Episode 1: Tree Of Life

Here We Are - The Pathhead Choir Songwriting Project

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This episode sees Here We Are project leader Sophie Bancroft and Ken Cockburn, from Autumn Voices , discuss how the Here We Are project started. It also hears from various choir members about their love of being in The Pathhead Choir, and Sue Lewis, one of the Here We Are project songwriters, talks about her experience of being in the project and being involved in writing the song 'Tree Of Life.'
You can watch the video of the performance of Tree Of Life at
https://youtu.be/cRUAqy56tTA
TREE OF LIFE (a song created from The Pathhead Choir Songwriting Project - Here We Are)
Lyrics by Sue Lewis with Sophie Bancroft and The Pathhead Choir Songwriting Group,
Music by Sophie Bancroft
You are drawn to me, my life, my age, my strength
My ancient wisdom
For I have seen more days
Than you will ever know.
Seeded, I begin as you do
and my skin is scarred by life
a life drawn in lines that show only when broken
Rooted, to touch the sky
Rooted, to spread my arms
Rooted, in the soil I bend the battering winds
The earth my holdfast
But we all break sometimes
Find healing in the green, the red, the gold
of turning seasons
And like me find renewal,
autumn, fall and spring
Until I stand no more
I lay here on forest floor
Tho living yet the sleeping dragon
filling children’s dreams
Rooted, to touch the sky.........
You are drawn to me, my strength, my age, my life
my ancient wisdom
Long years I offer shelter
to the young and old
Though you’re drawn to me
you don’t see the role I take
to cleanse and to heal
our beautiful world
HERE WE ARE - The Pathhead Choir Songwriting Project saw Sophie Bancroft guiding a group of Pathhead Choir members aged 60+ to write original songs for The Pathhead Choir to perform. These songs were then arranged and notated for the choir by Pathhead Music Collective musicians and arrangers, rehearsed and performed by The Pathhead Choir, conducted by Sophie and choir co-leader Gina Rae, with Dave Milligan on piano. The choir gave three concerts around the Lothians in June 2023, performing eight new, original pieces.
Full information about the project, and sheet music and choir arrangements can be found at https://autumnvoices.co.uk/projects/the-pathhead-choir/