The Choir

[organist]

If you have missed watching the Choir on BBC2 on Tuesdays, catch up with them on BBC IPlayer. Gareth Malone is really special and a great inspiration. His BBC4 programme about how choirs work using the BBC singers was interesting and next Tuesday he's tackling boys who don't sing! More power to his conducting elbow!

[quaeritor]

. . and I just assumed that entitling a topic "The Choir" was just a ploy to lure Achilles (aka Nick Baty) out of his tent
Sorry folks - back to the serious topic
Q

[organist]

But why is Achilles in his tent???

[musicus]

Tents are off-topic here, organist. (Use the thread 'Disappearing for Now')

[monty]

Ah, but are tents off topic? Last night saw Gareth's choir at the South Oxhey Festival performing in a ... tent!! Ok, it was a big stage with a canvas covering.

I have enjoyed watching this and the previous series - think this was the third or fourth. Previously he battled in a boys' school where the teachers were an obstacle. Then he was on an estate in Oxford, I think.

Anyway, inspirational and you have to smile because it looks so very easy on the TV.

[Southern Comfort]

Ah, but are tents off topic? Last night saw Gareth's choir at the South Oxhey Festival performing in a ... tent!! Ok, it was a big stage with a canvas covering.

I have enjoyed watching this and the previous series - think this was the third or fourth. Previously he battled in a boys' school where the teachers were an obstacle. Then he was on an estate in Oxford, I think.

Anyway, inspirational and you have to smile because it looks so very easy on the TV.

Some of the testimony from the folk of South Oxhey (where, incidentally, former SSG Chairman Harold Winstone was at one time the parish priest) was very eloquent. You don't often hear ordinary people in a massed (i.e. hundreds if not thousands) choir saying things like "This was the most amazing experience of my life", "I'll never forget this day as long as I live" and referring to how good it was to really feel part of the community (NB). The secret to this bonding is, of course, making choral music fun as well as a musical achievement. It's certainly what I've always tried to do when working with choirs.