“She was yelling and holding on for dear life”

There was no rest for the wicked after the Dønnahorn concert, the following weekend was the Kammerkor concert - this time in the Dønnes Kirke and also at 11pm which is a bit later than my usual concert time. I never did get a satisfactory answer to my question “why is it so late?”!

As mentioned before, the Kammerkor only rehearse once a month (on a Friday evening/ Saturday) so the onus is very much on the members to learn the stuff between rehearsals so that more time can be spent working on nuance at full rehearsals.

There was another evening rehearsal in Sandnessjøen so I arranged to pick up Laila and give her a lift there and back. I’ve now moved into my new place (en leilighet as we say in Norway) in Bjørn and I needed to buy some bits and bobs for the flat. Actually when I say bits and bobs I mean everything. It’s a fab little place I’ve got, perfectly located in the middle of the two islands and v close to where the ferry comes in. Indeed I can actually look out the window, see the ferry and potter down and be on time. Still there was no cutlery/ pans/ plates etc. Laila was kind enough to accompany me out to a good place to pick up some immediately required things.

On our way down from Stavseng I executed a “slightly” questionable overtaking manoeuvre which it’s not an exaggeration to say Laila found concerning. Her voice unmistakably rose in pitch and there was definite clasping handles on the side of the car. In my defence I was following the car in front of me and as it transpired there was no need to panic. Still, I’m too embarrassed to actually describe the action so will leave it there….

The rehearsal as always was good fun ( I do find that the cake and coffee always helps) and we got through a lot of stuff. That being said, there was a lot of music to learn and, as it transpired, some of it by memory.

Obviously most of it was in Norwegian but I have to confess that I’ve never been so happy to see John Rutter in the programme :-) There were also settings of English texts by Ola Gjeilo and Kim André Arnesen - composers of works that I’ve had the pleasure of working on in Dundee.

Fortunately in the end we only did one piece by memory, the opening number which was called “Vlekomne med æra”. We sang it with the choir split into 2 - one choir up in the organ loft and the other in the main body of the church. The opening and closing sections were “fanfare-like” with a middle bit that was to be sung in random tempo. Of course, now that I’m typing that, it occurs to me that I don’t recall being told that. Well I certainly sang it in random tempo. Some of the readers here may recall “Immortal Bach” from a few years back - it was like that. My random tempo was basically sing it as fast as possible while I still remembered the words and wait for the rest of the choir to catch up.

We rehearsed once again on the Friday night till about 10 and then again on Saturday morning from 10 till about 4. Much longer than I was expecting on the day of the concert but I was assured that I got off lightly - sometimes they rehearse up to an hour before the concert. I suppose it’s what they’re used to and obviously they have less time to rehearse in the months leading up to the performance.

We were interrupted quite early on on the Saturday by an unexpected tour bus but on the plus side that meant an extra break for K & K.

The concert was to mark the 30th anniversary of the Kammerkor and one of the pieces we performed was composed by the first conductor of the choir - Knut Størdal and was called “Tia e her” (dialect for The time is here). It was fascinating working with him the night before and hearing the piece come together. It was very hard work for the ladies (the tenor and bass parts were much more straightforward) but a very rewarding experience.

Following the last rehearsal we adjourned down to Brygga for a barbecue which doubled as a pre-concert and end-of-season rehearsal. Trine very kindly gave me a lift back up the road to Dønnes and to my joy we passed a group of moose and I finally managed to get a decent picture. Alas they were eating grass so I was unable to impress with my “Elgene spiser…”

As well as my shiny new black suit I had been very conscientious and ironed my best (only) white shirt so was feeling rather dapper. Sadly the effect was somewhat spoiled by the fact that I forgot to take my black shoes and just had some canvas things on. Fortunately I don’t think anyone noticed, or were even interested.

I thought the concert went very well - the choir sang well, the solo saxophonist was very good and the audience of about 70 gave us a standing ovation at the end,

And speaking of/in Norwegian, I had my first face to face (well, zoom) meeting with my tutor. I’m working through an online course (as well as Duolingo) and every so often we have a face to face to check how I’m doing. The worst bit was doing “first, second etc” Frankly once I get passed second I really struggle. I can count ok but those? Jeez… I’ve also learned various clothing words and suffice to say she got a very exact description of what I was wearing at the time - haha!

Sod’s law meant that the Sunday after the latest night I’ve had in Norway was the annual Hagen service.

Hagen (and I think I’ve got this right) was a village, or at least some houses, between the two hills on Dønna. There was a heavy rockfall in the 1950s and the government insisted that the people leave as it was too dangerous to stay. You can still see the ruins of the houses and farm buildings. Once a year an outdoor service is held there long with the local scouts who camped over night at Sandstrak. Alas there is no organ out in the back of beyond so my job was to record the hymns on my phone and then lug a rather heavy speaker along the half hour trek to the site of the service. Bård was kind enough to strap it onto a rucksack to make it manageable but even then as I put it on I was thinking it was damn uncomfortable. In yet another act of kindness Trine’s husband Svein suggested that perhaps if I didn’t try and put it on upside down…. Just at this moment it appeared that a group of Eastern European divers had agreed to take the speaker round to the beach and save us a lot of trouble. It was very kind of them and did save me a lot of hard work.

There was about 20 or 30 people in attendance and the whole thing went very well - though once again I was struck by the tempo of the hymns - always seems faster than I remember playing them.

It was a lovely service in a beautiful setting that finished off with a barbecue in the sun.

Thanks to Trine for the photos of the service (I was using my phone to play the music in case it looks like I wasn’t paying attention!) and Sigrid for the Kammerkor pictures.