Hi all,

 

I'm de-lurking to see if I can get some pointers to sources for information on MIXED VOICE reconstruction or Victorian singing societies.

 

I'm completely familiar with men's glee clubs and the "Family SIngers" groups that toured during reconstruction (usually with a Temperance or Christian oriented repertoire).

 

But I need to establish a precendent / example - if it exists - for a secular coed performing group either in the US or Britain sometime between 1840 and 1880.

 

If anyone can point me to a book that I can acquire that has this info, or can even give me names of groups they know about, it would be of great help to me. I'm establishing a mixed group to perform next year at the Great Dickens Christmas Fair in San Francisco, and I have to show that the concept is historically accurate for the time period. I have lots of music to use (both modern works that fit in and period pieces).

 

I very much appreciate any and all assistance and hope that all of you have a Happy and Safe New Year, thus avoiding all controversy surrounding other holidays that fall during this time of year.  :-)

 

P.S.   Of course, being the resident black sheep for lousy humor, I can't resist adding one more item that an acquaintance reminded me of.

 

From the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society Solstice Carol Book, to the tune of Away in A Manger:

 

Away in a madhouse, confined to my bed,
From visions and nightmares that filled me with dread
The doctor has sweetly inserted a probe
To sever completely my prefrontal lobe.

Electroshock therapy, mind-numbing pills:
They change my behaviour to cure all my ills.
I love the asylum, my own padded cell.
I’ll stay here forever, for outside it’s hell.