NORTHUMBRIAN MUSIC
NIGHTS
What we said about
VILLAGE HARMONY
2000
VILLAGE HARMONY FIZZ IN ALLENDALE
It takes a lot of dedication to learn a clutch of songs in a different language, entirely in the oral tradition, and then perform those songs before a critical audience of choristers.
But that's exactly what the friendly voices of this year's Village Harmony managed to do, last week in Allendale at St. Cuthbert's parish church.
Special guest Nato Zumbadze, ethno-musicologist leader of the Caucasus Georgian women's ensemble Mzetamze, had demonstrated some of her music-teaching skills in a workshop on Tuesday. Nato carefully and patiently lead four separate voice ranges through a fiendishly difficult piece for which no musical notation was available. It all had to be learned with one's mental ear, and it left several musical leaders in the community gasping. Valerie Mindel's leadership on 'Courage my soul', however, helped us realise that whatever our age or ability, we could all sing and listen together successfully.
It was a tribute to the community of singers in the 'Dale that the concert was put on at all, on Wednesday evening. Local people put up the band of teenage girls in their houses and fed the entire troupe in the church hall for two nights, as the country-wide tour commenced. The effort was reciprocated, of course, with half the proceeds of the engagement going to the local 'Vision Beyond 2000' project. And the enthusiastic audience finally got a chance to hear what these young women had been learning in their workshop high in the Peak District the week previous.
The concert was an eclectic mix of some of the world's very best choral songs, ranging from the early shape-note tradition of the 1700s in English country parishes, through the Appalachian hollers, the slave songs of America's deep south, and the haunting and shivery harmonies of Georgian liturgical laments. Fans of the women's choir, 'Sweet Honey in the Rock', appreciated the gospel rendition of 'We shall walk through the valley in peace', while the admonition from the Good God Almighty to 'Go and feed my sheep' seemed particularly apropos in this valley.
There were fiddle interludes of exciting musicality, as we heard the descriptive Scottish tune, collected from Tommy Anderson, about the sea, the shipwreck and the soul ascending, while 'Wind and Rain' evoked kindly sighs for the loss of the miller's love. The 'Dreaming Song' was clear and tautly rendered by the hard chest voices of the choir, and the Gaelic 'Waulking Song' with its tremulous 'Allelu' showed some of the tribulations Mary might have experienced as she wrestled with the imponderable of having carried a Messiah.
Oh but these young women love to sing! Never was this more apparent than on the two sets of songs from Georgia (the one that used to be part of the Soviet Republic). The harmonies were exquisite, the keening both mournful and pure, and the call-response rapturous in its expectation and realisation. After these songs, it was a disappointment when the opportunity to hear an encore, reputedly a spirited rendition of 'Amazing Grace', was sadly missed, but the concert in its totality was yet another example of the joy that group singing can bring to the ears and the souls of both singers and listeners.
Some wag asked the question, 'Why aren't there more teenagers in the region's choirs?' On the strength of this performance, one of the answers would have to be that, to really interest maturing young voices, the material has to be much, much more challenging than one might expect. Where is the music leader who, realising the talent that is there to be tapped from young voices, will search for the hardest, rather than the easiest works, to present in top quality performance?
Certainly the Village Harmony concept, with a week's intensive music workshop prior to a fortnight's performance tour, means that challenging music can be conscientously developed and presented by young voices who have every right to be proud of their concert and the universal music they can make together.
