COURSE LAUNCH: Summer School 2026 | Ndikhokhele Bawo - traditional Xhosa, arr. Michael Barrett

[00:00:06]Hello everyone. A very very good evening and welcome to the launch of the latest piece here on choir of the earth. This is Deikok Hilly Bower. It's absolutely gorgeous. a traditional posser piece arranged by Michael Barrett. And those of you who have been in choir of the earth for a while will remember not that long ago we recorded a gorgeous piece called Indoor Dana. And that was another one arranged by Michael. More on that in a minute. But it's great to be here live and to see all of you here in the live chat. And to anyone who's joining us for the first time as this is a public stream, well, welcome and do consider joining us for Choir of the Earth's project this summer. Hello to everyone here. Hello to everyone who's watching later. And hello to the live chat. Hello Anna. Hello Bev. Hello Carol. Hello Nikki. Looking after all of you. Hello Dave. Hello Jill. Hello Fiona. Hello Jillian. Hello Gina. Hello Glennice.

[00:01:01]Hello Jackie. Hello Janet. Hello Jen.

[00:01:03]Hello Jill. Hello Jill. Hello Judy.

[00:01:06]Hello Lesnie. Hello Linda. Hello Lisa.

[00:01:08]Hello Liz. Hello Mary. Hello Mike. Hello Pam. Hello uh Pam. Hello Patricia. Hello Filamina. Hello Linda. Hello Sheila.

[00:01:16]Hello Susanna. Hello Suzanne. Hello Terry. Hello Carolyn. Hello Vanessa.

[00:01:20]Hello to anyone else on the list. Hello Jen who's just popped up. Hello Kitty.

[00:01:26]Hello all of you. Well, I hope you're all keeping very well. Thank you so much for all of your lovely messages. Yes, it is hot here in the studio. That's why I've got my double water on the rocks.

[00:01:39]Cheers. Going to stay hydrated. I've got my score. You will need your PDF available via the members area. Huge thanks to Nikki for organizing that for us. And I think we should get started as this really is a very, very special piece. Everyone, those of you that sang on Indodana know what a treat it was.

[00:02:00]And if you didn't sing on it, I I have to say that Indodana was probably the piece that we had the most regret from people who didn't take part in it when they heard the end result. You know, I didn't record. I'm so so frustrated I didn't. Well, here's your chance to sing on something which I think is going to be right up there in terms of beauty.

[00:02:20]So, on we press. And speaking of pressing, I'm going to press That's the wrong button, Benjamin. Goodness me.

[00:02:26]It's not like I've been doing this for six and a half years. Welcome all of you to Choir of the Earth. We are redefining coral music for the 21st century, one gorgeous piece at a time. And I'm just going to run through a few updates and a few bits of news before we get to the premiere of this lovely piece today.

[00:02:44]First of all, to remind you, if you haven't already done so, please do avail yourself of one of the best perks of being a member of Choir of the Earth, which is our podcast. It's called Moving Notes. Uh Jen and I have yet we there's an episode that we have to finish off.

[00:02:59]Um but we will be getting that done really soon and out to you. If you haven't heard of it though, movingodcast.com to find uh all the links to all the episodes released so far. It's a fabulous chat. Jensen's done a lovely job of crafting this podcast. We just have a fantastic chat with some lovely people and uh and just whittle the time away with all sorts of fun. and you get to find out what Jen and my guilty pleasures are musically. I think the answers will surprise you if you haven't heard it already. So, do have a look for that. Speaking of following nice things, we are on the social medias, all the ones that really matter. Uh Facebook, Instagram, Blue Sky, and even LinkedIn for the professional businessminded amongst you. Do seek us out on these platforms. Follow us. Do like our posts and share them with your friends that every time you click that like button everyone, it puts our posts in front of more people and of course the more people that see them, the more people will come and join us and help us grow this fabulous organization that we love so much. So, thank you to everyone already does and if you haven't done so, do follow us. Now, speaking of growing this organization and this uh that we love so much, well, we want to tell you about our upcoming plans for the months and year. in fact ahead. So do join us for our next town hall meeting. This will be on Thursday, so 2 days time at 300 p.m. UK time, okay? 3:00 in the afternoon. Uh this is open to members and associate members. If you can make it live, fantastic. You can join us on Zoom and hear all about the exciting updates that we have for you. If you can't join us live, as always, we will record it and we will share it with members and associate members. So, make sure you've got that date in your diary.

[00:04:45]Thursday, 9th of July. Join us on Zoom for all of the important updates. And you can find details via the members area. So, speaking of things that are for members, of course, Choir of the Earth membership includes, as you're aware, uh, access to our coral resources library via choir library.com. Nikki is adding more stuff to this every week and it is growing brilliantly. Um, you've got rehearsals resources, voice part, louder tracks, and more. And of course, it's just going to grow and grow and grow. We're calling this behind the scenes the Netflix of coral music.

[00:05:22]Except unlike Netflix, we're not going to be taking stuff off it. We're just going to keep adding and adding and adding, growing it into this enormous uh resource available for Quiet of the Earth members. Now hopefully within the next couple of weeks and end end of the month I don't want to put any pressure on her but Nikki has said she's going to be launching the coral memberships as soon as you have information on that we will tell you but what we can tell you about now is for those of you who are associate members so you don't sing with us but you stay in touch and you pay a small subscription to be part of the team of choir of the earth. Well we are now rolling out associate membership plus. So, this gives you access to all of the coral library resources as well.

[00:06:04]Not the current courses. You don't get to sing and record on them. You don't get the uh everyday uh individual sectional rehearsals and take part in the recordings, but you can have access to the coral library. So, this is an upgrade um with a little bit of extra money. Of course, this all goes to help the organization and help the choir. So, if you are someone who is an associate member, if you want access to choir library.com as part of that, go along to choir library.com/memberships.

[00:06:32]And thank you to everyone who already does because, as I say, it all really helps. Now, uh let's talk deadlines and courses and things going on. Now, of course, a season to sing is well underway. I will share with you I had the privilege of conducting a season to sing in person on Saturday just gone with my Bristol Kabat Choir at Clifton Cathedral here in Bristol. It was so much fun. Of course we we love it because we've gotten to know it recently because of Choir of the Earth, but again to hear it in person, it just takes on a whole other dimension as well. Now I'm really excited to be receiving so many submissions from you. We still have three deadlines before we close submissions. And for those of you who have been suffering in the heat, please be assured, we're not going to uh to deny your access to this, we're going to keep the dropboxes open until the 2nd of August. So, a week on from this deadline to give you time to catch up, those of you who because of the various heat waves around the uh around the world, haven't been able to get them into us.

[00:07:40]So do make sure if you can you get everything in by the 2nd of August. The engineers are going to be ready to start at that point. So you've got three more deadlines. The 12th of July for falling autumn leaves and make a joyful noise.

[00:07:52]19th of July for winter freeze and cozy indoors while outside it pores. And given that it's going to be the height of summer at that point, you're going to have to really commit to that one I think in order for it to be convincing.

[00:08:03]And then while earth remainth in a time of peace uh will be the 26th of July and then an overall deadline of the 2nd of August. There we go. Um and let me just remind you we've got some fantastic events coming up soon. We'll be sharing details soon about the uh streaming ticket for the two Leipick courses that we're taking out in September and October. There are still a couple of places left for October. September is fully booked and we'll be as I say telling you how you can follow along from wherever you are in the world. You can have access to the singalongs and to the concerts and that will be a way you can support your friends who are going to Leipek to sing Bach in Bach's church.

[00:08:44]Details there at choir of the earth.com/events.

[00:08:47]Now, the Jezealdo 6 and Choir of the Earth at Lincoln Cathedral in January, where the weather is likely to be an awful lot colder and darker, but we will be bringing joy and light and radiance to Lincoln Cathedral where of course Bird was organized. And this is the Mass for Five Voices. Now, obviously, we've sold loads of places to choir of the earth members. The G6 are going to be pushing this out to their membership from this week. So, we're anticipating a huge rush of people to book places. If you haven't booked with that in mind, do consider getting in sooner rather than later because once G6 pushed this to their wider membership, we can't guarantee that there'll be places for those of you who aren't sure. So, get in while you can. It's a fantastic package.

[00:09:33]Uh, if you want to, you can have accommodation with us at the Hilton.

[00:09:37]There's a banquet, there's a private concert, there's performing to the wider public. It's going to be amazing. So details again at cry oftheear.com/events and of course the Mr. Tango Festival.

[00:09:49]This is going to be with Saul Zach conducting and yours truly conducting as well. Helen Charleston, internationally renowned mezzo soloist and of course we know Helen because she sung for us many many times. Uh we'll be performing Miss Tango by Martin Palm Mary with Martin on the piano and a full professional orchestra. The concert is at Holy Trinity Church in Sloan Square. If you sang in Elijah with Labrador Events a few years ago, it's at that same church, which I understand is the widest church in London. Uh it's a fabulous, fabulous, fabulous course. It's organized by Concert Austria. Details there on screen. Do book and come if you can. Uh getting through it, folks. Couple more slides before we get to the uh the lovely piece today. Um Susanna has been hard at work creating the sound slices for us. Huge thanks Susanna for all the hard work you've put in and the creation and Gloria. So that is Hines creation Vivaldi's Gloria are currently 40% off.

[00:10:45]I do believe that Brahms Recreum is coming soon as well. So of course all the sales of these go directly to support Cho of the Earth. And thanks to everyone who's already bought them. Get them while they're cheap. Now there's a couple more recording deadlines. The Tippet spirituals. Well, these I think it's fair to say were very, very wellreceived. Our most recent course that finished last week. You've got until the 30th of August to get the first two in for us. the 6th of September to get the next two and Deep River closing date is the 13th of September. So, huge thanks all of you who've already sent those in and we'll get those conducting videos done for you just as soon as we can. So before we launch, I just want to say a huge thanks on a personal level to everyone who sent kind messages of support both uh online through my um social media and right here in the live chat everyone um for what's been going on in my life. Uh just to say my mother is still in intensive care. She's a little bit more stable than she was last week, but she's going to be in hospital for a very very long time. um this is very much a life-changing event that's happened to her. Um so just thank you everyone for your support and your understanding. It will be the case as we move through the summer that some of our sessions where we would normally have live sessions will be pre-recorded, but I will make sure that the teaching is just as good as it always was. And I know you appreciate that I need to be at my mom's side where she needs me. So all that being said, let's get back to the fun and games. And we're launching a brand new piece today. And it is well very much a companion piece to Indana which is this beautiful African piece actually from the Kasa tradition arranged by Michael Barrett. I happen to have this wonderful collection of arrangements.

[00:12:39]It's titled Indodana though our piece that we're learning this couple of weeks is in here as well. The piece is called Decock Bab and it is absolutely gorgeous. It's a traditional South African worship song and it's sung again in the Osa language. It's based on the 23rd Psalm translates as lead me father and uh it is very very lovely indeed. It is very very similarly to some of the tippet pieces that we did last week and the week before and so on. It is in an ABA structure. So you have an opening section which introduces the themes. You have a B section which takes on a different character and then you bring back that A section at the end. If you think of it a bit like a sandwich. So the A section is the first piece of bread. Then you got the filling which is the B and then you have another slice of bread on the top. Delicious musical entertainment. Now, we have lots of opportunity in this to sing the solo parts that are marked. And to be really clear where it says solo optional in your score, and you'll see this throughout choir, you are going to sing those parts as well. I think the plan currently is to produce two versions of this piece in the end where we have a version for all solos sung by the choir and another version where the fieries sing the solos and then we have a choice when we put it together. Um, before I go into any more detail, I I'd like you to hear it. This is an absolutely stunning piece, and I'm going to play it to you first of all in all of its glory with the big acoustic and so on. And I'm going to suggest just for now, I know many you've got your scores and they're all set there ready to follow along.

[00:14:28]Close the score. Just let the music wash over you and enjoy because this is absolutely stunning. So everyone this is do bao arranged by Michael Barrett sung by the fiery consort. I do hope you enjoy. Here we go.

[00:15:09]of the power.

[00:15:13]The world.

[00:15:15]The world.

[00:15:36]They don't anyone know the winner.

[00:16:05]Oh, go.

[00:16:26]Oh, I Fall away.

[00:16:48]Sunday.

[00:17:26]Hallelujah.

[00:17:46]You want me?

[00:18:31]above the wall.

[00:18:34]The wall, the wall, the above your nose.

[00:18:57]There you are. Isn't that lovely?

[00:19:01]Such a gorgeous piece. you can see why I've been so looking forward to teaching it to you, especially following IndoDana, which was such a huge hit for all of us. So, let's uh we will have a chance to have a bit of a a bash through that shortly, but let's uh let's have a look at the score and talk about what we're looking at here. So, if everyone could please pick up their PDF scores and examine it from the start, you'll see it starts off you don't have much to do on the first couple of pages. And this is very very deliberate again kind of in keeping with the theme of the the tippet that we had where the you have uh musical material that is worked and reworked and added to. You start off with just this beautiful solo and the ooh underneath.

[00:19:54]So it it has that feel of of slow sunrise. And as these chords build, the dynamic starts to build, but it's rather soft this first time we sing it through. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to take the acoustic off. We're just going to have a practice room start. We're going to have just the first 16 bars or so. Now, just to say altos, any of you out there who'd be happy enough singing an E flat, well, the soprano line, I just think as many of you as possible singing this would be great. Let's take it from the start.

[00:20:28]Just the first couple of pages.

[00:20:52]Power.

[00:21:08]Okay. So that's the first time through.

[00:21:13]Uh now what we do is we add the altos in now singing this lower part which harmonizes and we build the dynamics into the next section. So as the sun rises it gets brighter and the music gets louder. So let's have the next section. Here we go.

[00:21:38]Can I praise the wall?

[00:22:06]Excellent. We will talk about the sounds of the Oser language in a minute, particularly that sound which we're going to need to work on. Now, we move into the third statement of this beautiful music. And at this point, well, Michael Barrett is going to take us up into heaven with this soprano line. Everyone is in. He adds this discount part. Everyone is singing forte. And in fact, he repeats the chorus twice and the top top soprano goes up to a B flat at the bottom of page six. So, let's enjoy. This is the the the the really the heart of this piece and it's one of the reasons why I was singing it when I first heard it.

[00:22:49]Here we go.

[00:23:07]And he repeats the refrain even more beautiful.

[00:23:28]Okay, so that is the end of section A.

[00:23:30]Basically, we've sung the same thing several times over. Just adding more and more layers. Okay, building this huge sound. That's about as big as the piece gets. Now, the tenner's call mewi. We'll talk about the words in a minute. Over.

[00:23:46]We go into the next section and this is section B. It's marked as pooo which means a little bit faster. We pull the dynamic right back. And this first time now we sing this four times in total.

[00:24:10]Each time it's getting louder and more insistent. Here we go. Here's section B.

[00:24:27]When we sing it a bit louder and even louder.

[00:24:54]And then bases on their own. They're going to love this. And then as loud as you can.

[00:25:11]And then tempo primo. we return to the sound of the opening. So that's the structure of the piece. Let's talk now a little bit more about the style of it.

[00:25:23]Now if you've had a chance to listen to the Tuk Camarata version of this which is conducted by Michael Barrett himself and this piece was written for them.

[00:25:34]It's absolutely phenomenal. Do watch it.

[00:25:37]It's had millions and millions and millions of views quite right too. In fact, it was that performance I watched that uh said that inspired me to program this for all of you. You'll notice that there is a jbe playing. Now, the jbe is this drum here. They come in all sorts of sizes, including this little travel jbe that I have. Uh so, be assured that we will indeed be adding a jbe part to this. I'm commissioning a bright young percussionist uh who I will tell you about next week.

[00:26:08]Let's just say she she doesn't live too far from me right now. Uh she will be playing the jbe for us. More on that next week. So let's talk about the words. What are we actually singing here? Well, it's based as I say on the 23rd Psalm. The words translate approximately as he paid for me by dying on the cross, my father. He paid for me by representing me while on earth, my father. Father, I thank you because you will always keep me safe. I implore you to lead me so that I may follow. During times of sorrow and strife, you are always standing nearby. Now you can see certain words repeat. B is father obviously.

[00:27:09]Dwami these is approximately as the word should sound. Now there are some really good notes as provided by Michael Barrett. At the start of your score on the second page you will see pronunciation. It says all vowels are pure as in Latin pronunciation. The H.

[00:27:28]So you can see this bottom line here before the L is pronounced as okay as in clangen. Those of you with the Welsh persuasion will be at an advantage to everyone else. Everyone else be quite useful for you to be able to make that sound.

[00:27:45]Okay. Now the the sound that everyone is going to be sweating over is the sound.

[00:27:52]Now, it's not the same as a Okay, these are different sounds. It said it's a click sound produced by placing the tip of the tongue in the front of the mouth and pulling the tongue back sharply as if one was displeased by the actions of another person. Okay? So again, those of you who I'm going to I'm going to stereotype, but those of us of the British persuasion, imagine you're queuing at the supermarket and somebody pushes in front of you and you're not going to say anything, so you're far too polite, but you're going to give them a hard stare, the back of their head, a hard stare, and you might even do one of these.

[00:28:27]It's that sort of sound. So you've got to practice getting that in with an e sound. We will spend time on it in your sectional rehearsals. If in doubt, if that just proves impossible, just go before it and it will blend beautifully.

[00:28:45]We did the same thing with Indodana.

[00:28:46]Okay? So, I'm giving you a pass. If you practice, if you can't make that sound, it's fine.

[00:28:58]You can go instead. Now, how do I know it's fine? because I reached out to Michael Barrett himself. Here he is, Dr. Michael Barrett. He is an internationally acclaimed composer, conductor, educator, and coral clinician. And he led the University of Ptoria Camarata, otherwise known as Tux from 2013 to 2025. Uh, and he is just an amazing musician. and he's a doctor of coral performance and uh he's also the executive director and co-producer of Capital Singers who are South Africa's largest community choir and I reached out to him on uh on social media and I said to him how much we enjoyed learning and singing in Doddana and that we were going to be singing this piece and we were so looking forward to it and he wrote back, "Hey Ben, thank you so much for the kind words. They mean a great deal. Thank you for doing my music.

[00:29:49]Please send my best to your singers."

[00:29:52]So, a message from Michael Barrett himself to all of you. He knows we're singing it. He's really happy. And uh I will invite him ultimately to the premiere of our performance, folks. So, there we go. Now, uh before we get on and talk in any more detail about this, let's talk about how we're going to approach this piece. We have two weeks to look at one piece, but there's quite a lot to unpick uh in this. So week one, that's this week, we're going to have uh live teaching today. So after this launch, tenners, uh we will meet at 6:00 p.m. Uh that will be a live rehearsal.

[00:30:30]Tomorrow, bases at 5:00 p.m. That will be another live rehearsal. And then this Thursday, 5 and 6:00 p.m. sopranos and altos. This will be pre-recorded sessions. I will be at the town hall, but I won't be able to stay around afterwards. So these will be pre-recorded sessions, one of which I've already done from my mother's house in Essex. Okay. So I it's a good rehearsal sopranos. Um but just so you're aware that those will be pre-recorded and thank you for your understanding. And similarly next week I will be in Essex visiting my mother from Monday to Wednesday. And so next week we're looking at the stop two and three alto 2 tenner two base two and three parts because there's lots and lots of parts to look at. So, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday will all be pre-records.

[00:31:17]They'll be good, but they'll be pre-records. And tenders and bases again will be live next week. It's just the way of things, folks. And again, I'm really grateful for your understanding and patience. Um, my mom needs me, and I know those of you, well, all of you would understand. I need to be with her, but I'll make sure you have plenty of fun to be getting on with in the meantime. So, let's have a go at a couple of bits of this. I'm going to take this uh thing off screen. I think we should roll our heads around, roll our shoulders around.

[00:31:48]Nice deep breaths in and out.

[00:31:51]I think the thing to remember with this is it has to sound joyous. It has to sound relaxed and it can't sound too I'm going to say the word coral. Obviously, it needs to sound a cruel, but I don't want to be classical. Yes, we've sung a lot of very classical pieces this year.

[00:32:06]We've had Bach. We've had Vivaldi filtered through Joe Forbes the Strange.

[00:32:11]weave had bird. Even the tippet was kind of classical coral. This is something else, which is why it's perfect for summer school. So, it's got to it's got to have this sense of singing up. And I think the uh the style very much supports that. So, let's roll our heads and roll the shoulders. A nice deep breath in and out. Thank you so much.

[00:32:33]Some lovely lovely comments. I'm I'm just so grateful all of you. Very, very moved. Thank you.

[00:32:41]As you all say to me all the time, family first. Well, absolutely. I'm going to make sure my mom's all right, but I'm going to make sure my coral family is also looked after. So, there we go.

[00:32:53]Okay, take a deep breath in and blow the air away.

[00:32:58]Splendid. Okay, that's fantastic.

[00:33:03]We'll just sing up that fourth to a hum.

[00:33:06]And and again.

[00:33:13]And an ooh ooh and ooh and an o. O and one more. Oh, very nice to ya ya ya ya yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo yo ya ya ya ya.

[00:34:10]Excellent. Excellent. Okay, let's uh let's have a look. All of you, thank you again. Your comments are just so gorgeous. Bless you all. Thank you. Um let's have a look. And obviously, not everyone's going to sing all of this, but why not? Let's all have a look at this soprano line at the start. We'll just sing it in octaves whichever voice part you are because this will help you get into the style of the piece and indeed into the pronunciation of the words. So if I just play the first statement here. So it's at the start solo optional. There's no optional.

[00:34:43]We're all singing it. It goes like this.

[00:34:53]>> Okay.

[00:34:58]The kh sound uh I believe is a is there's definitely a c but there's h after it. K.

[00:35:08]Try that with me.

[00:35:11]That's lovely. And the d is just before the d. So it's 1 2.

[00:35:22]Let's try that together. Ready? one.

[00:35:32]Excellent. And then whichever octave suits you, it's one and the long note at the end is the important one. So you want to make sure that grows and blossoms.

[00:35:51]All right. So let's sing bar five.

[00:35:52]Bottom of the first page. After two, it's 1 2.

[00:36:02]Excellent.

[00:36:04]And then there's that sound. So just say it with me in time. 1 2 and again one zona.

[00:36:21]Doesn't matter whether you're a bass or a soprano. We're all going to sing this for now as we learn it. So after two 1.

[00:36:30]Excellent. Then sing that for me. There's two bows. So it's 1 2 and then try saying that with me. Ready? One, two, the might be a bit tricky. So, think of as bonga as in the feminine bongo if you like. And then just take the change the vowel and do it again.

[00:37:11]Try that for me.

[00:37:14]So try try from the start the phrase.

[00:37:17]One, two.

[00:37:22]Good. Well done. And then try that.

[00:37:32]Excellent. Now the fieries, bless them, have not done those clicks themselves. Josh has put in a which is not quite the right click. It's definitely a sound much more related to the tut of somebody pushing in front of you in the queue.

[00:37:48]Okay. So practice getting that with me again.

[00:38:01]The T sound will do if you can't make the sound in time. So let's have a go at that. Let's look at bar 13.

[00:38:17]Okay. So let's try it after two. It's one.

[00:38:29]Excellent. Let's sing it from the start.

[00:38:31]Just this soprano line. Here we go.

[00:38:38]Oh, and one, two, one, two.

[00:39:11]Excellent. Excellent. Now underneath that we have the harmonies and this is what Michael Barrett has added in. These harmonies are what make this piece. It's an absolutely beautiful tune, beautiful words. The harmonies make it really very very powerful indeed. And so we have this. If I just mute the sopranos. How dare you? But I'm going to do it anyway.

[00:39:37]Have a listen to the harmonies underneath. So this is Alto's tennis bases.

[00:39:46]So it's this beautiful supportive sound.

[00:39:51]Last bar of the first page going on to the second page.

[00:40:00]And this is where things get beautiful.

[00:40:05]This chord >> and you hear the altos coming in there for the first time. Though of course because this choir of the earth altos you can record 101. There's plenty of fun to be had there. So, let's put it all together. Let's have this first couple of pages. I do see from the live chat channel, not everyone's got their scores yet. Well, when you get them, you come back and watch this and all make sense. Of course, you do need your scores for the sectional rehearsals cuz we're not able to show it on screen. It is a copyright work. So, do please support Michael Barrett and do support uh music in general and buy your scores.

[00:40:50]Here we go. From the start soprano is leading we get and 2 3 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 this chord.

[00:41:30]The announcers come in.

[00:41:41]Can I be praising God of God?

[00:41:53]Power.

[00:42:10]I think what we'll do everyone is we'll enjoy it all the way through in its full mix with all of the acoustic and so on. And of course we'll take it through uh in your sectional rehearsals this week. Next week we're looking at all of the second and third parts. So this week it's soprano one, alter one, tenner one, bass one, and then next week we'll add in the other parts and do conducting tracks at that point as well.

[00:42:37]I just don't want to rush it. It's such a gorgeous piece. So, let's enjoy it from the start and then I have a special treat for you. Some of you, I think, can guess what I'm going to play you at the end here as a little preview of what this might sound like uh when choir of the earth sing it. But let's take it from the start. This of course is decock le arranged by Michael Barrett and this is fierous recording for us soon to have a jimbe added in as well. But this is very special indeed folks. Here it is from the start. Do enjoy.

[00:43:31]The wall the wall the The one who killing Jesus climb.

[00:44:33]Oh Musical.

[00:45:17]Hallelujah.

[00:45:47]Hallelujah.

[00:46:05]They go any winner.

[00:46:28]I decid.

[00:46:34]Bing anyone of all your of the winner who is.

[00:47:18]So there you are. That is our beautiful piece for the next couple of weeks. And remember, we're going to be taking the first part. So soprano one, alto one, tenner one, bass part, uh, bass one.

[00:47:32]this week, next week, all the lower parts. But please do come to both rehearsals. There'll be plenty in it for all the voice parts. As always, if you find yourself looking at it going, well, I could sing it all except for that note or those two notes, please do record it.

[00:47:48]It's one of the great joys of Choir of the Earth. If you feel that it's a bit too high or a bit too low, don't let it stop you recording. They'll without doubt there are dozens, hundreds of people who will put that note in and you can leave that one on the page. You don't want to miss an opportunity to sing as much of this as possible. I do have to warn you, however, everyone, this is a sincere warning. This piece, it's yet another earworm. At this point, I think we should market a t-shirt just says warning, earworms ahead or something like that because it's it's pretty much every course. This piece has been in my head non-stop for the last week and it's only going to get worse as the week progresses. So don't say I didn't warn you, but it's a nice problem to have. So we'll be kicking off with the tenners shortly in about 10 minutes time. But I thought well given that this is such a special piece and it is very much related to another piece that we did all the way back in 2023.

[00:48:49]Indoana was a bit of a breakout smash hit for us as a choir. It was the first time we'd ever sung anything arranged by Michael Barrett. first time we'd ever done anything directly inspired by South African music and it's fair to say it still stands as one of the best things this choir has ever produced. And for those of you who joined us since we sang it, I want to give you a little sense of what this piece we're learning this week is going to sound like when all of you out there learn it and sing it with us.

[00:49:20]Send your voice parts in. This should give you a little hint. So everyone, this is Indana as performed by Choir of the Earth. Again, arranged by Michael Barrett and Ralph Schmidt as well. It's very, very special. Here we go.

[00:49:48]for the world.

[00:49:56]Oh sh He ended In order conord Hord.

[00:51:34]I met Oh Lord.

[00:51:46]Hallelu.

[00:52:04]I am Oh, I I am.

[00:52:37]I am home.

[00:53:02]Oh, Lord. Oh, h in all the sh and conqual.

[00:54:08]as I say, a little taster of what Choir of the Earth can do when everyone is working hard together, learning and recording. Well, there's nothing like it. And if you weren't around to sing on that one, well, don't worry. The next couple of weeks, we're going to be looking at dole babo. And then maybe in a couple of years time, there'll be people going, I wish I'd sung on that one. Don't miss out on your chance to join us. If you are just dropping in for today and you'd like to be part of it, have a look at choof of the earth.com and join us for this. We've got a beautiful piece of Elgar coming up in a few weeks time as well. That is his looks eternal which takes the stunning Nimrod from the Enigma variations and adds coral words to it as well. We've then got the Dance to the Sugar Plum Fairy and that'll be led by Ralph Allwood MBE, our patron and good friend.

[00:54:59]And then around the corner, well, you've got Mr. Tango. You've got Heiden Maria Theres Mass. Absolutely fabulous music for the rest of 2026. Don't forget on Thursday this week we're going to be telling you an awful lot more about what's coming up in the world of Choir of the Earth. So do join us for the town hall that is members and associate members only and any other information.

[00:55:21]Have a look at the website and follow us on social media. Now I'm going to uh click off now and be back in 5 minutes time to take an hour's worth of tenner rehearsals. So look forward to seeing you there. Do join us for any of the sectional rehearsals, those of you who are members. And uh I hope you're looking forward to this cuz I'm really looking forward to teaching it to you.

[00:55:39]See you soon, folks. Well done. Bye.