"Cos they're all dying for it!"

That's the tenors, needless to say. Although in fairness to them, I should probably point out that this was Jamie pointing out why they breathed so well as a section :-)

I've been so tired all day (loads of stress at work, causing me to be unable to sleep much last night) that I had planned to go to bed as soon as I got home tonight. But I changed my mind because of one of the many Lizzes in the choir (in this case Liz L, the new 1st alto), who delighted me by telling me that this blog always entertains her at work on a Thursday. I could hardly let her down after that, could I? :-)

Another of the Lizzes, Lizzy A, told me that she was upset that I got at the sopranos last week. However, she did admit I was somewhat justified, so I didn't feel guilty for too long! And finally there's Liz T (the one with the blog) who is in the USA at the moment. She has had her hair done, and sent me a photo. (She says it's redder than it looks.) I include it here (with Liz's permission) because someone asked me tonight what she looks like. Nice hairdo, isn't it? [EDIT: Photo now removed, sorry.]

So, anyway, tonight was the AGM. It ran over a bit (well, 35 minutes!) but Jamie could hardly complain since it was him that spoke at most length! (My bit was supposed to be 10 minutes, and I think it more or less was.) It was a much more pleasant affair than last year's AGM, and it felt (to me at least) as if people weren't totally bored. I hope that was in fact the case. Lots of interesting and useful information, which I won't attempt to repeat here, as all the choir members will be getting a copy of the minutes. I'll just mention one topical thing, though, to reassure people who weren't there. A question was asked about the extent to which the Hallé is affected by the national insurance issue recently reported to be causing major problems for many UK orchestras. The answer is that it is not a big worry for the Hallé because most of our players are on contracts; the orchestras that will be most at risk are those in which most players are freelance.

Oh, actually, I'll mention one other thing. The rehearsal on 23rd November (which will be of Messiah) is now an open rehearsal. So please bring your friends! The more the merrier! The plan is that after they've seen what it's like to actually be a part of the choir, there will be audition slots available for them to sign up for if they wish. (Terrible grammar, but YKWIM.) And talking of rehearsals, I've updated the online schedule to mention this. No other changes other than that I've now added this Sunday's evening session (somehow I'd managed to miss that off, sorry) and I've checked all the football fixtures again.

After the AGM we had a necessarily short rehearsal. We finally got to see the other piece we're recording: Elgar's As Torrents In Summer, which I've sung before but I can't remember when or where (that's been bugging me all night!). Jamie: "Who's sung this piece before? [sees that quite a few people have raised their hands] Great. That's reassuring. ... We're recording this piece on Sunday."

Needless to say, the people who always sing behind the beat when sight reading sang behind the beat. But at least they were more or less in tune, so it could've been worse. Some amusement over the pronunciation of the word "fountain"... Jamie: "Fountayne isn't English, really, unless you're from a certain area of Essex." I personally found it oddly difficult to sing all the Rs without rolling them at all, as instructed. I was reminded of my friend Alison singing Dancing Queen... she is such an experienced choral singer that she finds it hard to sing "Friday night and the lights are low" without rolling the R in "Friday", for which I have teased her many times :-)

We did The Hills briefly, too. It was still behind. Argh! Hopefully people will actually WATCH on Sunday...

And finally, The Bells - the end of the last movement and the end of 3rd movement. We actually started at page 51! I was so pleased! And we actually practised the section I've been obsessing about! It's a bit better now.

Oh, and the tenors had a fabulous "loud and wrong" moment on page 90, when they all went very confidently for an F when it should've been an E. They catch on very quickly, though - and it's SO much easier when mistakes can actually be heard and therefore corrected.

Going back to The Hills, Libby looked up the lyricist (James Kirkup) online, and was very surprised to discover he'd written a poem which is... well, let's just say it's nothing like The Hills! Have a look here (scroll down to see the poem), but not if you're easily offended.

Which reminds me of my final thing: recent searches that have led visitors here! New ones include the following:

"The Mother of all Sudoku Puzzles- the Hardest!!"

"i'll go anywhere don't ask me to sing in the choir" (the mind boggles!)

"cute without the e choir" (Cute without the E is the name of a song. Nothing to do with choirs AFAICS.)

"paul scholes and beckham" (led to this post)

And my favourite two (the last one in particular amuses me a very great deal, but then I'm a sad geeky type!)

"muppets singing porn music"

"orcish porn"

You see, you only have to mention the word "porn" once, and the search engines love you from that moment on :p