The inevitable feedback forms don't come much better than this: ‘You are the best composer ever and you have made my singing much better.’ So says one primary school pupil, recently introduced to the workshops and large-scale choral works of composer Alexander L’Estrange.
Christmas 2017 saw hundreds more children take part in L’Estrange's latest work for singers of mixed ability and ages, with a UK premiere of Wassail! Carols of Comfort and Joy at Southwark Cathedral in London and a performance at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.
Wassail! was commissioned by United Learning's Partnership Fund and published by Faber Music ‘to inspire collaboration, musical excellence and joy through choral singing’.
United Learning is an unusual group of schools, comprising more than 30 academies and 13 independent schools, and educating more than 40,000 students. Catherine Barker, its head of music and performing arts, believes the piece will have a long-lasting legacy.
‘We had such a mixture of schools taking part in these performances. From a minster school, to schools where there is no music teacher and no singing, to schools with pupils in the National Youth Choir,’ she says. ‘Some could read music fluently, some sang by ear and some were just beginning to read – and there was a place for every one of them to work together in a very impressive performance in a wonderful venue.’
The piece itself, scored for a unison children's choir and an SATB choir, is a 40-minute series of 12 carols, some familiar, some less so, and some new, all bound together by a five-strong folk group of recorder, accordion, guitar, double bass and percussion.
KICK-START SINGING
L’Estrange, along with the choral foundation VCM, travelled the country, running dozens of sessions in more than 50 schools, to help the children learn the work. ‘This is the sort of inclusive project which can kick-start singing in a school,’ he says – and he has created resources which have been well-received by both music specialists and non-specialists alike, with, for example, bars' rest counted and spoken cues.
Alex Davis, a music teacher from the nursery-to-sixth-form Goresbrook School in Dagenham, found the materials easy to use: ‘We worked with Years 7 and 8 and it was useful to let the CD run and walk around the class, listening to what people were doing – rather than just standing next to the piano. It's been a massive feat of organisation to get this together but just seeing their faces in the cathedral has been wonderful.’
Pupils too were impressed and found the material both engaging and easy to work with. ‘No matter where you are from, music is a language you can all join in with,’ says seasoned performer 13-year-old Olaronke Bamiduro, who recently sang in the Houses of Parliament. Rachael Babalola, 11, says: ‘It makes you want to carry on singing, and the way the music and the CD and the words were put together made it was easy for us to understand what we needed to do.’
Alexander L’Estrange with singers in Southwark Cathedral (© Tim Stubbs, The Regis Academy)
Teacher Mark Jackson, from Wilberforce Primary in Queens Park, West London, admits to being daunted before the start of the project but actually found training his Year 3s ‘very straight-forward because of the quality of the resources’.
Paul Smith, from the vocal group Voces8, was also involved in workshops. He enjoyed teaching the combination of ‘beautiful new melodies and recognisable Christmas material’ to children who rarely sang. ‘The secret was keeping them excited by what they were doing because if they stay excited, they stay involved with music,’ he says.
The presence of Apollo5, a group of young professionals who sang alongside students in the premiere, also added to the sense of occasion for the 50 schools and 750 children who performed in London and in Manchester.
The project has been shortlisted in the Best Classical Music Education Initiative in the 2018 Music Teacher Awards for Excellence, sponsored by Classic FM, and the result will be announced at the end of February.
Next year's Christmas shows may seem far away but Barker is still mulling over the effect the work has had on both performers and audiences. ‘It's all very well doing a one-off performance which does the job – but it's far better to have a multi-strand project which leaves a longer legacy,’ she says. ‘L’Estrange has provided here a fantastic vehicle which schools can use to engage with their communities in future performances.’
All talk of legacy and engagement would surely go straight over the heads of the youngest singers in the show. But seven-year-old Audrey De Los Santos from Wilberforce said all that needed to be said, as she danced with glee at the prospect of being on a big stage and singing her heart out: ‘All I want to do now is sing wherever I go!’
www.unitedlearning.org.uk/enrichment/united-music/wassail
