A few months ago, a lady I know from church asked if I would like to join her choir. I was keen, but a little hesitant. I can read music, and am somewhat musical (I have played guitar for a long time), but I have never been trained to sing and do not have much experience in classical music. Lorna put my mind at ease about all that – “there’s no audition, and most of us have never had any training!”
So I went to a taster session, and since then I have been going to choir practices every Thursday evening. Whilst I am the youngest there (by some margin!), I have been made to feel incredibly welcome, and I was even pleased to discover that I actually knew several people already through church activities. So I had a few people to smile and wave at each time I went, which made it less daunting. The practices are held in the next village along from us, so Lorna and I and another lady have been sharing lifts – which also makes the whole thing feel very friendly.
The music itself was a little intimidating at first. When I joined in March, the choir was beginning to prepare for their first concert post-Covid, to be held in July at Buckfast Abbey, where we would be singing Vivaldi’s Gloria and Purcell’s Come Ye Sons of Art. The Vivaldi was at least a little familiar to me, but the Purcell was entirely unknown. I nervously placed myself at the back of the sopranos. But it wasn’t long at all before I was comfortably singing away. The choir master is truly excellent – encouraging, clear and precise – and I happily lost myself in the mass noise of the sopranos.
And what a noise all the choir makes together! That has been the greatest joy I have discovered – how all of our disparate voices come together to make one enormous sound. It is amazing to feel a small contributing part of something so impressive.
We have performed at two events since I started. The first was the concert at Buckfast – a very grand venue, with beautiful acoustics. Nicholas and my dad were part of the sold-out audience, and it all went very well! (Although I think everyone was rather nervous because it had been such a long time since the last concert.) I am on the far left of the photo.
The second event was the Buckfast summer fair. I am in the middle of the photo – in the stripey blue dungarees. We performed two half-hour sets of part-songs and madrigals. Nicholas and I made a day of it and had a great time at the fair – sampling lots of the food on offer!
The choir is now having a break over the summer – but I look forward to returning next month when we will be preparing Handel’s Messiah!
Cryptic Meg 
One thought on “I Joined a Choir!”