Ding Dong Ding! An Igloo Choir Lockdown Project

This year, St. Nicholas Church in Wickham is 900 years old. The many celebrations have been put on ice until it’s safe to celebrate. This 900^th birthday coincided with local group Igloo Music UK celebrating their 10^th birthday. Igloo brings adult learners together to learn and enjoy participating in making music and part of that group is The Igloo Choir. Most members are novices when they join, but all members participate in the writing, performing and recording of original songs – a unique experience for a community choir member.

The birthdays inspired the choir to write a song about the church bells, and with the help of lovely local community members, in February 2020 choir members attended a bell ringing rehearsal, which has become the highlight of our year. Everyone was encouraged to have a go at ringing one of the six bells, learned some basics (and how hard it is!) and some of the basic peals.

Plan A was to perform the song at the Igloo Birthday showcase in April, which of course did not happen.

“Recording the song became the Igloo Choir’s lockdown project, followed by the idea to make a video, once we realised we could record zoom sessions!” says Dielle Hannah, singersongwriter and choir director. Choir members learned to record themselves at home and email in the sound files, which were then used to produce the song at Igloo Studios, by professional bass player and music producer Chris Wood.

All being novices at the technology, rehearsals became a steep learning curve about green screen functions, virtual backgrounds, how that differed from device to device, and so on. Then came the costume changes, complete with one of the choir members getting her wedding dress down from the loft for one of the verses!

This was not intended to be a Christmas song, but it seems to have hit a seasonal note with those who have heard it so far.

With members from Wickham, Gosport, Havant, Hayling and Portchester, The Igloo Choir sorely miss not being able to meet and sing together – that thing that gives us the greatest joy, but having this focus has been ‘such a fun and lovely project to be a part of’ as Igloo alto Kate Stainton-Ellis says.

The choir are thrilled to have this to show for our time together during the pandemic, and still wish to mark the 900^th year of the local history and heritage, St. Nicholas. The Igloo Choir are hugely grateful to the local bell ringing team who gave them so much fun and inspiration, and hope the video puts a smile on your face. The bells may have been silenced for parts of this year, but you can still listen to the peals here.

—-

Categorised in: Choir, Singing, Song Writing