Standing Ovations and Encores for Songlines Community Choir in Leamington Spa
On Saturday night 7 December 2013 our local community choir, Songlines, conducted by Bruce Knight, gave a concert at St Mary’s Church, in Leamington Spa, to raise money for Water Aid.
Bruce Knight conducting Songlines Community Choir in a performance of Nkosi Sikelelik ‘lAfrika in St Mary’s Church Leamington Spa on Saturday 7 December 2013
It was a night where we saw and felt the power of music to bring joy and to uplift.
A standing ovation and calls for an encore confirmed this.
Our programme encompassed community choir arrangements of the moving Zulu song Egalile, full of exhuberant synchronized movements, including our well-rehearsed African shuffle; Let the River Run by Carly Simon, Sunday Morning by Reed & Cale, arr.Knight; the Beatles’ song Nowhere Man; Wake Up by Nick Prater arr. Ali Orbaum, and the Samoan song Fa’afetai i le Atua arr. Tony Backhouse.
A smaller group called Extra-stronglines also sang the gorgeous harmonies of the Beatles’ song Because.
A highlight was a performance of the South African National anthem Nkosi Sikeleli’l Afrika in tribute to the recent passing of Nelson Mandela.
And at the end, we walked off the stage, singing Love is like a river, let it flow, let it flow, let it flow.
I’ve sung in choirs since I was 9 years old, when I joined a girls choir in my hometown, Orpington in Kent: The Orpington Junior Singers, conducted by Sheila Mossman. Some of the former singers in this choir now belong to The Newstead Singers in Orpington, and their conductor, Lesley Cooper, is one of the girls I remember from the days I sang with them.
Over the course of my life I’ve sung in numerous other choirs, covering many major choral works.
It’s an enriching experience to sing in Bach’s St Matthew Passion and Mass in B Minor, Elgar’s Dream of Gerontius, and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.
But the experience of singing in a community choir is quite different. It is another joy, of a different order. We learn the music by ear, without sheet music, and Bruce ensures each rehearsal begins with a fun warm-up session. Our singing often involves movement too, borrowed from Bruce’s circle dancing class which he runs on another day of the week.
Gareth Malone eat your heart out!
Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, wrote William Congreve, and how right he was. Music has tremendous power to transform us emotionally and psychologically, to lift us out of negative moods and sad thoughts, and it is the most spiritual of the arts.
Long may we celebrate the gift of music in our lives.
Filed under: inspiration, life, love, music, musings, people of inspiration, spirituality, thoughts Tagged: arts, choirs, circle, community choir, encores, Gareth Malone, gift of music, inspirational, joy, love, music, Nelson Mandela, people of inspiration, power, power to transform, singing, South African National anthem, spiritual, standing ovations, uplift, Water Aid
