This weekend at Charney Manor in Oxfordshire offered an opportuinity for experienced singers and string players to enjoy a weekend of Acapella singing and string quartets with a chance to sing and play together at the end of the weekend.
Penelope Putz wrote this poem about her experiences:
The Minstrels of Charney
In sooth, I know not why I am so glad.
It (re)joices me; you say it (re)joices you;
But how we sing it, play it, and enjoy it.
What stuff ist made of? Whereof is it borne?
It is the Q FOC;
And such a minstrel Q FOC makes of me
That I have much ado to know myself.
Our songs are reeling round the manor;
There where the monks were wont to pray.
We warble, and we fiddle, and we blow,
And music make the livelong day.
But some of us have still so much to learn,
We limp along, not quite in time;
When some of you go da-da-di-doh,
I'm rushing after do, do, (Oh!) doh.
I'm at bar 20 - You're on 39!
(Who's counting here? Why CAN'T I keep in time?)
Now this goes better; with luck we're nearly there.
How do we do it? We're all together -
At the end....
