Creatives across the globe have risen to the fore during the 2020 spring of pandemic and pandemonium. Artists and musicians who have seen budget cuts across educational establishments over the years have proven how vital creativity is. It is through this self-expression that others can relate to and feel part of a community when being forced to be so physically distant from friends and loved ones.

Singing is a tool that we all have access to and can enjoy be we tone-deaf or pitch-perfect, and being in a choir is wonderful because you get to surround yourself with others if you fit somewhere in the middle of that range. Virtual choirs immediately popped up, a show of defiance against COVID-19 that even if we couldn’t be in a room together, we could still sing in harmony. Kuwait Chamber Chorale released a beautiful rendition of Abide With Me in mid-April and British broadcaster and choirmaster Gareth Malone started The Great British Home Chorus, which rehearsed every day for several weeks, and while my intentions were good, I just couldn’t keep myself motivated after week one.

This is where fortune and composer and musician Harriet Petherick Bushman stepped in, who I know from being in the Ahmadi Music Group. Answering a call from the Centre of Latter-day Saint Art to create a piece expressing Art for Uncertain Times, Harriet wrote a motet – a mainly choral (or vocal) musical composition, “Wait on the Lord”. This was the opportunity I’d been waiting for, to try being in a virtual choir, with no rehearsals, one audio recording, and one visual recording. Simple. Is what I thought.

Living halfway up an apartment building provided the first challenge. While I don’t generally hear the neighbor next door, I can very clearly hear the neighbor two doors down when her husband hasn’t taken out the garbage quickly enough, and the neighbors above when they are being their very most dramatically Italian. Melodic in itself, but not half as loud as when I’m hitting the highest of notes sans throat tremor. Turns out, I’ve learned that the louder one sings, with more effort and fully from the diaphragm, you can reach the notes you’re searching for more cleanly, but this is why choirs rehearse in school halls and not in packed apartment buildings. It’s better for everyone’s nerves.

I tried a few scales in the kitchen (pun not intended), the living room, my bedroom, and then forlornly looked at my bathroom. The latter had the best acoustics, especially when I pulled the double-layered shower curtains closed. Plus, I guessed that all the apartments might have the same layout, so it was less likely that the people above and below me would be in their bathroom at the same time I was recording, so I’d be less likely to disturb my neighbors. But this also meant I’d need to drag my laptop, phone, two sets of earphones, and a socket extension cord into my ensuite.

One thorough cleaning later I’m finally set up, and start to record. After a few false starts, I’m really getting into it now, warmed up, singing well enough, and have nearly reached the end but I’m startled by one of my cats who’d been hiding in the laundry basket jumping up, out and at me in protest. Settling back down she stands to look at me as I record again, waiting until I’m 2 mins and 51 secs into the 2 mins and 58 secs long piece before she walks to the door and scratches loudly to escape. Her timing is perfect for a cat. I let her out, continue to record and mid-way, she’s decided she prefers the warmth of the bathroom to the cold of the air-conditioned living room, scratching at the door once more but this time to have me let her back in. Jumping onto the top towel shelf she promptly falls asleep. At this point, I’ve been slightly put off so it takes me a few more goes to get back into the swing of things. Nearly two hours of water closet warbling later and I’m getting excited during the recording. This is the last one, I’m nearly there, in a few seconds this will be the one! “Meow.” A final protest from the sleeping cat. 

I eventually got my audio recording in ‘the can’ in the can, but it was a whole nother thing trying to film the visual recording without the occasional tail flicking across the screen. That part got moved into the living room, by the way; no airing of actually dirty laundry on this video clip! Plus, I’ve realized that after nearly 50 years of chewing on the left side of my face, I now need to switch sides because my facial muscles are super squinty and my top lip curls up like Elvis. And I need to angle down so as to not get such a clear shot of my tongue piercing. Next time.

After wonderful project management by Fredrick Nirmal and supreme audio and visual engineering by Jeslyn Asir and Stanley Kuruvilla respectively, the musical mastery of the Harriet Petherick Bushman motet recently debuted on Harriet’s YouTube channel.

“It has been a delight to work with choristers from India, the US and Europe to create, even virtually, such a sound to commemorate this moment in time.”

Harriet Petherick Bushman

Harriet continues, “If together we have shone a bit of light into some dark places, it will have been worth the many tricky moments (and infinite patience of many) that a production like this takes.” I’m pleased to have been a part of it too, especially as it’s a moment I’ve shared with the more annoying of my two cats.

For more information on Ahmadi Music Group follow @ahmadimusicg on Instagram or visit ahmadimusicgroup.com.