Singing songs to Placido Domingo in New York might seem a world away from hymns in a Presbyterian church in Otahuhu, but not for Linn Lorkin.
Raised on a farm in Tokoroa, Linn’s parents moved the family to her aunt and uncle’s hometown of Otahuhu when she was 12 years old.
“They were stalwarts of the St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church and we were welcomed there; my uncle was an elder and my Aunt Betty was in the choir, as were her two sons.” The church choir, which Aunt Betty encouraged Linn to join, was to have a profound affect on Linn’s choice of career.
“I hadn’t really sung before I joined the church choir, other than singing with my mother, so that was the beginning.”
Linn says the St Andrew’s choir was fortunate in its choir mistress, Lola, as she was keen for them to learn new music. “The choir rehearsed long hours at her house as she had us attempt quite ambitious, difficult anthems that had lots of hard parts. I don’t recall us learning the very traditional hymns; these were more contemporary and I think Lola sent to America for them. We were quite a good choir, quite large (we took up four pews) and fortunately we managed to pull off most of what we attempted.”
Sunday was the day the choir worked towards. “I would go to church for Bible class, and then in the early evening the choir would perform the anthem we had learnt and lead the congregation in the hymns that the minister had chosen. What has stuck with me all these years is the music of some of those hymns, because they were written by very good composers and had marvellous melodies; sometimes the melodies were taken from old folk tunes, so they were very nice, very catchy. I always liked it when minister Mountjoy would choose one of my favourite hymns that had interesting and more adventurous chords.
“I have been influenced by some of those hymns in my own song writing. For example, there’s a traditional hymn that goes, “Be thou my battle shield...” [Be thou my vision], it has a really nice melody and reminds me of Edward Elgar. I really enjoyed hymns with similarities to those kinds of melodies and chords; it made them a bit more contemporary, more adventurous, more enjoyable to sing than some of the older hymns that I found frankly really boring”.
Linn continued to attend St Andrew’s and sing in the choir during her university years. “After I got my MA I received a scholarship to study French linguistics in France, so I left the choir when I left the country.”
At the time Linn thought her career would have to be that of a lecturer. It was only after living in Europe that she realised she was prepared to pursue being a professional singer no matter how hard it would be. And she did find it difficult, but persevered and worked as a singer in New York for nine years before returning to New Zealand to record an album. She has recently re-released this album, “In the land of music”, on CD.
The Presbyterian hymnbook influence is strong in several of the songs on the CD. Linn says. “There’s one song called, “I was a singer in Tutankhamon’s band” that’s quite stately; it’s about the reverence ancient Egyptians had for female singers. Whenever I hear it I think how it has a similar sound to one of the hymns I used to sing. “These wings of mine” is another song of mine influenced by hymns. I’m sure there are other songs that I have written that have been influenced by hearing that music in church so very often from such a young age. It stays with you, fortunately”.
Linn performs weekly in Auckland, singing in French as part of the trio French Toast, and performing her original songs with trio Linn Lorkin and the Larrikins. She also sings with the Jews Brothers Band.
By Angela Singer