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24 September 2014

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You are in: Bristol > Cabot Circus > Cabot Circus news > Cabot Circus Choral Cantata

Workers singing on a construction site

Cabot Circus Choral Cantata

Unusual efforts have been taken to record and celebrate the people responsible for Bristol's new look city centre. Workers from 53 countries are on site ranging from secretaries to scaffolders, crane operators to caterers.

But once their work is complete how will those who constructed Cabot Circus be remembered?

Neville Gabie is the Artist In Residence for the project and has been working to create a choral cantata.

"I thought it was extraordinary that you could walk around the building site and hear languages spoken from just about everywhere, which is something I never really expected before I came here" says Neville.

"I thought it was something to explore creatively and also once it's a shopping centre and all these people have gone, a way to create a record of the faces and voices involved in building Bristol city centre."

Site Secretary Ania Smetana singing

Site Secretary Ania Smetana

Faces like Ania Smetana, the site secretary.

Her contribution to the Cantata was a folk song about how a couple in love part when the lady involved tries to get everything she wants by being manipulative.

"I feel as if one of my dreams came true," says Ania.

"Coming from a small town in Polish, from quite a poor family, to be here in a big country, working here, living here and singing for a British audience.

"It's fantastic."

Workers on site were asked to submit traditional songs from their home countries.

Raymond Henry singing on site

Raymond Henry singing on site

But Raymond Henry, a banksman on the Cabot Circus Project submitted a song he wrote himself about his roots in Jamaica.

"Black Gold is about slavery," says Raymond.

"It came to me one day about the value of people, so I just sat down and wrote it.

"I've never performed it in the UK before this."

The songs were combined into one set, and performed either by the contributor from the construction site or the City of Bristol Choir.

"The hardest thing has been the languages: Polish, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Romanian" says David Ogden the composer and conductor of the City of Bristol Choir.

Group of workers singing

Workers singing together

"The choristers have been working hard to get their tongues around the language which has been a real challenge."

While the songs were performed in a special ceremony on site and at St James' Priory in October 2007, the work is being recorded as a DVD.

"Music and signing is one of those things that touches all of us at a very deep level," says Neville Gabie.

"I wanted to bring that back onto a very physical site and bring those sounds and emotions back into the building."

last updated: 27/03/2008 at 14:21
created: 22/10/2007

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