‘Music from Many Lands’ – a concert by Lochranza choir

Sunday 20th November was a lovely day on Arran; the weather was balmy, calm and bright. A fine day for gardening or a walk, yet a fair number of people made their way to Whiting Bay church to enjoy a concert by Lochranza Choir.

Douglas Hamilton accompanied the singers on a piano keyboard; he played throughout the afternoon in a most sympathetic style, paying attention to the soloists and also to his wife Diana as she conducted with the greatest competence. This choir has members from Lochranza but also singers from around the island are willing to travel weekly in order to join in the music. 

The choir held folders and no doubt this is necessary with their huge repertoire of songs, but I wish they would put them away from time to time and all attend fully to Diana; one lady seldom allows her gaze to miss any of Diana’s directions and if one can do it ….

That said, this was a fabulous concert. The choir tore into the start with the Border Ballad, March, March, Ettrick and Cheviotdale. In contract, Ile Morrison then sang Ae Fond Kiss. It was the loveliest version of this love song I have ever listened to. In solemn mode the choir gave us Agnus Dei from Fauré’s Requiem, and it was moving. In her clear voice, the soprano Alison Richards sang Pie Jesu, and Ian Buchanan raised the standard just a notch as he sang Libera Me.

A German song, How Lovely are Thy Dwellings, from Brahms’s German Requiem, came next, and Fronde’s lovely Panis Angelicus was sung, to everyone’s great enjoyment, by Laura Selkirk. The first half was completed with music from Mozart and Stanford, sung in Latin.

Then it was the interval – and a Bun Feast was enjoyed in the transept. Tea, coffee and lashings of home baking were served by church members and everyone, including the cingers, chatted together. The audience had paid very little for all the enjoyment, and one lucky raffle winner went home with a bag of Fair Trade goods.

Rutter’s arrangement of The Saints Go Marching In opened the second half. Diana order us to do some audience participation – and after a quick rehearsal, we did!  Two well-known Scots songs followed and then Ian Buchanan gave us Songs My Mother Taught Me by Dvorak. I was transported back to my childhood when we used to use Grandmother’s wooden wind-up gramophone to play Family Favourites with her 78rpm record collection. The beautiful Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves (another 78 rpm favourite) followed.

At this moment I must mention that a choir member, Fiona Crawford, introduced each item. Her manner of doing so was racy and amusing, and gave the choir time to draw breath, for there was never a moment wasted. The versatile Laura Selkirk then gave us Second Hand Rose, speaking of her hard life yet sparkling throughout the jazzy number. Then tunes from my favourite musical, Westside Story by Bernstein, were sung to us by anything-but-wilting choristers. John Cruikshank, saved to the end, ripped through Glorious Devon by Edward German and Quilter’s Fair House of Joy – two splendid works, beautifully sung. The Battle Hymn of the Republic brought the concert to a close.

The Rev. Elizabeth Watson thanked one and all; a fine sum had been raised for Church Funds, with a donation to the choir. I was home in a minute, but most of the choir would be a while in their cars – driving up the Boguille or elsewhere – no doubt singing.