Rugby Male Voice Choir Open Evening
The Open Evening held on Monday 20th January was a great success with eleven gentlemen coming along to give singing in a male voice choir a go. The secret song that we were all to learn together was finally revealed by Christine our Musical Director – She, a chart topping song of the 70s by Aznavour and Kretzmer which Charles Aznavour took to number 1 in the British charts for 4 weeks in 1974. Movie buffs may remember the cover version of the song recorded in 1999 by Elvis Costello which featured over the opening and final sequences of the film Notting Hill and charted throughout Europe.
After a warm-up rendition of London’s Burning sung as a round (that’s where different groups of singers start singing the tune at different times) we were ready to tackle the main challenge of the evening. The first eight bars of the song, after the introduction, were sung by the tenors singing the tune in unison, and the next 8 bars were taken by the basses continuing with the tune. A nice gentle start – and then we got into the harmony!
A male voice choir generally sings in four part harmony, the parts being first and second tenors and first and second basses. In general, the first tenors sing the highest notes, the second tenors sing a few notes below, the first basses (often called baritones) sing a bit lower still and the second basses prop up the whole shebang with their gloriously sonorous deep notes.
The harmony was fairly straight forward with the parts singing in (for those with a musical background) thirds, fourths and fifths which are the naturally harmonising intervals. However, there were some seconds cropping up that we had to watch out for. A second is made up of two notes that are next to each other in the scale. When played on their own, the harmony seems ‘wrong’ but in a song, this clash adds tension and drama to the piece. For a first attempt, the gentlemen carried the harmonies off with aplomb.
Half way through it was time for a break and hot drinks and biscuits were served. Before the bun fight started, the choir chairman took a few minutes to welcome the guests and outline some aspects of the choir. The choir was formed in 1944 by members of the local Home Guard detachment and it has been contributing to the musical life of the town and surrounding district ever since. It sings about 7 to 8 concerts per year as well as singing at the Civic Service, Myton Hospice Light up a Life, Rainsbrook Crematorium memorial carol service and a number of care homes. The choir does not charge to perform and helps raise thousands of pounds for local charities each year.
The second half saw the end of the rehearsals and the great finale – the whole song was sung from start to finish! Okay, there were a few rough edges here and there, but what a great achievement. Christine positively beamed! The evening was rounded off by the choir singing some of the regular items from the repertoire: the classic 76 Trombones, the beautiful ballad, The Wind Beneath My Wings, male voice favourite Morte Criste, You’ll Never Walk Alone from Carousel and finishing off with the Morecombe and Wise theme tune, Bring Me Sunshine. A brilliant evening was had by all!
If you missed the Open Evening but would like to give the choir a go then come along to our rehearsals from 7.30 – 9.30pm on Monday evenings at St George’s Church, Hillmorton CV22 5HR. A warm welcome guaranteed!