Olympia Choral Society

In every respect it was unique. It was unprecedented. And it was beautiful. The long-held dream of director Terry Shaw to feature a concert consisting entirely of male voices cane to fruition in this concert when the OCS presented MEN (Making Enthusiastic Noise) to a record audience for a summer concert, to an audience with received it with no less enthusiasm that the noise we made. The evening started with an exhortation to Rise Up O Men of God, and finished in grand fashion with a massive AMEN in the Battle Hymn of the Republic. Between the two were clear-cut evidence of the different and exciting opportunities presented in a vast variety of choral work. Voices blended in an amalgam of tunes that were traditional, inspirational, modern, and comic.

Voices blended in an amalgam of tunes that were traditional, inspirational, modern, and comic. There were numbers that addressed the human spirit, and a lovely rendition of a song born of tragedy but captured the hope of humankind. There was a song of true love featuring strength and tenderness, a song canonical in form and a perfect blend of three-part harmony. There was a haunting melody set in music to a lyric poem by Robert Frost, and a pair of raucous tunes that expressed )1) our eternal gratitude that we were not sopranos or altos; and (2) that we love to hunt and golf and drive around lost, and scratch and spit and a whole lot of other disgusting stuff.

Since this one of those rare occasions when MEN had the floor, we told the truth about ladies - that Woman is a people that Grumble Too Much. There may be many reasons to change our minds about that, but on the other hand, we ain’t wrong, we ain’t sorry, and it’s probably going to happen again. It was a wonderful and exciting evening. Even so, we were fearful that all too soon the ladies, as usual, would get the last word.