Bill Hyde is a long time member of our parish Choir here at St. George’s. He has written short invitation to our community that I hope will encourage folks to consider being a part of our church choir. Here is Bill’s invite:

Here’s an offer you can’t resist.

When Julie Payette made the short list of Canadian Astronauts, she was asked, ‘What particular skills or attributes do you  have to show how well you get along with your colleagues?’  The probe was to see if she could cope over long periods in a team.    She thought for a moment and then offered this attribute, paraphrased.

I have sung in choirs since I was a little girl, aged five.  I still sing choir only it’s now a well thought of and  renown group.  It sings very challenging repertoire. In any choir, a single singer can throw the entire choir off key and make a mess of any performance in a twinkling of a semi-quaver.  A botched note is all it takes.  It is instantly amplified by its shrieking dissonance and surprisingly often making the piece unrecoverable.  Choirs avoid this disaster by insisting on members listening out for each other and collectively maintaining the key and its sound.  You really have to work at it and literally tune your ear accordingly.

Our church choir is challenged with our current situation.  The Robo-Ron is a good cost saving initiative.  Our musical deputy directs our sound most adequately.  But our method pushes us toward being an a capella ensemble, a level or two higher than church choirs.  At the same time, by building the choir towards twenty regular singers with a back-up number for singing feasts and special occasions, can improve performances more quickly.   Yes, the more the merrier, is the best insurance.

We will start up the choir this month and invite you to consider joining it in our expansion efforts. The rewards, the joy of singing with friends, an appreciation of liturgical music and simple ways of self-improvement and, if young enough, for the chance to replace our new GG, and an open door towards selection for the next astronaut training recruitment.  You can be sure being in a choir will now become compulsory factor.  And if you excel you too might take over from Ms Julie as a new GG.  Now can you think of a better offer?

You can do it, give it a shot. You’ll be most welcome.

Deputy (Bill Hyde)

Thanks Bill! Our Choir practices mostly on Thursday nights at 7pm. You can contact Bill below: