Tuesday 29 January 2013

AN AFRICA SEASON

Perhaps it helps, in the dark cold days of January, to think of sunny Africa and for the past weeks we've been enjoying the energetic rhythms and warm harmonies of some African songs.

A Call and Response song is always a stimulating way to warm up the voices at the start of our mornings and we've been learning KYE KYE KULE, a traditional song from Ghana.
 Following on after that we come together in the four part harmony of the Zulu song HAMBA NATHI. 

Our bass section is particularly strong just now and it seems to give this song a real African flavour. Remembering that it was used on the soundtrack of the film INVICTUS, about how the poem of this name inspired Nelson Mandela during the years of his confinement on Robben Island, we then sang MANDELA DANCED written by Ian Davison about Mandela's visit to Glasgow in 1993.

TEN THOUSAND MILES, with its harmonies arranged by Alison Burns, now comes across beautifully, and secure now in the four parts, our next challenge is to memorise the words.

We are almost word perfect from memory with SAE WILL WE YET, a favourite with many of us which is now sounding really convincing and we ended the morning with another Alison Burns song, ALWAYS THE SINGING.