A Song of Blue

I’m not going to lie, I was struggling a little this week with finding some inspiration to write this blog post. I couldn’t find much information about the inspiration for this song. The only description that I could find was that the lyrics were a collaboration between poet Charles Bennett and composer Bob Chilcott (a common occurrence for them) to explore the power of music through the metaphor of nature. However, when looking into the composer’s life, I found a much more compelling story.

Bob Chilcott began as a singer in a choir at age 5. His musical talent was recognized early and at age 8 he was accepted into a choristership at King’s College in Cambridge. He even began composing around the age of 10. He returned to King’s College, Cambridge for schooling at age 18 and was intimidated a bit by his contemporaries because he wasn’t sure his musical style fit in with the style of the time. So instead, he spent a good number of years arranging music and spent some time arranging for the BBC Radio Orchestra and the BBC Big Band. He joined the the King’s Singers at age 30 while still arranging and composing. His time spent singing through his life gave him a unique insight into vocal ensembles and the way one has to work as a group to make a sound come alive. He uses this insight regularly while writing.

Bob left singing in the mid 1990’s and began composing full-time. He also began working as a conductor for the Royal College of Music Chorus in London and later became the principal guest conductor for the BBC Singers. He has conducted over 30 choirs worldwide and has composed an extensive catalog of music. He hails choir music and says, “The power of it is absolutely without boundaries. From a social point of view, it brings together people of all sorts of different ages. It also brings together people of different status in the world.”

If you’re interested in learning more or hearing one of Bob’s interviews, check out this article https://blogs.jwpepper.com/the-inside-voice-an-interview-with-bob-chilcott/.

JL