Christmas at Morice Town
OK, Christmas is great and particularly Christmas at home; but the best place in the world to be at Christmas is in a primary school. Whether you are one of the punters or a teacher, it makes no difference; it is just the best place on earth to be at Christmas and it is only when you have been part of that for a substantial period of your life and then leave .... you find out just how special it is.
Carols; school performances; concerts; advent calendars; stained glass windows; gifts; decorations; stories ... nowhere else on earth is Christmas done like it is in primary school ...
I taught at Morice Town for nearly twenty years, an inner city school in Plymouth that had a broad demographic of children and parents. Some would have said it was in the "rough part of the city" but as for the children I knew and taught there, I was very honoured to spend time in their company. They were strong and creative and proud and once they had allowed you to become their friend, were ready to give you everything they had; dedicated and loyal.
I started a choir that performed at Christmas and for main school events; not something that one would have thought would have been regarded as a prestigious group amongst the kids, but it was. There was a culture akin to the X-Factor; they wanted to perform, to sing, to entertain. And the repertoire was not a bland mix of Rudolph and snowmen either ... it included "Angelus ad Virginem" "Personent Hodie" ,"The Coventry Carol", Ralph Vaughn Williams ... big, heavy stuff that was so rewarding when it came off that both the kids and I thought we were invincible.
Mum loved the idea of me working with kids in a choir or a production and would often come down to Plymouth from Liverpool especially to watch one of the school shows or concerts.
I am not the world's most versatile musician and so use technology wherever I can to supplement my meagre talents. I am in the slow reader's group for music and so if I need to learn a new carol from a book I scan the music; convert it to a MIDI file using an optical music reader; listen to the MIDI version and learn it by ear and then use MIDI software to arrange the piece. Some would call it cheating I guess.
"See Amid the Winter's Snow" included as a download here used this technology to record the children singing their three separate parts in different sections of the buiding and then assembling it electronically in software. The results are not too bad.
I wrote "The Story" especially for the Morice Town children and it is a big powerful orchestral piece that drives a choir on to sing strongly and jubilantly. We sang it on a number of occasions, particularly in the evenings leading up to Christmas in and around town.
I never told the kids I had written it; they just thought it was another part of the huge Christmas repertoire.
Best compliment I could have had really ....
