Confluence

Shreen Harmony

The first major project initiated by Confluence in late 1998 was the formation of a new community choir in Mere, Wiltshire, to write and perform new Winter Songs and River Carols. Initially the choir was to have a limited life, coming together to create a programme and outdoor perfomance for Christmas. Given the association between choral singing and the church, the seasonal richness of Christmas became an obvious focus to attract interest in the creation and performance of music.

Establishing a community choir involves a great deal of preparation and a knowledge of some of the town's key players who can provide contacts and enthusiastic input. For the first weeks Helen Porter was constantly telephoning and going to see potential singers; everyone we met was encouraged share the welcome extended to them with anyone they thought might be interested. Helen, with Karen Wimhurst, also addressed an assembly at Duchy Manor School in Mere. Another important task was to establish that no other major outdoor singing or indoor community event was to take place at around the same time.

The first gathering was held in a community hall in the centre of town; for eight weeks 30 - 40 people turned up for serious practice as the songs themselves were being developed. Helen tutored and conducted the choir, while Karen worked in parallel on lyric writing and composition sessions.

Other work was in progress involving the Girl Guides in lantern making, the school in writing/performing processional music, individuals to join a band of street musicians, the vicar in opening the church, and the candle makers Ethos on the industrial estate in donating candles.

The music written combined new carols with water at their heart, written by local people, and new arrangements of traditional West Country Carols. The river carols are true in many ways to the tradition of carolling: joyful songs, sung by 'common people', music for the open air, in celebration of a Christian festival.

They are also true in another, seemingly paradoxical sense, in that they are new. Our conscious effort to modernise was not a novel idea, for carols have developed and been changed according to the trends of the times over centuries. Not to update them, to revere them by setting them in stone, is to take away the most important characteristic of the carol, and to throw away the key to their survival.

Initially, a weekly composing session had been advertised to run alongside the community choir rehearsals. At the same time Helen and Karen talked to a number of people about the idea of writing their own carols and winter songs for the choir. This grassroots networking proved more successful, so rather than running a group, Karen worked on a one-to-one basis with a number of individuals.

Karen describes the work: "It seemed to kick off with a number of strange ad hoc visitations when individuals would push some words into my hands and scamper off before I'd had time to even register the event. Cries of 'if it's no good, throw it away, I shan't mind' and so on were faintly heard! I then managed to make appointments with each person (except for the poem which came in surreptitiously unnamed) to begin work".

As the choir began to learn the new music, it became clear that there was a real sense of excitement at singing local material. Even the arrangements, which were fairly taxing for a newly formed choir to take on, did not seem to worry people unduly. Many people remarked that they hadn't expected us to get any material from people. In fact, it was the opposite. We ended up with too much material to learn in the time available. It also became necessary to work separately with a small 'core' choir to guarantee a strong musical back bone for the performance.

Over seventy people were involved with the preparations for carolling. Apart from the 40+ strong choir, there were also street musicians, children from Duchy Manor School and Girl Guides. But the event touched many more people from Mere and beyond. Ethos candles; Chris Woods, from Mere Fish Farm, who supplied the collecting churn; Ben Elliot, the Vicar of Mere, who gave permission for the carolling to begin in his church. And as we processed through the streets, a small crowd gathered and followed.

Hazel Keen, the tourist Information officer for Mere, who had been so central to our activities in Mere, was unable to be at the performance, due to a shoulder operation scheduled for the same day. Hazel had strongly supported the project from the beginning. Not only had she continually and relentlessly publicised the choir and Christmas carolling for us from within the information centre, but had also written one of the carols for the choir to perform, Rejoice in the River. She had allowed the Tourist office window to be decorated in a wintery, rivery musical fashion by children from Duchy Manor School, under the eye of art teacher Tony Rogers. (Tony, incidentally, played the accordian and was one of the band of street musicians!). According to nurses at the hospital, after the operation, as Hazel starting coming out of the anaesthetic she sang the carols the group had been rehearsing for the last few weeks!

There were many repercussions of this formative work in Mere - for example, the church handbells were mended and the parent and toddlers group wrote a carol which was played in the local supermarket. It also raised the profile of Confluence in the area dramatically, and elicited approaches from a variety of local people and groups, including the Youth Club. Perhaps the most significant repurcussion, however, was the formation of Shreen Harmony.

Many members of the Christmas choir had enjoyed the experience and expressed an interest in continuing into the new year. Helen agreed to continue as director, and, after democratically naming itself Shreen Harmony (despite an attempt at vote rigging...) the group quickly began to weave itself into the fabric of community life.

Although not everyone continued with the choir after the River Carolling (some belonged to other choirs already, some had originally only wanted to commit for a short time) Shreen Harmony quickly acquired six new members and others have joined over the subsequent two years. The group continue to rehearse three times a month. It has a completely mixed age range, and has featured members as young as seven, as well as teenagers, a few young mothers, and older people. Not being predominantly old or young makes it welcoming to newcomers of any age group.

Local musicians also continue to provide new songs for the group, with the river as inspiration, such as The River of Life by Sue Green, and Out and About with a Trout by Jane Flynn, as well as Where the Stour meets the Sea, a composition for solo voice, flute, guitar and accompanying chorus by local folk singer Paul Stone.

During the rehearsal sessions Helen works with the group not only on rehearsing songs, but also on learning about how the voice works, and thereby opening up the voice and developing vocal skills. This is necessary as the majority of people in the group are inexperienced singers. The members of the choir feel very happy about the balance between singing songs and learning about vocal technique. They can hear the improvement they are making, both as individuals and as a choir. During Confluence, Helen took part in training sessions with voice-coaching professionals EVTS.UK - this work has been invaluable to Helen's dealings with singing groups.

In the first year of the choir, it was felt that it would be stronger with a larger membership. There were without doubt people who, if they knew about its existence and the way in which it worked, would be very interested in joining. This issue was addressed in a number of ways, including a well advertised open rehearsal at a local lecture hall, and a concert-cum-open rehearsal in a local library. The group's existence was publicised in the local press and radio. These approaches were successful to a point, but the amost effective method still remained word of mouth, many new members being drawn in through Helen's work on other Confluence projects.

Shreen Harmony have begun to establish a 'tradition' in Mere of performing the new songs and carols at Christmas each year. Since the first in 1998, this has successfully taken place in 1999 and 2000. The choir undergoes a transformation at this time of year, as many additional people join who are interested in involvement for intensive event - specific work, but are not able to commit to the choir for the rest of the year.

The choir has also worked with other local singing groups, such as the Silton Singers from Gillingham. Together they performed a carol service in Gillingham. One member of the congregation commented that it was the best service he had ever been to. The vicar, also, was delighted to hear such a strong choir in his church. Unfortunately, plans to rehearse and perform more intensively with the Silton Singers did not come to fruition.

Shreen Harmony have performed in a variety of locations and for a number of causes, including English Nature's nature reserve festival at Hambledon Hill, and as part of Mere's annual Literary Festival. The organiser of the literary festival, Adrienne Howell, writes "Shreen Harmony ... really got our Words and Music concert off to a great start with their excellent singing. It was so pleasing to have such a good audience to spread the word. People are still talking about how much they enjoyed the evening".

As a significant strand of Confluence, they were strongly evident in the final stages of the project, notably at the Music At The Source choral day in 2001 at the National Trust gardens at Stourhead.

The choir represented the community in an event staged at the Wiltshire Music Centre in Bradford on Avon in 2001. Entitled the Villages Concert, it showcased singing groups from villages across the county. Shreen Harmony on this occasion were directed by locak musician Sammy Hurden, who wrote a new song for the collected choirs to perform. The group soon became enthusiastic about the new piece and greatly enjoyed the venture.

Helen Porter directed the choir until the end of Confluence, actively looking at ways in which it might become more self sufficient, including managing its own financial affairs. Consideration was put into ways in which her involvement could reduced, and the directorship handed on to a local musician. As a consequence, the group worked with retired music teacher Linda Brown during the summer of 2001 and Helen returned to direct them during the winter.

Karen Wimhurst has written several pieces for Shreen Harmony - Eel ways; Water Gardens and Meeting Places.