ANY newspaper's view of the cultural life of its region or country can only be, at best, partial. In Scotland, so voluminous is the activity of professional organisations that the limitations of space command that not even all of these can be guaranteed comprehensive coverage. And what that coverage tends to obscure is the vast - almost awesome - volume of musical activity that proliferates throughout the country, on a non-professional, voluntary basis.

And I do mean awesome. If the big players, the major league organisations, represent the arteries of the nation's cultural life, then there is a huge, complex network of activity - veins representing an infrastructure - that spreads throughout the length and breadth of the land.

Periodically, that activity surfaces, revealing its density and energy. In the annual Glasgow Music Festival, for example, more than 4000 young and amateur performers participate over an eight day period. In 16 amateur orchestras registered with the National Federation of Music Societies, there are more than 1000 players.

Some of the most prolific activity, however, takes place in choral societies. If you started including properly constituted church choirs as well, there are probably more choirs in Scotland than could be estimated.

But even scratching the surface, by taking the statistics of those registered with the National Federation of Music Societies, you turn up a network of activity that is mindboggling. There are over 70 choral societies who are members of the NFMS. They operate from Aberdeen to Ayr, from Shetland to Galashiels, and they are populated by more than 4000 singers.

Between them they give hundreds of concerts a year, some on a small scale, some grandiose affairs employing professional orchestras and soloists, all of them sustaining a repertoire of music that, in the words of one chorus master, ''would otherwise go down the bloody drain''.

What they have in common, and what makes them - and all other such amateur organisations - distinctive and singular, is that they are totally dependent on the goodwill, voluntary participation, and absolute commitment of their members: people who have full-time jobs, the full range of domestic commitments, and for whom it is totally a spare time activity.

The choirs can all apply for a little financial assistance - usually to offset loss - from the NFMS, and some of them benefit from a notional grant - a couple of hundred pounds - from the local council.

But essentially, every penny required to sustain choral societies is raised from within the group itself. As one member said: ''They pay, pay, and pay again - they never, ever stop raising money to support the choir. When they're not singing, they're cooking up schemes to raise another few pounds to cover this cost or that.''

It's the ultimate utilitarian private enterprise, and it's exemplified in the Helensburgh Oratorio Choir, currently in the run-up to their big, orchestra-accompanied, final concert of the season, where they will tackle Bruckner's Mass in F minor.

The 80-strong choir, whose members are aged between 16 and the late sixties, includes students and the retired, accountants, librarians, teachers, and a range of professions. Its music director and conductor is a maths lecturer.

In the current year the choir received #300 from Argyle and Bute council, and around #900 from the NFMS to offset the loss of #1200 that is expected to be incurred in the staging of the Bruckner concert.

That money apart, says Richard Hassall, president of the choir, it is ''self-help'' all the way. And there is no event so mundane or minute that it isn't called into service as a vehicle through which to raise money to support the choir's activities.

''They pay to be in it, then they pay again in five or six different ways,'' says Hassall, who by day is a director in a firm of insurance brokers. Every member pays an annual subscription of #30. There are then three main social events in the calendar - a coffee morning, a bridge night, and a raffle. The purpose of these is to raise money (about #1650 between them).

A fortnight before each event, Hassall collects #1 from every member to pay for prizes. Then the members come to the events and spend money to win those prizes. They staff the stalls at the events, then, when they have a spare minute, go and spend money at those same stalls.

''It is a constant effort. You can never relax; not ever,'' says Hassall. Even at each weekly rehearsal there is a raffle, which raises between #15 and #20. In the economics of running a choral society, there is no stone left unturned - they pay for their tea at rehearsals.

And on the purely musical side of the choir's activities, they pay too, in both cash and time. They pay for the purchase or hire of the music they will sing, and, as the concert approaches, each member of the choir receives a batch of tickets that they have to sell - they do their own marketing and raise their own audience.

''I keep reminding members that they have a duty to sell tickets,'' says Hassall. ''If they don't, no one else will.''

And it goes right up to and including the day of the concert. That will cost #4200 to stage, which includes the hire of music, engagement fees for four soloists, printing costs (for tickets, programmes, and posters), and, not least, the hire of a 33-piece professional orchestra.

Generally, the choir uses players from the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. They are not available that weekend, so the strings are freelance, and the wind and brass sections will be coming from the orchestra of Scottish Opera.

''And, apart from the cost, that's another 33 mouths to feed between the afternoon rehearsal and the concert,'' says Hassall. In addition, there are the four soloists, and extra singers being drafted in to augment the choir for the occasion.

''They all have to be given hospitality,'' says Hassall. So members and their families provide sandwiches, cakes, and drinks, and serve them up to the visitors. And another layer of effort is laid into the day of the concert, recruiting friends, neighbours, family members, and even professional business contacts into the tiny details that characterise such an occasion - staffing the doors, showing people to their seats, selling programmes - and by which the smooth running of the operation stands or falls.

And is it worth it? ''The financial side is a constant headache, the whole time,'' says Hassall. ''You can't let up at all.'' And it's all complicated, he says candidly, by the variable commitment of members, who, because of the nature of the activity cannot be subjected to compulsion (though they are auditioned every two years). ''Obviously, work pressure takes its toll. A lot of them put it high on their priorities, others put it much lower down.'' And, he says, if it's raining or there's something good on the telly, ''then the whole thing stands or falls on goodwill''.

And, obviously, he says, the quality varies. ''But the adrenalin on the night puts your performance up. And there are times when I would say that you'll hear as good choral music in Helensburgh from the Oratorio Choir as you would from the RSNO Chorus.''

n Helensburgh Oratorio Choir: West Kirk of Helensburgh,

Sunday, April 27, 7.45pm.