BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales recently recorded Calon Lân as part of BBC Cymru Wales’s Six Nations marketing campaign. Osian Rowlands, Chorus Manager, BBC National Chorus of Wales, goes behind the scenes when nearly 400 musicians came together to make the trail.
It’s every choir's dream to sing for Wales at the start of a rugby match at the Millennium Stadium. Standing in the centre of the pitch, with a full stadium of Wales supporters surrounding you, is a memorable experience – you certainly sing much louder than usual!
Behind the scenes with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales as they perform Calon Lân
So when BBC National Chorus of Wales had the chance to sing Calon Lân as part of a BBC Cymru Wales trailer for the Six Nations campaign, we jumped at the chance to join in. The idea was simple – BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales would be joined by local Welsh choirs, who would all come together to sing Calon Lân.
This simple idea, however, involved a lot of logistical planning. Firstly, there was a small matter of finding a group of guest singers to join us. Luckily, we were joined by five fantastic choirs - Aelwyd y Waun Ddyfal, Cardiff Ardwyn Singers, Cor Caerdydd, Cor CF1, and pupils from Ysgol y Wern, Cardiff. In total, they brought along over 150 singers who were only too happy to help and to get into the spirit!
Then, there was the task of getting all of these people into the hall. As there were so many people in Hoddinott Hall, the choir made their way to the hall from the public entrance in the Wales Millennium Centre. Our entrance lobby soon turned into an impromptu props and make up department, making sure everyone had the right scarfs and hats (and even a few inflatable daffodils) to make the celebrations authentic.
The BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales
Thomas Søndergård, the Orchestra and Chorus’s Principal Conductor, hails from Denmark and so wasn’t initially familiar with the song. After a little coaching on the Welsh pronunciation Thomas got to know the piece very well – and it’s now a song that he loves. We certainly showed Thomas that Wales is truly the land of song!
With everyone in their places, we did a quick warm-up to make sure that the singers were in good voice, and make sure everyone knew the words (which, of course, they did!). We also needed to make sure that everyone sang together, because of the distance between the two choirs – it’s very rare for there to be two choirs facing each other.
And so after the warm-up, the recording started. In order to make sure that both the sound and the pictures were of the best quality, the audio was recorded first, and a couple of takes were filmed to make sure that we used the very best version in editing later on.
Then, after Thomas changed into a very fetching Welsh waistcoat, with the red dragon on full display, we began filming. Here, the idea was to get a wide variety of shots in 360 degrees – the Orchestra, BBC National Chorus of Wales, the choir of children and fans, and conductor Thomas in the middle. We got to know Calon Lân incredibly well over the next couple of hours as we would sing the piece a few times to make sure that we got all of the shots we needed from the camera crew.
And then, the evening draws to a close, our Director Phil calls it a 'wrap', and it’s just a matter of getting everyone out of the hall again. Spare a thought for the poor props people who, at the end of the night, were surrounded by a mountain of scarfs, daffodils and flags!
See the results of all our hard work in the final video. If you fancy singing along, you can learn the words with our BBC iWonder guide.
