Let the people sing

When we were in Bedoin (see photos) in France in June we saw a poster for a Chant Choral in the Chapelle Notre Dame de Nazarene with three local choirs singing. I wrote about the excellent film The Chorus in an earlier post, and we had heard stories of how the film had rejuvenated amateur choirs throughout France. So we went along to the Chapelle to see what it was all about.
We arrived ten minutes before the free concert, and just managed to bag the last two pew seats. The church kept filling until the whole space was filled using extra chairs, and then it was standing room only at the back. We hadn't seen a music venue so packed since Jacques Loussier played St Peter Mancroft in Norwich - an interesting French connection.
The first choir to sing came from the neighbouring village of Villes sur Auzon. Despite being technically the least secure they stole the show with a wonderful arrangement of Renaud's La Ballade Nord-Irlandaise (Ballad of Northern Ireland) which was encored. Next on was the home choir from Bedoin augmented by singers from the village of caromb. Finally all the choirs combined for a finale which concluded with the Ode to Joy from Beethoven 9.

Here is the programme from the concert (with apologies to French readers for the absence of accents on my version of Blogger) -
A la Claire Fontaine (traditional), Les Marches de provence (G.Becaud), Mistral Gagnant (Renaud), La chanson de Prevert (Gainsboug), Le jazz et la java (Nougaro), La Ballade Nord-Irlandaise (Renaud), Aragon et Castille (B.Lapointe), Lascia ch'io pianga (Haendel), La mazurka souto li pin (Aubanel), Verte campagne (Gilkyson), Ballade en Novembre (Anne Vanderlove), Les Corons (Lang & Bachelet), Slava - Liturgie Orthidoxe Russe, A ti - Habanera (R.H Cano & I.Torregrosa Villen), Milles colombes (E.Marnay & N.Ott), Fraternite (9th Symphony Beethoven)
If you enjoyed this post take an overgrown path to The Chorus sings Tallis and Tippett
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