“God’s own country”, according to Wikipedia, is a phrase that was first used to describe the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland, an area famed for the richness of its flora and fauna and the beauty of its landscape.
It has, subsequently, been used to describe several other places including Australia, United States, New Zealand, Cornwall and, of course, Yorkshire. I say “of course” because it’s an expression we associate generally with a pronouncement of great regional pride on the part of our northern neighbours.
We have enjoyed God’s own country tremendously this weekend and especially to the wonderful market town of Beverley and to Hull, that great northern city.
We take some pride ourselves from our weekend trip to East Yorkshire in terms of the quality of both of our performances. Mansfield & District Male Voice Choir had the opportunity to make music in two wonderful venues and share the stage with two other choirs who sing, as we do, with great passion and purpose.
“I thought the concert on Saturday was fantastic, your choir sang superbly and I think that made us ‘lift our game’. The joint numbers were a joy!” said Bill Leigh, Public relations Officer at Hull Male Voice Choir.
There has been some talk recently about the power of live music to bring healing to a wounded world. This, I think, was the motivation for the “One Love Manchester” Concert at Old Trafford last Sunday ( 4 June 2017) .
Our very own Paul Bennett ( compere on both evenings) made a comment about choral music having the power to take us to “another place”.
The musicians, the singers and the members of the audience; we all knew what our compere meant. All of us had been there- God’s own country, a place of beauty and richness.