What do an apple, a pig and a naked goddess have in common?  Not a lot!  But all three did feature in Teignmouth Community Choir's concert on Sunday 8^th October 2006 at the Carlton Theatre.
  
The apple appeared in Musical Director David Haines' song "Pomology" (meaning the study of apples).  David was commissioned to write the song by Holcombe artist Am Afifi for the Artfarm Project 2006.  "It's a very odd little song", says David, "about the old varieties of apples being lost through the commercial pressure to produce uniform, predictable fruit.  It includes a string of bizarre apple variety names such as Bloody Turk, Slack My girdle and Monstrous Pippin."
 
The pig was the star of  Ezra Futrell's song "Pig Wig".  Despite his youth, Ezra - born in 1996 - is a prolific songwriter and the concert featured two of his fun, energetic numbers.  The other one "Diablo" was about Ezra's enthusiasms for this traditional playground game, whereas "Pig Wig" was an absurdist fantasy that could have come from the pen of Edward Lear.

The naked goddess appeared in David's song "Diana the huntress".  With a solo performed by Ian Shields, it tells the Greek myth of Actaeon who went hunting and chanced upon the goddess Diana bathing in a pool.  His punishment for seeing the unclothed deity was to be transformed into a stag and torn apart by his own hounds.  This lush and romantic song relates the thoughts of Actaeon as he lies dying, his passion undimmed by his tragic fate. 
 

Alongside these songs by local composers, the concert included works from all around the world and in many different styles.   On a wet and windy autumnal Sunday night, Teignmouth Community Choir managed to attract an audience of around 50 local people who applauded enthusiastically and said lots of complimentary things afterwards.  "The main thing is that we had grand time", remarked one singer.  "It's good to have an audience, but we'd have enjoyed it with just the stewards listening!"