"Baba Yetu" twice in one weekend in Guyana

I am a groupie for choral singing and this weekend I went to both performances by the Georgetown Chamber Chorus. The Chorus has a mission to bring diverse music to Guyana. Their rendition of " Baba Yetu" the Lord's Prayer in Swahili was moving, and it is stuck in my head.


(Political note: I learnt that Baba Yetus composed for a Game Civilization 1V - The official music video is rated 10+ and I noted that there is this view of what civilisation and culture are in the video.. that's for another rant, the music is good.) .


 The Georgetown Chamber Chorus' 2011 December Concert  was powerful, not only for the music, but also coming soon after the miserable elections period. All kinds of people were willing to gather in one of Guyana's monuments - some kind of unity perhaps after a period of intense polarisation -  to enjoy music from a group which was not well known at the time. 

This weekend, the first performance was at Night Cap, in an open venue. It was a great atmosphere. Casual (a friend asked me how come I am going in slippers) and I felt comfortable joining in singing the audience carols, and also singing the tunes I recognised. The dim lights and the space created a different kind of experience - creating a bit more distance than the physical distance from the group. I also realised that the reasons I enjoy Night Cap.. that the open space perhaps dissipates some of the sound and there is a feeling of quietness - that it means acoustics for any sound engineer would prove a challenge.
 The spirit was great - the joy of the members of the choir transferred to the audience. The open air acoustics caused me to feel brave and to sing along and not worry about whether my interpretation of the notes would clash with anyone else's.

Sunday was at Moray House Trust. I went in while the choir was tuning up.. and it was beautiful.. no microphones, the sound reverberating on the wood in the enclosed space. It was (semi)formal though ( same friend asked me again about the slippers). The acoustics were perfect. As a result I felt less inclined to sing along even in the communal carols in case my high notes clashed with the high notes of others. The joy again of the chorus members was more present and vivid (to me) in this brighter, closed environment.

One of the guys told me that he felt really good about being part of the chorus - it was something good to do in Guyana and for him to connect back with the singing which he had not done since primary school. In addition to perceptions of corruption, cocaine in fish food and chowmein, and the murder and mayhem, these are the kinds of stories of people in Guyana which should be told as they make their living here.

The first time I sang in a choir was at the 1988 Sixth Form Graduation Ceremony at QC. Jeremy - the conductor- identified me and two other guys as "tenor". We were singing the popular, almost cliche,  graduation song of that time "Do you know where you are going to" from Diana Ross.
We enjoyed rehearsing.  There was a particular part for the tenors to sing prominently. The day, one of the other guys did not turn up and the other guy was a bit hoarse. We agreed.. okay - the other singers would sing a bit lower, I would sing a bit higher and all should be well.

We reached the part.. and I noticed some parents in the audience smiling at me with the kind of 'let us keep encouraging him rather than tell him to shut up' smiles. I realised that my colleagues had decided to help me along by singing very softly or not at all, and I had raised my voice a bit to make up for the missing others - so the audience had a wonderful treat for a few minutes

The second time I sang on any stage was with the University of Guyana Choir in 1989 - I was in love so ended up singing in the Choir.. Botany Bay (music director was Australian), two Amerindian songs (taught by Desrey Fox) .. and then switching modes to sing in the Hindu Society gole to sing a bhajan and a chowtaal. There were no auditions for either group. I am not ashamed of my ability to sing to my own beats and to choose my own notes when I feel like it. One friend said she noticed my foot tapping and so on.

There are other traditions of singing communally, but these are often recognised as 'folk singing' . The Hindu tradition includes group singing in goles for Chowtaal and for Ramayana. I am drawn to singing in the group, because there is a certain kind of spirit which comes from being able to create something together.. with people who you might not meet often.

Something about this possibility of  focussing on a task at hand, and forgetting differences or similarities on politics or other issues. One of the things about singing in the Goles which have older members, is this idea of connecting a thread through time ( a text which with story from a thousand years ago, the displaced immigrants who sang by lamplight and from memory) and across space (Guyana, India) .   Baba Yetu.. is like that.. though I feel some twinges at the politics of Christian conversion and its role in the enslavement of Africans.. I think of the group of mostly English speakers learning to sing in the different language and doing this kind of connecting with people who they might not meet.

Sunday night, I left the Georgetown Chamber Chorus performance early to go sing with the Gole. Different group, different music, different histories but same purpose, same 'country'.


(Imperfect recordings from the 2012 Ramayana Gole Satsangh are here )