The citizens' choir

Before we left home I received a newsletter which mentioned the formation of a scratch choir to end up taking part in three concerts.  There had already been two rehearsals but there were still 3 to go, two being on the weekend we expected to arrive.  I asked by email if I could join and was sent a link to the music in advance.

It has proved great fun, musically not that good but very sociable as most members were coming together for the first time, so it was very open, no cliques. We only sang 6 songs but had to learn them by heart, which was particularly difficult for me of course, both from the point of view of serious memory challenge and 2 foreign languages - 3 if you count "rap". One song in English, 4 in French and one in Catalan.

We rehearsed all day Saturday, with a lunch break when several people brought home-made food to share, and Jon came with a pack-up for us. All very convivial. It was organized by the Chapeau Rouge, which runs various music workshops and holds regular concerts, all in a rambling building in the arty quarter just outside of the city walls.

Convivial citizens' choir at lunch

On Sunday we met from 1 till 6, and it was gradually dawning on me that all the songs were revolutionary. We sang about the bourgeois in Paris being well fed, but there being poor people with empty stomachs, and that those who sow misery reap anger. And if you heave from there and I heave from here then the whole thing is sure to come down - together we will win - let's dance. Another one sang of having bread as golden as...., and wine that sparkles like... and we'll have beds, and the sea next to the stars etc etc. when our golden age arrives. (The one song in English was the Banana Boat Song, by the way).  And my favourite - Tout bradé, oo ils ont tout bradé - All sold off, oh yes they've sold everything off. Anti-privatization or what?

Rehearsal

Another rehearsal on Friday 13th all afternoon, home for 20 minutes to change and eat and back for the concert, which was amazing. We were just a small part of it but the place was electric. The concert hall had no chairs and people danced and leapt around like mad things. The guys who had been rehearsing us were a very lively group who got the whole thing off the ground and by the time we came on, the audience were ready for anything. all joining in and waving fists in the air. We sang our hearts out and swayed and stamped to the rhythm so that the raised platform some of us were standing on started to bounce alarmingly and the sweat was running into my eyes!

Video of Tout Bradé from the first concert    And the Banana Boat Song

Now we don't meet again until the next concert which is in the open air in one of the poorer suburbs just before we come back home.  The main concert is part of the city festival in late June and I'm really sorry I shall miss that.