So it is indeed the 18th Concert de Noël des Coeurs and so we were lucky to be able to
welcome the messengers who are still very well known, who have 50 years of existence on the Alsace of the North,
on the Alsace of the Center. They have already come a dozen years ago to Orphalden and it is true that
they had already presented us with a very, very beautiful show and there it has been more than a year
that we learned dates with them because they are very requested, they are very asked.
So they made us the pleasure and the honor to come back to Orphalden.
I lost Noël and unfortunately we only say four weeks, so it is true that it remains four Saturdays and Sundays
and we are back in Orphalden because we were not in the heart, we had played there a few years ago
and we have kept a very good memory and it was a real pleasure to come back this evening to play here
in a very warm and very, very participative audience.
We must know that the messengers are an association of volunteers who support essentially
humanitarian works or organizations that need them.
So we often support them in a local way but also abroad.
So we left for a trip to Thamadagascar. No, I'm wrong, not Thamadagascar but Senegal.
We built a school, we provided means of transport, a small shelter and just before Thamadagascar
we took care of a retreat house and an orphanage. And so these moments are moments of joy
because we meet people, we have been able to help them a little, for us it is not much,
a mattress, covers, school supplies, but for us it is so much that it makes our hearts warm.
And when we play, we think about these moments and it makes us want to continue for a long time.
It is a group of musicians. We are at 7 now. We have existed for 49 and a half years.
We were born between Guim and the 1st of July 1968. So we will make our 50 years of existence in a few days.
We were one or the other, students of other football players, two or three others,
a little bit like Guim but also Glandeur. And the month of May 1968, we said to ourselves,
we are not going to break rocks in Strasbourg or Agneau where we live almost all.
No, we are going to do something else. The idea is to immerse ourselves in our field,
do singing, do what we sing. We have to stand out from other groups.
So we said to ourselves, here, we are going to sing from the Negros Spiritual,
we didn't know what it was at all.
The first part remains a little bit traditional.
These are still the Negros and the Gospel songs, essentially that have been adapted, reinvented,
reintroduced in our repertoire.
And the second part will be essentially the Negros of Christmas,
which is very, very difficult to find.
But our pianist, who is at the keyboard at our home, Manu, Manu Wenling,
has an extremely important function in the group.
He reinterprets, he re-aménages, he reharmonizes,
which makes what you can hear tonight, for example,
when no other concert is performed by anyone else.
How do I do it? It's very simple.
The Negros Spiritual is a oral tradition,
so all this transmission in orality.
Generally, I take a text and then I harmonize with the...
I don't do anything by myself.
We do it together, it's a team work, so in repetition,
we work together on the project, I come with a small model,
and then here it is, everyone brings his stone to the building,
and that gives the result that we heard tonight.
It's true that it's a pleasure to see, especially for the volunteers
who have been involved throughout the year,
the Committee of the Fêtes team,
who are always in the search to please people,
to attract people, and it's a bit of a shame
that the Orphalden people are a bit deceptive,
I would say at the level of the public,
and that it's from other villages,
or from other places, Vaslone, Marmoutier,
people from Luxembourg, from Haut-de-Seine,
and horses that were also there,
who came to see their children,
and who took the opportunity to come back to this beautiful concert.
Thank you.
