Ooh aw ah nah ng "zombie uh" ba ya

(I *know* you wanted a list of all the sounds in Daphnis and Chloé!)

(What do you mean, you didn't write "zombie uh"?!?)

We had another bash at Daphnis tonight. Didn't do all of it, but lots of it was reinforced. (Actually it sounded instantly more confident than last week - I think people have been practising!) Rory (for it was him again) did a lot of work on the more complicated chords, and they sounded more or less right by the end. There were two alto disaster areas though: bottom of page 5, where the two alto parts are supposed to be in octaves, but in fact all the 1st altos were singing G# instead of B, so we had four bars of lovely tuneful 6ths instead... and top of page 11, where just about the entire alto section insisted on singing the tenor part (and then wondered why it felt so low at the end!)

And then of course there were the hustings. (Those who, like me, suddenly realised they had no idea where that word came from may find this enlightening.) I deliberately haven't mentioned the chairmanship election on this blog before now, because it seemed a little unfair to the other candidates. But since I drew people's attention to the blog on my leaflet and in my speech, it seems silly not to use it now! (I originally planned to start my speech with something like "those of you who read my blog already know everything I think about choir-related stuff, so I'm mainly talking to the rest of you", but I dropped that on the grounds that it sounded patronising...)

Anyway. Answers to a few questions I've been asked tonight:

1. The reason there is much less writing on my pamphlet than the others is that the suggested limit was 130 words, and I stuck to that exactly.

2. The reason I chose a (not very flattering) photo of me singing rather than one of me looking chairmanlike is that, although singing is not the main part of the chairman's job, it *is* the sole reason for the existence of the choir, and I think that has to be at the root of everything we do.

3. It would be fair to say that I have found myself tending to agree with Jamie more often than not (and probably more often than many of the other reps), in committee meetings (including those at which he was not present). However, this certainly does not mean I have never challenged him when I have disagreed, and I would expect to do that more often if I was chairman. (The same goes for other senior members of the HCS, although generally Jamie represents them at committee meetings so I don't have that much direct contact with them. I'm pretty sure they all know me by sight if not by name, though.)

4. Do I really want to be chairman? Well, I'd like to be, but I wouldn't be distraught if I lost, because the other candidates are all very capable, and since the committee has worked very well together as a group over the past couple of years (in the opinion of several of us) I'm pretty sure this would continue whoever was running things. I see the election as a win-win situation for me personally, because if I win, great, but if not - more free time :-) I just thought it was about time there was a female candidate - there's never been one!

5. (I wasn't actually asked this, but I bet some people were wondering...) No, I probably wouldn't wear a football shirt or a geeky T-shirt if I had to go and meet some VIPs on behalf of the choir. It's fair to say that at the moment I don't own many posh clothes, but this will have to change regardless of the election result, because in September I change jobs from a special school to a grammar school, and the dress code is very different! In the meantime I do have my interview suit, if I have to do something posh at short notice :p

If anyone wants to ask me any other questions, please feel free.