The heady excitement generated by the run-up to the University Cecilian Choir‘s appearance on Heart Kent Radio this morning – and if you’ve missed it all, where HAVE you been ?! – finally peaked when the station broadcast the recording this morning.

To the delight ot listeners, commuters and those on the school-run throughout the county, the air-waves resounded to staff and students singing ‘England’s Gateway To The World,’ the mock anthem celebrating the glories of our county, arranged for mixed choir by Your Loyal Correspondent.

If you missed this stirring moment, watch the video here; thanks to all the students and staff involved in the project; how about taking it to the Albert Hall ?!

Thanks to HeartKent Radio for the film.

Since we last spoke, you and I, Your Loyal Correspondent has been busy making good on his rash promise to create a choral arrangement of the Anthem for Kent, which presenters James and Becky broadcast on HeartKent Radio a few weeks ago, and which I thought on Tuesday might work as a choral piece.

Since then, with brow furrowed and wielding quill and parchment, the arrangement has been written and type-set, and is here unveiled for the first time; the University Cecilian Choir will be taking a first look at it in rehearsal later today.

This stirring, epic hymn to the glories of the county will resound around Colyer-Fergusson Hall this afternoon; prepare for the earth to move…

Early risers may have caught Your Loyal Correspondent live on air this morning, talking on Heart Kent Radio about the Anthem for Kent which presenters James and Becky have put together.

This stirring, majestic eulogy to the glories of the county – think Elgar and Walton – celebrates its Roman roads, its White Cliffs, as a ‘Garden of England green,’ and I rashly suggested that what better than a choral arrangement of the piece sung by the University Cecilian Choir ? A piece about the county sung by the county’s University seemed a great idea whilst listening to it in my car in the white-heat of the school run a couple of weeks ago, a thought I carelessly voiced out loud and to which my children immediately yelled ‘WE DARE YOU!’

So, here we are; I’ve now made a start on converting the piece to a full arrangement for mixed choir, which the Cecilian Choir will then need to learn. We’ll keep you posted as to how it’s progressing. It’s my children’s fault…

Who knows, maybe a performance in the Royal Albert Hall, anyone ?!