Abingdonian 2020

8 The Abingdonian House Singing Competition As the pianist for the Lower School House Singing, I was one of the most nervous people on the stage (apart from the soloists, our conductor Arthur — and Mr Jenkins, of course). Walking out I felt that the whole of Lower School was ready, and that we were more finely tuned than last year. A hush fell over the audience, as if they knew this year was ours, and when the choir sang they were in the zone from the first note I played - we had saved our best performance ‘til last. After shakily finding the rhythm, we gained confidence, and Arthur steadily led us to the end of a fantastic performance - and we knew we had nailed it. Hard work in practice really paid off and the whole House (though not the school!) united in cheers of sheer joy as the judge declared us number one at singing out of the entire school. As the audience dutifully applauded we were ecstatic; we had won for the first time in Lower School history. Mr Jenkins seemed to be the happiest - after all, the main reason we won was his constant urging for us to learn the words (or the music, in my case). John Cairns, 2SCVM As I had performed the song ‘A Million Dreams’ twice in a Year Six production, in a Year Six leavers’ do, a couple of times in church and in lots of choir performances, the song had started to get a bit boring for me and I wasn’t highly motivated to perform it again. At least I didn’t have to learn the lyrics for homework! But when Mr Jenkins told me I was going to sing in the descant, I became more interested. I had never sung the song with a descant before — I didn’t even know there was one! So I listened to the real song, which had the descant, right at the end, that I had never noticed before. It sounded really good, and I was really looking forward to the first rehearsal to learn the tune. In the first full rehearsal, everyone else stopped singing when the descant came in, which was funny, because the descant was less than a fifth of the whole choir, yet louder than everyone else. I knew that this would need a lot more practice. In the last rehearsal, right before the competition, I was feeling very nervous, but I could also see the whole thing finally coming together; we had improved a lot from the first rehearsal. I thought we might have a chance of coming third, or even second, but I wasn’t expecting us to win. I guess everyone could see our joy after the results were announced. I have to admit, even more than for myself, I felt happy for Mr Jenkins, because he had been trying to win for many years, and this is the first time he has won. Samuel Price, 1RHH This conducting experience was a very tough task. In fact, it could make or break my time in Lower School: either it would provide me with a memory that I could look back on and treasure forever, or it would be a memory that I’d try my very best to ignore. It was extremely daunting that Lower School had never won before and it felt like a weight on my shoulders that it was down to me to lift. I also felt that if we didn’t win, it would be my fault. And from the moment I was told I was conducting, to the day of the event, the most realistic target I could think of was second or third place; that was until I was lining up outside the theatre, when a voice filled my head, saying, “Come on Arthur, let’s go for gold.” And I think it was that voice that filled everyone’s head, propelling us from second place to first. Another thing that changed last minute was my conducting technique. In rehearsals I used one of those conducting batons that are generally quite appropriate, but in my case it made my conducting feel flat, so I made a last-minute decision, just as I was about to walk in, to scrap it completely and instead just use my hands. I think this let me connect with the choir so much more, which made all the difference. If it seems that I think I did all the work, then I couldn’t be more wrong, because without the amazing choir, fantastic soloists, extremely talented musicians and finally all the teachers that helped the choir and me along the way, we could never have dreamt of succeeding in the way we did. Arthur Robertson, 2PCWM When I was chosen to sing a solo for