Who am I really?

We may be nearly at the end of our summer recess and the darker nights are already starting to draw in, but right now, we're going to back to the summer.

In July, SEMusic performed Who Am I? a celebration of the music that makes me, well, me! I've said it to them and I've said it many times, but I don't know another choir that could perform a wide spectrum of music and give each piece everything that they have. No other choir would dare try and perform medieval music and Eurovision Songs (as well as everything in between), in the one performance. Bravo to the choir.

If you were at the performance, you would have heard the wonderful Carmel compering the event. As I eluded during the speech, I am crazy and when I was writing the script for the concert, I managed to included all 67 titles of the British entries at the Eurovision Song Contest. Carmel, ever the professional, was able to reign me in and edited it down to a select 44.

Enjoy some of the videos below from the concert, and some of the sledgehammered into place Eurovision titles.

Les Misérables the story of Jean Val Jean, who at the beginning of the story would beg, steal and borrow to make ends meet, before becoming a runner on the night as he escapes parole and Javert, who is not the first character in literature to say, ‘I’m never giving up’ and chasing Val Jean across France. A land-lubbing Ahab perhaps? Who Am I? is as you’ve heard when Val Jean has risen from rock bottom to the top of the pile only to face the inevitability of Javert catching up with him.

If ye love me, Thomas Tallis performed by The Choir

Love is, pretty much, what life is all about and a man without love is a wasted man. The Ubi Caritas is a hymn to love and charity and without the need for any love games, it sends a message to your heart that all you need is love enough for two.

There is nothing like a dame, Rogers and Hammerstein, performed by the Men of The Choir

Going one step further we have, with the whale, arrived at Jonah. Jonah sent on a mission to warn a nation that they were doing wrong, asked the perennial question of ‘are you sure?’ before failing to heed to the call of ‘come back’ and running away. With just a little bit of persuasion, namely being swallowed by a whale, he was convinced to say it again and deliver his message to the people of Ninevah.

Eres Tu (Touch the Wind), Eurovision 1973, Mocedades, Spain, performed by The Choir