…Singing
It has been rumoured that the French are bending their tinwhistles and rushing to take singing lessons and join choirs!!
From the article:
"Nine million French people have rushed to see a film about singing. Could it change our lives, too?
One summer’s morning at the Dartington festival, where amateur musicians and professionals work together as equals, I found myself belting out a Berlioz chorus beside a man who, from the cut of his shirt and the four sharpened pencils in its top pocket, was unmistakably French.
In the coffee break, we got chatting. He and his wife were members of a Paris choral society. On discovering my occupation, he blanched. ‘Please do not write in France about this festival,’ he begged. ‘There are 500 choruses in Paris and they will all want to come.’
The poor chap was right to be alarmed. Singing, like most social activities in France, is driven by the whims of fashion. Suddenly, it has become le dernier cri de tout Paris. There is talk of young execs switching their gym cards for lunchtime choir practice. Parents are reported to be moving children to schools with better sol-fa teaching.
Full text here:
http://www.scena.org/columns/lebrecht/050216-NL-chorus.html
MarkB