Andrew Carter RIP
ANDREW Carter, choir trainer and composer, has died at the age of 86.
He was born and grew up in Leicester. He first came to Yorkshire to take a degree in music at the University of Leeds, then put down roots in York when he joined the choir of York Minster as a bass songman (lay clerk).
He also began to teach at the Bar Convent School, where by all accounts he maintained a strict regime and achieved excellent results, particularly with his choirs.
But it was when he founded the Chapter House Choir in December 1965, initially as a one-off venture to raise funds for the Minster, that he began to emerge as a serious choir director. So successful was the first concert that demand quickly mounted, from singers and audience alike, for the choir to continue.
It went on to win several awards, not least in the Let The Peoples Sing choir contest on BBC Radio, and is still a force to be reckoned with, several conductors later, a sure sign of the powerful foundations built by Andrew.
Apart from its regular concert season, the choir became known for its annual Carols By Candlelight, which, despite at times being given on three consecutive nights, was constantly sold out.
Queues for tickets would form outside the Minster at 6a.m. on a Saturday morning in early December, often in the freezing cold. Many of Andrew’s early carol arrangements were made for this event, before beingpublished, first by Banks Music Publications of York and later by Oxford University Press (the latter has published more than 50 of his works, including seven for choir, soloists and orchestra).
These concerts always included several works for handbells, a legacy of his mother’s influence as a handbell ringer herself.
His choral compositions and arrangements grew in popularity to the point where he was only able to fulfil all the commissions he was receiving by devoting himself full time to composition. Choirs in North America were particularly keen to commission and perform new works by Andrew as soon as they were written. He became a regular visitor to the United States as both composer and choir director.
A Maiden Most Gentle, the first of his carols to be sung at King’s College, Cambridge on Christmas Eve, is rightly highly prized. He also wrote two carols including solo soprano lines for Lynne Dawson, an early member of the Chapter House Choir: Spanish Lullaby and Spanish Carol, making use of her linguistic skills. His carols take pride of place in my own collection of Christmas music.
On a more personal level, I enjoyed encountering Andrew at concerts on many occasions, when he was always kindly solicitous of my own and my wife’s good health. Our meetings were full of laughter, with his deep bass chuckle ever infectious. I shall miss him. But his music will certainly live on.
Martin Dreyer