Oh Happy Day….not!

The last time I wrote about our concerts, we had done one gig at a local Women’s Institute which had gone down very well and we were about to sing at a local church, together with the Holbeach Town Band who were also doing a set.

This second concert was also successful, though probably not as good as our first one. We sang to our backing tracks for most of our set but did join together with the brass band at the end to sing ‘Jerusalem‘ and ‘Land of Hope and Glory’. The band were terrific; we sat listening to them playing and were very impressed, particularly one young man whose solo on the cornet was absolutely beautiful.

So to our next gig which is next Saturday, 13 October at Broad Street Methodist Church, Spalding: a gorgeous venue for singing with excellent acoustics. Our Musical Director, Craig, not one to let us rest on our laurels, has decided to add a couple of new chorus numbers into the set, which has really put the wind up us as there is such a lot to learn in a short space of time and both songs have four-part harmonies.

His chosen songs are from the Sister Act films. The first one, ‘I will Follow Him’ or ‘The Twitter Song’ as I call it at home, was an easy one to learn for the alto ladies as we had the melody. Hoorah. The sopranos found it a little harder. Our chaps were okay with it, I think. All agree it’s a fabulous song.  But we need two soloists: one to sing a few lines which Sister Mary Clarence (Whoopi Goldberg) sings and another to do the real screechy soprano part which Sister Mary Robert belts out at the end of the number. Muggins here is currently practising the screechy bit, along with a few others, to see who can do this justice. It’s an absolute nightmare as it has to be sung loudly, preferably with a chest voice, but is so high there is a real danger of the song being murdered.

Have a look at the video from the film here: the difficult solo bit is from about 2 minutes in:

We were just starting to get used to this one, when the MD throws another Sister Act song into the mix; this time, ‘Oh Happy Day’ from the movie sequel. This has the potential to be a great song but this time we altos have the harmony which is a bit dull and we found it hard to find our notes. In fact never has a song title been so contrasting to our mood. We were a real miserable bunch on Monday when our MD tried to jolly us up and tell us we were doing fine. We weren’t doing fine, we were making a dog’s dinner out of it and we were all making faces at each other which, of course, he was well able to see. I did feel like a churlish schoolgirl, wanting to tell him to shove his Happy Day where the sun don’t shine….but we battled on.

Now, back at home, with a CD to practise to, I think I may be able to do this. Of course it helps I now know the words. For years I used to think it was ‘when Jesus was’ when apparently it’s ‘when Jesus washed’. Makes sense when the next line is ‘my sins away’. No idea who is going to sing the solo for this one. As we’ve only got one rehearsal left before the concert, we need to work quick or Happy Day will be an Unhappy Night. Or we’ll just drop it until we can do it justice.

Right, where’s me wimple?