Inflatable horn players, basses in drag, and remembering John MacMurray

All these photos are from tonight. (Again, bigger versions are here.) Sorry they're not very good, especially the ones of Cliff! And the zoomed-in one of the inflatable horn player shows the limitations of digital zoom :p

Last carol concert tonight, and it was the most fun yet. Even I was in a good mood by the end! (I was still ratty at the start, for which I apologise to anyone who spoke to me (particularly poor Sue-Ann, who had to speak to me several times and probably got several undeserved glares!)) There was lots of new silliness. I think the first bit was in Sir Christemas, where the tuba (I think) added a little unscripted chromatic run in the middle. But most of the changes were in the second half. There were rather more Santas (as in full costumed Santas, not just hats) than on previous occasions. But the best one was the horn player (I think it was Dicky - someone please correct me if I'm wrong) who waddled onstage in a huge inflatable Santa suit. (See blurred pictures above.) He could hardly walk, and had particular trouble negotiating the step up to his seat. Then he leaned forward to sort out his music and found he couldn't reach his stand. I've no idea how he managed to play his horn like that, but he did, although the suit was rather more deflated by the end!

We were also quite taken with the various Santa hats worn by the woman on the front desk of the 2nd violins. Yesterday she had a really cute Santa hat - cute because it was only about 3 inches tall! Today she had a normal-sized one, but it flipped from side to side at apparently random intervals (I presume it was battery-operated). Oh, and towards the end, while Gwenan Edwards was about to introduce the next item, the stage manager came on and told her something, and she announced that the timp player had had to go home ill, and could anyone in the audience step in? We knew nothing of this, and at first (before she asked for help from the audience) I think most of us thought it was genuine - I know I did! Needless to say, at this point Father Christmas ran in from the back of the stalls, and wandered across the stage dispensing presents to various people before producing some timp sticks and making a big show of tuning the timps before settling down to play the rest of the concert :-)

I think what most amused most of the choir, though, was Cliff (one of our basses), who came out for the second half dressed as an alto, in a proper Hallé ladies' frock, complete with windsock and huge dangly earrings! No idea whose frock he wore, or whether he actually sang the alto part :p

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks of John MacMurray every time I hear Sleigh RIde, for it was always him that did the reindeer impression on his trumpet at the end. Tonight all three trumpeters did it together - maybe in memory of him. I like to think so, anyway :-)

Finally, if you've never heard of the NORAD Santa Tracking thing that the U.S. military do every year, and you have kids, you might want to take a look! Hint: if you read this after Christmas, you've missed it.... it starts at 4 a.m. (our time) on Christmas Eve.

Quiz answers

Just realised I haven't posted these yet, so here they are. Anna the Commenter got 36 out of 65, did you beat her?

Also, Muso magazine asked me to mention this survey, and although I usually ignore such requests, this one might amuse some of you and seems harmless enough :-)

And, if you got bored by all the ranting on my last post, you might have not read as far as the pictures. Sorry - I've had some sleep now, so if I find anything new to complain about tonight, I'll try to keep it to myself! Instead I'll focus on those oboes in The Shepherds' Farewell....

Oh, and this is what's going on at G-Mex tonight (and last night), in case you were wondering. Review here.


Christmas lyric quiz answers
25 carols

1. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear:
And man, at war with man, hears not the love song which they bring // O hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing.

2. O Little Town of Bethlehem:
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more. (Note: this is from a verse that isn't included in "Carols for Choirs" for some reason.)

3. Nativity Carol:
Far away silent he lay // Born today, your homage pay

4. Jingle Bells:
Now the ground is white // Go it while you're young // Take the girls tonight, and sing this sleighing song

5. In dulci jubilo:
O that we were there, O that we were there!

6. Good king Wenceslas:
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer.

7. Unto us is born a Son:
So he gave the word to slay // And slew the little childer

8. Il est né le divin enfant:
Jouez hautbois, résonnez musettes

9. A merry Christmas:
And we won't go till we've got some, so bring some out here

10. Here we come a-wassailing:
And God bless you, and send you a happy New Year

11. O come all ye faithful:
Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation

12. I saw three ships:
And all the bells on earth shall ring on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day

13. Hark the herald angels sing:
Born to raise the sons of earth // Born to give them second birth.

14. We three kings:
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying // Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

15. Coventry Carol:
Herod, the king, in his raging // Chargèd he hath this day // His men of might, in his own sight // All young children to slay

16. While shepherds watched:
Goodwill henceforth from heaven to men begin and never cease

17. Sir Christèmas:
Who is there that singeth so?

18. Ding dong merrily on high:
May you beautifully rime your evetime song, ye singers

19. O come, o come, Emmanuel:
From the dread caverns of the grave // From nether hell, thy people save.

20. Sussex carol:
All out of darkness we have light // Which made the angels sing this night

21. In the bleak midwinter:
What can I give him, poor as I am? // If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb

22. Silent Night:
Glories stream from heaven afar // Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia

23. Gabriel's Message:
Most highly favoured lady, Gloria!

24. The shepherds' farewell:
God go with you, God protect you // Guide you safely through the wild

25. Past three o'clock:
And a cold frosty morning


... and 40 Christmas songs

1. I believe in Father Christmas (Greg Lake):
They said there’d be snow at Christmas // They said there’d be peace on Earth // Alleluia, Noël, be it Heaven or Hell // The Christmas we get, we deserve.

2. Lonely This Christmas (Mud):
I just break down as I look around and the only things I see // are emptiness and loneliness and an unlit Christmas tree

3. Do they know it's Christmas? (Band Aid):
Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears

4. The Power of Love (Frankie Goes to Hollywood):
I'll protect you from the hooded claw // Keep the vampires from your door

5. Fairytale of New York (Pogues & Kirsty MacColl):
You took my dreams from me when I first found you // I kept them with me, babe // I put them with my own

6. Santa Claus is coming to town (Crystals/Bruce Springsteen/others):
He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good, for goodness’ sake!

7. Have yourself a merry little Christmas (Judy Garland/others):
Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow

8: Merry Xmas Everybody (Slade):
Does your granny always tell you that the old songs are the best?

9. Winter Wonderland (Darlene Love/others):
He’ll say “are you married?” - we’ll say “no, man! But you can do the job while you’re in town!”

10. Mary's Boy Child (Harry Belafonte/Boney M):
Trumpets sound and angels sing - listen to what they say // That man will live for evermore because of Christmas Day.

11. Christmas Alphabet (McGuire Sisters/Dickie Valentine/others):
M is for the Mistletoe where everyone is kissed

12. Walking in the air (Aled Jones):
Children gaze open-mouthed, taken by surprise // Nobody down below believes their eyes.

13. Frosty the Snowman (Ronettes/others):
And he only paused a moment when he heard him holler “stop!”

14. Please come home for Christmas (Eagles/Bon Jovi):
Friends and relations send salutations // Sure as the stars shine above

15. All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth (Spike Jones/Tiny Tim/others):
It seems so long since I could say “Sister Susie sitting on a thistle!” // Gosh, oh gee - how happy I’d be if I could only whistle!

16. Sleigh Ride (Ronettes/others):
Let’s take that road before us and sing a chorus or two

17. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow (Vaughn Monroe/others):
But if you’ll really hold me tight // All the way home I’ll be warm!

18. Santa Baby (Eartha Kitt/Madonna/Calista Flockhart/others):
Think of all the fun I've missed // Think of all the fellas that I haven't kissed

19. O Holy Night (*N Sync/others):
Fall on your knees // Oh hear the angel voices!

20. I wish it could be Christmas every day (Wizzard):
Oh when the snowman brings the snow // well, he just might like to know // he’s put a great big smile on somebody’s face.

21. Wonderful Christmas Time (Paul McCartney/Tom McRae):
We're here tonight, and that's enough

22. A spaceman came travelling (Chris de Burgh):
This lovely music went trembling through the ground // And many were wakened on hearing that sound

23. All I want for Christmas is you (Mariah Carey):
I don't want a lot for Christmas // There's just one thing I need

24. Christmas Song (aka "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire") (Nat King Cole/others):
Although it’s been said many times, many ways

25. Stop the Cavalry (Jona Lewie):
Wish I was at home for Christmas

26. Cold Cold Christmas (Dana):
Yesterday I saw your Mom and Dad // We bought our cards together

27. Little Saint Nick (Beach Boys):
Run run reindeer // He don't miss no one

28. Rockin' around the Christmas tree (Brenda Lee/Mel Smith & Kim Wilde):
You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear voices singing: "let's be jolly, deck the halls with boughs of holly"

29. The Winter Song (Angel):
Hear the angels join the choir, let them take the music higher

30. Another rock and roll Christmas (Gary Glitter):
You never know, it might snow tonight

31. Last Christmas (Wham):
I thought you were someone to rely on // Me? I guess I was a shoulder to cry on

32. Stay another day (East 17):
Good times we had return to haunt me // Though it's for you, all that I do seems to be wrong.

33. When a child is born (Johnny Mathis):
A silent wish sails the seven seas // The winds of change whisper in the trees // And the walls of doubt crumble tossed and torn,

34. Keeping the dream alive (Freiheit):
The hopes we had were much too high // Way out of reach but we have to try

35. He's the little boy that Santa Claus forgot (Nat King Cole):
I'm so sorry for that laddie // He hasn't got a daddy

36. Christmas (baby please come home) (U2):
They're singing "Deck the Halls" // But it's not like Christmas at all

37. Merry Christmas Everyone (Shakin' Stevens):
Snow is falling, all around me // Children playing, having fun

38. Thank God it's Christmas (Queen):
Oh my love we've lived in troubled days // Oh my friend we have the strangest ways

39. Wombling Merry Christmas (The Wombles):
Open your eyes, look to the skies when you're lonely

40. 2000 miles (Pretenders):
... is very far through the snow

Who is there that singeth so?

Weird, isn't it, how some experiences can cause you to seethe with fury one minute (well, for quite a lot of minutes, actually) and shed tears of joy the next? I was struck by this dichotomy last Sunday, and again tonight. And the thing is, I can't recall any non-singing experience that has ever had the same effect on me. Odd, that.

Somewhat predictably, I spent most of tonight's concert fuming again - so much so, that I made a mental note that I must try to smile tomorrow! Should be easier after some sleep :-) I was irrationally furious with myself because I kept being reminded of things that had made me angry last week and realising that I'd forgotten to list them in my earlier post! I hate my mind at times! The extra fury-causing things, just to set my mind at rest, are: 8. Altos who are still ignoring the rhythmic instructions for the different verses of The Shepherds' Farewell; 9. Basses pronouncing "ver" with a v rather than an f in the Bach; 10. The clapping in Sleigh Ride - by which I mean the general clapping all the way through. We never used to do that, and to me it totally spoils the effect of the surprise claps that I used to love so much. 11. Altos who appear to have either not written in any instructions, or not attended any rehearsals, or just can't be bothered to pay attention, and are therefore singing in the wrong bits of lots of the audience carols (someone near me did this a LOT tonight); 12. (as ever) The behaviour of a few members of the adult choir. I couldn't hear any of the instructions during the warm-up because of people talking near me. Mainly this was the youth choir, but I'm not too surprised that they think it's OK to talk while Jamie is giving instructions, when members of the adult choir are doing exactly that. And then, backstage while Jamie was trying to rehearse the foyer choir, I witnessed two altos having a fairly loud conversation a few feet away, and they actually INCREASED the volume of their speech every time the singing started, presumably so as to be able to hear themselves over the top! I was staggered by their selfishness and rudeness.

I'm sorry to rant (again) but I'm just so sick of all this. I love the actual SINGING in the choir, but I spend almost every rehearsal getting angrier and angrier about all this other stuff, and as a result I can't remember the last time I was in a good mood by the time I got home from choir. Which is sad, because everything ELSE in my life is depressing me at the moment, and choir used to be the one thing that cheered me up. And it still does, every time, but sadly the anger is overshadowing the cheer at the moment.

Anyway, I did promise to list the good stuff, so let me end on a positive note! I'd be interested to hear other people's favourite bits :-)

MY TOP 10 MOMENTS OF THE CAROL CONCERTS

10. "Who is there that singeth so?" from Sir Christemas
9. Jazzy brass bit in Sleigh Ride
8. All the descants - probably O Little Town of Bethlehem is my favourite one, but I love them all
7. The drum fill just before the singing starts in White Christmas
6. The fff bit of the Wassail Song
5. The a cappella verse of O Little Town of Bethlehem
4. The orchestration of the men's verse of Unto Us Is Born A Son
3. Several bits of In Dulci Jubilo - mainly, the bit when both choirs sing together at the top of the second page, and the bit when the men sing a nice A7ish chord to get us to D minor
2. The words (practically all of them) of It Came Upon The Midnight Clear, and the timp roll that emphasises the very last line
1. The 3rd verse of The Shepherds' Farewell, where the oboes have those gorgeous extra bits. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

P.S. Here's some pictures I surreptitiously took tonight and on Sunday, while we were waiting for the orchestra to come on. There are bigger versions here.

"Not Silent Lee, who sounds like a guy down the pub who never says anything."

Sorry for the long gap between posts, things have got on top of me. Which is probably also part of the reason I was in such a very bad mood on Sunday... I had to do loads of work when I got home from the second concert, and didn't get to bed till about 3 a.m., and the thought of this made me grumpy for most of the day. (Why didn't I do it on Saturday when I was totally free, you may well ask? Because I needed a break!)

I've finally finished for Christmas today, though, so I can go to tonight's concert in a slightly more cheerful frame of mind. Maybe the extra things that were increasing my grumpiness might have fixed themselves - but I doubt it! I was repeatedly filled with fury on Sunday. Main causes: 1. that alto note in "A Merry Christmas"; 2. that alto bar in "White Christmas"; 3. the note in the last line of "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear" (at least there was only one harmony verse this time, so the altos could only get it wrong once each concert); 4. the very many mistakes in the programme; 5. the behaviour of some members of the Youth Choir (bringing cups of water on stage and then leaving the empty cups all over the floor was the least of their sins); 6. the whole mess about the foyer carols; 7. people who quote me in newsletters but plainly don't actually read stuff properly (because several of the "Jamieisms" lifted from here were not actually Jamieisms at all!)

(I'm doubly furious with the first three, because (a) they're wrong EVERY SINGLE YEAR; (b) no conductor or chorus master has ever done anything about them (in fact, a previous chorus master, when I asked him, said "oh, no-one will ever notice"!); (c) when I mention it to people, they invariably say "Oh, I know - but at least I know *I'm* doing it right." NO YOU'RE NOT, I CAN HEAR YOU! So I can only assume people either aren't listening to what's going on, or are listening but not hearing. Argh.)

Anyway, I need to run for a train now, but when I get home I will post again and tell you about the things about the carol concerts that make me really happy. It may surprise you to hear that there are quite a few!

"You are the juicy bone, I am the dog."

I should probably point out that this, tonight's best Jamieism, followed "Sopranos, I'm going to come back to that." :-)

Lots of carols tonight, although very few of them all the way through. We were joined by the HYC, who we've not seen for ages. They still seem to like to sing behind the beat most of the time, but then so do most of the adult choir! And I was unsurprised (but disappointed) that the notes that the altos have got wrong every year in living memory are STILL wrong, and I expect they'll be wrong in the concert, although I'd love it if they weren't. (I'm talking about the infamous note in We Wish You A Merry Christmas (p167, bar 47, first note) and White Christmas (page 4, last bar). Argh! (The singing behind the beat thing was particularly bad tonight. There was an alto near me who was almost a full beat behind, almost all the way through almost every piece. It's really difficult to sing in time when you have that in your ear. (She was by no means the only one, but she was the loudest one near me.))

Other Jamieisms: "Otherwise you sound like the Swedish Station Radio Choir... is there such a thing?"
"Sopranos, you shouldn't all go wrong on the same note! I'm always curious about a soprano section that does that. It seems bizarre. And unlikely."

Oh, and if you are a new member of the choir, and no-one has told you about the following 3 aspects of the carol concerts:

• tinsel and glitter
• silly hats
• clapping in Sleigh Ride

you should probably ask someone!

To change the subject completely, have you all seen this video? It's doing the rounds of the internet, and shows stupid drivers in Manchester city centre (Cross Street, to be specific). It explains why signs have now been put up there saying "no tailgating"!

And finally, some entertainment for you. I did these two Christmas lyrics quizzes a couple of years ago and just found them while I was looking for something else. Test yourself - leave your answers in the comments if you like, or email me if you prefer. I'll post the answers in a few days :-)

25 Christmas carols

1. And man, at war with man, hears not the love song which they bring // O hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing.
2. The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.
3. Far away silent he lay // Born today, your homage pay
4. Go it while you're young // Take the girls tonight
5. O that we were there, O that we were there!
6. Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer.
7. So he gave the word to slay // And slew the little childer
8. Jouez hautbois, résonnez musettes
9. And we won't go till we've got some, so bring some out here
10. And God bless you, and send you a happy New Year
11. Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation
12. And all the bells on earth shall ring on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day
13. Born to raise the sons of earth // Born to give them second birth.
14. Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying // Sealed in the stone-cold tomb
15. His men of might, in his own sight // All young children to slay
16. Goodwill henceforth from heaven to men begin and never cease
17. Who is there that singeth so?
18. May you beautifully rime your evetime song, ye singers
19. From the dread caverns of the grave // From nether hell, thy people save.
20. All out of darkness we have light // Which made the angels sing this night
21. What can I give him, poor as I am? // If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb
22. Glories stream from heaven afar // Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia
23. Most highly favoured lady, Gloria!
24. God go with you, God protect you // Guide you safely through the wild
25. And a cold frosty morning

... and 40 Christmas songs

1. They said there'd be snow at Christmas // They said there'd be peace on Earth // Alleluia, Noël, be it Heaven or Hell // The Christmas we get, we deserve.
2. I just break down as I look around and the only things I see // are emptiness and loneliness and an unlit Christmas tree
3. Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears
4. I'll protect you from the hooded claw // Keep the vampires from your door
5. You took my dreams from me when I first found you // I kept them with me babe. I put them with my own
6. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good, for goodness' sake!
7. Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow
8: Does your granny always tell you that the old songs are the best?
9. He'll say "are you married?" - we'll say "no, man! But you can do the job while you're in town!"
10. Trumpets sound and angels sing - listen to what they say // That man will live for evermore because of Christmas Day.
11. M is for the Mistletoe where every one is kissed
12. Children gaze open-mouthed, taken by surprise // Nobody down below believes their eyes.
13. And he only paused a moment when he heard him holler "stop!"
14. Friends and relations send salutations // Sure as the stars shine above
15. It seems so long since I could say "Sister Susie sitting on a thistle!" // Gosh, oh gee - how happy I'd be if I could only whistle!
16. Let's take that road before us and sing a chorus or two
17. But if you'll really hold me tight // All the way home I'll be warm!
18. Think of all the fun I've missed // Think of all the fellas that I haven't kissed
19. Fall on your knees // Oh hear the angel voices!
20. Oh when the snowman brings the snow // well, he just might like to know // he's put a great big smile on somebody's face.
21. We're here tonight, and that's enough
22. This lovely music went trembling through the ground // And many were wakened on hearing that sound
23. I don't want a lot for Christmas // There's just one thing I need
24. Although it's been said many times, many ways
25. Wish I was at home for Christmas
26. Yesterday I saw your Mum and Dad // We bought our cards together
27. Run run reindeer // He don't miss no-one
28. You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear voices singing: "let's be jolly, deck the halls with boughs of holly"
29. Hear the angels join the choir, let them take the music higher.
30. You never know, it might snow tonight
31. I thought you were someone to rely on // Me? I guess I was a shoulder to cry on
32. Good times we had return to haunt me // Though it's for you, all that I do seems to be wrong.
33. A silent wish sails the seven seas // The winds of change whisper in the trees // And the walls of doubt crumble tossed and torn
34. The hopes we had were much too high // Way out of reach but we have to try
35. I'm so sorry for that laddie // He hasn't got a daddy
36. They're singing "Deck the Halls" // But it's not like Christmas at all
37. Snow is falling, all around me // Children playing, having fun
38. Oh my love we've lived in troubled days // Oh my friend we have the strangest ways
39. Open your eyes, look to the skies when you're lonely
40. ... is very far through the snow

EDIT: Answers are here.

"What's after L? K? Thanks."

Here are Fliss and Tessa showing off their new hairdos :-)

The title of this post was a Jamieism from In Dulci Jubilo (on Wednesday), in which Jamie started by saying that everyone was behind the beat (which was true), and dealt with this by making the back row sing on their own (because he said they were the furthest behind). But then he got sidetracked into finding out what different semi-random groups within the choir sounded like. We had each row separately, then everyone whose surname started with a letter between A and L, then... well, that's when the quote above emerged :-)

I was also amused by "From there we have to go to the babes" (the word "babes" appears in the Shepherds' Farewell) and "It should, I think, be a bit more distant... and slightly more inebriated..." (in the Wassail Song). But this might have been just me :p We also did the non-carol-book carol concert pieces - one was the end of Bach's Christmas Oratorio (Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde). This was totally new, and not that easy, and (as Libby said) it seems a bit silly not to have given it out earlier so that people could look at it. But it did give me the chance to show off my sight-reading, which I always love! And we finished by reading through a truly bizarre "new" carol called "Strike! seraphs, strike your harps of gold" (written in 1850 by someone called John Fawcett). Apparently the musicologist who prepared the edition is coming to talk to us about it next week - should be interesting...

Did you watch the People's Chorus tonight? I didn't see me at all, other than in the distance once, and that was only because I knew where I sat and was looking. But most of the other Hallé people were on loads, especially Dr Liz. That's what I get for volunteering to be a tenor instead of an alto! But then I have been on TV many times before, so it's only fair that everyone else should have a chance. Oddly enough, I *did* see myself, very unexpectedly, in the programme *before* - the 10 Best Choral Masterpieces. Not a bad list - I have no problem with most of them, although there are a few others I might have included that were omitted (no Mozart Requiem or B Minor Mass or Creation, but they include Land of Hope and Glory?!?) But when they got to Gerontius, they showed a large chunk of our prom from last year! And I could see me in the background, behind the tenor soloist. If you missed the programme, it's repeated late on Tuesday night (well, actually 1 a.m. on Wednesday).

Finally, two more pictures - these are some of the angels in Albert Square. Go and have a look, they're lovely! And in the meantime, if you need some Christmas music to get you in the mood, there are various Christmassy mp3s still online, listed in this post from last year.

"TWINS!"

Not really in the mood to blog - I'm totally exhausted, plus my computer repair has turned out to be not quite as straightforward as hoped, which I could really do without. Also, I know there are some people in the choir who are able to take a day off work following a long day like Sunday's, but not only could I not do that, I had a parents' evening yesterday, which meant that I didn't get home till 9 p.m. - and then I had a pile of marking still to do! But never mind all that, let's talk about Messiah.

Having been less than enthusiastic about the whole thing, I actually really enjoyed it in the end, and I think most other people did too. Three highlights for me:

1. For the first time in several years, he DIDN'T MESS WITH "HALLELUJAH". My favourite part of the whole piece has always been the audience standing up at the start of that - it always makes me cry, for some reason - and the last few Messiahs have been spoilt for me by conductors INVITING the audience to stand. That's just not the same! But on Sunday Nicholas Kraemer just let it happen, and it was wonderful :-)

2. Similarly, the cheesy stand in the middle of "Glory to God", which I'd thought was silly, actually worked really well, and felt very powerful - I'd love to know whether or not it came across that way. (I'd also love to know whether or not anyone in the gallery noticed that, as instructed, I sang in their direction almost all the way through.) (They probably just thought "Why has she got her head sticking up in that unnatural manner? ...)

3. Carolyn Sampson, the soprano soloist. All the soloists were pretty good, but she just blew me away. She made it sound so easy! Even "Rejoice Greatly", which seems to me to be one of the most difficult arias there is. Her tone was sublime, and her top notes were effortless. Even her walk to and from her seat was amazing - she seemed to GLIDE. (Like Galadriel walking down the tree when you first see her in The Lord of the Rings. If you've seen it, you'll know exactly what I mean.)

It was all good, though. Although I'm surprised the tenors' heads made it through the door after all the praise heaped on them in the rehearsal. A sample (from Nicholas Kraemer): "It's very rare to have tenors in a chorus this size who sing as well as you do." Which is true - they ARE good - but we wanted compliments too!

An amusing contribution has come my way from Barbara's husband, who very much enjoyed the concert but overheard the following from audience members:

"Those 4 violinists at the back, they haven't played much - what's that all about?"

"Did you notice there are 2 types of women singers?"

"I know you didn't enjoy it but it's the sort of experience you ought to have!"

---

Just one negative thing I want to say, which I hope doesn't get forgotten in the euphoria of how well everything went. We didn't warm up AT ALL. AGAIN. That's two concerts in a row - and they were two BIG sings. A few years ago I wouldn't have been too bothered, but I can really feel the difference now if I've not warmed up properly. I think Jamie should make his mind up - either warm-ups are important, or they're not. I think most people would agree that they are - so can we have some consistency, please? Warm-ups should be done AT THE EXPENSE OF LAST-MINUTE NOTES. I imagine Maggie will be furious when she hears that yet again her work has been undermined.

Is it just me that thinks this?

Anyway, some other stuff to finish:

Here's an interesting Times article about choirs being in the public eye recently.

There was a thing called The Choir on BBC2 last night. If you missed it, I'm sure next week will summarise enough for you to catch up!

And of course, this Saturday is the best TV programme of the year so far - that is, unless they only show the sopranos :p The People's Chorus is on BBC4 at 8 p.m.

Ooh, I almost forgot - "TWINS!" was the most amusing moment of the "warm-up" - when Jamie was trying to get the men more enthusiastic about singing about a child being born unto them. Again, you probably had to be there :p

P.S. United are at home tomorrow, in a huge European game. Be warned!

Gerry the Genius

I met Gerry today. He is the lovely man who is going to fix my iBook (that's my laptop computer, for those who've never heard the term). It died yesterday (the logic board has given up the ghost, it seems) and the repair would be costing £500 if it wasn't for the fact that I took out AppleCare protection, which covers it. So at least there's some good news... Gerry works at the Genius Bar in the new Apple Store in the Arndale Centre. (If you've never been inside an Apple Store, do visit sometime - they're impressive places!)

In the meantime, I have no access to any of my files - or to World of Warcraft! (*sob*) - but I can at least get online - just - by using a PC laptop I've been allocated by school. I say 'just' because it's the SLOWEST MACHINE IN THE WORLD. It takes ten minutes - literally - to open a single program, and opening two things at once is just not an option. Argh.

What do you mean, I haven't mentioned the choir yet? Well, there's really not much to say. Last night was the orchestral rehearsal for Messiah, and it was OK musically (we finished 20 minutes early, always a good sign) but yet again had to stand up for most of it. And no doubt there'll be lots more standing tomorrow. Oh, my poor feet.

"I wouldn't insure you!"

Jamie started tonight's rehearsal by torturing us physically. He was unimpressed with our bodily flexibility, hence the quote in the title. There was the evil exercise where you put (and keep) the palms of your hands together and stretch in various directions; tonight this was followed up with an even more sadistic one which involved putting our elbows AND palms together and then stretching. Oh, the pain! I still ache now.

I really didn't enjoy tonight's rehearsal very much - not because of the pain at the start, but for all sorts of other reasons. It was the piano rehearsal for Messiah, with Nicholas Kraemer (NOT "Nick", as he pointed out when Jamie called him that). He was fine, but he made us stand up for a large proportion of the time, and I couldn't see him at all when we were standing, as all the people in front of me were taller. And my aching shoulders ached even more as a result of trying to stand in twisted positions so I could follow the beat. Add to that the fact that my feet, which had just about recovered from Saturday, were soon aching again; and also the fact that Mr Kraemer spoke fairly quietly, so that I couldn't hear what he was saying unless (a) he happened to be facing towards me, and (b) no-one was coughing. (Luckily there wasn't a lot of talking in the altos tonight, thank goodness.) Given all these factors, and the fact that I've had very little sleep this week, AND the fact that I had to miss a United match to be there tonight, I think my foul mood is excusable! And don't get me started on the people near me who seemed unable to sing quieter than mf...

Anyway, I wasn't going to post because I had nothing to say other than to whinge, but a couple of people told me they were disappointed that I keep not blogging till the weekend, so I thought I'd make the effort and at least share a couple of links! Firstly, I'd like to point out that my online choir schedule (link deliberately not given; email me if you don't have it) is still online, as it has been for years, and it does include football fixtures, which I don't think the official one does. (I have offered to supply the info, but haven't been taken up on this.)

(In case non-choir people are wondering why on earth the football fixtures need to be on a choir schedule, it's because of the traffic - if United are at home, people have to allow more time for their journey.)

Only two more things. If you're interested in the Mike Golding/Alex Thomson sailing drama that I mentioned last time, you might like this blog post written by Mike Golding shortly after everything happened. (Mike and Alex are still making their way - slowly, in a badly handicapped boat - to Cape Town.)

And finally - on the day of our last carol concert, it seems there'll be a very large pillow fight in Albert Square that afternoon :p

O holy marmalade

Tonight I did, for the first time, something I've always wanted to do :-) But before I tell you about it, let me get everything else out of the way.

Wednesday's rehearsal produced no Jamieisms, as there was no Jamie. (I don't know why, because I was having vocal coaching when the announcement was made.) It was David instead (which meant we had the lovely Jonathan on the piano - always a pleasure! And he was most amused at our gibbon impression...) and we did almost all of the Mozart C minor Mass. We're not performing it till February, but because it's a big sing and many people haven't done it before, Jamie wanted to start it early so it has time to sink in. I was disappointed that we didn't do my two favourite movements - Qui Tollis and Sanctus (I like them because of the antiphonal effect of the double chorus) - but no doubt we'll get to them soon enough. Also, I couldn't help thinking that a lot of the ladies will end up having to relearn the music we did on Wednesday, because I would put money on Jamie wanting to replace the SSA divisions with the high/middle/low parts we used for Ravel etc. And no, I don't know whether he plans to or not - it just seems to me to make sense.

Other stuff, in no particular order (and mostly nothing to do with choir!): The People's Chorus thing is being released on DVD on 11th December (just after it's on TV).

There's an ice rink in Piccadilly Gardens at the moment. I'm going skating with my family on the afternoon of Messiah day - anyone want to join us (at 3.15)? It'd be amusing if half the choir turned up for the gig with broken legs :p If you want to skate, on that or any other day, you can book online.

I was amused by this news story - Coventry City were playing QPR today, but their coach got stuck in traffic in London, so they abandoned it and all went on the tube! And the best part is that only one of them knew how to get to where they wanted to go, and he didn't even get picked to play :p

I can't understand, though, why a minor thing like that (funny as it is) is in the news, yet the recent huge stories from the world of sailing haven't hit the headlines at all. Last week was the news that Tony Bullimore, who'd been missing for ELEVEN DAYS, had been found safe and well. This would be newsworthy enough even without the fact that he's been missing before. And then there's been HIGH DRAMA in the Velux 5 Oceans Race (formerly the Around Alone race). It has been mentioned on the BBC site, but not unless you happened to look at their sailing page... Some of you might remember that in the Vendee Globe race in 1997 (that's the race that Ellen Macarthur almost won in 2001) not only did Tony Bullimore get rescued when assumed dead (as mentioned above), but Pete Goss became a hero by turning back to rescue a fellow competitor who'd capsized in horrendous weather, at huge risk to himself (the weather was so bad that no-one else could get there in time). Well, a similar thing has happened this week, but I've not seen it on the news at all. Alex Thomson, one of the favourites to win the race, had a disaster when his boat suffered an extreme structural failure and capsized. And Mike Golding, another of our top British sailors, went back to rescue him. The rescue turned out to be extremely difficult and dangerous, but Golding managed it. But now he's had trouble of his own (and that's after his boat was hit by a giant squid a few weeks ago!)... Let's hope he manages to fix it and get back in the race.

Anyway, I've been writing for ages and haven't yet got to tonight's event! It was the Mozart Requiem gig at Bury Parish Church, in which (thanks to the generosity of Dr Liz) I was singing the alto solo. That's the thing I've always wanted to do - sing a proper solo in a proper concert. (Yes, I've sung many things in the past that could be probably described as that, but you know what I mean.) And tonight I did! It was very exciting. I'm pleased it was this piece that I managed to get for my debut, because I know it really, really well (although not so much the solo bits), so I didn't have to spend any time learning the notes. I did have a couple of lessons - and practised quite a lot - in order to get the breathing and tone quality better, because those two things are not my best points! (To clarify - I have singing lessons regularly anyway, but I had two lessons in which we concentrated specifically on the Mozart.)

It was a scratch performance. To the uninitiated, that means it was performed by a group of people who only met for the first time on the day; there's no prior rehearsal. Needless to say, scratch performances are often not very good, but in this case the choir was surprisingly impressive - you'd never guess it was a scratch choir. (It did include two Hallé altos apart from me - Chris Hughes and Margaret Dickinson were there. Lovely to see Margaret, it's been a while!) There was no orchestra, but the accompaniment was played by Ronnie Frost on the organ, so it was pretty good. But my reason for mentioning that it was a scratch performance is that because of this, the conductor (Nick Castell, who was excellent) asked the soloists to sing in all the choruses as well. Advantages of this: 1. It's one of my favourite pieces, so I'd probably have had to try really hard not to sing it all; 2. It meant that I had already sung properly, in front of the audience, before having to sing on my own, which was much less nervewracking; 3. It meant I got a decent warmup (there was nowhere to do that before the concert). Disadvantages of this: 1. I got a bit carried away and sang too enthusiastically in some bits, giving myself a bit of a sore throat in time for my solos; 2. I had to stand up ALL THE WAY THROUGH. Stupidly, I hadn't registered that this would be the case, so I was wearing shoes with heels (low ones, that I wear at work all day, but still). I've been home for two hours now, and my feet are just starting to get their feeling back :p

I must admit, though, it was a really good feeling to remain standing when the whole choir around me sat down. (We were seated as a quartet in the middle of the choir, rather than at the front - there wasn't room for a soloists' row.) I like feeling special :-) So special, in fact, that the two tiny choristers on the front row kept turning round and staring at me (and the other soloists). This was really disconcerting, especially as they did it most often at the points where I was most nervous, i.e. right at the start of the first phrase I sang in each bit. Maggie, bless her, had warned me about all sorts of things related to being a soloist, most of which hadn't occurred to me - but she never mentioned the offputting antics of small children!

Anyway, everything went pretty well. So well, in fact, that the rehearsal finished an hour and a half early, and I don't think anything went wrong in the performance at all. My bit wasn't perfect by any means - the breathing wasn't great (although I can cover that up fairly well), and a couple of high notes were a bit croaky. But on the whole it was OK, and there wasn't anything I did that I was horribly embarrassed about, so I'm encouraged! It might be years before anyone asks me to be a soloist again, but at the moment I'm in a pretty good mood :-)

(Oh, and the title of this post? That's what the Manchester University choir apparently sings for Quam Olim Abrahe :p)

"Like a lovely wheel that potters use... I've forgotten what it's called..."

Quite a few good Jamieisms this week (sorry for the delay in reporting them) - the one in the title was the most amusing, because he really didn't remember the phrase "potter's wheel"! We did the whole of Messiah - well, not every single note, but all of them were at least referred to in passing. Other quotes:

"If the audience goes away saying 'that was jolly nice, wasn't it?' I shall die."

"And suddenly we've got this 3 bar phrase that's like a little island off the coast of Norway."

"We have winners, and they are called tenors!" (this referred to their singing of the word 'astray' in 'All We Like Sheep')

"Since boy man... Betty..." (you probably had to be there!)

"Altos, you should do as you please. (no change there...)" (this referred to the dynamic for 'the glory of the Lord' at the end of 'O Thou That Tellest')

---

So, did anyone watch How Music Works last night? I quite liked it - not as much as Big Bangs, but it was OK. I was slightly put off because I spotted an error early on, and that always distracts me! They played clips of 5 songs and asked what the melodies had in common. Well, I spotted that the first one was pentatonic, and the next three examples confirmed my guess that this was the connection. But then the last example was Sailing, which doesn't fit! The pentatonic scale in C major consists of only the notes C, D, E, G and A. "Sailing" (if sung in C major) includes an F! Look: G A C C... E G A A... A G G F... F E E.

Yes, I know I'm sad :-)

Anyway, some random links to finish. Here's a thing about another reality TV show featuring a choir - sounds excruciating! Here's yet another thing about girls singing in cathedral choirs. You might like this video of a Finnish choir listing things they hate about life (I found it entertaining but a bit too long - and thanks to all the people who have sent it to me, but I'd already seen it!)

The photo at the top shows some of the new Christmas lights in Albert Square - I really like the toys! Here's a slightly clearer version of the same lights:



And here's a rather blurry one that has the Manchester Oasis thingy and the pretty trees and the Bridgewater Hall in the background (wish I had a steadier hand!)



And, finally, I haven't given you any mp3s for a while, so here are a couple. The Joyce Grenfell one is not her best, but may amuse some of you (it's about ladies who sing in choral societies). And the Bulgarian one is one that someone asked me about recently - I said I'd never heard of it, but when I looked it up I realised I had. It's from this album, which I must get a copy of at some point - it sounds intriguing.

Joyful Noise (Joyce Grenfell) (5.8 MB)

Polegnala e Toudora (The Bulgarian Voices) (3.9 MB)

"Some of you have gone too far, and you sound like Jimi Hendrix."

I'm not entirely sure whether he meant Jimi Hendrix's guitar-playing or his singing, but whichever it was, Jamie addressed this comment to the altos during "Lift up your heads" on Wednesday. (For some reason that chorus was cut last year - I'd totally forgotten, but it says so in my score so it must be true!) He also said to the tenors, on the next page, "Bounce your Sunday lunch on top of it." What a delightful mental image :p

There was also something or other about "the whale and the nightingale" which caused the biggest laugh of the night, but annoyingly I couldn't hear exactly what was said because a couple of basses near me were talking (about the music, to be fair, but still). Did anyone catch it?

Other than "Lift up your heads", we also did "Let all the angels" and "The Lord gave the word" (which featured some run practice to the words "scooby dooby doo and scrappy doo" - much easier than the actual words!) I think that means we've now done the whole of Messiah at least once. No time for anything else on Wednesday though (no carols, and still no Mozart) because most of the night was taken up with the AGM.

No dramatic scenes at the AGM, although it did overrun by half an hour, mainly because Jamie talked for ages in his bit. What he had to say was all interesting stuff though, including some very exciting plans for the future which, as usual, he can't give us any details about other than the date! It was my last night as alto rep too, and (much more significantly) Chris Holroyd's last night as chairman. He is a great guy and has put in an unbellievable amount of work for the choir (a lot more than most non-committee members probably realise) over the past few years - quite how he's managed to do that while being a headteacher is beyond me!

I must admit I was slightly taken aback at the news of the new choir website, because that was the first I'd heard of it. I felt a little awkward having to admit this to the many people who came to ask me about it at the break, presuming that I'd had some involvement in it, and they all seemed as surprised as I was at this! It's unfortunate that I was unable to attend the last two committee meetings, at which this was apparently discussed, but as it wasn't mentioned in the minutes, I didn't know I'd missed it so didn't ask anyone! Maybe they thought that if I was too busy to attend the meetings then I'd also be too busy to talk to anyone about my experience of running choir-related websites? Or maybe they thought that since my original choir website is so low-tech and rudimentary (which is true; I'd be the first to admit that) that I wouldn't know anything about putting together a more modern-looking one? Or maybe it just never occurred to them to ask me?

Despite leaving the committee on Wednesday, I did go to one last meeting, on Thursday. This was at the invitation of David, so I could pass on any final bits of alto feedback I'd been given recently. (I didn't stay for the whole meeting though; I left after I'd said my bit.) I was glad of this opportunity, particularly since I'd missed the last two meetings, because I have had a lot of feedback in the last month or two. Most (but not all) of it has been altos who are (like me) sick to the back teeth of being unable to hear what Jamie says because of other altos talking. But my feelings on this matter are well-known (which is maybe why people have come to complain to me about this more than about all other matters combined) so I won't go on about it again right now.

When I was in town for the meeting, I happened to go through Piccadilly Gardens and see the Christmas lights in the trees (picture at top of post). Aren't they lovely? I was quite enchanted. And did you know that Manchester is having a greener Christmas this year? I approve of this. (Oh, and on a similar subject, you know that strange alternative energy thing that was in the middle of Albert Square and has now moved to the front of G-Mex? It seems it's called the Manchester Oasis.)

Another couple of links to finish: firstly, there's a new series starting on Channel 4 next Saturday which sounds quite fun - it's presented by Howard Goodall and is called How Music Works. Not that I'm suggesting that any choir members will need that level of basic music education, but these things are often good for shedding new light on a subject. In particular, his Big Bangs series was excellent - and if you haven't read the accompanying book, I thoroughly recommend it.

And finally - remember the Manchester Passion? Well, it seems that for Christmas 2007 it will get a sequel - the Liverpool Nativity! Get your predictions in now for which songs they'll use...

"Gentlemen, you were rampant!"

This was Jamie telling the men what he thought of their Schoenberg gig. (Here's the Times review and the MEN review - sounds as if they were pretty good, although the MEN, typically, doesn't actually mention them!)

While I'm (almost) on the subject, there's a new Guardian review of our CD (which doesn't really say anything about our bit other than to mention that it is unexpected), and of course last night our Ravel gig (the one with the grunting where we didn't stand up... that sounds quite wrong if you don't know what I'm talking about!) was on Radio 3. I couldn't hear any grunts - see if you can, it's on Listen Again for the next week.

Not much else to say. I'm having one of those weeks, although I think today is the worst day (at least I hope so!) I was up at 4 a.m. today in order to try to do the work I should have done last night but was too tired. (Even so, I didn't finish before I had to leave for work at 7.) Then I had a meeting after school (the second of three this week). I got home, sat down for an hour then had to go out again for a singing lesson. And on getting home after that, I sat down for half an hour before I had to go out to a quiz (I'm in a league, and it started up again tonight). And during the course of the quiz, Man Utd lost (I blame myself). Got home at 10.30 p.m. Still have work to do but am too tired to concentrate - so why am I blogging? Because (a) I felt guilty for not doing so since last week, and (b) I'm waiting for one of my cats to come in :-)

I was almost as tired as this last week - I wasn't going to go to choir, I decided I couldn't make it to Thursday if I didn't go to bed REALLY early on Wednesday. But then I remembered I had to go, because the previous week Alison had volunteered to take home 3 boxes of carol books and only realised days later that she couldn't go the week after. So I'd agreed to take them back. And of course by the time I got there, I'd got my second wind so I thought I may as well stay!

We did a fair bit of Messiah - mainly the middle section (resulting in me having He Trusted In God on the brain for the rest of the week), although I think we had another bash at the runs in For Unto Us, because on page 61 I have a new Jamieism...

Jamie, after several minutes of practising a tiny technical point: "Shall we just do that in situ?"
Choir: *shows no signs of enthusiasm for this plan*
Jamie: "Good, I'm glad you want to!"

We also whizzed through The Wassail Song and Sir Christemas, and this week's new carol (well, in a manner of speaking) was In Dulci Jubilo, which we are doing with the Youth Choir. I seem to have written on one page of it "Like dodgy-looking people at a bus shelter" ... only I can't remember why!

"Eyeline's to Jeremy."

"OK, guys, let's go for a take. Turnover. Roll playback, roll sound."
"Rolling."
"Rolling."
"Sound SPEED!"
"525 take 2."
"End on board B."
"Eyeline's to Jeremy."

---

We heard this many, many times yesterday (well, not the same scene or take each time, but YKWIM!) The only thing we heard more often was variations on "Could I ask the three people on the ends of those rows to move to the empty seats over there?" We were playing the Question Time audience, you see, but they had to keep moving us in order to (a) make the audience look three times as big, by overlaying different shots; (b) vary the background when we're not singing; (c) have us play different roles. I don't think I've ever moved seats so many times in the course of 12 hours. I'd estimate we all moved seats about 50 times. (Often several times in succession just for one particiular shot, because the director was being fussy.)

It was a fun day, although VERY long. We all arrived between 6.45 a.m. and 7.15 a.m., but it was at least 10 a.m. before we actually filmed anything. Before that, there was breakfast, and costume checks, and makeup queues, and RIDICULOUSLY lengthy makeup sessions (no idea why - when I've been on TV before, as a main guest (which hasn't happened for a while, but there have been several occasions!) they seem to have managed to make me look presentable in 10 minutes. So why it took 25 minutes when I was just an extra is beyond me. Oh well.

I won't go through every minute of the day, but we worked really hard - not much time to read my book. We'd expected to mime, but we ended up singing after all (without them recording the sound - that had already been done) because it's easier than miming. Definitely the highlight of the day was when we were supposed to sing to Cookie Bear, so someone went and got the costume and put it in place on stage so we had something to focus on (see picture above)... but then Jeremy (the musical director) was persuaded to put the costume on. You can't really tell from the picture here, but this was the funniest thing EVER. When he started conducting with the bear's arms, several of us were crying so hard with laughter that we were in danger of having to queue up for our makeup to be redone!



It turns out, by the way, that Jeremy is called Jeremy Holland-Smith, and I think I've worked out why he seems so familiar, even though (now I know his name) I'm pretty sure I've never worked with him before. It's because he really reminds me of a lovely guy I know called Ash Johnston, who was my sailing instructor for a while. In particular, both of them have a fantastic smile - did I mention that?

Anyway, we finished for the day a couple of minutes before 7 p.m. - several people were sure we would run over, but I was positive we wouldn't (for the same reason that the orchestra never do) and I was right :-) But we did eventually get to do some scenes with Jon Culshaw as David Dimbleby (see below). He kept bursting out laughing when he heard our lines, which was encouraging! I'm looking forward to seeing the whole thing when it's finished (hopefully I'll have got the tunes out of my head by then) but sadly that's not expected to be till Easter. Hope it's worth the wait :-)

"Sopranos, can you take a quaver out of your bitch in 300?"

When I arrived at the TV studio in Little Hulton (yes, really) this afternoon, I was ushered in through a different door to last night, and this led me through an empty studio that had Narnia in the corner. I was very impressed. You can't really tell from the photo, but all the Christmas trees (and there were a LOT) had snow on them. Very pretty. I couldn't quite work out why anyone was doing Narnia for TV when there's just been a successful film made of it, so I asked, and was told it was actually just for an Argos advert. How disappointing!

We finished the recording today, and there was a bonus - turns out TPTB were so impressed with us yesterday that they want us in another of the operas, so we sight-read (and then recorded) two bits for The Apprentice. One was called "Veni Vidi Gucci" and the other included the line "speccy four-eyed slag, rancid skanky bitch was her nickname at school". Hence the title of this post :-) This section had the altos singing the tune and the sops doing a descant - but the tune started on a top G and went back up there several times. And that's not as bad as the end of Question Time, which had us going up to a top Bb. Ouch. (I apologise to Sheena and the other people who had the misfortune to be sitting in front of me when I tried to do this!)

(The picture below is my view of the conductor. (Did I mention how lovely he is? In particular, he has an amazing smile. I very much enjoyed staring at him!) That's Sheena on the right. (And Tessa and Fanny in front of her.) I don't know the name of the lady on her left, but she shared my delight at today's most significant football result. Go Rooney! (My football results service was very popular today, although not everyone wanted to know how great United were - I was asked about Everton, Liverpool and even Chester.)



Another Jeremyism that amused me was: "A note from Richard, cos I think he's had too many KitKats - more Cookie fanaticism!" (Cookie Bear is a major character in the opera. It was supposed to be Nookie Bear, but apparently Roger deCoursey's people wouldn't allow this!)

I should stop writing, because I need to be at the studio for 7 a.m. and I still have a ton of work to do tonight. (Can you tell I'm procrastinating?) But one final thing: there was quite a bit of enthusiastic discussion, during the tea break today, about Green Wing (also about the Archers, but I don't listen to that so I wasn't interested!) So I thought it was worth pointing people towards James Henry's blog. James is one of the writers of Green Wing, and his blog is one of the best there is. It's been at the top of the list in my sidebar for quite a while, but it's possible that people don't realise who writes it. (Also, he's commented here a couple of times, so clearly he is a man with excellent taste!) There have been several occasions when a post of his has had me literally crying with laughter. A few selections to see if you share my sense of humour: James Henry on fruit, swimming, ninja attack scenes in non-ninja films, restaurant menus, and hotel laundry. Enjoy :-)

"Is it too cheesy, Richard?"

I've kind of broken the first rule of blogging in the past couple of months. Well, there isn't a universally-agreed "first rule of blogging" - try googling that phrase! - but the one that I think of as the first rule is "blog regularly, if you expect people to keep reading". And I feel a bit guilty that I haven't done that. I'm having trouble adjusting to the time demands of my new job (mainly having to leave home at 7 a.m.!) This week has been half term, so you'd think I'd have managed to post on Wednesday night after choir, but I seem to have spent the whole week either asleep or about to fall asleep. I have managed to get some other stuff done too, but nowhere near enough! Still, 2 days left...

Sadly those 2 days aren't free, because I foolishly volunteered for the Question Time Opera project. I keep vowing to myself that I won't commit myself to any more extra things... and then something new and exciting-sounding turns up, and I find myself signing up for it without checking how much time I'm committing to! Oh well. The opera is fun - first session was tonight (see picture above), and I'm glad I signed up.

(For those who don't know, the BBC has commissioned 5 half-hour comic operas from Richard Thomas, who wrote Jerry Springer: The Opera. They are mostly based on TV shows: The Apprentice; Wife Swap; a Monty Pythonesque one; Panorama; and Question Time. The Panorama one is called "Drinking in Nottingham" and ends with a "flood of vomit" and everyone turning into zombies. The Question Time one stars Jon Culshaw as David Dimbleby.)

Tonight we recorded half of the choir bits; the other half will be done tomorrow afternoon, and on Sunday we spend the whole day filming (miming, rather than singing). (The call is for 6.45 a.m.!) There are quite a few Hallé singers involved - no men, because of course tonight clashed with their Schoenberg gig, but tonight we had Tessa, Fliss, Wendy and I representing the altos, and Jackie, Sheena, Zoe, Gen and of course Fanny (who got us all involved in the first place) among the sops. There was a lovely young man called Jeremy running the session - he looks really familiar, but I can't think where I know him from (and I didn't catch his surname). He did a couple of amusing tongue-twister warmups - "Yellow baby buggy bumpers" and "This wrist watch is a Swiss wrist watch" were more than my tongue could cope with!

Anyway, more (no doubt) on the opera after the next sessions, but I just want to report here that my favourite line so far is: "... but this anti-poverty bill will not work, because it is not OUR anti-poverty bill." "What would be different about YOUR anti-poverty bill?" "It would be written in a different font, and would have more words underlined." Although, a close second would be: "We are clapping a bear made out of felt, and a man whose lips are moving slightly."

(Don't expect to see this on TV any time soon, btw - they're not recording the orchestra till January.)

Hmm, just realised I haven't said anything about this week's Hallé rehearsal. I seem to have not written down any Jamieisms, although I do recall being amused a lot of the time. While looking, though, I found what I wrote down last week, which was that Jamie was told off for tutting at the age of 10, and he says this was the most traumatic event of his entire life! Bless! Anyway, we did bits of Messiah, and a couple of carols (The Wassail Song and Sir Christemas - I love that one!). We spent quite a bit of time, again, practising the Messiah runs - Gill and I were thrilled to be able to actually sing most of them in one breath. Jamie's method makes them all seem much easier - clever, that :-)

Most exciting news from Wednesday, though, which I still can't quite believe, is that I got a text from Dr Liz (who was at home being poorly) asking if I could take her place to sing alto solo in a scratch performance of Mozart's Requiem next month! She has had to drop out because it's too close to her exams. I'm very, very excited about this. And scared!

We're on the radio!

Sorry not to have warned you of this, if you'd forgotten, but we're on Radio 3 RIGHT NOW. (If you're reading this too late, catch it on Listen Again later.)

Sorry also for the delay in posting. I didn't have time to write till yesterday, and then Blogger was down... still, it all seems to be working now!

I'm sure I remember writing some Jamieisms in my Messiah score, but I just looked through it and can't find anything (although it's hard to find ANYTHING in there, there's so much scribbling). Never mind. Wednesday's rehearsal was fun, though. I'd expected it to be really boring - I like Messiah, but not the rehearsing of it. But Jamie's brainwave, to make us rediscover it, was to get us to all swap parts, so that the sops and tenors sang each other's parts (at a suitable octave) and so did the altos and basses. This was hugely entertaining, and I'm only sorry we didn't do it all the way through! We did sing through quite a few movements, though, and we also spent some time learning (again, but it's always useful) how to do the runs properly. Oh, and we all discovered our hangman drawing from last year's "His Yoke Is Easy" :p

(Ouch, just listening to the Kodaly performance... the sops and tenors were miles behind the beat on their first entry!)

Jamie also had some serious words to say on the subject of taking preparation seriously, particularly before piano rehearsals. I've already stated my feelings about the piano rehearsal, so it won't surprise you to know that I agree with everything he said. I can understand, though, how some people were upset that he was being so negative after such a successful concert, but (a) maybe they were so shocked that they didn't notice that he DID say it was good, and (b) I think the point is - if it was that good when some people weren't as prepared as they might have been, how great MIGHT it have been?

Anyway, a few links to finish. Here's a great review of last week's concert. Here's a great review of our CD. Here's an interesting site I found the other day while I was looking for something else - it tells you how to pronounce stuff in just about any language, specifically classical musicians' names and titles of works. [EDIT: For all the people searching for "how to pronounce Kodaly" that end up here, this site tells you - specifically, on this page.] And here's the home page for next year's Manchester International Festival - tickets for members go on sale tomorrow for the first few events.

And finally, I realised that when I posted about the gig, I haven't once mentioned my absolute favourite aspect, which was the bottom A from the basses on the last page of the Kodaly. My spine still tingles just thinking about it. And in a couple of minutes I'll hear it again :-)

"The Hallé Choir exploded into joyous, cosmic noise"

said The Guardian, of Saturday's gig. And the Manchester Evening News actually mentioned the choir! So it must have been good. He (Robert Beale, as usual) remembered the Oldham concert, but luckily not the memory aspect - I was worried they were going to draw comparisons. He didn't actually comment on Saturday's Beethoven specifically (other than by implication - he liked it!) but about the Kodaly he said: "This requires much of a choir: not merely learning to sing in Hungarian, but exploring a range of tone and dynamic, from the sweetest mellow concord to six-part writing at full pelt and with a top soprano line consistently high in their range. The Hallé ladies are a mainly youthful gang these days, and they achieved this with splendid tone and effective balance."

I can't decide whether to be pleased we're thought of as youthful or upset at the idea that I'm not one of the youthful ones :p

Talking of reviews, the Times doesn't seem to have made it to Manchester this weekend, making the mistake of staying in London to hear a really bad concert. Ouch! "The Cadogan Hall was sold out, with an audience who were either deaf or in denial." Hee!

Other news: we finally have a broadcast date for the People's Chorus. Saturday 9th December. \o/

Messiah tomorrow. Probably (sadly) no plans to do it from memory. But I live in hope :-)

Why can't men say "Der"?

Well, men obviously can say "der", but why is it that they have to be constantly reminded to say it as "deer", and they do it brilliantly, and then 5 minutes later they're back to "dair"? It's not even as if this instruction has ever changed - it's been the same very time we've EVER done anything in German. (I'm sure there are some men who pronounce it perfectly every time, but they are sadly overshadowed by those who don't.)

The picture at the top, by the way, is Suzanne, who's our new 1st alto whose first concert was last night. In recognition of this, Jamie gave his flowers to her. Sweet eh? (It was Dimitri's first concert as well, but Jamie only had one lot of flowers and he happened to pass Suzanne first!)

The concert (Kodaly and Beethoven, for those who aren't keeping track) went pretty well - the audience seemed to love it. I enjoyed it in the end - it's hard NOT to enjoy performing when spontaneous cheers erupt at the end - but I can't help suspecting how much better it would have been if we'd done the Beethoven from memory. Like many of the choir, the Oldham performance of 1999 is one of my best memories of all my time in the choir. I was SO proud to be in the choir that night. And last night just felt as if the choir had gone backwards - how come the 1999 choir could memorise something but the 2006 choir couldn't? The 2006 choir is SO much better vocally, but there are too many people in it whose general attitude seems to be "I'm not doing that, why should I?"

It's unfortunate, of course, that the Beethoven wasn't rehearsed in the summer as scheduled, so people didn't get as early a start as they needed. Although the Ravel and Kodaly obviously needed much more rehearsal than the Beethoven, I think it would have really helped people to have sung through it once (which would have taken 20 minutes). But it's also unfortunate that Jamie's message, via David Lawrence, that people who'd never sung the piece before and couldn't learn it in time could stand at the back with their copies, was apparently interpreted by most of the choir as "oh, so we don't have to do it from memory then", with the result that Jamie was confronted, at the PIANO REHEARSAL of a piece that we were due to sing from memory, with the sight of at least 80% of the choir with their copies out. (I didn't count how many people it was, but it looked like at least that many to me - does anyone disagree?) And David Lawrence must have told him that when we sang it from memory at the end of the previous rehearsal, there were a significant number of people (not 80%, but quite a few, and by no means just new people) who refused to even try, and stood there with their copies. Faced with all these circumstances, I can understand why Jamie reached the decision he did, although I still don't like it.

Sorry to whinge, but I'm just fed up with life in general at the moment, and although I get like this from time to time, choir is generally the one thing that cheers me up and takes my mind off other problems - so when choir is ADDING to my bad mood, I'm unimpressed. Also, I'd like to point out that although I'm sure lots of you are thinking "it's all very well for her to go on and on about memorising, she already knew it!", the reason I've appeared so confident is that I have put in a LOT of work on the Beethoven in the last few weeks. I did already know it from memory, it's true, but singing the tenor part of it in Todmorden a few months ago really unsettled my knowledge of the alto part, so I've had to put in extra effort to make sure I didn't sing the wrong part by mistake. And then there were changes, for example a couple of bits where the 2nd altos were asked to sing the tenor part, so they needed extra practice because I had the original version so firmly in my head. And then on Wednesday night there were a few details that Mark asked for, which I hadn't been doing, so I spent quite a bit of time on Thursday getting those bits into my head. Thursday was a horrible day anyway, as I've already said, but to get to choir and find that all that work had been wasted was just the last straw. And I don't blame Jamie - I blame the people who caused him to reach that decision because they just couldn't be bothered to try.

Anyway, the anonymous-commenters-who-hate-me will probably only hate me more for saying all that, but I don't really care. (Well, I do, but not enough to delete it.) But I do have some fun things to finish with - Jamieisms from yesterday!

There were a few alto-related ones, not all complimentary - for example, when he was talking about the end, and said "it's not over till....." and then looked at the altos! The cheek! There was also "There's no faffing around, altos!" (this referred to the first entry in the Beethoven, but I'm not sure now why it was so funny!) And of course "Altos, on that extraordinarily altoid moment..." (this referred to our solo "steht")

There was lots of amusement over Jamie's loo-chain-pulling analogy, which concerned the stressing of the crotchets rather than the minims in the main theme. (The sops demonstrated this an octave lower in order to save their voices, and most of them sang a D below middle C before realising what they'd done. Amazing!)

The one that amused me most, though, was: "Now. Your bathroom. Page 40." And that's because I still have no clue what the bathroom had to do with it! It was the start of the big fugue, though - can anyone explain the bathroom link? Unless it's just back to the loo-chain-pulling...

I must go do some work now. But I almost forgot - the M.E.N. gave our CD a 5-star review, although typically they didn't mention the choir. But Graham E says The Hills was played on Radio 3 this afternoon, so at least someone's paying attention!

Imagine yourselves as 3D beasts....

I'm not going to write much tonight, because I'm in SUCH a bad mood - mainly due to something that happened at work today, but not helped by tonight's rehearsal, which was good in parts but mostly just made me crosser. Mainly, as you can probably guess, I'm absolutely furious about the Beethoven-from-memory issue (not so much the decision itself, which is, I suppose, understandable, but the circumstances that led to it). I could write about that at length, and the only reason I don't plan to is because I just don't have the energy. So at least the anonymous-commenters-who-hate-me won't have too much to complain about.

Also, it's my birthday for another 13 minutes :-)

Just wanted to share a couple of things. Firstly, I had to go to Birmingham on Tuesday for an examining board meeting, and in so doing I got back too late to attend what was probably my last committee meeting. But the (Birmingham) meeting was held near Symphony Hall, so I got the chance to pop in and take a photo of one of my favourite paintings (above) which is just inside the front door.

On the train I read a fabulous book, The Lies of Locke Lamora. If you like fantasy, and roguish thieves, I recommend it very highly :-)

Have a listen to this version of Wuthering Heights. I like it a LOT. It's from a recent album by the Puppini Sisters. Great fun!

And finally, I just remembered, tonight, that I meant to dig out my books and write about unusual stuff in Beethoven 9. Well, I've got the books, and I'll write that post tomorrow. Maybe. But only if it's better than today!

Did you miss me?

Sorry to have been AWOL for a while. I've been struggling to fit sufficient work and sleep into my life, and this wasn't helped by being in Wales last weekend for Rachel's wedding (of which more in a moment). I've been playing catch-up ever since, but tonight was thankfully free, so I thought I'd write a bit before falling asleep.

Not much directly choir-related stuff to write, actually. No Jamieisms, because there's been no Jamie - he's in Mexico with his chamber choir, so we've had David Lawrence for the past two weeks. He's done a good job, of which the highlight was undoubtedly on Wednesday when he kept saying the altos were the best. Clearly a very wise man :-) We did actually sing the whole of both the Kodaly and the Beethoven on Wednesday night, the latter entirely from memory. Well, when I say "entirely"... there was a significant minority who refused to even try it, including quite a few people who have been in the choir for many years and certainly sung the work before. I've heard several of these, over the past few months, complaining that they are much too busy to learn things from memory, and anyway they find it really difficult. Well... I have to admit that I don't find it that hard to learn things, but it DOES take me time, and I'm not not busy, IYSWIM. I have a strong suspicion that if some of these people actually tried to do it the way I do, they would find it much easier and quicker - I think some of them have developed a mental block and convinced themselves they will never be able to do it.

My method? Well, it has two main aspects. Both are based on the theory that the only way to learn to sing something from memory IS TO SING IT FROM MEMORY. (I said this to Graham Worden on Wednesday, and he thought it sounded like a Zen koan!) So, what you do is to take EVERY POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY to try singing the work (all or part of it) from memory. That means you sing along to it in the car on every journey you make, until you know it. But if you know you're not confident enough of the notes to stick to the part with no other singers round you, rely more heavily on the second part of the method, which is to SING FROM MEMORY IN REHEARSALS. Do this even before you know the work well. Just try a line at a time. You'll have the support of people round you, and you can glance down at your score after the line to check what you got right and what you didn't. You'll find that you already know more than you think you do. But I can't imagine how people can ever learn anything without trying this way, yet there were loads of very experienced choir members on Wednesday still looking at their scores throughout. Amazing.

Anyway, Rachel's wedding! This was absolutely fantastic. The picture at the top of this post has Rachel and Laurie just after they'd become Mr & Mrs Cooper, outside Llandudno Town Hall, where the wedding took place last Saturday. Rachel's holding Riley, who's now 13 months old and insisted on being held by his mum all day (her arms were really aching by the evening!) The ceremony started with Riley being held by Laurie's mum, but he made a fuss as soon as he realised he couldn't see his mum, so Laurie's mum moved till he could... still not enough, so in the end Rachel had to take him and hold him through the whole ceremony (she got a big round of applause for doing so!)

The day was gloriously sunny (well, it did rain later, but only when the reception was well under way) and the ceremony was lovely. There was an 11-piece choir consisting of the usual suspects, and we sang Sincerely as Rachel came in (that's an old 50s song that's Rachel's favourite - we sing it in Pleiades, and the version at the wedding was an a cappella version of it). At the end we sang an a cappella version of Love Is All Around as a surprise for Laurie, who loves Wet Wet Wet. I wasn't sure at the time that he'd noticed what we were singing, but Rachel said afterwards that he recognised it from the intro :-)

After the ceremony, we all went up to the top of the Great Orme, where the reception was being held in the ski lodge there. It was necessarily informal, because as part of the invitation there were tickets to use the ski lodge facilities - skiing lessons, tobogganing and sno-tubing. I didn't try skiing, because I tried once before and was REALLY bad at it. But I did the sno-tubing and tobogganing. I was a little disappointed that neither was on actual snow (as usual, I was too hot all day) but both were great fun. Meg and Tom and Bruce and Geoff and I spent half an hour on the sno-tube slope - I suspect we would have stayed longer if every descent hadn't been followed with dragging the tube back to the top of the hill. It was incredibly funny though - not sure why, but I can't remember the last time I laughed that much :-)

We queued up for the toboggan later in the afternoon - huuuuuuuuuge queue (an hour, I think we stood there, but we did have a good chat) and the eventual toboggan run didn't really live up to expectation - it was fun (and you do get to go round twice) but not quite worth an hour's queue! Oh well. In between the sno-tubing and tobogganing, there was a barbecue, and there'd been a huge array of nibbles when we first arrived, and later there was fondue (all three sorts). And cake, of course! So everyone was quite stuffed by the end of the day.

I'd done 5 CDs of background music, at Rachel's request, to be played during the day (the wedding was at noon, so it was a long time till the evening!) but the people behind the bar somehow managed to play one of them three times and some of the others not at all. Never mind. In the evening there were DJs, but I think my music was better :p (plus, as with most DJs, they played their music far too loudly and we couldn't understand a word of whatever they said in between!)

Can't think of much else to say about the wedding, other than that it was fabulous. But Rachel is hoping to come back to choir soon, so she can tell you about it herself :-)

Before I finish, though, a few more pictures!

This is the only one I managed to get with Rachel actually looking at the camera...


This is the Alpine Lodge on top of the Great Orme, where the reception took place.


This was the view from the lodge. After dark this was even prettier, with twinkly lights all round the bay. Lovely. (Note toboggan track in foreground.)


Laurie and Rachel cutting the cake - bit fiddly, because the wedding cake consisted of a huge array of yummy fairy cakes, but they managed!


And, on a non-wedding note, here are some links I've accumulated since I last posted....

Our English Landscapes CD is out at last.

A thing about people who clap too soon.

An ingenious attempt by the Hallé marketing department (presumably) to imply that next week's gig was arranged only after the Beethoven 9 prom was cancelled last month.

I just discovered there's another Beetham Tower! Looks like ours will be finished first though.

An article about the greatness of non-London orchestras. Mentions both Mark and Gianandrea.

Russell Watson has just had brain surgery, and it looks as if he's not out of the woods yet.

The website of next week's tenor soloist, Stefan Margita, wasn't working last time I looked, but it is now. Oddly enough it has no mention of our gig, unless I'm missing something... He's still listed on the Hallé website as taking part, but there's still plenty of time for Mark's curse to kick in!

Gianandrea got a promotion! And there was, eventually, a review of the Ravel gig, although needless to say it doesn't mention the choir. Oh, and talking of reviews, I was a bit disappointed in the MEN review of the Hallé's recent Mahler 5, which was dedicated to John MacMurray. I wasn't at the concert, but Naomi was telling me about it at the weekend and I'm really sorry I missed it. It sounds as if it might have been the best concert the Hallé have ever played. Did any of the rest of you go?

And finally, the two oddest blog searches recently: how do you pronounce the german in Brahms German Requiem, and full-bladder concert. The mind boggles!

"He's got a wedding ring." "He's got a RING."

The subject of this exchange (overheard in the ladies' dressing room) was, of course, the fabulous Gianandrea Noseda, who conducted our concert last night. No idea where he gets all his energy from - I've never seen a conductor move so much! And he did grunt very loudly throughout the performance - he did in the rehearsals, but we wondered whether or not he would in the performance. Amazingly my mum said it wasn't audible from where she was (in the circle). Oh, and she also said that she sat next to someone whose husband was in the choir, who informed her that the choir couldn't follow Gianandrea's beat and couldn't understand a word he said! Speak for yourself, mate :p

(It's true that his beat was very different to Mark's - I was particularly fascinated by the way he used his fingers - but I found it very clear.)

The gig went quite well, although there was a bit of a disaster with the stands and sits, which resulted in us being seated for the central a cappella section. I heard a few people say this made no difference, but I think it did (although not a HUGE difference). The fact that we had already deliberately sung several of the quieter sections seated meant that the audience probably didn't notice anything was amiss, but the whole choir knew, and I think that made a difference psychologically. As I've said before, I've always hated the system of the choir following one person for stands and sits, rather than everyone taking responsibility for it. At least this time the mistake resulted in us sitting for too long rather than standing too long - I'm really glad it was that way round, my feet have been killing me all week!

I missed Wednesday's rehearsal because I was too exhausted to do anything other than sleep when I got home from work. Pathetic, I know, but I don't miss many choir things. But did I miss any good Jamieisms?

I need to go and do some work now (and possibly World of Warcraft - not had time for that all week) but first let me unload some links.

This page on h2g2 is a choral singer's guide to surviving concerts. Not much that's news to most of you, probably, but interesting nonetheless. (If you have time, do look round other parts of h2g2 - it's fascinating!)

This is a classical music quiz that was featured in the Guardian the other day. I only got about half of them right - see if you do any better!

A Scottish choir has found a novel way to get new singers - they're even making a charge for it! I'll be fascinated to see if it works. (You may need to register to read that story, but it's free.)

Most popular search leading people to this blog is still Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink song (there are more requests for that than for everything else combined), but other recent searches that have amused me include: tips conductors choir altos high notes; learn alto part of amen; and singing instructions to sing like Axl Rose :p

And finally, in case you, like me, have always meant to take a picture of the Mark Elder painting that's backstage in the Bridgewater Hall, here it is (I saw Graham taking one yesterday and that reminded me). (Oh, and I almost forgot to say - the picure at the top of this post is one I took last night while walking back to the Bridgewater Hall from Felicini, which is that relatively new restaurant opposite the Palace Theatre. Alison and I had a fabulous meal there last night - I can thoroughly recommend it. They have an outdoor terrace at the back, where you can sit by the canal. Trust me, that's much nicer than it sounds!)