A year ago today, a Sunday, I caught a train from Oxford to London to conduct my choir, Côr Dinas. A few hours later, we were singing for the Harvest Festival service at their home, Capel y Borough.
In the previous weeks, I had been a little unsure what we should sing for the event, how to plan for the term. I am often uncertain of such things, particularly at the beginning of a year or term and until I get into the swing of rehearsals. Having failed to find much harvest themed material that really appealed to me, I jotted out a simple tune for the words of an old Welsh hymn, and harmonised it for upper voices. There was something agreeably straightforward about it, as an act of composition – an hour or so’s work, focussed, functional, and well-rewarded.
Along with another piece, we sang it publicly for the first time, that Sunday. After the well-attended service, the choir and congregation retired to the Chapel’s basement for a meal.
Leaping forward a year, the country, the whole of society, has been rocked by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the choir has been unable to meet for seven months. Like so many other groups, we are unsure when we will meet again. At a similar time to last year, I am asking myself what we should do, what we should sing, and trying to plan for a slightly more than usually uncertain future.
And yet, without being remotely religious about it, remembering it is Harvest, we give thanks for what we have. No, we cannot meet and sing together, but technology enables us to get as close to that as we can. Each week, we gather online, we exchange experiences, we sing together in time, if not in space, and that is an extraordinary thing.
