A memorable musical experience in Lyme Regis

One of the finest concert experiences in the Lyme Regis Organ Appeal Season took place in Church with a capacity audience of more than 250 people, when the Choral Scholars of King’s College, Cambridge sang on their Easter Tour.

For many of us, they were last seen on television at Easter in the Chapel of the College singing sacred music with the full choir by candlelight.

Seven personable young men in evening dress with David Cane, an organ scholar, all in late teens and early 20s, carried their audience from early Church music to Michael Jackson, totally unaccompanied, except by their musicality, perfect pitch and timing.

They used their voices as instruments carrying their harmonies and precise timings from one to the other, in every musical genre achieving a magical whole.

They began with a section of early music beginning with Pitoni’s Cantate Domino (1675 - 1743) in the Palestinian tradition and William Byrd’s Senex Puerum from the days of early printed music in a golden age of vocal works.

This section concluded with the lively Frenchman Passerau’s Il est Bel et Bon.

Each item was introduced by a different member of the group with light-hearted banter from one to the other and giving the audience some knowledge of the personality and identity of these young scholars, all nearing finals in their chosen subjects, some reading music, others with sporting achievements, history and opera and Breakdancing.

Truly an eclectic bunch.

David Cane, their organist, played our new Slovenian built organ in between sections, obviously enjoying its versatility and depth of sound.

The group then sang more familiar traditional folk songs from America, Ireland and Scotland and their Ol’ Man River was a bass solo accompanied by incredible voice harmonies from the group and a lively Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron concluded the first half.

After the interval we had an emotional section of Spirituals transporting us all away to times of suffering in the plantations of America.

The ability of the group to pass the harmonies and nuances of phrase from one to the other showed their closeness as a musical entity using voice and sound to complete the whole.

The last section was modern; Michael Jackson, Alan Menken’s A Whole New World, the Beatles, The Beach Boys I Get Around and finally Billy Joel’s Lullabye.

It was a truly memorable concert enjoyed by a capacity audience. We hope they will come again.

Brian McConkey