Not much to report from tonight. It was Liz's birthday, though, so I had several rather nice flapjacks in the break. (I also belatedly remembered I had my camera with me - the few pictures I took are on the choir website.) (For those who don't know Liz, she's the one with Gill in the first photo). It was also Andrew the recording guy's birthday - he told us that he doubted we could possibly produce a more atonal version of "Happy Birthday" than the one the orchestra had played earlier... sadly we didn't get a chance to try! It was Andrew who came out with my second favourite quote of the night: "Can it be very sotto voce? I mean very. I mean... VERY."
Recording went quite well. Couple of patches from last night, then we got almost to the end. Just the last 13 pages to do tomorrow night. I'm pleased to report that the basses FINALLY found their A natural in the last bar of page 58. Jamie pointed out to them on Thursday, when one of them asked for help, that they merely had to repeat the exact phrase that the basses of the orchestra had just played TWICE (quite how none of them had noticed that before is beyond me, but they are basses :p (sorry Graham!)) (I suppose I should confess at this point that last night Mark said there was a place where everyone in the choir was coming in late except for one bass. I'd forgotten it amid the thousands of times he's said the altos are the only ones doing stuff right :p ) Anyway, they were still getting the A natural wrong tonight, but after a few goes it was finally fixed.
The "sotto voce" quote above reminds me that I was asked tonight why I hadn't written about the recording session I helped out at on Saturday (the choir involved is called Sotto Voce). The answer is that I didn't have anything particularly interesting to say about it! (so what's new there, I hear you shout :p ) Anyway, there's a report (and photos) on their website.
One final thing. Maggie told me this morning that the tongue should never be higher than the top of the bottom teeth when singing any vowel. Turns out I quite often have it in the middle of my mouth, which blocks the sound! Is this yet another thing that everyone knew except me?
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
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2 comments:
OK - I must confess to having problems finding the A nat. and yes, we had spotted it in the previous bars, but in the scheme of things, it was difficult to remember it was there, yes, even with a marked score, and the orchestra is marked piano at that point, not easy to hear when altos are chattering away nearby and singing too loudly (a Maggie 'tongue-in-cheek' moment)!
Be kind to basses - remember we are an endangered species - good altos are 10 a penny - and in fact I think should be declared a protected species.
Thanks for the reference to the Sotto Voce - I know the performance and recording were not in the Hallé league, but it was an enjoyable day (even if Phil would not let you dunk your biscuit in his tea) and it was good to have your talent and company again. Up the Reds!
when altos are chattering away nearby and singing too loudly
Some of them DO talk a lot, it's true. Often I can't hear what the conductor is saying because of people talking nearby. Wish I was brave enough to tell them to shut up! (Sometimes I am, if they're REALLY annoying me. but usually I don't dare do more than glare.)
As for singing too loudly, we have to do that to be heard over the sops :-)
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