Greenhills Musathon 2015

On Friday (again), my school had the Musathon, where we play live music continuously for twelve hours to raise money for something. Not entirely sure what, to be honest. We were fundraising for stage curtains when I first came into the school, and this year we finally got them. So I kid you not, the choir literally had a song in the Musathon celebrating the curtains.

We had a whole choreographed thing during the official opening of the curtains, where we “glided” aside while repeating:

Throw those curtains wide

One day like this, a year would see me right.

Anyway. So the Musathon started around quarter to ten in the morning. The 5th Year Music class were organising the whole event along with Ms. Diskin, Mr. Reilly and the new teacher whose name I’ve tragically forgotten (she’s also my form teacher, oh dear), so they’ve been stressing quite a bit recently. By Friday, though, all the line-ups were ready (I assume) so they were just trying to co-ordinate everyone and deal with disasters.

Because of the nature of the Musathon, the music cannot stop during the twelve hours so there can’t be any silences. Clapping apparently counts as music, so the next act must start while the audience is still clapping for the old one. Also, if the new act takes ages to set up, we either keep clapping even after it’s awkward or someone (probably Ms. Diskin) plays a popular, short song.

Each music class has a slot during the day, and other groups are rotated through to act as audiences. Mine (5th year) was there during third class (first part of my Chemistry double), watching the 6th Year Music class. We got pretty lucky with that, since they’d seem most skilled. Must say, I did want to see the 5th Year class. Fortunately, during History the teacher let us out after a bit to watch the 5th Years, so we went in during Leah’s performance, which was great because Leah is an amazing singer. She was in my Music class in 2nd and 3rd year and her rendition of In the Arms of an Angel is just yuss.

The trad group played in the main hall during Break, and I’m sure someone did things during Lunch, though I didn’t watch because I was at Chess.

After school, I walked down town with Lauren and Ann-Clair, who’s from France. Ann-Clair taught us lots of French on the way, because we had a conversation for a good while solely in French. I know she’s a native francophone, but I’m still so impressed by the fluidity with which she speaks French. She’s going home in April, which is sad. We went to Waterstones, walked Ann-Clair part of the way home, then Lauren and I had sausage rolls in BBs. I learned the valuable lesson that prices for sausage rolls are the same in both BBs in town, and thinking differently meant pointless walking. Dad gave Lauren a lift back home, then I went to Nana’s and got ready for the Musathon. I wore a black sparkly dress and tights, though I forgot to bring the scarf that completes choir uniform.

I walked up and left my phone and school jacket on a bench at the back of the hall, then joined the choir on the steps up to the stage. Between school ending and our arrival, there’d been a load of local musicians playing, and the evening show/8-10 show/official opening of the curtains was for choir, orchestra, trad and past Greenhills girls.

If I recall correctly, orchestra opened with a mashup of Pure Imagination and One Day Like This, and the choir walked on at the pizzicato bit to do our choreography and sing the lyrics above. Then the orchestra played Star Wars while a video played telling the story of the curtains imitating Star Wars Ep. IV (I have no idea what I’m talking about).

Then the choir sang Happy and lots of past students sang. There was an opera singer, a rock band (Rua, following in Featuring X’s footsteps) and the choir teacher’s sister, who certainly has a unique style. There was also Harmony Five, who have four members for some reason, and they were awesome as always. There was also a #totesemosh moment where they sang A Thousand Yours and the choir and all past students sang along to the choruses. Unity, yo. The 5th Year Music class did a Sam Smith song (so much Sam Smith that night), and Uptown Funk. A lot of them, especially Grace and Leah, really got into it and had fun up there, so that was lots of fun to watch. The trad group did a set and then the choir closed with an audience singalong to The Piano Man and the Rattling Bog. Just try to keep your voice after that.

 Fabulous night, of course. 

The Musathon was a great success. If I remember correctly, the music continued for 12 hours, 26 minutes and 48 seconds. Woot!