The Garleton Singers: Music from Stage and Screen
Knox Academy, Haddington, 1/6/24
The Garleton Singers, musical director, Stephen Doughty
Haddington-based Garleton Singers were keen for us to review this show, and I can see why. They exuded pride, confidence and joy throughout. Their inspiring and indefatigable musical director of 30 years’ standing, Stephen Doughty, whilst pursuing a full career arranging, adjudicating, conducting and playing all over Scotland and Ulster, still finds time to lead weekly rehearsals for three different concerts annually with the seventy-strong Singers of Garleton.
A major enjoyment from this choir is that ebullient confidence. Amateur choirs sometimes look tense lest they mess something up. This in turn stresses out the empathetic among their listeners. Not so Doughty’ s Garleton. The audience are relaxed from the outset.
Saturday evening the drive to Haddington was bright and sunny. That should have been a feel-good factor but driving westward into the dipping sun turned our windscreen’s smears and streaks into a dazzling fog. The squirters refused to release water for the wipers so we had to keep stopping and drizzling on our drinking water and we ended up arriving at the venue when the opening song had already swung into action.
That number was, appropriately, ‘Another openin’, another show’, its pressing rhythm and rising lines designed to prime an audience for what is to come. So, greeting us faintly as we entered the main door and swelling in volume as we neared the hall, it sped our steps, no longer in stress but in anticipation; it lit up our arrival. The singers were wreathed in utterly genuine smiles and so was I.
Sixteen men took part, and forty-two women. The three rows of tenor and bass stood upstage in white shirts and burgundy ties, with multicoloured ranks of women in front spilling off to the side of the tiny stage. But the men were well positioned on stage and had many strong voices so the im/balance worked fine. There were eight headings for the choir to perform, a flugelhorn solo and a piano duet. I shall begin with the choral numbers.
In the second song, arranger Cunningham interleaves a soaring Mozart ‘Dies Irae’ with Meatloaf’s ‘Bat Out of Hell’. The Garleton Singers are notably slick on diction, but this was a challenge. The Meatloaf lyrics come in streams of quick-fire quavers akin to rap, presenting this huge chorale with a tussle between collective timing and simply getting their own tongues around the words. However, they maintained the fun and energy of this amalgamation, to then ease into the perfect contrast: the sublime ‘Humming Chorus’ from Puccini’s ‘Madame Butterfly’.
If ‘Bat out of Hell’ is hard for a chorus to elaborate upon, Mercury’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ is a gift. Doughty goes to town on Mark Brymer’s arrangement, moving between full choir and élite groupings, giving full rein to the various voices, notably some glorious sopranos. The choir are rapt, following their conductor as seamlessly as singing shadows.
Even more magical was a rendition of Lennon/McCartney’s ‘Blackbird’, arranged by Doughty for an all-female mini-choir and Uruguayan guitarist Federico Bruera. A real showpiece for a hand-picked set of singers, some soaring so high as to give me shivers. Woozy wavelets and surges of sound suggest drifting in and out of sleep. Haunting guitar and voices balance for a perfect collaboration. Quite the best version of this song I have ever heard in its subtle chiaroscuro of bliss and sadness.
Finally came a medley from ‘Les Misérables’. I know this musical intimately, but Garleton still managed to make it their own. The format gave the chance to showcase soloists, some excellent, who “topped and tailed” certain numbers. As various groups rose for their song, then gave way to the next, the choir’s discipline and harmony was seen as well as heard. So much polish they achieve with just one rehearsal a week.
Two things disappointed: venue and instruments, and they were surely related. I had much preferred to hear this concert in the usual St Mary’s (a large and tranquil church in the centre of town). In the school hall, for reasons unknown, the audience area was left brightly lit. This seemed to treat the performance like a run-though rehearsal. The harsh light echoed the harsh acoustic. There was not a soft surface in sight. The stage curtains which I remember once performing between appear to have been boxed in with a massive frame of tacky tongue-and-groove, making the stage appear cramped, like a wooden bus-shelter levitating in the night. I believe these acoustics impacted the balance of the instruments: piano, drums, guitar and two trumpets. All the hard, hollow surfaces were unkind to piano and bass, to the extent that the brass tended to overwhelm the soundscape, having nowhere to hide. They were clearly fine musicians; Finlay Henderson’s breath control in his flugelhorn solo was awesome. However the inevitable lack of opportunity for pro musicians to rehearse alongside amateur choirs was apparent.
The piano too sounded jarring (though not to my companion). Accompanying the singing, its jangliness was softened, but it was a shame that it did not do justice to the flying fingers of Cradock and Doughty’ s engaging duet medley. Is it possible the piano was out of tune?
But also: how is it possible that all the hours and effort and wizardry that went into creating this overall joyous entertainment result in a one night’s stand? I would happily go to this concert again, but please could it be at St Mary’s?