Supertonics!

Well, just to reassure those people who asked, I am OF COURSE going to quote what Mark said about the end of Praise to the Holiest (page 147): "I don't beat, I just sort of waggle till I've had enough..."

But the Supertonics thing was more amusing, IMHO. This was when Jamie said to the men, on page 168, that he wanted high supertonics. What was funny was the way Mark kept saying it afterwards, each time accompanied by a knowing look :-) (And I'm sure most of you know, but in case there's one person that doesn't and was wondering, the supertonic is the second note of the scale. So, since the music is in E major at that point, he was referring to the F sharp.)

Piano rehearsal with Mark Elder tonight for Gerontius (she belatedly explains for those who weren't there). Great fun as usual. It'll be a good gig. (I'm so disappointed that the London show sold out before any of my friends and relatives who said they might go had got round to investigating tickets. And as usual I can't persuade ANYONE to come and see the Manchester one. It's never quite the same when there's no-one you know in the audience, is it?) We had the Hallé Youth Choir with us tonight for the first time (well, in several months) and they sounded great. They'll make lots of people very proud at the Prom, I suspect. We also had the lovely Jonathan at the piano, standing in for David.

Jamie did a very thorough warmup. Only bits to note were that he berated us at one point to say "Santa Claus is a figure of FUN!" (you had to be there...) and also he told us about a pub in Cornwall, the Lamorna Wink. I think this was while we were stretching our facial muscles by winking in an exaggerated manner...

I've already mentioned two of Mark's best bits. But there was also "You've got to be... unattractive!" (in the Demons' chorus); also the fact that the highpoint of his year is, he says, that the Hallé concert in Tatton Park has outsold Will Young, who's there the next day! My favourite, though, was the Valkyrie thing. On page 100, he told the sopranos that they ought to "be like Valkyries" in the "to serve as champion in the field" bit (yes, Graham, I know that's your favourite bit!) Jamie went over and whispered in Mark's ear that the sopranos of the Youth Choir might not know what Valkyries are. So Mark explained. Something along the lines of "they swoop down and rescue the bodies of dead heroes from the battlefield, and take them back to Valhalla. And then they, erm, give them one hell of a good time..."

Orchestral rehearsal tomorrow night. Whee!