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Two minutes of pure joy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0S80iaN6Gk

After identifying what I thought were a fairly random eight tracks for my desert island, I then saw some emerging themes. All are associated with particular memories – times and places that just hearing the pieces evoke. The lyrics are nearly always important but the quality of the singer’s voice less so – I’ve chosen some for the sheer power of the live performance. I realise there’s a predominance of male (piano-playing) performers and very little is classical. Overall, my selection is about relationships, love, loneliness and growing old – all the sorts of things that can make me cry.

In approximate chronological order by the memory it evokes…

All the Young Dudes, Mott the Hoople - takes me back to Liverpool Stadium (which doubled as a wrestling venue) with my neighbour and best friend, who sadly died aged 52. We were around 15 and this was teenage freedom! The band’s one-hit-wonder was this track, written for them by David Bowie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNHdPPJGowY

The long and winding road, The Beatles – the last song they recorded together. Happy romantic memories of a long drive to Bordeaux by car, stopping off en route to visit my ‘first true love’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR4HjTH_fTM

Naomi, Ralph McTell - I love the simply sung sentiment behind the song. Brings back happy memories of working on a beach in the south of France for four months after leaving school. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBjl6voVQ_I

The River by Bruce Springsteen - I could have chosen any one of many songs from ‘The Boss’. I love his storytelling and this track reminds me of happy days with my best friend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc6F47Z6PI4&t=124s

Nessun Dorma, Puccini  – I think my first real introduction to this piece was in the film The Killing Fields – six years before it became the Italia 90 world cup theme and long after it was written! Yes – it’s been overdone, but it still send tingles down my spine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SZsxTBCzoA

White Wine in the Sun Tim Minchin – I think this guy is a genius to be able to combine such humour and meaning into this one song. A truly original song about Christmas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCNvZqpa-7Q

Hello in There, Bette Midler – I think the raw emotion in this performance is just amazing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny7AbQleGVI&t=9s

Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis, Vaughan Williams - One of my wife’s favourite classical pieces https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihx5LCF1yJY

The luckiest, Ben Folds – My wife and I decided we should go to a music festival before we were 60. We were 59 and we’re still going nearly a decade later. This takes me back to a lazy sunny Sunday morning at Latitude Festival with us listening to this song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcBqmN62wtw&t=2s

One in a series, this is actually more about singing Faure’s Requiem than playing it. An intriguing insight into rehearsal for a performance from the participants point of view (but you don’t have to be a singer to enjoy it!)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001p1zx

February 1999 we arrived in Prague after the worst snow there for 40 years and the snow flew up past the plane windows as we landed!  It was to be a magical few days with a concert of famous Mozart arias at the Estates Theatre where many had been performed in Mozart’s day. But the icing on the cake was to be our last evening when we went to one of the many concerts performed by young students in the early evening.

This one at the baroque Klementinum, Chapel of Mirrors. Entitled Ave Maria, it was simply a soprano and an organist. The concert ended with the soprano singing Alleluia (Exsultate Jubilate), the purest and most sublime young voice, ringing in the beautiful surroundings.

What was the first single you bought?  

In the Summertime by Mungo Jerry (1970). 

Which song do you know all the words to?

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen.  

Which song/piece of music would you like played at your funeral?

Drop Drop Slow Tears by Orlando Gibbons, which was played at my Dad's funeral.  

Which music do you listen to most often?

Bach's B Minor Mass (at the moment!) 

Otherwise there are songs I play sometimes on YouTube:   Brimful of Asha by Cornershop, Don't Leave Me This Way by the Communards, Just a Little Bit by Gina G, Things Can Only Get Better by D-Ream. 

(I am an aficionado of pop music from the 70s/80s!)  

I recently asked my fellow tenors what they like about singing and being part of Royston Choral Society, and they didn’t disappoint…

For James B, it’s the sum total of our individual input “the opportunity to be part of something larger than myself working together to make a great sound.” He also appreciates the inclusivity of the choir “It provides an opportunity for people of different ages, abilities, backgrounds and musical experiences to get together to perform great works to a high standard in a friendly environment.”

The power of the performance is also an attraction for our other James B “I like working on something that challenges both individually and collectively. This culminating in a concert with a sense of occasion and hopefully giving those moments of beauty and joy whilst getting it absolutely right. The whole room can feel it and so will you.“

Alan B praises the quality of leadership in our musical director, Andrew O’Brien. “Andrew is an excellent choral trainer and it is in fact a privilege to sing under his leadership. Over a period of 55 years I have sung in a number of choirs including the BBC Choral Society and I can only think of two other conductors as stimulating, and one of those was Malcolm Sargent in the early 1960s.”

Alan also enjoys the qualities of the choir. “For a relatively small town we have a choir with real potential - I cannot wait to start on the Bach B Minor Mass [our November 2023 concert].”

For me (Chris L) the performance – when we get it right – makes all the effort worthwhile. I’m pleased to report that the attractions of singing with the Choral Society keep the tenors coming back, and we’ve enjoyed a record number joining during the year!

Last time, conductors were the butt of our jokes (if you can call them that…) Here are two more, this time with the spotlight on singers.

A: "How much does it cost to hire a group of singers?"

B: "You mean a choir?"

A: "Sorry, how much to acquire a group of singers?"

A man goes to the doctor...

"Doc, I'm not sure what's wrong with me. I can't stop shaking my hips and singing Tom Jones songs."
To which the doctor replies, "Clearly sir, you have Tom Jones' Disease."
The man asks, "Is this common?"
The doctor answers, "It's not unusual."

According to a survey published in July 2017, each week two million people sing in choirs across the UK – why?

Reflecting on two decades of singing with the Royston Choral Society, I’ve identified some life lessons I’ve learnt from our collective efforts to create ‘fine music, made locally’. They aren’t exclusive to singing in a choir, but that’s what I’ve been doing since 2000.

First impressions count

The introduction to my local choir was not at a concert – I’d never heard them perform - so I needed to be persuaded in other ways that spending two hours a week in a cold draughty church in the middle of winter would be time well-spent. I sent a speculative e-mail expressing my interest in joining and, just three days later, I got a knock on my front door from a member of the choir. I commented on the impressive personal response to my e-mail and was surprised by his reply: “well, I live just across the road”!

That initial friendly welcome, from someone who was to become a fellow tenor, fired my enthusiasm and an enduring Tuesday night fix for around 40 weeks a year – that’s 900 rehearsals and counting!

Leadership matters

A good conductor is essential - to control up to 80 singers in our case - and conjure up a performance that resembles what the composer intended.

After our current musical director – Andrew O’Brien joined us in 2015. I wouldn’t have believed how our standard improved, and in an amazingly short time, if I hadn’t been part of that change. It wasn’t just about increasing our collective self-belief that we could do better, and focussing on breathing and singing technique, it was about light-hearted encouragement and mutual respect.

It’s about team work

But every leader needs followers and every member of a choir needs to work in harmony (literally!) for success. A choir has to sound like a unit – however good they are, a single singer can ruin the effect if they don’t listen to those around them and blend in. That said, only one person has been ‘asked to leave’ in my 20 years with the choir, and that didn’t happen until great efforts had been made to nurture the particular choir member’s musical compatibility.

Being able to focus is a healthy habit

Science has shown that singing and listening to music is good for our mental health; releasing dopamine and serotonin – of interest to GPs treating anxiety and depression – into the brain. Singing (and DIY) is one of the few times I experience ‘flow’ - that wonderful experience of being so absorbed in doing something that time and meals pass unnoticed.

I took up singing and running at the same time, partly in response to my mental ill health at the time. It’s also been handy for getting to rehearsals when I’m running late (pun intended) and the two activities also come together for mutual benefit by helping my breathing.   

Mindfulness – a focus on an activity (commonly our breathing) to the exclusion of all else – is another interest of mine. When singing, the focus is multi-faceted; we have to concentrate on reading the music and words (often in a language other than English), listening to other singers in the choir, singing in tune and breathing properly and, of course, watching the conductor.

For a longer version of this piece, go to https://enterpriseessentials.wordpress.com/2023/03/27/singing-in-a-choir-four-life-lessons/

You may not know that many tenors are actually baritones who are ‘encouraged’ to sing tenor parts because ‘pure tenors’ are few and far between. As such, we’re very precious members of the choir (I would say that, wouldn’t I?) and this 30 minute podcast shows that we’re in very good company… https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001g34y

1. What is your earliest memory of music in your life? I was a 7 year old pianist playing my first solo in public. It was a little piece called ‘Tom Thumb’ and I remember being scared to death! It was in a competition in the Ealing Music Festival, for the appropriate age group. I survived but it was a step along the way to my graduation in Music at Trinity College, London in 1961.
2. What was your first 'public performance'? My first singing role was as a 14 year old in a school production of ‘Let’s Make an Opera’ by Benjamin Britten. I was Sam, the chimney sweep boy! In later years I was privileged to have Charles Kennedy Scott as my vocal tutor. He was the founder of the Orianna Madrigal Society with Sir Thomas Beecham. In 1960 I went to Bayreuth and played with the European Youth Orchestra on Double Bass (Contrabass) in the Wagner Festival Hause. That was a simply amazing experience (We were all invited to all the performances of Wagner’s ‘Ring’ operas. Wow! That was a fantastic education in itself).
3. Who is your favourite composer/ songwriter? My favourite composer is Brahms – and especially his German Requiem.  My favourite songwriter is Franz Schubert – and especially his song cycle Winterreise.
4. How did you find your way to the Royston Choral Society (RCS)? When I retired to Royston I needed to join a choir and imagined that the Cambridge Choral Society (CCS) would be superior to Royston so, from 2005 -2018, I sung with them. Then they closed down. That’s when I proved the old adage ‘how wrong can you be’; RCS is as big as, and actually better than, CCS! Andrew O’Brien’s training and conducing is top class by anyone’s standards and I am thoroughly enjoying the experience.
5. Would you like to tell us a musical joke? An orchestra was hit by lightning. Only the conductor died.