VOX HUMANA

"Vox Humana", with its companion chant/plainsong group "Gregoriana", is an a capella Choir based in Southern Hampshire in the UK, specialising in chant from the early centuries and sacred music from Mediæval times to the Renaissance and beyond. Conducted by Julien Chilcott-Monk, Vox Humana started life in a small way in 1995 (Gregoriana has been going since 1975), and now has a beautiful and unmatchable combination of voices singing in a way that is both unfettered by the rigidity of modern classical interpretation and true to the spirit and (so far as it can be known) the practice of the most ancient music which has come down to us from the European Tradition.

Julien's father was Organist and Choirmaster at Chichester Cathedral, and unpublished pieces mostly from Winchester Cathedral Library feature in Vox Humana's repertoire.

Vox Humana rehearses almost every Monday at St Barnabas Church, Rose Road (corner of Lodge Road), Southampton. 

We are currently looking for SATB voices to develop and expand the combined Choirs. Familiarity with the 5-line stave and the ability to sing in tune essential, but all other matters can be taught. If you think you would like to join the Choir, telephone Julien on 01962 869035. You may find our recruiting leaflet (download via button, 320kb PDF file) in local information outlets. Visit our Social Page to get a flavour of the social ambience of the choir when off-duty.

Concerts have been in venues like Beaulieu Abbey (right, where a Gregoriana tape is still in daily use after 20+ years), Boxgrove Abbey (near Chichester), Romsey Abbey, Arundel Cathedral and Southampton City Art Gallery. Elizabeth Barlow (Vox Humana's principal soloist) gave her Début Recital at Holy Trinity Church, Upper Brook Street, Winchester, in June 1998.

The Romsey Abbey Concert was reviewed by Eric & Joan Wood in the Hampshire Chronicle.

ABOUT THE CHOIRS

Julien Chilcott-Monk, son of the composer and conductor, the late A. Ernest Monk, learnt his musical ABC at his father's knee; broadened his knowledge of the subject at the Royal Marines School of Music; and began to understand something of the nature of Gregorian chant at the mother house of the Society of the Sacred Mission. In 1976 he formed the male-voiced Gregoriana for the purpose of singing the ancient music of the Church in the most authentic way research and inspired conjecture would allow. Now (uniquely perhaps) Gregoriana sing the chant complete with the curious decorations provided by liquescent neums, the quilisma and the oricus.
Julien & Susan

Photo: Jane Allison
Vox Humana began its life in 1995. As a Choir of mixed voices encompassing in its wide repertoire not only the early monophonic music of Hildegard and the liturgical dramas but also the sacred polyphonic music of the Mediæval and Renaissance periods and beyond, Vox Humana concentrates largely (though not exclusively) on unusual and little known music and on newly-realized and recently unearthed early music.

Elizabeth Barlow's fine versatile mezzo-soprano embraces a large and varied repertoire: the sacred and the secular; the ancient and the modern; folk song and musical; lieder and opera. Two of the works currently sung by Miss Barlow were written specially for her.

The Choir at Wickham
The Choir at Wickham in April 2005


The choir rehearsing at St Barnabas

Vox Angelica at Beaulieu Abbey with Robert Hardy
(who narrated for this special 2008 fundraising event and meal
at the Abbey)
A general view of the mealtime