On Tuesday 22nd July 2014 Helen Weinstein, the Creative Director and  Producer for Cycle of Songs organized a celebration of the achievements and their recordings for the app with Milton Road Primary School Choir Leaders, whose children in the choir have featured prominently in the project singing at Sing & Swim, the Fitzwilliam Museum Song Fest, and singing for the recordings of ‘Hooray for Hobson’ and ‘Build This House’ for the app.

To help capture this event and to amplify the filming and photography already taken by the team at Historyworks, was photographer from Cambridge News, David Johnson, invited by Cycle of Songs to join Helen today to be taking photos for a press article about the children’s involvement with the project. The children were already prepared when we arrived, dressed in their choir t-shirts and energetically requesting songs they would like to sing.

After some co-ordinating by their Choir Leaders, Anna-Louise Lawrence and Becky Sharp, they were ready for their performance and press photos. Some of the children were holding detached handlebars and bells, (donated and made by the wonderful Colin at the bike repair shop called “University Cycles” by Victoria Bridge); and others were holding Cycle of Songs App Maps as they sang the Hobson’s Horses songs, with music composed by Karen Wimhurst, lyrics written by writer for Horrible Histories, Dave Cohen, researched by the team at Historyworks with key sources uncovered by Cambridge research student, Janine Noack. The Producer, Helen Weinstein, has already been into school to show all 400 pupils the film and the app map, and encouraged the children to test out exploring all 9 songs with their families this holiday using the website or a smartphone in situ.

All 120 in the chior were on great form and sounded fantastic. To complete the copy needed for the Cambridge News, Helen Weinstein did not leave the school before gathering quotes from the Headteacher, Graham MacArthur, and quotes from their Choir Leader, Anna-Louise Lawrence. Following on, a few of the children offered feedback about the project and how the experience affected their engagement with the city and its history. You can read the view of the Headteacher, and their insightful responses below:

Graham MacArthur, Headteacher, Milton Road Primary School: The Cycle of Songs Project has provided our large school choir with marvellous opportunities to engage creatively and musically with like-minded pupils and adults; it has extended our musical repertoire and enabled us to perform in spectacular settings and in front of a world-wide audience. A truly memorable event!

Thoughts from the students at Milton Road Primary about the experience of singing history-related songs for the Cycle of Songs:

Anna: It was good learning something new and it was really interesting.

Eleanor: Singing helps us get interested in history.

Alma: Sometimes in History lessons you don't understand it - but now we get to sing the history, we understand it more.

Alex: It was really important to be singing history because it is a great way to remember the past if you sing it. I’d never heard about Hobson before, never.


Thoughts on singing in King’s College Chapel:

Alex: The best thing about being in King's was the singing, and we enjoyed meeting the choristers.

Amira: For me, singing in Kings was something new because I'd never been there before and it was exciting. I really enjoyed it - especially the singing.


Thoughts on singing on the steps of the Fitzwilliam Museum to the Tour de France cyclists:

Alex: I liked singing on the steps and seeing the cyclists go past. The Tour de France will only happen in Cambridge once in our lifetime, and we were there on the steps of the Fitzwilliam Museum to sing to them as they rode past - something i'll never forget.

Choir Leader and Teacher at Milton Road Primary School,  Anna-Louise Lawrence said: “Learning a specially commissioned piece with the music written by Karen Wimhurst was quite a challenge, but one the children rose to brilliantly.  The whole process of the project has been remarkable - singing in King's Chapel alongside the Choristers for the piece by Michael Berkeley, recording in Great St Mary's and picnicing in their gardens, and of course, serenading the cyclists from the steps of the Fitzwilliam Museum, and listening to the new Michael Rosen poem about the Lions. The app leaves a lasting legacy, one where you can walk around the spaces of our city in Cambridge, and hear all these wonderful lyrics as an adventure in sound.