What a wonderful concert!
Our choir surpassed themselves yesterday afternoon as our long-awaited performance for the dedicated patrons of Dunnington took place.
Having kept ourselves going throughout the COVID lockdown, we finally had the opportunity to sing the SONGS OF HOPE we had learnt over recent years, for a live and hugely appreciative audience.
In the tradition of our choir, we fundraised for local causes, raising money for the Dunnington Cancer Support group, as well as holding a raffle for the local library. A good few hundred pounds was raised! Fabulous!
Our concert opened with the fun and raunchy arrangement of Cabaret by Kirby Shaw. Some challenging harmonies and even a section of scatting in three parts set the tone for an adventurous and satisfying musical afternoon.
Cabaret is the title song of the 1966 musical of the same name, sung by the character Sally Bowles. In 1972 it was produced for the silver screen; directed by Bob Fosse, and starring Liza Minnelli, Michael York and Joel Grey. This song has been described as "stirring", "devastating" and "jaunty".
Although the blatant undercurrent of Cabaret is subversive and dark, we welcomed our audience to our cabaret which, in contrast, was indeed a celebration of all things positive and hopeful.
We followed Cabaret with the powerful, original ballad by contemporary composer, Greg Gilpin. In Why We Sing a simple, unison beginning builds to an ending with full choral presence and moving descant. “A sound of hope, a sound of peace, a sound that celebrates and speaks what we believe ... this is why we sing, why we lift our voice.” This song has been especially important to us as a choir, as we strove to keep singing throughout the Covid lockdown. It was through the unity of song that we kept positive and were able to keep in touch and support one another, albeit remotely.
Our descant soloist was Tracy Brown.
Our next 3 songs were fun “warm-up” style canons and simple part-songs. In March 2019 I was lucky enough to attend the Music & Drama Education Expo in London, which involved workshops, lectures, demonstrations and lots of singing. One singing workshop, led by the Voices Foundation, involved us all learning the next 3 songs in minutes. The first: The Drunken Dutchman incorporates a well-known shanty and a Wagnerian opera(!), the second: Peace is a refrain piece which can be extended with improvised lead-singing (we kept it simple), and the last: Joy is a fun 3- part round.
We moved on to a very well-known piece: Here comes the Sun. I wonder whether George Harrison had any idea quite how meaningful this song would become, over 50 years after it was written for the famous Abbey Road Beatles album. As we continued to sing “together” through the pandemic, this song really gave us a sense of hope that something was going to change, especially as we exited the miserable Winter of 2020. And here we are! On the other side and so thankful that those dark days are behind us.
To finish the first half of our programme we sang a couple of songs with links to Scotland.
There are so many excellent resources for choral singing available nowadays. One huge success story from the UK is an initiative known as SING-UP. Apart from supporting teachers across the learning spectrum, there are some fun and accessible part-songs for us all to enjoy. The next two songs came from the SING UP song bank. Touch the Sky is the first song in the film, Brave. It is played when Merida leaves the castle and rides her horse Angus through the forest, shooting arrows, climbing tall cliffs and then returning home. (Exactly how every princess should behave!)
It is an empowering and liberating song of optimism, bravery and fierce hope.
Also, from “North of the Border”, but in stark contrast both in content and mood… Baloo Baleerie, is a gentle lullaby from the Shetland Isles. We sing the little fairies away so the angels can come down and watch over the sleeping baby. (ssshhhh....!)
We enjoyed a feast of home-made treats during the Interval. (Thank you so much to choir members and friends who provided these delights for us.) After the raffle draw, we were ready to complete our programme with another half-hour of singing.
When we sang the specially commissioned song to celebrate Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth the second’s Platinum Jubilee in June this year, none of us could have imagined that our next public singing of this beautiful tribute song: A life lived with Grace" - A song for the Commonwealth, would be just a few short weeks after her death. As sad as it has been, we rejoice in her wonderful service and phenomenal legacy to our nation and the commonwealth and indeed, a life lived with Grace.
The next few songs reflected our love and respect for music from around the world.
First, we headed to the other side of the planet and roused our listeners with a Zulu song which stirred their emotions in an altogether different way from the previous anthem. Kwangena Thina Bo is a celebratory processional song, the style of which is often associated with community gatherings and festive occasions. The words loosely mean: “When we are gathered, we rejoice.”
From South Africa, we headed North to Egypt. Our next song comes from the DreamWorks movie – The Prince of Egypt. In simple, yet powerful animation, it tells the story of Moses as he discovers his true identity and follow God’s calling to emancipate the Hebrew people from the oppression of the Pharaoh. The song we sang is sung by the children of Israel as they make their journey away from Egypt and towards the promised land.
There is joyous section of praise, sung in Hebrew:
Ashira l’adonai, Ki ga-oh, ga-ah (I will sing unto the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously)
Mi chamocha baelim Adonai (Who is like you in the heavens, Oh Lord?)
Mi kamocha nedar ba kodesh (Who is like you? Glorious in Holiness.)
Nachita v’chas-d’cha am zu ga-alta (In Your mercy you lead the children You have redeemed.)
Ashira Ashira Ashira (I will sing, I will sing, I will sing!)
Another challenging arrangement but the choir really performed with aplomb!
Before moving from Zulu to Hebrew to Italian, we had to punctuate our concert with the all-important question: Is any choral concert complete without John Rutter?
Clearly not!
The original lyrics for The Heavenly Aeroplane (comparing Judgment Day and the Rapture to an aeroplane ride) date way back. Rutter discovered the text for this piece in W.H. Auden’s classic edition of The Oxford Book for Light Verse. It is originally a folksong from the Ozark mountains in Missouri, but Rutter composed a new tune for it in the style of 1950s rock and roll, inspired by a 20th century updating of the familiar image of the gospel train. Such fun to sing!
Returning to music from the movies, our next song: Nella Fantasia, comes from the tune “Gabriel’s Oboe” played so serenely and plaintively in the 1986 award-winning film The Mission which tells the story of a Jesuit priest’s missionary work and troubles in 18th century South America.
Singing in Italian, we found these words to have been particularly poignant over recent years:
In my fantasy I see a fair world,
Where everybody lives in peace and honesty,
In my fantasy I see a clear world,
Where even at nights there is less darkness,
In my fantasy, there is a hot wind,
That blows over the cities, like a friend,
I dream of souls that are always free,
Like the clouds that fly,
Full of humanity deep within the soul.
Our concert ended with two favourites. Bridge over Troubled Water and You'll Never Walk Alone were chosen as SONGS OF HOPE as we kept singing “together” through the Lockdown. The words are all about taking care of one another and looking to the future… “All your dreams are on their way.”
And of course, You'll Never Walk Alone is such a stirring anthem of Hope- it really became the signature song of Lockdown in the UK, as we marvelled at people like Captain Tom, the unfailing commitment of the workers in the NHS and all those who made such sacrifices for the greater good.
Our SONGS OF HOPE have truly inspired us through the past few years, and it was a delight and a privilege to share them with our friends in Dunnington yesterday.
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