Reactions

I've had several feedback e-mails from our participants in the Summer Gospel weekend and below are some of their comments. No-one was brave enough to write in English so I have added a translation in italics...

Ben writes :

Ouf ! on l'a fait ce concert !Au dire des spectateurs que j'ai invités, c'étaient génial, décoiffant, avec des super solistes qu'ils étaient un peu décus de ne pas entendre davantage (un peu fort les instruments).Pour ma part, il faut que je fasse un régime au poisson concentré pendant les vacances du mois d'août histoire de retrouver un peu de mémoire et de ne pas oublier les paroles le prochain coup ... Jespère que vous n'avaz pas trop rigolé en entandant nos puissantes voix de basses de course ...Merci à tous pour ces 3 jours très sympa

Phew! we' managed the concert! According to the spectators I had invited, it was great, sky-high, with super soloists, but they were a bit disappointed not to hear better (instruments a bit loud). As for me, I'll have to go on a fish diet during the holidays in August to get back my memory and not forget the words next time... I hope you didn't laugh too loudly when you heard our powerful bass voices (Only 4 men ; Gospella) ...Thank you all for these three very pleasant days.

Elaine writes :

C'est vrai que le réveil a été un peu difficile, mais j'ai une pensée pour ceux qui sont allés travailler!Difficile de faire le bilan de ces trois jours de stage, mais voici quelques impressions en vrac:- des grandes découvertes anatomiques: contre toute attente dans pareil contexte, j'ai fréquemment entendu MYCOSE of who...défaillance auditive de ma part? certains confirment, d'autres non; nous avons un muscle hari, harry, ari, (?) épiglottique (merci Elodie); je contracte des sphincters en haut depuis 40 ans à mon insu, mais voilà, maintenant, je le sais; les laitages donnent des glaires aux Anglais(es); les cordes vocales sont une histoire de faux plis qu'il faut écarter...- 2 mystères: comme on ne peut pas y mettre les doigts, comment faire pour les écarter? et pour le twaing, le bout de la langue, Karen, se place-t-il derrière les dents du bas ( ce que je pense) ou celles du haut (d'après d'autres choristes)?- une vision horrificomique (?)Une grosse frayeur: ça fait 3 jours que je répète les mêmes paroles, certes en anglais, mais pas non plus très compliquées et une fois sur scène pour la dernière répétition, plus rien! mon cerveau ne serait-il plus que de la sauce blanche, comme dirait Boris? Que nenni, j'entends beaucoup de bouillie buccale autour de moi; Maryse me confirme de surcroît qu'elle subit le même trouble et ton mail , Bernard, me rassure définitivement: je conserve encore toutes mes facultés mentales. OUF!!!- une grosse déception qui se profile au moment de la répétition sur scène: après tout ce boulot, ça ne va pas être que cela?- beaucoup de moments de bonheur: le chant "Ride on King Jesus", le travail avec Karen G, les traductions de Gospella, les pique-niques tous ensemble, les odeurs de rat mort de la place Plum' et les mines déconfites assorties, les moqueries de Maryse (que je passe sous silence), ET NON, LE CONCERT, CE N'EST PAS QUE CELA!!! Energie, enthousiasme, quel beau moment!Merci à tous pour vos spécialités culinaires: je retiens entre autres la rillette de Jacques, l'art d'accomoder les restes de Maryse pour son cake à tout, l'organisation de Murielle, fournisseuse officielle d'assiettes en carton et de couverts en plastiques ( en plus de toutes les bonnes choses à manger), la variété des plats de Marie-Françoise et de Corinne ( à chaque jour sa spécialité...), le vin de Ben ( même si ce n'est soi-disant pas bon pour la voix); mention spéciale "abondance" au tandem Dominique- Pascale: pizza, poulet, fruits, rouleaux de printemps...et je dois en passer!C'était vraiment un plaisir.

It's true that waking up was a little hard (on Monday) but I had a special thought for those off to work! It's difficult to sum up these three days but here is a jumble of ideas : great anatomical discoveries contrary to what one might expect in such a context. I frequently heard "mycosis" - a hearing failure on my part? Some confirm this others don't. We have a hari/ari/harry epiglotic sphincter (our thanks to Elodie); I've been contracting sphincters for 40 years without knowing, but now I know; dairy products give English phlegm; vocal cords are matter of false folds that need parting 2 mysteries remain : how do you get them apart without using your fingers, and for the twang is the tip of your tongue behind the top or bottom front teeth, Karen? A horrificomic vision emerges! One big scare - I've been repeating the same words for three days albeit in English but not terribly complicated, and suddenly, on stage I don't know any of them! Has my brain turned to mush as Boris would say? Not at all I can hear a lot of verbage around me; Mary confirms she has the same problem and your e-mail, Ben, reassures me I haven't lost my mind. Phew! A huge disappointment during the rehearsal on stage : after all that work, surely that's not going to be IT !!?

Moments of joy : The song "Ride On King Jesus", working with Karen G, Gospella's translation, our group picnics, the smell of dead rats in PLace Plumereau and the expressions it caused, Mary's jokes (which I shall not reveal), AND NO, THE CONCERT WASN'T GOING TO BE JUST THAT!!! Energy, enthusiasm, what a fantastic time! Thanks to all for your culinary delights : amongst others I recall Jack's coarse pate, Mary's ability to use up leftovers in her savoury everything-cake, Maureen's excellent organising as official provider of paper plates and plastic cutlery (as well as all the fabulous things to eat), the diversity of dishes provided by Frances and Carole ( a new speciality every day), Ben's wine (even if it's not meant to be good for your voice); a special "abundance" prize goes to Pascale and Deadre: pizza, chicken, chips, spring rolls... and more!

It was a huge pleasure.

Mary (director of main choir)writes with much of her customary humour:

J'ai mis du temps à ajouter mon grain de sel (oublié à ts les pique-niques et réclamé par D. ) les lendemains qui déchantent, on les sent bien venir! malgré les chansons qui vs envahissent la tête en évitant bien la région épiglottique particulièrement humide du nord au sud aujourd'hui; on va vous en apprendre choristes qui chantez encore sans vous douter de ts ces mystères qui couvent ds votre larynx et qui produisent la fatale fausse note, le bruit de chat écrasé et autres abominations vocales! attention, danger: que ceux qui se protègent depuis de longues années de l'ostéoporose fassent leur choix : l'os ou le glaire, il faut choisir ! proscrivez de votre alimentation le dessert lacté, l'english glaire remonte vers la gorge du non-initié!bon, le riz au lait de je ne sais qui avec la confiture de Mu-mu, ça demande réflexion! le beau temps reviendra dès que votre plexus solaire pointera son nez : ouvrez les côtes, basculez le bassin,maintenez le dos, serrez le bas- ventre, le tps de faire fonctionner tt ça en même temps, faut changer la durite qui vient de péter au cerveau! c'est physique le gospel, on ne fait pas que chanter: on bouge, on respire, on boit, on élimine ,on crie, on twaing à mort ,on cherche ses dents du fond dans la masschoir , on vibratote comme on peut, on clape et on tâche de maitriser tous ses sphincters. Côté musique, ns avons eu le maximum: 12 chants en anglais , il aurait fallu un peu de totus latin pr s'en sortir côté mémoire;une chef anglaise hors du commun, n'acceptant aucun bavardage, mais elle a réussi des prodiges et nous a tous conquis, une black costaud qui frappe le rythme avc ses pieds comme si elle y mettait le poids de tous les siècles d'esclavage. vous vs plaignez des changements de dernière minute, mais vs n'avez rien vu! on ne savait même pas quel chant on allait chanter pdt le concert, il fallait deviner avc l'intro, et ds la panique, on n'a pas tjrs reconnu; je ne parle m^ pas de l'entrèe en scène de 130 choristes ss aucune organisation!mais il y a tjrs la magie qui fait que ça fonctionne et que le concert avait la pêche malgré la fatigue de chacun! je pense que personne n'a regretté son stage, sauf ceux qui ont hésité à s'inscrire et qui n'étaient qu'au concert. on peut tous remercier notre Gospella de ns avoir poussés; j'ai bien failli partir dès les premières minutes, parce que la prédication ce n'est pas mon truc, mais j'ai tenu bon! ns avons tous passé de très bons moments, en répé comme aux repas en commun, en voiture (merci Carole) et ns avons tenu notre place à la scène ouverte;il y aura donc des chants nouveaux pr la rentrée , avc un negro spiritual que ns adorons tous et qui prends aux tripes. attention, faudra bouger! et voilà, la dure réalité est revenue, surtout pr ceux qui bossaient ce matin! Bises a toute la masschoir.

It's taken me a while adding my 'grain of salt' (which we forgot at every picnic and which Deardre never failed to remind us). You can almost see days of anti-climax looming ahead. Despite all the songs invading your head, and making sure to avoid the epiglotic region, which is forcast as wet both in the north and south today, have we got a thing or two to teach you singers who are blissful in the ignorance of the mysteries of your larynx, producing a bum note and the sound of a cat being run over and other such abominations!

Attention, danger! : all those trying to avoid osteoporosis for many a long year have to now choose between your bones and phlegm! Strike dairy desserts from your diet : Phlegm Anglais sticks in the throat of the uninitiated. What about rice pudding with one of Maureen's jams? Have to think about that one. The fine weather will return as soon as you stick out your solar plexus. Open your ribs, tilt your pelvis hold your back and tummy firm ...doing all that at the same time will have you blow a gasket in your brain! That's gospel, it's not all about singing, it's physical : you move, you breathe, you drink, you yell, you twang your socks off you try to find your teeth at the back of your masschoir ('masschoir' sounds like the French word for 'jaw' : Gospella) you vibrato as best you can, you clap and you try to control all your sphincters.

As for the music, we had the lot : a total of 12 songs in English, we should have had a bit of 'totus latin' to help our memories, an extraordinary English director who didn't tolerate the least bit of chatting, but she worked miracles and won everyone over - an awesome black lady who struck the rythm with her feet as if she were hammering out centuries of slavery. You who always complain about last-minute changes, you ain't seen nothing yet! We didn't even know which song we were going to sing during the concert and we had to try and guess by hearing the intro, which we didn't always recognise in oour panic. Not to mention 130 singers getting on stage with no organisation. But the magic needed made the concert work and everyone was dynamic despite their fatigue. I don't think anyone regretted their weekend except those who had hesitated to sign up and only came to the concert! We can all thank Gospella for having talked us into it. I nearly pulled out after the first few minutes because preaching is not my thing, but I hung on in there. We had a great time in rehearsal, on our picnics, in the car (Thank you, Carole) and we held our own at the 'open stage'.

So there will be some new songs in September, with a negro spiritual we adore and which grips you from the heart. Attention : you'll have to move! And then the stark reality of normal life hit us - especially those who were working today. Love to all the masschoir.

Summer Gospel 2007

The come-down after the last intensive and intense three days of gospel is a little hard but while it's still fresh in my mind I shall try and share some of it with you.

Once again, this was a weekend of hard work and fellowship. The difference this year was that the choir never split up for smaller workshops as it had done in previous years. It meant that the final performance of the songs was better, of course, but it also meant less time to explore other things and get to know people on a more personal level. Some of the members of our little gospel group regretted this. At least they did at the end of the first day ; but that was before the arrival of Wayne Ellington and Karen Gibson from London. As I watched my singers I saw they were riveted to the stage listening and enjoying themselves.

The first day got off to a start with a word of welcome which I appreciated, as the importance of the Word of God was insisted on (the true meaning of gospel after all). In previous years I had felt God took second place to the music so this was, from my point of view, an appropriate start. Others from my choir disagree as they hate "preaching".

The work that day was dedicated to two compositions by Erwan Jan (both very funky, and unlike the beautiful ballads we've heard in the past). These really got people moving and were rather challenging from a rythmic point of view. Then we moved on to working with Taïa Kronberg on songs by Martha Munizzi and the Chicago mass Choir. The former "Because of Who You Are" will remain one of my favourites from this course. The dynamics were quite well mastered by the choir and at the final concert the excellent soloist, Lurine Cato, made the song very moving. Unfortunately, on stage we couldn't really hear the soloists as the foldback wasn't very loud. I think this was for recording purposes as the concert was being recorded on the Sunday evening.

On the Friday evening there was a video concert of various songs. We didn't stay for that as we were already quite tired and knew the weekend was going to be a long one!

Saturday : Getting up was a bit of a struggle and the warm-up session with Erwan was welcome and necessary. There was major revision of the previous days' songs as well as a little advice on vocal technique. Some work on twanging and vibrato, as well as breathing and voice control. This was interesting. Some of the singers I know wanted to be able to do it immediately, but I pointed out that the course just gives information and then it's up to us to practise!! I saw several people in the choir handing round throat sprays, pastilles etc. so the hard work was beginning to tell. The rest of the day was taken over by Karen Gibson and Wayne Ellington.

It was a pleasure to watch how they work together with such complicity and professionalism. After a while I was called to interpret into French so learning the songs at the same time meant extra concentration. I was already very tired by the end of the day. In the evening our gospel singers went out for dinner and then came back to the hall for an "open stage" evening. We had decided to share our small repertoire with the others.

I am very proud of our group, especially those who didn't know the songs before Wednesday evening and had learned them especially! We had practised during our Saturday lunchtime picnic on the banks of the Loire. We sang "It's Me Oh Lord", "Were You There" (and the choir's dynamics were well done), "This Train" (well done with the difficult lyrics), "Mary Had a Baby" (directed by Mary as it's from our large village choir repertoire) and then we finished with a jazzy number, which isn't gospel, called "Le Petit Cireur d'Harlem" about a shoe-shine boy in Harlem who wears no shoes himself. I have a scat solo to do in that which I always enjoy, but I must admit it's not the same singing it with 8 voices as backing instead of the usual 40!!
I was very pleased with our performance and touched when Wayne Ellington said it was great !! (Well done choir!)
Some of them complained about lack of voice on the way home in the car (thank you, Carole, for driving us around all weekend in your minivan) but after a (short) night's sleep they were OK again.

Sunday morning started with an interesting physical warm-up by Wayne called "The Sleeping Bag" in which you emerge slowly from your duvet and stretch. Done correctly this really does get you to stretch all your muscles. The title was apt too as I was exhausted already!

Then his vocal warm-ups were interesting too. They aimed at not only warming the voice but working on voice control and rythm. I shall steal these ideas for my choir. Karen arrived after that and did some work on vocal technique : opening the voice and twang. I was interpreting for her all day and was challenged by terms such as "ari-epiglotic sphincter" (sp?) and "glottal pop" but I always rise to a challenge. (Fortunately we had brought a speech therapist with us who helped out there in French! It's all about knowing the right people!!!)

The other songs we worked on were a coded spiritual "Ride On King Jesus" (four-part a capella harmony which I shall borrow for the village choir) and Andrae Crouch's "Bless The Lord" (ditto), "Whatever You Want (God's Got It)" (played so fast by the musicians it almost made you choke), "You Covered Me" and "We've Come To Lift You Up".

Sunday afternoon was the 'dress' rehearsal. It went on until after 8pm and the concert was to start at 9pm! I didn't picnic with my friends. I preferred to take a few minutes to myself to eat my sandwich, get changed and pray.
The concert was a success. Everyone gave their all and there were some very moving moments such as Wayne 's solo of "Divine Love" which made Taïa cry and "Because of Who You Are" and "You Covered Me" which made me cry!
I was privileged to interpret Karen's personal message for the audience. I feel I contribute to my spiritual duty when doing such work. I would love to more of it : I wonder how I can get more involved in using my gifts for the Lord?

After the concert I spent a while translating for Karen and finally said goodbye. It is always rather sad to say goodbye to the people of this course as I'm never sure that we'll meet up again. I have always particularly appreciated Karen (let's be honest : I love her) as every year she has said something that has come just at the right time in my life. God surely does work in mysterious ways. She is generous enough to allow me to share occasional news from our choir. I was sorry she didn't stay for the 'open stage' evening to see how we were getting on but when sleep calls...

It is really great to see faces I met at previous courses. These people really make an impact on you even if you only meet them for one weekend. Some of the highlights I was honoured to experience this time include :

• a lady who gave me the gift of a personal rendition of the Letter to Timothy in Ewé (from Togo);

• another who explained her love of others which she expresses through buddhism;

• the lady in an electric wheelchair who participated valiantly in the concert and then took herself home unaccompanied and undaunted at midnight;

• hearing Karen explain how to use your gifts to honour God in a spirit of sharing and not being afraid to use them

• seeing my singers have such fun and make such progress (it is a privilege to serve them)

• the lady who told us gospel singing is helping her through health difficulties and a time of divorce

• having to take time out during the afternoon session as I was just too full of emotion and burst into tears. ..

I could go on. How to sum up something so vast! I am trying to by setting up a forum for my singers to share their thoughts. I shall report on the results in a subsequent blog.

This has been long and bless you if you have read to the end! Time to sign off and let all this weekend mature in my thoughts. Until the next time...

Gospella

Learning Curve

To say it has been a while since my last blog would be a slight understatement. But I'm prompted to write again as another summer course in gospel singing looms next week. I and several members of our gospel group are going to participate and we hope to learn lots of new songs as well as get some valuable advice on vocal technique. For some, it will be the first time they have taken part in such a course and for others we are returning for a third year running.

So what has been going on since March? Well, we have continued to meet once a month and taken part in a few concerts and got together quite a little repertoire. We took part in the annual 'fête de la musique', France's national music festival where everyone takes to the streets and makes music. We were with the village's main choir, as usual, but the gospellers stepped forward to sing "It's Me, O Lord" and, "This Train" as well as others we had already sung before ("Bless The Lord", "I'm Gonna Wait"). The whole choir even bravely tried a rendition of "Little Cabin" which we haven't quite mastered. This was a challenge I made for us with Karen Gibson last year so when we have a recording of a better version, I'll blog it, or send her a copy to see what we've done with 'her' song!

Over the various concerts, I have learned more about leading. I insist on no wordsheets and so I have to mouth the words perfectly for the singers. Of course this is a bit challenging when they're not all singing the same thing (!) but by the time we're in a concert situation they usually know the song well enough for that not to matter. Although I always praise the choir after it has sung (no demagogy there, I'm sincerely inpressed by the good job they do), I often fail to recognise the stress that singing in English brings them. Apart from constant reassurance, I don't think I can do anything else about that. I guess it helps that I'm an English teacher because I can give them tricks to better pronunciation. The stress shows and so they have a bit of trouble smiling and looking joyful while singing despite my grimaces to get them to show their teeth.
But during the 'fête de la musique' I found the solution...wear trousers that are slightly too big! As I jumped up and down encouraging everyone to invest their energy, my trousers gradually moved southwards and I had to keep clutching at the waistband. This had the whole choir bearing broad grins! And the crowd. And the photographer from the regional newspaper who'd come to report on us. Generously he used a different photograph to accompany his article!

In a very brief way that brings us up-to-date. Now we're contemplating rehearsing something for the open stage at the gospel summer course. We won't all be present, of course, and I'm not sure everyone is on board but we'll see.

And next year?? Well, the group seems keen to continue and I'd like to, even though I find it exhausting. I have just received news today that I shall be working closer to home next school year so that will make it easier for me to organise rehearsals but I shall be working with children with learning difficulties (politically correct term for problem children) and so I'm not sure my energy levels will be much higher! The Lord will provide!

I shall blog again but I won't promise it'll be soon...
Gospella