'The final song was Sally Beamish’s ‘In the stillness’, an advent carol.' Photo: of Sally Beamish © Ashley Coombes
The Quaker Arts Network greeted 2022 with a celebratory concert of songs. John Sheldon was there
‘The concert allowed time for each writer to give some background to their piece.’
We started with ‘We do not own the world’ by Jenny Vickers. This is from a collection of Jenny’s settings of the Advices & queries and was presented as an audio-visual display. There was an uplifting approach to the music with the emphasis on ‘Rejoice in the splendour of God’s continuing creation.’
Tony Biggin and Alec Davison have challenged and delighted many of us over the years with their songs written for the Quaker Youth Theatre, and the Quaker Festival Orchestra and Chorus. It was good to be reminded of one of their early songs, ‘Truth’s a Seed’, which we heard in a version first presented by the Quaker Arts Network at the time of last Yearly Meeting Gathering.
Majk Stokes took a serious but lighthearted look at environmental issues through the eyes of Winnie-the-Pooh and Paddington Bear. Majk has found that a lot of people who appear not to respond to serious matters, warm to his rather quirky take on things.
Stephanie Irvine enchanted us by singing and accompanying herself on the Celtic harp. Stephanie is studying folk music in Sweden and her song speaks of the role of those who tell our stories.
We had more folk music from Susan Hope who played two fiddle tunes: the first a jig, the second called ‘Albatross’, and it was refreshing to have an instrumental interlude in a programme of songs.
We welcomed Susan Stark from the USA and she sang, unaccompanied, her ‘Live up to the Light’. Susan told us that she had been inspired by the writings of early Friends and found Caroline Fox’s junction to ‘live up to the Light that we have’ especially moving.
After a brief interval Claire and Robin Bowman performed John Lampen’s ‘The Beauty that you Love’, a reflection on words by the Sufi poet, Rumi, which also took inspiration from Ralph McTell’s ‘Streets of London’.
Another US contribution came with the invitation to get on the train to ‘Slowville’, certainly a good reminder for me at the beginning of the year! This was a folk-style song by Rick Jerram, a Baltimore-based musician.
Mig Kerr shared two short songs. These had a meditative feel and also used words by Rumi. Mig wrote these songs for her natural voice choir, Soulsinging, and they were performed by three members of the group.There was more folk-style singing from Eden Thomas as he sang his ‘A Quaker’s song’.
The final song was Sally Beamish’s ‘In the stillness’, an advent carol. Sally told us of the unexpected inspiration for this piece and of her surprise that it has become one of her most performed works.
The concert allowed time for each writer to give some background to their piece. This took advantage of the medium and was a very welcome addition. The session was recorded: look out for it at www.quakerarts.net.
