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About Zimbe! A note from the composer Alexander L’Estrange.

Zimbe is an Anglicised version of the Swahili word ‘Ziimbe’. meaning ‘Sing Them’, Just as others have shared these wonderful songs with me, I wish to pass them on now. Scored for SATB choir, unison children’s choir and jazz quintet, with copious percussion, the settings reflect my own musical make up. Within the piece we find references to jazz, pop, the Western choral tradition and, of course, world music.

African songs are easy to learn and impossible to forget; that is the very nature of the communal song tradition. The songs I have chosen to arrange are fun, moving and infectiously tuneful – and through them we find ourselves in a wonderfully simple, joyous realm where music imitates life and life inspires music. I hope you enjoy ZIMBE!

The photograph of Alexander was taken at the choir’s last rehearsal on the 3rd April 2025 before the concert, when the choir made a presentation to thank him for his very energetic and inspiring session.

Alexander L’Estrange is a fresh and exciting voice in choral music. With roots in the British choral tradition and a successful international career as a jazz musician and arranger. Alexander has been described by composer and broadcaster Howard Goodall as ‘the ideal 21st-century musician’, an accolade acknowledging not just his outstanding musicianship but also his huge versatility.

Helen took over accompanying the choir during the 2025 summer term from Roger Haygreen who unfortunately had to retire due to ill health.

Helen was born in Warwickshire and started playing the piano at the early age of 5. She later took up the French horn and went on to study music performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Since coming back to the area, she has accompanied a variety of groups including Espressivo Chorus, Sing It Loud, Alcester Male Voice Choir and the Hadland School of Dance. She also frequently accompanies music exam candidates.

During the day she currently works for Warwickshire Music, teaching brass instruments in schools in and around Warwick. Helen has performed in a variety of places including Symphony Hall in Birmingham and underneath the Statue of Liberty!

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Ukrainian Prayer – John Rutter

 

Harbour – Anna Tabbush

 

Fields of Gold – G.M. Sumner arr. Roger Emerson

Village Voices are currently working on a medley of songs from the musical My Fair Lady. You may recall that in My Fair Lady, Professor Higgins takes an ordinary Cockney girl, Eliza Dolittle, under his wing in order to teach her to speak properly and to behave as a young lady should, so that she could take her place in polite society. Professor Higgins was not entirely successful. You may recall that in all the excitement at the Ascot Races, she yells at the horse on which she had placed a bet, “Move your blooming arse!”

My Fair Lady has a Warwick connection. Professor Higgins is based on the life of a man called Sabine Baring Gould who was a boy at Warwick School, where he was a boarder, but not for very long. Sabine was ordained in the Church of England, but he was also interested in archaeology and he was an avid collector of folk songs and folk stories. He was a prolific writer with over one thousand publications and had an interest in the occult. He also wrote a number of hymns. Some of which are still well known. The most famous of these is Onward! Christian Soldiers and it is his translation we sing at Christmas, in the carol, The Angel Gabriel.

After reading Theology at Cambridge Baring Gould worked as curate at Horbury near Wakefield where he met Grace Taylor, who became his wife and mother to his many children. Grace was an ordinary mill girl, the Yorkshire equivalent of Eliza Dolittle. Baring Gould made it his mission in life to educate her so that she could take her place in polite society.

 
Baring Gould’s friend, the playwright George Bernard Shaw, witnessed the marriage and the relationship between Grace Taylor and Sabine Baring Gould. Apparently she was transformed. Shaw used this relationship, as the basis for his play Pygmalion which in turn became the musical My Fair Lady with marvellous music composed by Frederick Loewe based on the lyrics of Alan J Lerner.

In the 1940’s and 1950’s boarders at Warwick School would be taken out on a Sunday afternoon for a long walk in the country. Apparently they started and ended each walk by singing Onward! Christian Soldiers.

Baring Gould ended his career as the Vicar at Lewtrenchard in Devon. Grace died some years before he did, probably as the result of exhaustion, having given birth to and raised fifteen children. She is buried in the churchyard there. On the headstone, in Latin, is the inscription Dimidium Animea Meae – half of my soul.

Baring Gould could regularly be seen riding his pony and trap across Dartmoor and he was still doing so well into his 90s.

Join us at our Spring Concert on 25th April 2020 to hear our medley from My Fair Lady.

Click on photos to enlarge

 

 

Videos of the Trip

Part 1 Rehearsals and Travel to Derry (4:22)

Part 2 Exploring Derry (3.46)

Part 3 Trevor’s Tour (5.00)

Part 4 Concert – Samples (5.40)

Part 5 After Show Celebrations (10.26)

Part 6 Sunday Lunch and Departure – Includes Thank You Speeches(4:26)

Full Version – All 6 Parts (34.08)

Village Voices Choir raised £1,250 for the 2nd Warwick Sea Scouts at their Christmas concert at Chandos Street Baptist Church, Leamington Spa in December. In the photo cheques are being presented to Nick George for the Sea Scouts on behalf of choir member Paul Brenig-Jones who proposed the charity. Choir members nominate different charities each year for sponsorship. Sponsored charities also help with concerts by selling tickets and helping on the night.