“The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella;
But chiefly on the just, because
The unjust steals the just’s umbrella.”
Charles Synge Christopher Bowen,
(1835-1894)
This is the second time this year I’ve written about rain. I had two themes in mind for March, but when I awoke this morning they flew out the window, replaced by thoughts of tempest and flood.
My garden is waterlogged, my daffodils have rotted in the ground and its WET, WET, WET!.
But let’s not despair. Our Spring concert this year on May 18th is titled ‘Music on the Waters‘, a beautiful piece composed by Jonathan Dove (b.1959). Those of us in the choir in 2013 were privileged to have performed as the chorus in our production of Dove’s community opera ‘Tobias and the Angel’ with professional soloists and a choir of primary school children. One of the, many, many highlights of my 11 years with the amazing Dacorum Community Choir.
We have two USP’s which make us special. The first is that we rehearse in the daytime and the second is that we have the most talented professionals leading us in Rufus Frowde, our Musical Director and Judi Kelly, our accompanist. Our membership, which had taken a dip in the aftermath of Covid, has recently hit 100.
We’re busy rehearsing for the spring concert with songs whose theme is water in all of its many varieties, from Shenandoah to the Mersey, and from a sparsely populated Scottish island, to ‘Butch’ Cassidy….., plus another seven so far.
We used to sing a sweet little round, with words by Robert Louis Stevenson, but not this time! Instead, last week Rufus introduced us to something entirely new. It’s first outing was somewhat cacophonous – though I’m confident we’ll get there in the end – we always do. We sang ‘it’s gonna rain’, repeated in various combinations, over and over again. I listened to a recording of the rehearsal and attempted to count the ‘rains’ but gave up, it must have been well over a hundred times and left us exhausted, confused and somewhat hysterical.
In addition to our concert we are joining with the Lumina Choir, on 12th May in a performance in King’s Langley in aid of the Mayor’s charity (further details in next month’s edition).
We are known as the ‘friendly’ choir and we have a lot of fun though we take our music seriously. We meet on Tuesday mornings in school terms in Grovehill, at the Church of the Resurrection, from 9.45 to 11.35am. We sing an eclectic mix, from Bach to the Beatles and from Early Music to bang up to date. We always welcome new members so do feel free to come along and see what we’re all about.
For further information see, www.dacorumcommunitychoir.org and our Facebook page, Dacorum Community Choir, or ring 07402 181182 if you’d like more details.
