"It's either Elgar's fault or yours, and I'm suggesting it's Elgar's."

We sang for five hours today. That's a lot of work for a Sunday! All I want to do is go to sleep for about twelve hours, but I have to get up for work much earlier than I'd like, so this will be quick. (Also, my feet are killing me! Lots of standing up was done. Ow.)

The recording session - and the rehearsal before it - went pretty well. This is probably because there was a lot more concentration (and a lot less talking) than usual. And also that we're really good, of course :p Mind you, a possible reason for the lack of annoying chatter was that Jane brought her annual charity quiz sheets, and lots of people were kept quiet doing them. I did a few on Liz's sheet but then gave up. One of the ones we were stuck on was the word that could be placed after "sin" and before "egg". My mum suggested "ister"... (think about it!)

Anyway. Jamie did one of his "no pain, no gain" warmups, to the background of much creaking of bones and yelps of pain. (Yes, really.) And then followed an extremely detailed rehearsal (and, later, recording) of the Ireland and Elgar, which I won't describe at length - I'll just list the Jamieisms. The first one refers to the fact that we stayed in tune throughout - not always the case when singing a cappella for long periods of time, so something to be proud of!

"Half an hour in the same key? Niiiiice!"

"It's soft! It's focussed! It's soft! It's focussed!" (accompanied, as ever, by arm actions)

"That's too many words. Just write MANIC."

"Like Eddie Izzard after he's just told a slightly non-PC joke."

"That A flat is bloomin' marvellous. At the moment I don't see any love from you towards it."

"It's a descending semitone... the other incarnation of THE DEVIL."

"Can you NOT tighten your larynx, tenors? Otherwise I'll kill you." (This was followed by, from the booth, "NO CLENCHING!")

And finally one from Gill: "He needs to get out more..." (after Jamie was really, REALLY excited about a particular phrase the basses sang)

Oh, and one note from me: Am I the only one who thinks the end of As Torrents In Summer is exactly the same as the end of the Vicar of Dibley theme tune? (Well, different words. But other than that, it feels identical to me.)

To end, two things I meant to post last week:

This article is about John Barbirolli, and has some interesting links. Have a look if you're into that sort of thing.

This is something I find while I was looking for something else. It's someone who - *gasp* - doesn't seem to think our Gerontius was the best thing ever! Which reminds me - those people who are still waiting for their DVDs, I'm promised you will get them eventually. I keep asking my friend, but I don't like to ask too often.

Finally, I'm delighted that someone found this blog by doing a search for "Great Altos" :-)