“Were I not, were I not to sing
How would I share my loving
But I will keep singing
Alone and as one.
I will keep singing
Through summer time and storm
I will keep singing
While some laugh and others mourn
I will keep singing
For that is why I was born.”
Revd. Austin Janes, b.1975
Austin is team vicar at the Church of the Resurrection in Grovehill, where we rehearse on Tuesday mornings. His poem was set to music by our Musical Director, Rufus Frowde, to celebrate our tenth anniversary in 2019.
The words are especially potent for me. As a child I sang all the time, until the fateful day in school when Miss Mainwaring urged me to desist’. It wasn’t until I reached sixty that I gave it another go and a whole new world opened.
Singing together has many benefits and is proved to delay brain decay.
We’ve produced a Song Book for our community performances. These events are an important part of what we do, and the obvious enjoyment people get from singing along is reward indeed!
Our next big thing, on Saturday evening May 18, is our concert:
The repertoire features a beautiful song by Jonathan Dove which tells of a ‘blind old King and his fourteen daughters’ who ‘in their great and gold barge glide’ entertained by ‘the flute and the lute and the golden horn’.
Water in its multifarious forms appears throughout the concert, with a prophetic song, Next Time, based on the biblical flood, by local composer, Edward Kay. We sing with gusto of heavy rain, violent storms (so like home) and Fire Next Time!
We also visit a Scottish Island, wander along the Banks of the Dee, Wade in the Water, go Sailing, and leave Liverpool for foreign shores,
Along the way we call at other watery places, and long for Shenandoah, in a multi-voice version arranged by Jay Althouse. until, at last, we land back in Hemel for complementary and well-deserved home made cakes and tea.
Summer term starts on April 16th, Potential new members are welcome to give us a try. Rehearsals are from 9.45a.m. on Tuesdays, at Grovehill Church of the Resurrection.
For further information see, www.dacorumcommunitychoir.org and our Facebook page, Dacorum Community Choir, or ring 07402 181182 if you’d like more details.
