In the bleak mid-winter, frosty wind made moan

It is already bitterly cold in Beijing with night temperatures always below freezing and only just above freezing when the sun is shining. So, in the weeks coming up to Christmas, I am delighted to be preparing the festive season with warm friendly feelings, hot comforting mulled wine and carol singing. After five years living in France where the tradition of carolling has unfortunately disappeared, I am very pleased to renew with Christmas carols, although I have to sight-read and learn a whole lot of new tunes, in German! I have joined the Deutsche Kantorei Peking (DKP).

Having just arrived in Beijing, I immediately started looking for a choir to start singing again. I was particularly keen on finding a good quality choir as choral practice has been virtually banned since last March in France because of covid-19; I needed my fix of community singing.

I was first confronted with the obsolete nature of the worldwide web in China. All the references I could find to international choirs or choral societies in Beijing on the Internet were outdated from 2018, if not earlier. I finally found a QR Code for the Chinese instant messaging app Wechat to contact a singer in the French-speaking Maurice Ravel Choir of Beijing. Unfortunately, the French choir was not recruiting new members until February next year. However, I asked whether there were other international choirs in town and the lady I was in contact with said she would ask around for me.

On Friday afternoon of last week, I got a Wechat message putting me in touch with another person who could introduce me to the German DKP. Only 30 minutes later, after a series of instant messages on Wechat with a British DKP singer now stranded in Hong Kong, I was in contact with a German Beijing-based singer and the Japanese Chairwoman of DKP. The latter asked to give me a call. They were singing carols the next morning for the German Christmas market in Beijing; could I come join the singing? All I needed was a very warm black coat because we would be singing outside. I usually do not like busking concerts, but this opportunity was too good to miss. So, the next morning, I was given a folder with the music and off we went into the cold singing carols in German beside giant plastic Christmas tree and snowman. We were glad to enjoy warm mulled cider, mulled beer, hot dogs and sauerkraut in between the carolling sessions. 

One week later, choir members were invited to a private teatime party in one of the German members’ clothes shop for more carol singing, more mulled wine, raisin bread and ginger biscuits. We sung through most of the German carol song book together for over an hour. I left rather tired but elated just as the pianist was starting to get “jazzy” on my more familiar English and American carol repertoire. I hope he will stay inspired until next week. We will be carolling again at the Beijing German Embassy School next Sunday!

In the bleak mid-winter
Gustav Holst, Stephen Cleobury and choir of King’s college Cambridge, Holst: the composer of the planets, Warner

Photo DKP, snowman and Christmas tree: Christine Bérillon