Monday, May 02, 2011

Still singing after all these years ...


Are we all ready?
Originally uploaded by goforchris.
Readers of this blog will know that I sing a bit. Yesterday the group with which I have done more singing than any other came to Dunoon to perform in Holy Trinity - my church. It is something that rarely happens - we do most of our performing in the Cathedral of The Isles - and it meant a great deal to me. To make "our" music in "our" place, at last, felt as if a story was being completed.

The story began 42 years ago - and that horrifies me, when I write it. In 1969 the St Maura Singers formed and sang Evensong, as I mentioned in my last post, and we've been at it ever since. Our soprano - wearing a purple jacket in the pic - moved away and mutated into an alto; her place was taken by a teenager just out of school (dark green jacket). Yesterday we were all together, along with another bass (white beard) and an instrumental ensemble, giving a re-run of our 40th birthday programme.

It was a lovely afternoon. The weather was perfect, the afternoon tea on the lawn unsurpassable, the audience a good size - and mostly drawn from outwith the HT congregation, which was healthy for the coffers. The church itself proved what we who worship there have always known: it has a superb acoustic and a wonderful atmosphere, peeling paintwork notwithstanding. It doesn't suffer from the curse of wealthier churches - thick pile carpeting and cushioned seats - and the hassocks had all been piled away to increase resonance.

Personally, I was soaring on adrenaline. A combination of singing first alto in "When David Heard" and making a decent job of John McIntosh's* settings of Dave Whyte songs left me wrung out after it was over - and starving. I was as high as the proverbial kite, and as always found myself wondering how long we'll be able to do this.

At 65, I realise it can't be much longer. Our soprano is the only one not in that age range. But what a privilege still to be performing like this - I only hope I'll know myself when it's time to give up!

*OK - he's Mr B. But he has another life ...

4 comments:

  1. That is so fantastic,Chris! I have always loved music, but my voice was always awful. I played the clarinet and absolutely hated it. Music is great, but you should hear our Ben play the electric guitar......ewwwww!!!!!!! Mark taught him everything he knows! hahaha

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  2. Good heavens. You can't be 65. You need to update your avatar. You look half that age!

    It must be all that clean, cool Scottish aire that keeps you young.

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  3. Avatar isn't quite 5 years old yet - think I'll hang onto it a little longer. BTW - some of the music we were singing spelled "aire" that way: it was a Scottish 16th century part-song!

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  4. LOL

    I was actually trying to be clever and pun-nish when I spelt aire that way.

    My rather lame attempt at humour!

    AK

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