The energising and multiple health benefits of singing in a choir are well documented. Not only does it boost mood and happiness, singing can have a profound effect on reducing stress and anxiety. Belting out favourite tunes aids the immune system and helps release endorphins to enhance wellbeing.
The mission statement of Sing Ireland, the national organisation founded in 1980 and dedicated to supporting group singing across the country, is to inspire those from all backgrounds. Now, more than ever, its role is to champion the life-enhancing power of singing, ensuring its social, emotional and physical advantages, making it an integral part of Ireland’s cultural landscape.
In the eyes of many, it is a golden age of choral music. In the case of one choir – the Belfast Philharmonic Society – their singing pedigree stretches back 150 years. “The Phil”, as it is known, is culminating its landmark season with a series of events in the spring. Since its formation it has established a reputation as one of the few choral societies with an unbroken record of performance. With 140 members, it is the North’s only symphonic choir, holding at least four programmes each year and supporting a youth choir. Accompanied by the Ulster Orchestra in Belfast’s Ulster Hall, the result is always a resounding synergy.
Since its early days, the repertoire has remained enduringly popular. The choir has presented music by, among others, Bach, Beethoven, Elgar and Mozart. Over the years, one of their standout pieces has been Handel’s Messiah, composed in 1741 and occupying a unique place in the musical canon; in fact, the choir has performed this a staggering 299 times since 1876, with it quickly becoming an annual event.
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The history of the Messiah dates back even further with the premiere in Dublin on April 13th, 1742, in the Musick Hall. Handel had grown to dislike what he felt was “the dullness and bad taste of London society” which “drove him to th’ Hibernian shore”. It was his first time in Ireland and more than 700 people squeezed into the venue that was designed for only 600. Medieval records labelled the location Vicus Piscatorius, fish row or fisherman’s village, but Dubliners knew it as Fishamble Street, a lane flanked by attractive houses, running from Christ Church Cathedral to the river. To cram in as many people as possible, gentlemen were asked to “leave their swords at home,’ while ladies were requested “not to come with hoops in their skirts”.
The oratorio proved to be a popular success. Those present reported the combination of words and music as “elevated, majestick and moving”, while Faulkner’s Dublin Journal stated that “exquisite delight was admired by the crouded audience”. The paper continued, “the Sublime, the Grand, and the Tender together conspired to charm the ravished Heart and Ear”. The event also raised £1,223 for “various good works” and allowed 142 debtors to be released from local jails. In a recent book, Every Valley, a chronicle of the making of Handel’s Messiah, the American historian Charles King described the musician’s masterpiece, with perhaps a touch of hyperbole, as the greatest piece of participatory art ever created.
Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah is another long-established oratorio which the Philharmonic presented during their first season. In more recent times, this newspaper awarded them a five-star review for their performance of the work last November describing it as “a concert to warm the heart, reinforcing the merits of Mendelssohn’s music and recognising the invaluable contribution of the Belfast Philharmonic Society over so many years”.
The Phil has survived two world wars, the Spanish flu pandemic, the partition of Ireland, three decades of the Troubles, and Covid-19. It can look back on an astonishing achievement of introducing thousands of people to the world of choral music. Over the years the choir has fostered a spirit of camaraderie where lifelong friendships and some romances have developed in synchronicity with the music. The Belfast Philharmonic Youth Chamber Choir has also joined with the Dublin Youth Chamber Choir to form the Cross Border Youth Choir.
A closing season of sesquicentennial concerts is being held in May and June. The first, in the Ulster Hall, on May 24th; the second in St Michael’s Church, Enniskillen on May 25th, while the third is in the Redemptorist Church, Limerick on June 7th as part of the Limerick Sings International Choral Festival.
The Ulster Hall concert, conducted by chorus director James Grossmith, will also feature the Belfast Philharmonic Youth and Chamber Choirs. It will see the world premiere of a new commission from the composer Elaine Agnew. She has set to music a sequence of poems by Sinéad Morrissey celebrating the River Lagan from its source in Slieve Croob in Co Down to the mouth of Belfast Lough. The work’s title, The Offing, is a nautical term which refers to the sea beyond the shoreline that stretches to the horizon, but is still within sight of the land – in Morrissey’s words “where the tide and the river shake hands for the final time”. www.belfastphilharmonic.org.uk
