The Choir (television show BBC America)

Once upon a time summer was a time when television channels simply put on reruns. Getting wise to the actual viewing habits of viewers many channels, especially cable networks have started having new seasons of shows start during the summer as well as premiere new show altogether. One of the greatest from this summer television season is The Choir.

The Choir is a labeled by some as a “reality show” but it is much more a true documentary. BBC packaged this award-winning series for American audiences this summer and this week premiered the first episode of this 13 episode season on BBC America (Wednesdays at 10pm).

BBC America is one of the best television channels on cable. It’s not just Dr. Who episodes people. The Graham Norton Show is hilarious, I love Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmare and BBC World News America is regularly puts America’s news programs to shame with their unbiased converge of world wide events and their high level of journalist integrity.

Here’s the set up. Gareth Malone a 30 year old choir director is convinced that he can start a high school choir and get them ready for the “choir Olympics in China.” He chooses Northolt High School to continue his mission to bring music to everyone and provide a choral experience that he believes should be universal.



The first episode showed Gareth auditioning students and teaching them “Can You Feel The Love Tonight?” to record an audition recording to see if they could make it to this choir competition in China.

Gareth Malone actually knows what he’s talking about. While Diana and I don’t agree with everything he is doing as a choir director it is clear that he knows what he is the real deal.  At the first rehearsal, the choir sounds awful and the recording that make at the end of the episode does not sound like something from Glee. It’s still rough but it shows remarkable progress and this shows commitment to showing us the true reality of what it means to make music is eye-opening and inspiring.

So many times, this show could have went for cheap laughs and cheap drama. There was a portion of the episode where Gareth listens to students audition and the show could have gone the humorous American Idol auditions route but the refused to. Gareth’s response made us see the courage in what they were doing even if they weren't very good.

Singing in a choir is one of the amazing things you can do in your life and I wish that all of you can understand what it means. The Choir captures a small part of this. This show is about the love not only of music but also of being human and sharing the beauty of life together. 

If you've been in a choir, you'll love this show and if you haven't it will open your eyes to one of the greatest experience you can have in life and make you wish you could be in a choir.

Bogoróditse Dévo by Sergei Rachmaninoff

Freedom to worship, freedoms of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble.

As American these are the freedoms promised by the Constitution of the United States. When we think of our right as individuals, these freedoms come to mind. There are many other freedoms we enjoy including the freedom to experience art. We can choose what television shows we want to watch and what music we want to experience. There are many societies in which, what we call “basic” freedoms are but a dream. And in Communist U.S.S.R. many freedoms were taken away including not only the freedom to create art but also the freedom to experience it.

Rachmaninoff composed “Bogoroditse Devo” as part of his setting of the Russian Orthodox All-Night Vigil ceremony for a capella choir. He composed this work in 1915 partly to benefit the Russian war effort. The Moscow Synodal Choir premiered this piece and it was performed five more times within a month because of its popularity with critics and audiences. With the rise of the Soviet Union, a ban was put on all religious music from the Marxist idea of religion being “the opiate of the masses.” The Synodal Choir was replaced by the nonreligious “People’s Choir Academy” marking the end of an era of Russian music.

With the fall of communism in Russia, people were finally allowed to worship in the open and embrace the culture that had been taken away. When “Bogoroditse Devo” was finally performed again, it was received as a long lost relative forcefully taken away. People in the audience wept as they were finally free to not only experience this music but to connect to their inner spirituality reminding them of all that was lost.

“Bogorodiste Devo” has almost medieval quality to it that captures the mysticism of the Russian Orthodox religion. It combines modern harmonic progressions with a variety of different textures. In the beginning, all the parts are singing the same rhythm (known in musical terms as “homophony”). This musical technique makes the voices feel as one unit with the deliberate and careful motion of a monastic chant.

The middle section of the piece that builds into the climax features the different choral parts singing different melodies (polyphony). Rachmaninoff creates a sense of motion as the alto lines meander while the other voices sing slowly rising sustained notes. The polyphony builds to a euphoric climax gently relaxes down until all the voices come back together in the last couple measures moving with homophony into quiet reflection.

One of the many pieces of advice Diana and I got when planning our wedding was to make sure we take a moment in the ceremony to take it all in. There is so much going on during the day it’s easy to forget to just stop and enjoy the day. So we decided to plan this moment during the ceremony and the unity candle lighting seemed like the perfect time for us to reflect on the service.

Well, things didn’t go exactly as planned. We didn’t bring a candle to the ceremony so we “borrowed” one from the church (or another ceremony that was going on, I’m not sure). The ceremony starts, we get to the candle lighting, the choir starts singing “Bogoroditse Devo,” and then we can’t get the candle lit. I think what you’re suppose to do for a wedding ceremony is have a smaller candle lit on the side and light the bigger candle.

We didn’t think of that so all we had a lighter, one of those 8 inches long deals that is suppose to light when you squeeze the trigger. Yeah it didn’t light after the first 5 tries. I was about to enlist the help of the groomsmen when the lighter decided to work. It was one of those things that you just got to laugh at and regardless it was beautiful moment.

Music has a way of taking us to different places, making the world dissolve away. Even though “Bogoroditse Devo” is less then three minutes it takes us on an incredible journey, from the smallest feeling of wonder to the incredible glory of spirituality.