Swansea Male Choir (formerly Manselton and District Male Choir) Records

Scope and Content

Minutes, 1946; rules and standing orders, n.d.; membership, 1953-1956; magazines and newsletters, 1965-2004; programmes, 1952-1983; foreign tours, 1982-2003; newspaper cuttings, 1946-2004; reminiscences, n.d.; photographs, 1953-2003 and n.d.

Administrative / Biographical History

The first meeting of the Choir Committee was held on 29 November 1946 at which it was proposed and seconded: 'That we adopt the principle of Forming a Male Choir and that we proceed with the work forthwith, the Choir to cover the whole District.' The name of the Choir was to be The Manselton and District Male Choir with T Emrys Jones, organist at Manselton Congregational Chapel, as conductor and its object was 'to further the Art of Music' (Rules and Standing Orders). The Choir numbered 70 voices within a couple of years of formation and this increased to 120 over time.

The Choir has won the chief male voice prize at the National Eisteddfod, worked with leading soloists, such as Sir Geraint Evans, produced albums and single recordings of their performances, taken part in radio and television broadcasts and given performances at venues at home and abroad including Czechoslovakia, Germany, Holland and the United States of America as well as for touring New Zealand and South African rugby teams. It first visited Swansea's twin city Mannheim in West Germany in May 1963 as guests of the city and continued to do so in subsequent years. In turn the Leiderhalle Choir of Mannheim visited Swansea. Links have also been established with Swansea, Illinois, in the United States of America and reciprocal visits made. In 1966 the Choir was the first Welsh male choir to be invited behind the Iron Curtain when it went to East Germany as guests of the Ministry of Culture.

The name change to the Swansea (Manselton) Male Choir took place in 1967. There had been a growing view that the Choir should be renamed so as to identify it more definitely with the town rather than with the particular district of Manselton. By 1967 no more than 10% of the membership lived in Manselton, being spread over a wide area from Penlan to Mumbles, Port Tennant to Dunvant and even as far as Cardiff.

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A hard copy is available at the West Glamorgan Archive Service

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