NEWS worthy Clips (3/3)

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Music from the miners

The new frontier

Good humor reigns at a Sunday night rehearsal of Adlais, a mixed choir based on the island of Anglesey off northwest Wales. Adlais, formed in 1991, has 35 members and an average age below 30, says Arwel Stephen, its chairman. Not all members read music, he adds, “but we learn quite quickly, especially if the songs are up-tempo.” Dress for practice is informal, and the camaraderie is . “We’re a close community, and most of the choir has been here from the beginning,” says Stephen.

At its rehearsal in the community hall at Marian-Glas, deputy director Elen Hughes speaks to the choir in Welsh, and the chatter between songs is in that tongue, a tenacious among the world’s oldest languages.

Still, a visitor doesn’t fell . Emotions translate, smiles are universal, and when you don’t understand the words, you focus on the interplay of voice. Then, the group – just learning the song “Oh Happy Day” – falls off rhythm all at once, like birds tumbling from a wire. They dissolve into laughter, and the visitor laughs with them.

A love of singing

It’s a rare stumble. The singing is tight, in tune and polished. When the hour-plus practice ends, members leave slowly, perhaps . “The main reason we come is that we like to sing. Otherwise, there’s no point to choir,” Stephen says.

Outside of practices and concerts, choirs may sing informally at local gathering spots. Members of the Moelwyn Male Voice Choir, for example, meet every other Friday and perform without pay beyond the joy of sharing their song.

The Welsh love of music might have gone in a different direction. Miners liked brass bands, says the Slate Museum’s Dr. Dafydd Roberts. But if the quarry manager didn’t buy the instruments, the men had little money to spare for them. And, he says: “The voice came for free, didn’t they?”

Vocabulary Focus

up-tempo(adj)---describing music that is played at a fast beat

interplay(n)---the effect that two or more things have on each other

polished(adj)---done with great skill and style

Specialized terms