Bishop’s is top choir

It edged out St Joseph’s Convent (Port-of-Spain) and Friends, who gave a superb performance, while Presentation College also came strong.

It was a contest of champions.

Bishop’s had previously won The Music Association (TMA) shield (for upper voices), while St Joseph’s has the Raleigh Cup (for mixed voices), and Presentation holds the Latchman Trophy (for lower voices).

Bishop’s sang “Sweet Nightingale” and “Michael row the boat ashore.” They were stunning. The voices of the Bishop’s girls seemed to change Queen’s Hall into a cathedral. The girls sang in various sections that came sweeping in and blended beautifully.

Student Adafih Padmore later told Newsday: “Sweet Nightingale was flighty and dainty.” She said the song was constructed in three sections — soprano (highest), mezzo (middle) and alto (lowest for females). “At two points in the song the middle voices sang a solo, while the sopranos and altos had a hum in the background.”

They sang their second song in sections. The higher voices sang “Michael row...”, with the lower voices then coming in “Michael row...”, and then both sections singing together “Michael row the boat ashore, hallelujah.”

Girls on the audience’s left sang at a high pitch, “Michael row the boat ashore,” while girls on the right underlined them singing a low and constant “Hallelujah.” What a blend. Wow!

There was so much variation going on in the song.

Adafih Padmore said, “It had a lot of soul and power.”

Bishop’s music teacher, Lorraine Granderson, said the girls had created a tone that was almost the sound of the school since its inception decades ago, quipping; “Perhaps it’s in the walls of the school.”

St Joseph’s Convent (Port-of-Spain) gave a stunning performance under the direction of conductor Michelle Varley.

In “Wonderful, wonderful world” they really tugged at the heartstrings as they voiced, “Sing-with-the-wind-in the-willows.”

The choir was nicely balanced between the high voices of the girls and the deeper voices of their male colleagues. They had excellent voice projection.

They sang in sections — two made of girls and one made of boys — to render “I know the Lord’s laid his hand on me.” The blending of the sections was akin to the pallette of an artist dipping into each colour maybe one at a time, or later maybe mixing a blend.

Basically the singing of Bishop Anstey and St Joseph’s Convent and Friends was, just like a painting, beyond the description of mere words.