Choir Cornucopia

Proudly standing in the colour formation of our precious South African Flag

Hallelujah!  It’s a good thing to sing praise to our God, praise is beautiful, praise is fitting.

Sing to God a thanksgiving hymn, play music on your instruments to God

                                                                   Psalm 147:1&7

 Hi! My name is Judith Hawthorn and I direct both the Foundation Phase Choir and the Intermediate Phase Choir at HCA.  I am ably assisted by Mrs Jeanine Du Casse, who is our choir accompanist.  We are both passionate about providing a full range of opportunities for children to learn to sing in a fun environment, encouraging creativity and self-expression.
Any and every child is encouraged to join the choir.  Singing is a learned art and so no child is excluded from choir. 
There is also a senior boys gumboot dance group.
As of 2011 we have introduced a Chamber Choir.  Membership is by audition as this is the equivalent of a 1st Team Choir that tackles more challenging material and requires a high level of skill from the children.  All members of the Chamber Choir must be members of the IP Choir and to be chosen for the Chamber Choir is a huge honour for these children.

“Music has the power of producing a certain effect on the moral character of the soul, and if it has the power to do this, it is clear that the young must be directed to music and must be educated in it”  Aristotle (384-322 BC)
CrestFest Massed Choir Event - over 450 young voices!

Look at our bright colours!  Performing with St Mary's DSG orchestra

Some choir members pose with members of the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra at the annual Makaranga 'Music in the Hills'

The Senior Choir with their bright concert ties!

Junior choir in full voice!

All eyes on Mrs Hawthorn!

PERFORMANCES
Our most recent performances have been at Makaranga’s “Music in the Hills” in July and at our very own Children's Arts Festival CrestFest in August.  Music in the Hills is always a highlight as we sing with 200 other children, accompanied by the KZN Youth Orchestra in front of a large audience basking in the winter sunshine.  This year the children really enjoyed the Zulu song taught to us by Mr Kruger and the Kearsney boys and we’ve added it to our repertoire.
Choir Camp is about FUN, FUN, FUN!
At CrestFest we premiered a new song, Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” with words and arrangement by Lorenz Maierhofer.  This marked our first performance acappella in 3-part harmony and we “aced” it!  I’m hugely proud of this achievement!  When we hit markers like these we can see how we’re improving. 
On your feet now – applaud God!  Bring a gift of laughter, sing yourself into his presence.  Know this.  God is God, and God, God.  He made us, we didn’t make him.  We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.  Enter with the password: “Thank you!”  Make yourselves at home, talking praise.  Thank him.  Worship him.  For God is sheer beauty, all generous in love, loyal always and ever.
                                                                                    Psalm 100


CHOIR CAMP
The IP Choir has an annual Choir Camp at Kearsney College during the 1st Term mid-term break (February).  This is a compulsory camp and membership in the IP choir is dependant on attendance at Choir Camp.  The camp runs from Friday after school until Saturday evening.  Parents are advised to please plan their holidays accordingly!!

“Music is almost as dangerous as gunpowder, and it maybe requires looking after no less than the press, or the mint.  ‘Tis possible a public regulation might not be amiss.”  Jeremy Collier (1650-1726)


REPERTOIRE
I choose the repertoire, assisted by Ms du Casse.  Songs are chosen for their musical and artistic merits and need to represent a variety of styles including Classical, Sacred, Pop, Musical Theatre and Folk as well as a variety of languages.  In the last 2 years these have included English, Zulu, Shona, Afrikaans, Latin, Hebrew, Italian and French.
A well balanced programme is essential both for the audiences and the children’s enjoyment whilst still providing a sound choral education.

“Without music a State cannot exist.  All the disorders, all the wars which we see in the world, only occur because of the neglect to learn music.  Does not war result from a lack of union among men?...and were all men to learn music, would not this be the means of agreeing together, and of seeing universal peace reign throughout the world?” 
Moliere (1622-73)

IP Repertoire 2011
Da Pacem Domine                  Traditional
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik         Mozart
I believe                                  Girard
Dona Nobis Pacem                 Lightfoot
Zulu medley                            Traditional
With all my heart medley        arr Larson
The National Anthem             Sontonga arr Khumalo/de Villiers arr de Villiers
arr Hawthorn
My Redeemer Lives                arr Hawthorn
Jabulani                                   van Dyk
Children of the Word             Rentz
A Concert Celebration            Andrew Lloyd Webber arr Emerson
Sway                                       Ruiz/Gimbel
Joseph Medley                        Andrew Lloyd Webber

FP Repertoire 2011
  1. We are the children
  2. Blame it on the Bossa Nova
  3. Baruch haba
  4. That Dixieland Sound
  5. Funiculi, Funicula
  6. The dump truck song
  7. Why do they make things like they do
  8.  Zulu trad
  9. Ons orkes
  10. National Anthem
  11. Behold what manner of love


“For changing peoples’ manners and altering their customs there is nothing better than music”  Shu Ching (6th century BC)

“The law ought to employ your music…in order to lead hardened criminals to repentance.  No one could resist it…and the day is not far distant in these times of humanitarian ideas, when similar psychological methods will be used to soften the hearts of the vicious.”  Pope Pius IX (1792-1873) after hearing Liszt play


“He is verye often drunke and by means there of he hathe by unorderlye playing on the organs putt the quire out of time and disordered them”  From the archives of Lincoln Cathedral relating to Thomas Kingston, organist (1599-1616)


“Musical innovation is full of danger to the State, for when modes of music change, the laws of the State always change with them”  Plato (428-347 BC)


“If you would know if a people are well governed, and if its laws are good or bad, examine the music it practices.”  Confucius (551-479BC)



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