Maybe I’m getting old (80 in a month’s time) and a bit sentimental, but I found the film Military Wives rather moving. A variety of flaws are mentioned in Peter Bradshaw’s review (6 March). I would add that it is slightly limited by its main characters being largely well-to-do and middle-class. The music, while performed with enthusiasm and skill, also seemed to me only occasionally compelling.
Nevertheless, the film for me asserts the power of music to unite creatively a diversity of people: and its impact on audiences is unifying and conciliatory. The fact there are a huge number of such choirs, not only all over this country but around the world gives cause for optimism. I myself have been engaged for almost the whole of my life in music-making among people of different age-groups, races and cultural backgrounds, amateurs and professionals. I see no reason to change now.
Meirion Bowen
London
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