So, this seemed like a good idea a couple of hours ago...

We had a very entertaining rehearsal tonight. Well, they're usually entertaining, but there's not always as much giggling and, well, smut as there was tonight :-)

It started during the warmup, when Maggie (vocal coach) seemed unable to say anything that didn't make everyone smirk. Of course I can't remember any of it now (well, there may have been a mention of going down on the altos and basses, but the rot had set in long before that!)

Spent most of the rehearsal on the middle bit of The Music Makers (Elgar). Some tricky stuff, but it'll be fine after a few goes at it. Nice to have quotations from Enigma and Gerontius (the piece was written in 1912, after both of those), but unfortunately the "our souls" section will never again be sung with a straight face after Fanny (standing in for Jamie) said "Now, speaking of the basses... Our Souls". It took a while before one half of the choir realised why the other half was giggling... Yes, we are easily amused :-)

Then onto a quick look at two of the Tippett spirituals (Steal Away and By and By). They're not my favourites of the five (I like Go Down Moses best, particularly after we discovered last week that the 2nd altos have several good bits that we don't have in the Child Of Our Time version) but of course all five are lovely. It was all complicated by the tiny printing and the confusion caused by the German words and alternative rhythms, and the fact that most people apparently hadn't bothered to go through and mark which line they were on, despite getting lost last week. But some progress was made, notably by the sopranos and basses, who are now actually singing the verse bits in By and By. (It took several goes before they could be heard.)

Finished with a sing-through of the Elgar with Maggie singing the alto solo part. It was great, although sadly we ran out of time and didn't get to the end. Came out to discover that United hadn't managed to beat Chelsea, but at least they hadn't embarrassed themselves as they did on Saturday. And I forget at what point in the rehearsal it occurred to me that it would be fun to have a choir blog, but it did :-)

(The choir website is here. Must update that sometime.)