Confluence
The Christchurch Choir
Helen Porter held a number of weekly rehearsals with an ever increasing number of people in Christchurch, in order to form the choir to perform Karen's piece. These sessions were widely publicised, and encouragingly attracted many people who had not previously been involved in Confluence work. Word-of-mouth also had a valuable part to play, as participants brought friends to subsequent sessions, or people came along who had heard of the success of events such as Otter - lutra lutra on the Stour.
Helen writes: Late in March leaflets were produced and circulated around Christchurch, as well as advertisements in the Bournemouth Echo and the Advertiser. Letters and leaflets were also sent out to local choirs in the Christchurch area, particularly asking for men singers. However, the Advertiser proved to be the most useful, as many people who came along to the first rehearsal had read about the project in this local newspaper.
Over thirty people attended the first rehearsal at the Salvation Army Hall. These were mainly new people to Confluence, and three people who had sung in the otter choir. This was a very good start. There was a good mixture of people who had sung in choirs before, and those who had not. There were, as predicted, very few men, and later additional publicity was made in order to try and attract more tenors and basses. This had a degree of success.
We encouraged people to join who had no background in choral singing, as well as those who did not read music. Initially, because of the complexity of the music, this made for somewhat slow rehearsals in the beginning. A number of people left the choir very early on, feeling that they were unable to cope with the singing. However, the atmosphere in rehearsals was at all times extremely relaxed and jovial. Practice tapes were available to everyone, and these helped enormously. Those who stayed, even those who felt they were completely out of their depth, were very dedicated to rehearsals, and took on the challenge with admirable determination. Attendance was always very good, and the choir quickly grew to around sixty. We were very fortunate in having a rehearsal pianist early on, Ros Bennett.
One of the really interesting observations throughout this process was how, despite the frustrations, people really enjoyed being stretched. Those who belonged to other choirs felt this was something completely new, and whilst they couldn't really have a "good sing" as it were, they were getting enormous satisfaction and enjoyment in other ways. In the beginning many of the choir were very sceptical about the music itself - without the accompanying orchestration it was not possible to hear an accurate impression of it. Gradually though more people each week began saying how they liked the music, and by the end people loved it and were amazed by it. Karen attended several rehearsals, despite her own busy composing schedule, and her presence was very warmly welcomed by everyone.
The many comments and letters from the choir testify their huge enjoyment of the project. Many people were amazed by the scale of the composition, and had not realised that they were part of such an enormous event:
| "It was mind-boggling to see such a wonderful array of talent at our concert. My three friends in the audience were very impressed, and adored The Blandford Fly!" Mavis Hammond-Brake, Confluence choir |
The Candlelight Singers, an established Christchurch choir, were also invited to participate in 'Silver Messenger'. They took on one of the more difficult choral numbers, Aquifer, and those who had been to weekly rehearsals were also able to support the main body of the choir during the other choral numbers.
| "Fellow members of the choir and friends who sat in the audience are still talking about Saturday night - it was WONDERFUL. If ever anything else like this should be planned in the future we'd love to be involved." Angela Dennison, Candlelight Singers |
As well as rehearsals for the choral music in Silver Messenger taking place in Christchurch, Shreen Harmony, the Mere community choir established in 1998 were also learning the music. Because they had participated in Music at the Source at Stourhead they were at the disadvantage of having only two months of rehearsals before the concert at the Priory. However, there is no doubt that Shreen Harmony, having sung virtually only new music over nearly three years, were much more used to grappling with difficult harmonies and unusual intervals. It was especially exciting for them to sing as part of a larger choir, and they participated with enormous enthusiasm. They also took on the arrangements for a coach to transport them from Mere to Christchurch. They felt proud to have been one of the first groups of Confluence, and this showed in the enormous support they gave to us throughout the rehearsals and the performance.
| "Thanks so much for letting us be part of such a wonderful event." Liz Hide, Shreen Harmony |
| "Many thanks for a great concert, and many enjoyable rehearsals." Audrey Cox, Shreen Harmony |
| "Thank you for bringing live music into our lives." Joan Haig, Shreen Harmony |
| "Saturday night was a marvellous performance - all our anxieties coming to head on Friday were completely alleyed - by the professionalism of the professionals and the enthusiasm of the amateurs to make an evening totally different from anything the Priory has previously experienced." David and Karen Ball, The Confluence choir. |
