It’s a warm, still December evening at the MCC School Grounds on Harrington Road. Helicopter lights twinkle in the sky; the occasional local train huffs and puffs past, and the steady whispers of conversation rise all around. “Will it start now?” “Do you remember your parts right?” “What’s the harmony on the fifth line?” question stray men and women, boys and girls, wandering around the grounds, all suited and booted, scarved and saree-ed, waiting for that opening piano note. It strikes, the lights blush on, and a soft little girl solos the first lines of ‘Away In A Manger’. The closing evening of the annual MCC Alumni Carol Concert is afoot, replete with 16 choirs in all, and in its 17th consecutive edition this year.
With thermocol stars in hand, paper crowns on heads, mistletoe and holly on their dresses, the 60 children of Crotchets n Quavers, led by Jayanthi on the piano, earnestly ask the audience in song ‘Do you see what I see?’ A little call-and-answer later, they step off to make way for the WCC choir who manage to blend ‘Mary’s Boy Child’ into Boney M’s ‘Oh My Lord’ shifting seamlessly from one’s verses into the other’s chorus. Medleys seem to be their forte, for they next combine ‘Gospel Express Train’, with its gusty imitations of train choo-choos and whistles, into the hahaha’s and tringa-linga-lings of ‘Jingle Bells’. All the sing-talking somewhat overtook the pleasure of the music, though.
It’s the MCC North-East Christian Fellowship Choir, a line-up equally rich in male and female voices, that brings back the harmony to stage. On a solid foundation of bass voices, the women lilt along, to combine together into a powerful crescendo on ‘The Coming of the Lord’. Perfectly-timed entries and exits, and some beautiful play with the fortes and pianissimos on ‘Angels are Making the Rounds’ tell you the choir is wonderfully sensitive to even the gentlest leadings of its conductor.
It’s with The Harmonics that things turn truly professional. A quintet of five men that’s been singing together from the 70s, asks the crowd in their first song — ‘Where’s the line to see Jesus?’ which shifts the spotlight from a season drowning in the commercial, back to Christ. Goosebumps ripple down your skin as they effortlessly shift from one strange chord progression to the next in crystal-clear notes, each voice so tightly woven into their musical knit. Small in number yet magnificent in their togetherness, and accompanied just by simple guitar-plucking, the Harmonics then present ‘Be My Christmas Number One’ by The Great British Barbershop Boys, a quick dance-to-the-beat number about finding love in the season.
Choir books open up, sheet music is flipped about and members of the Madras Musical Association take the stage. As their voices climb and fall, lulling you with their quiet beauty, you sense this is a choir seasoned to its size, not a voice sticking out sorely, each section of the choir taking its turn to show off as the music leads them too. Their music is the sort of soft, warm embrace the Christmas season is about. And the best of the season’s songs come all together with The Canticles’ splendid medley arrangement of old hymns, contemporary gospel choruses and Christmas carols. With controlled voices, and possibly the most adventurous pianist for the night, embellishing their voices with trills and frills at every other turn, the men-only choir’s most memorable piece was their perfect rendition of ‘O Holy Night’.
And then came the grand ensemble of the MCC Alumni Choir, made up largely of faculty, with the women in red sarees bookended by men in black suits, and conducted by their choirmaster for 30 years, Winfred Chelliah. They launch into rousing, thumping versions of ‘Ring Out the Bells’ and ‘Come with thanksgiving’ that’ll have you ramrod straight and up on your feet in immediate attention. They’re soon joined by the MCC College Choir and the MCC North-East Christian Fellowship Choir to make a 200-voice finale team that fills out the stands on stage and powers through the night as they sing Handel’s ‘Hallelujah’. As the crowd slowly files out, the choir closes with ‘Silent Night’, the last notes drifting into the quietness of the night.
