Choir still on song after 125 years | Canterbury News | Local News in Canterbury

If the great South Island explorer Sir Julius von Haast was still around, he'd applaud the tenacity of Peter Law.

Among his many achievements, von Haast was a founder of the Christchurch Liedertafel, Christchurch's oldest choir, which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year.

Von Haast's contribution to the Liedertafel was pretty much confined to helping start it and suggesting the name, German for Song and Table.

Mr Law's contribution is rather grander. The St Martins man joined the choir early in 1952 - and has now been a member for 58 years, singing second tenor and also active off stage.

He's helped out as committeeman, secretary, and librarian.

"The Liedertafel is part of my life," he said.

As a boy soprano, he used to sing in then highly popular annual Christchurch competitions - "I recall losing out once because I went slightly flat on one note."

Now 83, he followed his father into the choir as a young man "and I've been there ever since.

"Dad had a lovely tenor voice and had previously been in the Christchurch Male Voice Choir, and mum was a pianist and accompanist.

"I was in it only a year before I was asked to do some solos."

When he was young, singing around the fireplace or piano and musical evenings around a piano were frequent events in many homes, he pointed out.

Mr Law has no special musical preferences, "although you could call me a Handel or Bach or Purcell man!

"I like that kind of music. And four-part male voice singing of sacred music is something different."

Versatility goes down well in the Liedertafel - musical director Malcolm Palmer says its repertoire ranges through opera, Gilbert and Sullivan, show music, sacred music, spirituals, and the Beatles.

The latter might baffle von Haast and the other founders who established the choir in 1885 in Warners Hotel, where musically inclined business and professional men of the day used to meet for some lubricated singing.

During World War 1 the choir bravely withstood pressure to anglicise its name, although its "Herren Abend" were officially changed to Smoke Concerts, and one or two members of German ancestry changed their surnames.

No question about its patriotism today - it performs at the Dawn Service each year.

The choir, which has nearly 60 singers, also holds three concerts a year. The jubilee will be celebrated in August.

It's also been invited to tour California and Arizona in 2011. However, that's a venture that Mr Law admits would be too much for him now.