As I post this blog, Emily’s slippers are smiling at me from under her exam desk! Yes, the poor Year 10s are sharing an exam room with the Swedish 6th formers who are doing the first part of their English A level : deep concentration, bird song and the gentle strains of the rehearsal next door fill the room.
The hotel provides three huge healthy meals a day, but , of course, the teenage singing machine needs supplementary Haribos, Kinderschokolade, juice, crisps, maltesers and midnight feasts to begin to function properly… a need only a trip to a supermarket can satisfy! If a Europe – wide shortage of Pringles is declared, it has probably started in the tiny Adeg supermarket in the sleepy village of Spital am Pyhrn and the Comenius choir is the cause. ‘Trip’ maybe overstating the length of the excursion; we ambled across the meadow outside the hotel, crossed the road and there was everything we needed: 3 minutes! The village also has (only) one more shop: Schlecker- soon to be explored!
Mrs Morgan led the first afternoon rehearsal and soon The Rhythm of Life was putting a tingle in our fingers and a tingle in our feet… doo-bi, doo – bi, doo-bi. The Austrian and Swedish girls loved its bounce.
The Swedish teacher, Mrs Bikfalvy introduced the choir to a wonderful Swedish song, Gabriela’s Sang, in which a young woman learns how to believe in herself. The tune is fabulous, but the pronunciation of the Swedish is quite challenging for us; the beauty of this international choir is that we have our Swedish text coaches in the other choir members, and Mrs Morgan has organised extra sessions with the Swedish girls, so we really get to grips with the language to do the song justice- what a terrific opportunity! Listen to the clip of the first rehearsal and you can’t fail to fall in love with the music.
We are in the country of the accordion, charming folk music and folk dances, so no trip would be complete without a chance to sample this for ourselves. Brilliant! Normally as a tourist, you get to watch, but you never get to try. One of the young music teachers at the school is an expert player of the accordion and traditional folk dance tunes and Dr Wild himself steps a pretty step. So off we went to the gym of the local school ( 3 minute stroll, just behind the Adeg supermarket- we are finding our way round very well), and soon we were clapping, twirling and ‘progressing’ in fine fashion ( these folk dances are usually danced in a circle with the ladies ‘progressing’ to the next partner after each set). See for yourself!
Bis bald !
