In November 2024, Manchester Sacred Harp took part in an amazing performance project with Grammy Award-winning US artist, Laurie Anderson, at Aviva Studios, Manchester. For those of us taking part, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience; for most of the 8,000+ audience members, it was a first encounter with Sacred Harp singing, in all its glory.
69 singers sung with us over the course of the 10 performances. 24 of these were regular Manchester Sacred Harp singers and we were augmented by singers from every corner of the UK and, from overseas, we were joined by singers from the USA, Canada, Ireland, Germany and The Netherlands.
Everyone knew someone, and some already knew nearly everyone, but for all of us it was a joyful opportunity to spend more time with our community. With visiting singers having travel and overnight accommodation provided, courtesy of Factory International, there were many late-night drinks and spontaneous afternoon singings. And, not content with singing in 10 performances during the fortnight, we somehow also managed to fit in two All-day Singings (Stapleford and Rothwell), a regular pub singing at the King’s Arms, a specially arranged Sunday afternoon singing in the Tudor splendour of Salford’s Ordsall Hall and, never to be forgotten, a celebratory singing in The Briton’s Protection, after the final show, where we were joined by Laurie and all the production team!
Our involvement in this project had begun a year previously with an out-of-the-blue approach from Laurie’s producer. When we started talking to singers about possibility of being involved in the project reactions ran the full gamut from “Sounds interesting but who’s Laurie Anderson?” to “You’re kidding? The Laurie Anderson?!” So, unsurprisingly, we had a great turnout for our regular Whitworth singing, on Sunday 3rd December 2023, when Laurie flew over from New York to meet and sing with us. Equally unsurprisingly, Laurie was blown away by our sound, our spirit and our enthusiasm for working with her.
I’d like to say it was all plain sailing from thereon, but Laurie is a restless creative soul and her ideas for how we would be involved were developing right up to (and beyond!) the first performance. At various stages, there were suggestions that only eight singers might be involved, that we might sing off-stage, that we might sing backwards, that our voices might be augmented by a recorded backing track, that we might be seated in a tank of water wearing wellies… none of these came to pass but you get the idea! Despite this, throughout the process, Laurie was a delight to work with, as were Factory International; entirely respectful of our tradition and sensitivities, and always open to our ideas. Indeed, the ultimate success of our contribution would not have come about with the many suggestions from participants, “Laurie? Do you think maybe it might be better if we tried it this way instead?”
In the end, our participation came down to three roles. Most visibly, we ended the show, with 20+ singers joining Laurie on stage, and singing 268 David’s Lamentation. This wasn’t quite the end of show though… Laurie asked us to remain on stage to join her and the audience in performing some Tai Chi moves, something we all came to love doing, after initial trepidation!
At the end of the first half, a changing selection of eight of us appeared on stage, with books, beating time and ‘mouthing’ a wordless chorus (we couldn’t actually be heard) while Laurie performed a version of her late husband’s (Lou Reed) song, ‘Junior Dad’. We were only props, in effect, but standing backstage in that soft blue, listening to the recorded voice of Lou Reed intoning the song, waiting for our cue to walk on to the platform from either side of stage, was a magical experience.
But for most of us, our highlight was the interval singing, where we did our thing, seated in a hollow square, the 20+ singers who would be on stage later, plus any other singers who were in to watch the show that night. We’d taken a poll to select a shortlist of songs – a combination of pure favourites (547 Granville was Top of the Pops!) and songs that particularly related to Laurie’s theme of the Ark. So, plenty of out-and-out bangers but a few that some of us had to put some practice in on (222 Ocean; 224 Save, Lord, or We Perish; 506 The Ark, of course). We kept it fresh and spontaneous, and as close as possible to the way we are used to singing together, by pre-selecting leaders but not knowing which song they would call from the shortlist. Something special happened in those interval singings; whether it was the coming together of a particular combination of singers that night, the general adrenaline of the occasion and an audience, or perhaps just that knew we only had 20 minutes and want to give it our all, or some combination of all of these factors, who knows, but each night we blasted six or seven songs (we managed nine once!) with a notable intensity. And each night, I assumed the privilege of ending each session with 448t Consecration, invariably shaking with emotion!
In one significant way, our interval singings broke with tradition; after the last repeat on 448t (and, yes, of course we did a ‘threepeat’ on the last night…), I resumed my seat and we sat, heads bowed or eyes closed, in silence, until the audience had dispersed from the foyer for the start of the second half of the show. I loved this, and it’s something I’d like to reflect on further at a later date.
It’s impossible to capture in words what made this whole experience so special. The singers who took part will forever share a special bond. And if we were not all Laurie Anderson fans at the start of the project, we all loved her at the end, and showed our appreciation by presenting her with a copy of The Sacred Harp on stage at the end of the last show. Speaking personally, it was an honour and pure joy to be able to share in this experience with Laurie and her team, with my Manchester singing friends (and family!), with all the wonderful visiting singing friends who contributed so much, with all the crew at Aviva Studios who enabled the experience. Unforgettable.
- Contributor: John Sprackland
Read more:
ARK: United States V
Guardian review
Manchester Sacred Harp 
Leave a comment