Virtual Choir

Many thanks to all who contributed and produced these offerings of our time and lovely voices to enhance virtual worship and to keep us all together in spirit if not in body!!

of Spirit of the living God, which Will asked me to arrange for his and Sally’s Sunday services. He asked for a small group only as he wishes to use it during the time he and Sally take communion. So I used four sopranos, four altos, two tenors and two bass. My thanks to Lloyd for his time, efforts and expertise in recording and producing the track.

A recording made by 10 of our young girl choristers recorded virtually by parent Mr Lloyd Murray with technical support from Canon David Neale. All managed the technology admirably to produce a lovely recording. We hope you enjoy listening.

I’m sure most of you are now aware of the use of virtual interviews, virtual news broadcasting, virtual Houses of Parliament and, maybe, even virtual choirs! Well thanks to the expertise of Canon David Neale, several adult members of the choir have recorded a virtual choir rendition of the lovely hymn, “Breathe on me breath of God” to the tune Trentham. This wasn’t chosen because of its links to COVID-19 (!!!) but for use by Father Will and Rev Sally at St John’s and Rev Linda at St Andrew’s for use in their morning services for Pentecost. It will also be used in Bishop Cherry’s Pentecost service from Bishopstow.

I have to say that it was more difficult than I ever imagined, mainly because of the use of technology. It was a dawdle for Canon David, whose technological expertise is renowned throughout the Diocese, but for many of us, listening on one device with headphones on and recording ourselves singing on another device was a steep learning curve!! I had recorded the hymn in church with the organ and my wife agreed (under immense pressure!) to sing the words of the four verses as requested by Canon David. This was then emailed to the choir members; this was the first problem as it was too big to email easily for many of the devices being used by choir members. We overcame that and then the comments from the choir members, regarding how awful we all thought we sounded, started flooding back to me!! We had to listen to the organ accompaniment but record ourselves individually singing without the accompaniment. Without exception, we all found this somewhat disconcerting!! Many didn’t want to send in their recordings but after some amusing conversations, I managed to reassure them that the singing was great and once Canon David had sent me the first ‘take’, I knew that it was going to be fine!!

 You may listen to these services live on Sunday 31^st May via the link on the church website or on YouTube and you may catch up with any of the services for several days after they are broadcast. I tell you this because this newsletter may not arrive before the 1^{st of} June!!

I can honestly say that I am extremely pleased with the way the choir adults persevered to get their recordings to me and to David and we are all delighted with the final version. Please take time to listen!! We may even go on to further virtual recordings!