How Can I Keep from Singing?

What... a.... day..... I am officially wiped from Sunday's sessions! What a brilliant day of music!

With no morning session, and a change of venue, and the added bonus of a beautiful sunny day (at least to start with) certainly added an air of freshness to the Sunday sessions, and the sacred classes performed at St James are, I'm sure, a highlight for many. The afternoon session started with a superb vocal class, the U18 sacred solo. It was a lovely array of the different types of sacred music, ranging from classical to gospel, and every singer truly capturing the reverence of the setting and the type of music they were performing. It was a particular highlight for me, as my vocal student Charlotte Hardwick won the class performing a beautiful rendition of Deep River by Moses Hogan. I've been teaching Charlotte (Lotte) for 3 years now, and it's been amazing for me to really see her progress as a singer and performer, and I'm very proud of her for winning her first every trophy at the Guernsey Eisteddfod. It's moments like that that make the eisteddfod.

(Charlotte Hardwick, winner of the U18 Sacred Solo)

The afternoon continued, and featured some fantastic organ playing, a lovely selection of young choirs and the prestigiously contested Oratorio Classes, but I think the absolutely highlight of the afternoon was the Church, Chapel and Religious Choirs Class. A somewhat special story which features the Alderney Community Choir. Formed only 15 months ago the choir was the initial idea of Caroline Kay-Mouat who approached locally renowned Musical Director Marilyn Pugh (or 'Mum' as I call her) to help run and develop a group of singers on the island. Louise Hayward took on the role of organiser and the community choir now stands at 35-strong, rehearsing once a week (weather permitting for my mum to get over there!). Mum decided to really push the choir, and entered them into the Guernsey Eisteddfod. Coming over with only 26 of them, the choir took to the stage with sheer enthusiasm and joy, as best reflected in their opening song 'Alderney Anthem', the lyrics and melody written by the Reverend Arthur Mignot which I arranged specially for the choir at his request. The adjudicator praised the choir on their choice of programme and their real sense of performance, and I was delighted to see them take home the trophy (well.... mum has to figure out how to get it through airport security first, but I'm sure it will take pride of place somewhere when it eventually gets to Alderney!) - My congratulations particularly go to Peter Baron who sang the opening solo for Alderney Anthem, and in essence the entire choir's performance. Peter has real potential as a solo singer, and I hope he can be persuaded (along with a few others) to come over for more of the Eisteddfod and compete as a soloist. Well done Alderney, you've done yourselves proud.

(The Alderney Community Choir - winners of the Church, Chapel and Religious Choirs Trophy)

The Evening session, focusing entirely on vocal and choral work, just highlight how fantastic St James is as a venue. Ian frequently mentioned throughout the day the joy of the acoustics, and how in a venue like St James it does all the hard work for you. That doesn't mean you can slack off though - far from it. Things like diction and timing have to be immaculate in order to really sell every performance. But when you're not worrying about projecting, those things do become a lot easier to deal with! The Choirs O18 Sacred Songs class featured two great local choirs of complete contrast: The newly-formed Mixed voice 'Accidentals', and the long standing female-voice 'Bel Canto'. Both choirs chose stunning music programmes that set the evening up for the high standard of entertainment that was to follow. The Accidentals sang very well, praised highly for their word-painting and naturally evolving dynamics, but it was Bel Canto's precision and soaring vocal agility that won the cup. Congratulations girls, stunning singing.- A very interesting concept that arose in the O18 Sacred Solo Song class (a very popular one this year, not suprisingly - I'll take any chance to perform in St James, thank you very much!) was actually the arrangement of the accompaniment for songs. Ian had mentioned earlier in the day how the piano was sadly carrying a bit too much in the acoustic and therefore drowning out some of the singers, and so asked the pianists to be a bit more reserved in order to help combat the problem. In the evening class however he pointed out the issue of having the vocal melody line also played in the piano part. What this does is actually make it harder for the audience to hear, not necessarily the singers voice, but the words. As a composer this is something I really strive not to do - include the melody in a piano part when I can, or if it is in there it's subtly hidden. As a singer, not having the melody doubled, although it can be helpful for learning purposes will, in the long run, hinder you as a singer, as it will lessen the amount of freedom you can have with the melody. It's something for all singers to really think about when they choose their songs.

The evening then went on to finish on the high it started with, with the Gospel Choirs class, which was won by Johnny's Angels. I have to say it's this type of singing where I think Johnny's Angel's really shine. The collective vocal quality of this choir really suits the genre, and they are deserved winners of the trophy. Well done to all the choirs involved in this class. It's a fantastic genre of sacred music where singers get to just let loose - the perfect way to end the evening.