Commoners Choir & Boff Whalley
Sit back and enjoy, or stand and sing along with the combined choirs:-
Commoners Choir (Leeds)
SHE Choir (Manchester)
Infant Hercules Choir (Stockton)
written & directed by Boff Whalley
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NEWS
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Squeeeee, we are really excited to offer you this freebie! Open to all, whether you are regular Soup & Singer; Zoup & Zinger; (or a Zoomin'Troller, for that matter!); an erstwhile workshop attendee, or just curious!
Also for your friends and family
We are aware that during this lockdown we aren’t singing - or even speaking - much. So we intend to rectify that and invite you to join our MORNING ZINGS
For 2 weeks, Monday to Friday
starting 18th January from 10.30am for 20-30 minutes, we are inviting you to join us to stretch & sing
TOTALLY FREE of charge.
We’ll be doing warm ups and vocalising, and each time there will be a song from our extensive back catalogue that you can take to keep you company for the rest of the day.
The daily sessions will take place on Zoom and all are welcome; tell your Mums and Dads, siblings and friends.... we need to know who is coming (email us in advance) and please spread the word. You don’t have to commit to daily practise, just dip in and out as and when you are able to join us.
We just want to keep those pipes oiled!
email sarahcgray@aol.com in advance to obtain a link to join us.
Huun Huur Tu - Odugen Taiga (Mother Taiga)
This song reminds me of our holiday with my stepdaughter and Swedish fiance last February at a 'Wilderness Camp' in the Arctic Circle - cross-country skiing thru forest; riding a dogsled; driving a snow mobile to The Ice Hotel; standing out at night to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights and; taking a sauna on a frozen lake (and rolling in the snow in my swimming costume under the starry skies!).
The group, Huun Huur Tu (Sunbeams), formed in 1992, hail from the Siberian province of Tuva in Central Asia which geographically lies to the north of Mongolia. They perform ancient traditional folk songs in their native Tuvan language, frequently featuring imagery of the Tuvan steppe, and its fauna and flora. With much of it's rural population leading a nomadic life, horses and reindeer feature in particular. Huun Huur Tu are leading exponents of the art of polyphonic (overtone or throat) singing - i.e. able to sing two or more different notes at the same time which the singers sing both a note and its overtones, thus producing two or three notes simultaneously. The overtone may sound like a flute, whistle or bird, but is solely a product of the human voice.
This 2008 version of the song is a collaboration with leading exponent of the electric bass guitar, Michael Manring (from the west coast of the US), and singer/songwriter Irina Mikhailova from Khazakhstan on backing vocals.
The traditional instruments:-
- the igil (two stringed horse-head fiddle);
- the byzanchi - a four-stringed vertical spike fiddle (with the bow passing between the strings)
- dunggur (shaman drum)
- flute
- doshpuluur - a long necked Tuvan lute with a trapezoidal sound-box
- along with wind and other instruments all made by their percussionist Alexei Saryglar
Reindeer on a frozen lake (Altajaarvi), with Camp Alta (Wilderness Camp) amongst the pine trees in the distance around 10 miles from the mining town of Kiruna in northern Sweden
If you have a song or a piece of music that transports you to another place and would like to share it with our website followers, than please drop me an email at hello@harbourlightscommunitychoir.org include the Subject Title 'Songs That Transport You'
Paul Stocks, January 2021
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