‘MAY DAY’ MADRIGALS EVENT
The May Bank Holiday Monday is the traditional date for our annual madrigals event. With a misty start and only light cloud, happily it looked like we would not be singing in the rain. Arriving at St Mary’s Church in Long Crendon, the choir prepared for the ‘interesting’ ascent up the claustrophobic medieval stairwell to the top of the church tower. The vertiginous view of the village below and slightly precarious access on the slippery lead roof, makes for a challenging stage.
Local villagers including small children and dogs started to congregate in the church yard to witness the church-top performance . The familiar confines of the rehearsal room were replaced with a vast open space. David located a safe-ish spot to direct the start of the madrigals. Singing early in the morning is quite hard to do, as the voice is still warming up, but the choir kicked off proceedings with ‘April is my Mistress Face’, by Thomas Morley. Appreciative applause from below indicated that we could be heard, and it gave encouragement for completing the set of madrigals without sustaining injury.
Once the choir had descended from the tower, the village congregation assembled in church to listen to the second half of the set pieces. This was a much more conducive place to sing. David expertly corralled the audience participation for the sung rounds of ‘Come let us all a-Maying go’ and ‘Well Rung Tom’.
The set was finished off with the old favourite ‘Now is the month of Maying’ preceded by the rather wonderful madrigal arrangement of the Beatles song ‘Can’t buy me Love’.
Following a quick chat with friends and family, the choir then bade farewell to St Mary’s and scooted off to St Nicholas’ Church in Cuddington. The tower here is less high and has a flat roof which greatly helps with singing-out the madrigals. With our voices warmed up, and less concern about falling off, performances were more assured. The sounds of ‘Fair Phyllis’ and ‘Thus said my Cloris Bright’ wafted sweetly over the audience below. Back down into the church for the second set, the passionate Italian madrigal ‘Il bianco e dolce cigno’ belayed the fact it was still only 10:15am in the morning.
Everyone joined in with the final rendition of ‘Now is the month of Maying’ followed by thanks and a request for charity support. Cakes, tea and coffee were then proffered to complete the occasion.
The ambience of the May madrigal event is really lovely; a community coming together in a beautiful old church, ringing with the rendition of traditional songs and the background sound of birds singing, barking dogs and babbling babies. Funds are raised and future events are also promoted.
