 MUSIC
IN MY CHURCH At the early age of eight my friend introduced me to a new and different form of enjoyment, this was the local church choir which her parents manage. It was a group combined of approximately twenty people in total, both children and adults. Now nine years onward, group has grown to be twenty-five solely in the children’s section which is called the ‘Junior Choir’ and twenty in the ‘Adults Choir’. The growth of members in the choir shows how interesting and enjoyable the choir actually is, and the fact that we now have children as young as five starting the group. This demonstrates how music and church are an important part of many families’ lives. As I have said I have been a member of the choir for nine years now and still find it fresh and exciting whenever I go. Choir practices are held once a week on Wednesdays in the church (which is a fascinating and beautiful demonstration of English architecture, and is definitely the glorious centre- piece of my town) for an hour. In this hour the Junior Choir meet together without the adults and practise music for the coming Sunday and large events of the Church year such as Christmas and Easter, where we learn special pieces of music which the congregation will find pleasing to their ears. Last year (1999) had an extremely special service which none of us will ever be present for again – ‘The Millennium Eve Service’. This service was held on the 31st December at 6.30 in the evening. It was a service where the congregation and we (the choir) sang a few hymns together inside the church but at the closure of the service every member of both choir and congregation went and stood outside and sang one final blessing ‘The Millennium Prayer’. Although it was very cold standing outside in the bitter wind I will never forget how much that short thirty-minute service meant to me! Many people were in pubs at the time or at home with friends and family drinking lots of alcohol, but I will remember forever the one chance that I had to stand in front of the church in a united crowd, and sing for the last time in the millennium a blessing to the world and all the people in it. Whilst one is in the church choir it is possible to gain a series of awards for singing which you have to pass an exam for. There are five levels/grades, which are displayed by certain colours. Light blue is the colour which is achieved for grade one, dark blue for grade two, red for grade three, dark green for grade four and purple for grade five. Grades one to three can be taken at your local church and the choirmaster (leader) will examine you. Whereas, both grades four and five have to be taken out of the church’s area and at a Cathedral where the organist examines you on a number of different things, such as being able to sing confidently and knowing hymns well. If anyone visited England I would recommend that while they are over here they should go and listen to a church choir sing or even better if they had the chance a Cathedral choir as the members of a Cathedral choir practise daily so their singing is of a much higher quality and luxurious to listen to.
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