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Tuesday, September 09, 2008, 09:00
A mild dose of canine flu meant one of the artists had to be sidelined at a recent Swansea event.
But, as the saying goes, the show must go on, and the eight remaining singers came together to make it a harmonious affair and, it has to be said, a howling success.
Artist Richard Higlett had got eight dogs to sing to the same hymn sheet, so to speak, at a studio in Swansea.
The idea was to record their whimpers, yaps, barks, howls and whines and work them into a string-based piece.
The result would be A Song for Jack, a tribute the city's celebrated life-saver Swansea Jack, the retriever who is said to have rescued 27 people from a watery grave in the 1930s.
Richard assembled the dogs at the Swansea Metropolitan University studios and made a series of individual and group recordings.
In the line-up there was Bruno, the terrier, Benji and Buster, both shih tzus, a Bichon Frise named Hollywood and Angus, a Jack Russell, Edward, a basset hound, Zak, the border collie, and Ava, the German Shepherd.
"We recorded them separately, howling, barking and panting and then we had a practice with the music," said Richard.
"They sat together with group microphones and sang together to the music, which has frequencies and sounds which the dogs respond to.
"It's bound to be a bit spontaneous and rather chaotic, but they performed really well.
"Ava and Edward were harmonising together so well. Ava would close her eyes and just drift off, howling to Edward, who has got such a big booming voice.
"It was all such fun and we had a great time."
Richard was commissioned by Swansea arts charity Locws International to come up with a project for the Swansea Festival of Music and the Arts and he chose to create a dog choir to produce A Song to Jack.
It will be given its first public performance on the green at the National Waterfront Museum on October 5.
Linda Griffiths (right) from Llanelli, with Hollywood, a seven-year-old bichon friese.
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