A couple of years ago I missed the chance to sing Zimbe! with Bristol Choral Society, as I was doing my bit for mixing musical culture across continents by singing Messiah in India. But it caught up with me, as my elder children’s school put it on and invited parents to join the chorus.
We were in the Assembly Rooms which was a first for me, as although I’ve been to many concerts there, I have never before performed there myself. Few amateur groups do, though I think Bath Minerva Choir did so a few years ago and Bath Baroque (when it existed) did too. The acoustic is as pleasantly clear from the stage as in the audience.
The composer, Alexander l’Estrange is a Mertonian, and I said hello. Zimbe! arranges songs from around Africa, almost all new to me, for forces including choir, semi-chorus, children’s chorus and jazz quintet. Some of the challenge of learning it is working out what to sing next, as there are numerous repeated passages. But the rewards are some ridiculously catchy tunes. Years ago I heard a news item about South African workers travelling from the townships to work by train, and how they passed the journey singing in harmony, and I tried to capture some of that spirit.
Our capacity audience gave us an enthusiastic reception, and our encore was a large chunk of the latter part of the piece. I’d like to think I made a good impression on our conductor [April: sadly this has proved to be a fleeting one as he has now left the school, so it was his farewell performance]. On to another cantata by the same composer a week later.