"Better is Peace..." -- A choral getaway

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This weekend I attended "The Church Colleges and Universities Choirs Festival 2007" in Plymouth (south-western coast of England) with the King Alfred Singers, from noon on Friday to 3 p.m. Sunday. Though I've expressed dissatisfaction with the choir in the past, I think this weekend made me appreciate it a lot more, and I don't think I'll be quitting right away. In fact, I may join a second choir! My reasons start with a reminder that I LOVE performing, especially in big, beautiful churches with inspiring religious music, and the fact that I actually made friends with a bunch of girls in the choir!

The Festival

One word: unorganized! I'm beginning to think this is an English thing. We never knew where we were supposed to be and when, and nothing ever started or ended on time. Still, everything came together at the last minute, and we put on a gorgeous Saturday evening concert in St. Andrews Church, which is an old church that was destroyed in WWII and rebuilt -- a beautiful mix of old and new.

Transportation/Accomodations

It's a 4-hour trip from Winchester to Plymouth, and we took a coach bus. I loved the scenery, especially on the way there, because of the quintessential English countryside: rolling hills, hedgerows, farms, incredibly green grass, etc. We even drove past Stonehenge! So much for paying to see it... I sat with Ceci on the way there and we had a really good conversation, about our families and such. I also got to know a few of the other girls that sat up front -- the back was reserved for older members, who managed to sing for almost the entire trip to Plymouth. Aghh! At least they were too tired on the way back...

Our hotel was pretty nice. I had a panicky moment on Friday night, because the girl I was assigned to room with -- Carla, who's rubbed me the wrong way since I first started choir -- wanted to switch around, which was fine because a lot of people were switching roommates, but she took her friend with her and just left me without an option. Thankfully, two girls, Caroline and Hazel, who were sitting near me on the bus, were missing a roommate in their triple room and took me in. We ended up getting along really well.

The hotel had a bar, which is where we hung out in the evenings. I didn't drink, but just kind of observed the outrageous behavior and conversation of some of the other choir members! I was very tired both nights, so usually ended up turning in early with my roomies.

The Music

Each of the 10 university choirs had 1-2 pieces prepared to perform in the first half of the concert. We had prepared "Mary Sang Magnificant," which our director, June, wrote. (Based on the Magnificant, obviously.) None of us liked it back home, but performing in the church brought a new meaning to its traditional text and rather... eccentric... setting. It includes walking solos, random solo woodblock beats and tamborine flourishes. Plus, the audience joins in.

When we found out that we could have two pieces, Hannah -- who is the director of the gospel choir (I might join!), a member of this choir and works at the university -- suggested we perform a Gospel Choir piece. She wrote it, though there was never any music written down. The half of us who weren't affiliated with her choir had to learn the piece in about half an hour... by ear! I sang middle part, which was probably the hardest, but the harmony was pretty easy to pick up. I LOVE the piece, it's a great gospel-y number that switches between major-minor-major-minor keys, with very meaningful words -- called Birdsong. The refrain is something like this: "Your love is like birdsong/your love is like birdsong in air/And so I sing out your name/And you come runnin'/You come runnin' to me/I call your name/I will sing through me tears/And you save me/Oh my Lord/Save me!" etc., with clapping.

Basically we stole the show with these two numbers -- that's what we were told! And our choir was one of the smallest, and has only two guys... so I think we did pretty well for ourselves.

The final number, which made up the second half of the concert, joined all the choirs together and pulled our rather haphazard rehearsals together for an inspiring performance. We performed Karl Jenkins' "The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace." It was commissioned by some royal commission for the millennium and dedicated to the victimes of the Kosovo crisis. But since 9/11 and the global war on terror, it's taken on a whole new meaning and is apparantly very popular in Britain right now.

The only disappointment was the lack of a full orchestra. They only had a flute, piano, percussion, cello and trumpets (which are amazing in this piece!) and the rest of the orchestra was supplied by a synthesizer. It sounded good, but not quite the same...

The mass takes the choir through "The Armed Man," a popular French song (the mass is sung in French, English and Latin), through several other movements that glorify war and ask for God's help as they go off to fight, to an exhilerating "Charge!" movement, to several that express the horrors of war, and finally to "Better is Peace (Than Always War)." A political statement, I suppose, but well tied-together.

It's a mixture of contemporary texts -- poems by Tennyson, Kipling, Jonathon Swift, the composer, etc. -- and traditional Latin -- Kyrie, Sanctus, Angus Dei and Benedictus. The music is also a mixture of old and new, secular and religious. Some of the settings were a little bizarre, but several others were heart-wrenchingly beautiful. I sang alto, which made for some gorgeous harmonies to complement the soaring soprano. Though I can't sing it for you here (you wouldn't want to hear it, anyway...) I'll include some of my favorite (English) texts:

Mvt. 4: Save me from Bloody Men
Be merciful unto me, O God:
For man would swallow me up.
He fighting daily oppresseth me.
Mine enemies would daily swallow me up:
For they be many that fight against me.
Oh Thou most high!
Defend me from the workers of iniquity,
And save me from bloody men.

Mvt. 6: Hymn before Action (by Rudyard Kipling)
The earth is full of anger,
The seas are dark with wrath,
The nations in their harness, go up against our path.

Ere yet we loose the legions
Ere yet we draw the blade
Jehova of the Thunders, Lord God of battles aid!

High lust and froward bearing,
Proud heart, rebellious brow,
Death ear and soul uncaring, we seek they mercy now!

The sinner that forswore Thee,
The fool that passed Thee by,
Our times are known before Thee; Lord grant us strength to die!

Mvt. 8: Angry Flames (by Toge Sankichi)
Pushing up through smoke
From a world half-darkened by over-hanging cloud,
The shroud that mushroomed out
And struck the dome of the sky,
Black, red, blue
Dance in the air,
Merge,
Scatter glittering sparks already tower over the whole city.
Quivering like seaweed
The mass of flames spurts forward.
Popping up in the dense smoke,
Crawling out
Wreathed in fire,
Countless human beings on all fours
In a heap of embers that erupt and subside,
Hair rent,
Rigid in death,
There smoulders a curse.

Mvt. 9: Torches (The Mahabharath, 6th c. BC)
The animals scattered in all directions,
screaming terrible screams.
Many were burning,
others were burnt.
All were shattered and scattered mindlessly,
their eyes bulging.
Some hugged their sons, others their fathers and mothers, unable to let them go,
and so they died.
Others leapt up in their thousands, faces disfigured,
and were consumed by the fire.
Everywhere were bodies squirming on the ground: wings, eyes and paws all burning;
they breathed their last as living torches.

Mvt. 11: Now the Guns have Stopped (by Guy Wilson)
Silent, so silent, now
Now the guns have stopped.
I have survived all,
I who knew I would not.
But now you are not here.
I shall go home alone;
And must try to live life as before
And hide my grief.
For you, my dearest friend,
who should be with me now,
Not cold, too soon,
And in your grave,
Alone.

Mvt. 13: Better is Peace (by various, including Rev. 21:4)
Better is peace than always war.
And better is peace than evermore war.
Ring out the thousand wars of old.
Ring in the thousand years of peace.
Ring out the old, ring in the new.
Ring happy bells, across the snow.
The year is going, let him go.
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out old shapes of foul disease.
Ring out the narrowing lust of gold.
Ring in the valient man and free,
The larger heart, the kindlier hand.
Ring out the darkness of the land.
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

God shall wipe away all tears
And there shall be no more death,
Neither sorrow nor crying,
Neither shall there be any more pain.
Praise the Lord!

The People

Again, I finally made some friends in the choir! Solveig, who I previously said was from Germany, is actually from France, but speaks German, English and French, and reads Latin and Greek. She's studying to become a priest and is in my religions class with me. On the bus, we actually got into a theological discussion about women leading in the church, with all the front-of-the-bus girls involved in it. Pretty interesting, and I was even able to pull up some Bible passages in Ceci's travel Bible to back up my points. Still, I respect Solveig for what she's doing, and like her company a lot.

I also got to know Rachael, Allie, and of course Caz and Hazel, and Ceci even better. We all played this "Consequences" game the first night before supper, which involves writing one line of a story and then passing the folded-over paper to the next person...pretty hilarious!

As for the rest of the choir: a lot of the members are older and stick to themselves; the girls my age that I didn't get to know were the hardcore partying type (they wandered around a strange city Saturday night just to look for a club! Not for me...); and while I like Hannah, the under-director, she intimidates me. She has a gorgeous voice, which is why she sang solos in both our pieces, but it's just on the verge of being too much. Plus, she does everything wrong for a singer -- tongue pierced, smokes a lot, etc.!

The Food

Overall, it was aweful! The festival meals were served cafeteria-style, and the dinners/lunches were all very dodgy. They also gave us packed lunches, but ran out on Sunday so we had nothing to take back with us.

The breakfasts were pretty good, however, and I worked on mastering the English skills of eating with both knife and fork constanly, while mixing it all together. Ham, sausage, fried toast, beans, fried egg...yum! Plus a crossaint on the side. AND I became a tea drinker this weekend! I seriously had about 7-8 cups of tea over the course of 2-1/2 days -- with plenty of milk and sugar, of course. Now I want to get some tea things to keep in my room...

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Photos

My group for the weekend!
Back: Rachael, Allie, me
Front: Caz, Ceci, Hazel, Solveig
(From Facebook)

Bus buddies!
Me and Ceci
(From Facebook)

Bus buddies!
Me and Ceci
(From Facebook)

Allie describes the "baby sheep" she saw from the bus
(from Facebook)

Caz and I enjoy tea and cake upon arrival in Plymouth
(From Facebook)

We're really excited for the first meal in Plymouth...
Caz and Hazel, Ceci and Allie, me and Rachael
(From Facebook)

St. Andrew's Church
(From Facebook)