The Village Quire, from Glasbury near Hay-on-Wye, was formed to sing West Gallery music.  This is what you would have heard in rural parish churches in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. West Gallery music is energetic, joyful, no-nonsense stuff that is great fun to sing and listen to. The Village Quire performs without the accompaniment of instruments. If you enjoy the thrilling sound of unaccompanied vocal harmony, then this is definitely the stuff for you.

So much, then, for the style of the music we sing; why do we call it ‘West Gallery’ music? Well, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries much of the floor space of the typical rural parish church was either rented out or owned by more or less wealthy parishioners.

Where, then, to house the choir?  The answer was to build a gallery at the tower or West end of the church, hence: ‘West’ gallery.  Picture yourself, then, in such a church on a typical Sunday in the late eighteenth century.  When it was time for a sung part of the service to be performed the choir would burst into song from behind the congregation!

We promise that The Village Quire will not sneak up on you like that!  We definitely lead from the front at our concerts.

Click for details of our programmes:

•  The Good Old Way
•  When Adam Delved...
•  High Days and Holidays
•  A Village Christmas

West Gallery Music Vocal Workshops

Click here for details…