The clarity and purity of Estonia's Academic Female Choir of Tartu University, The Babi of Bistritsa and Bulgaria's Cosmic Voices are featured in this program. All stand as symbols of national excellence. Estonians take great pride in their music. In 1991, as the Russians conceded sovreignty, they made a point of standing outside their Parliament building and singing national choral songs. We also meet Estonian Arvo Part, one of the leading composers of sacred choral music in Europe, whose music was banned under the Russian occupation.
People lay bare their souls when they sing, and choirs show people at their best: communicative and co-operative and singing the songs of angels. In this program, The New Testament Youth Choir of Temple Church, Just Us from Nashville, and the adult Praise Choir perform the joyous and heartfelt music that is American gospel.
This celebration of South African music includes the wonderful and joyous sounds of Kids R Us (the Soweto Children's Chorus), Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and Ubuhle Bemolweni, along with other groups present at the annual Iscathimiya Competition. The South African Iscathimiya is a call and response style of chorus with rich and haunting harmonies.
Boyz'n the Hood is the choir of Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford. This program looks at the choir's daily life, their job, their special school and their 100-year-old tradition, and compares it to the Salisbury Cathedral Girls Choir. Both choirs are stalwarts of English church music and here they perform music by Byrd, Standford and Bruckner.
Howard Goodall re-visits choirs from his series on the world's greatest choirs and asks them to sing again. This performance special showcases seven of the world’s leading choirs and their contrasting choral traditions. The rich and haunting harmonies of South African Iscathimiya – a call and response style – are performed here by Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Christ Church Cathedral Choir in Oxford and Salisbury Cathedral Girls Choir, both stalwarts of English church music, perform works by Byrd, Stanford and Bruckner. The keening, yearning tone of Bulgaria’s throaty Cosmic Voices is contrasted with the joyous and heartfelt gospel of Just Us and The Temple Church Choirs in Nashville, and the clarity and purity of The Academic Female Choir of Tartu University’s nationalistic folk songs in Estonia. The variety in each choir’s repertory is complemented by their striking costumes.