedly a "minifest"). Highlight: singing Brahms' German Requiem at the Sydney Opera House.
Having gotten badly burnt out by a year of being TUMS ConMan and also being heavily involved with other choirs, I drifted on the periphery of the AICSA scene for some years, until I was involved with choral societies again following the Mahler's 8th for the Centenary of Federation.
As a Boring Old Fing:
SIV2002: Did not participate, as I wasn't interested in revisiting the Rachmaninov Vespers with no other works programmed! Attended the Academic Dinner and the concert.
2002: MUCS, singing tenor and counter-tenor, including singing tenor solo in the Christmas concert.
CIV2003: Proofread the notoriously error-ridden score of the Victoria Requiem prior to the festival, and put together orchestral parts for six movements of the Monteverdi Vespers in the space of three days and nights, when it was discovered the wrong parts had been sent. Had to sing second bass in the Monteverdi on account of once again succumbing to the Dreaded Lurgi, but made it all the way through to the end this time!
2003: MUCS and ROCS, helping out the latter with their performance of Fauré's Requiem.
PIV2004: Gave Karl Aloritias a hand with some of the PIV songbook, proofreading and editing one or two items. At one stage the brass band arrangement of "Jerusalem" went missing so I whipped up an alternative at about two hours notice before a rehearsal; but when the correct arrangement duly turned up mine got the flick!
2004: MUCS and ROCS. ROCS did a "composer's concert" in June, for which I composed and conducted a setting of Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan".
MIV2005: General Assistant: this largely ended up being a portfolio of my choosing, helping out with all sorts of stuff I'm good at (including chorus masters and composers happy). Edited the vocal scores for Stanford's double-choir Magnificat and Bruckner's Mass in E minor in addition to the pubsong book, entitled "The TROLLOPS".
2005: ROCS. Was intending to sing in MUCS' extravaganza performance of Rachmaninov's choral symphony The Bells, but was too busy/lazy! Sang some counter-tenor solos for ROCS' semi-staged version of Purcell's opera The Fairy Queen.
AIV2006: Nice to be at an IV where I didn't have to anything apart from sing! Michael Winikoff (with a few compositional ideas contributed by me) won the IV revue again, with "Fanfare for the Common Chorister".
2006: ROCS conductor. What did I let myself in for? Doing Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms with RMP and MUCS was the highlight this year.
BIV2007: Despite being credited with the idea for the IV ("hmm, it'd be nice to do Orff's entire Trionfi cycle one day"), I have no memory of ever mentioning it. Anyway, was signed up to be assisting with rehearsals, rather doing about 12 or more hours of them - including the infamous Pirramimma rehearsal with the composer in attendance! Two more words: War Council.
2007: Still conductor of ROCS. We ran with the 2004 "composer's concert" idea and turned it into the "ROCS Occasional Choral Composition Competition": ending up with 12 new pieces to perform! Michael Winikoff, Leanne Daharja Veitch, and Lynette Reville took the honours, with honourable efforts by David Greagg, Theresa Wallner, Sandra Uitdenbogerd and myself. MUCS performed my edition of Fauré's Requiem. Personally sang with MonUCS for Mozart's Requiem, and ROCS joined MonUCS for their Christmas concert.
SIV2008: I only attended the second week, missing the first week in Newcastle. Michael Winikoff's winning entry from the ROCS Competition was performed in the Australia Day concert. Despite misgivings from certain quarters, SIV bravely attempted Tallis' Spem in alium, with strings, brass, and the formidable Sydney Town Hall organ supporting the eight 5-part choirs. I was not exactly pleased with either the means or the timeline involved by SIV's request to have me prepare the arrangement of the Tallis to Brett Weymark's specification. Helped proofread the new SIV songbook, prepared by David Gibson and Veronica Murtagh using Lilypond. Nonetheless, I enjoyed singing RVW's Five Tudor Portraits even if no one else did.
2008: Still conductor of ROCS. We received a nice big grant from RMIT Union Arts allowing us to put on Mozart's Coronation Mass with the largest forces ROCS had mustered for its own concerts. Again sang with MonUCS for Dvořák's Te Deum and Brahms' Requiem.
[:60IV:60IV1999]: Once again helped out with sending songbook material and the vocal score of the Borodin Polovtsian Dances to Simon Reade (for reasons which I am unable to explain, an older version of the score ended up being printed). I ended up as one of the stand-in conductors for Concert 2 when June Tyzack fell ill from the H1N1IV Lurgi.
2009: Final year as conductor of ROCS. First concert celebrated ROCS' 10th anniversary with Sandra Uitdenbogerd's Missa Prima and two new compositions: an additional movement in Sandra's mass, and my noisy Ite, missa est. MonUCS performed my completion of Mozart's Great Mass in C. ROCS is doing the Schubert Mass in A flat in October.
Select Bibliography
As Author:
Who botched "Laudate"? http://www.users.on.net/~algernon/laudate/history.html
As Composer:
Kubla Khan, Op. 1, Internet: Choral Public Domain Library/Petrucci Music Library, 2008 [ii+25pp]
Ite, missa est, Op. 6, Internet: Choral Public Domain Library/Petrucci Music Library, 2009 [12+16pp]
As Editor:
The TUMS Busking Book, Internet: Choral Public Domain Library, 2006 [56pp]
Spem in alium nunquam habui: A motet for 40 voices by Thomas Tallis, Internet: Choral Public Domain Library, 2008 [iv+24pp; full score, and parts]
Gabriel Fauré: Requiem in D minor, Op. 48 (1888/93 version), Internet: Choral Public Domain Library, 2006 [117, 31pp; full and vocal scores]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Great Mass in C, KV 427 (417ª), Internet: Petrucci Music Library, 2009 [214pp]