Aahana Swrup
A Nicholas Hytner directorial, ‘The Choral’ is a musical drama that tells a story of art’s poignant capacity for inspiration even at the heart of a brutal war. Set in 1916, with World War I ravaging lives at the front lines, the film takes place in a small English town, Ramsden, facing a choir emergency. As the time for their performance nears, the war and its draft continue robbing the choral society of its male members, and even the choir master himself.
As a result, the controversial Dr. Henry Guthrie is appointed for the role. The new choir master goes on to recruit the town’s young population, particularly teenage boys awaiting deployment. As a result, the choir’s performance of a moving piece revolving around death and purgatory gets transported beyond the composer’s intent. The film effectively transports the audience to the past, exploring the war’s impact on people’s hopes and optimism.
The Choral Bears Striking Resemblance to the Real Story of the Huddersfield Choral Society
Despite its historical roots, ‘The Choral’ isn’t directly inspired by any real-life individuals or instances. The film’s exploration of Henry Guthrie and his choir in Ramsden, England, is entirely fictitious. In fact, the central town itself is a fabrication created in service of the narrative. The story began in 2020, when director Nicholas Hytner began developing the film alongside his longtime collaborator, screenwriter Alan Bennett. Eventually, Stephen Beresford went on to add to the film’s screenplay as a writer. Although the filmmaker never explicitly sought biographical inspiration from a real-life choir, Guthrie’s choral still retained crucial similarities to a real-life musical group.
The on-screen depiction of Ramsden’s choral group shares many features with the Huddersfield Choral Society, founded in 1836 and one of the UK’s leading choirs to this day. During World War I, the society lost 23 of its members to enlistment in the war and 2 members to death. In the end, 17 members returned to the choir after the war. Notably, the Huddersfield Choral Society performed ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ composed by Edward Elgar with the composer himself in 1917. In fact, they are credited with the first recording of the piece. As a result, the similarities between the historical and musical context tie the real-life choral with the on-screen version. In a conversation with The Yorkshire Post, Sir John Harman, the General Secretary of the Huddersfield Choral Society, spoke about the same.
Harman said, “The parallels between the film and our own history are striking. During the First World War, our members continued to sing even as many went off to serve, and we still perform The Dream of Gerontius today with the same conviction.” Still, the film’s intention behind this parallel remains shaky. Although Hytner had been interested in the history of the Huddersfield Choral Society and attempted to write a film for it, he ultimately decided against it. To him, ‘The Choral’ came to be years down the line. Interestingly enough, some tendrils of reference still seeped through, such as the on-screen fictional town which shares its name with Ramsden Estate, a Yorkshire settlement on which Huddersfield was originally built. Thus, regardless of any direct inspirations, the link between the two remains.
The Choral Centers Around Edward Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius
Another core connection of ‘The Choral’ to real life stems from its musical element. In the film, the Ramsden choir decides to put on a performance of ‘The Dream of Gerontius’ by the composer Edward Elgar. While this arises from a need to choose a non-German piece, it ultimately plays a crucial role in the thematic identity of the residents of Ramsden. In the absence of older men, whom the war has claimed in one way or another, the choir is mostly made up of teenage boys who are headed to the frontlines. Therefore, the story of the piece, involving an old man on the brink of death and an angel sent to take him to purgatory, plays an instrumental role in the film’s narrative. This adds a metatextual nuance to the storyline.
Additionally, the film’s relationship with art as a tool to inspire and animate, even in the face of adversity, breathes a rousing and relatable life into its otherwise fictitious foundation. Director Nicholas Hytner discussed this aspect of the story with The AU Review. In the interview, the filmmaker shared, “It’s all too imaginable with the certainty of death coming, but what they (the young people in ‘The Choral’) need first is human connection. That’s what these young men and young women need most urgently. They know their time is limited in The Choral, and there’s one other thing they need, which is art, which is music. Those are the two things that are most important in my life. Human connection and art.”
Dr. Henry Guthrie is a Fictitious Choir Master
Much like the story of ‘The Choral,’ its leading man, Dr. Henry Guthrie, is also a work of fiction. The film takes great care to use its historical backdrop solely for thematic purposes. For the same reason, it fictionalizes the central choir, their hometown, and even the choir master. Yet, the context around Guthrie’s character remains tied to the historical reality of the time. During World War I, an individual’s connections to Germany, before or after the war, were socially perceived in a distasteful light. The choir master’s rocky return to England reflects this same social convention.
On the other hand, Guthrie also achieves a sense of realism through the musical aspect of his storyline. Although actor Ralph Fiennes, who steps into the role, isn’t a conductor, he took his cues from the on-set coach Natalie Murray Beale. In fact, during filming, the coach was often in the actor’s eyeline to provide additional support with the fixed hand movements. ‘”It’s mostly about the timing,” Fiennes shared in an interview with Gold Derby. “You have to be moving the baton quickly, or you can be out of time. Unless the muscle memory is in your body, you get lulled and then suddenly realize that you’re behind.”
Read More: Where Was The Choral Filmed? All Shooting Locations
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