Bristol Harmony

Bristol Harmony – a West Gallery quire

 

We are a group of singers and instrumentalists who meet regularly to rediscover and recreate the vigorous music of 18th and 19th century English village choirs.

We are one of some 40 quires (i.e. singers and instruments combined) which are active countrywide: most are affiliated to the West Gallery Music Association, and include enthusiasts of every religious persuasion and of none. ‘Bristol Harmony’ was formed in 2007 with the intention of being a small, high-quality, democratic group, focused on the music of Bristol and the West of England. We sing and play from our own music book, compiled by our members; although we do use musical notation to sing from, we try all we can to enable those who sing by ear to join in, by supplying both printed music and discs for listening in advance, and by treating practice meetings as far as possible as workshops so all can learn from scratch.

We meet twice a month on Tuesday evenings in the University of Bristol main campus: see our Events Calender. We also organise occasional workshops, presentations, concerts and singing excursions: for past excurions see Past Events. Our leader (the Gaffer) is Toby Parker, our secretary (the Clerk) is Anne Koerber, and our treasurer (the Bagman) is Pete John.