Art thou troubled? Music will calm thee.

I've been in a foul mood for most of the last week. But then yesterday I had a singing lesson, and now I'm in a good mood :-) (Just to be clear, it wasn't so much the lesson that cheered me up, it was the hours of singing I thought I'd better do beforehand!) So if you're fed up for whatever reason, do try going and having a warble. All the things I've been fed up about lately are still exactly as they were, but today they seem less end-of-the-world-ish. So, yay!

I was going to post the other day to tell you that I was in Forsyth's and noticed that someone has actually published the sheet music for the Honda advert, and Forsyth's have it on sale at £3.95. I was very good and didn't buy it ("when would you ever use it?" I hear you ask, but that's not stopped me buying stuff in the past!) but go and have a look if you're curious.

As a result of singing-lesson-induced enthusiasm, I spent ages last night sorting out sheet music and CDs and iTunes playlists. And in the process I discovered that there are several songs I'd really like to have a recording of, but can't find one (there were a lot more than these, but I found quite a lot on the iTMS) - so if you have any of these you could send me an mp3 of, or let me know of a CD to buy, I'd love to know! A Hymn to the Virgin - Rubbra; A Lullaby - Hamilton Harty; A slumber song of the Madonna - Michael Head; Perduta ho la pace - Verdi; Silver - Armstrong Gibbs; Song to the Seals - Granville Bantock; Why am I always the bridesmaid? (music hall song)

To change the subject, a few links to point out: using music to predict when volcanoes will erupt; a review of Paris Hilton's new album which amused me greatly ("She sings like a woman who has heard of something called singing, can't be sure of exactly what it might entail, but is fairly certain you do something a bit like this."); and news that Katie Melua will be joining us at the Proms in the Park next month.

And finally, it occurs to me that I still have several "great choral moments" to share, so this seems as good a time as any to bring out another one! Well, two. Neither of which is strictly choral, but they're both choir-related...

The first is one that I was reminded of while sorting music yesterday. I found a song by Menotti, and this reminded me of the time - MANY years ago (not sure how many, but it was in the Free Trade Hall) - when we did Amahl and the Night Visitors. Actually, it must have been not long after I joined the choir (which was in 1993), because it was while I was sitting on the front row (John Currie used to put all the new people on the front row, which delighted me but thoroughly annoyed some of the older members who believed you should start at the back and move forward only every few years!). Why do I remember that? Well, this was a semi-staged performance, and the lead characters were in costume and acted as well as sang. And at one point during the gig, several members of the choir from the front row, including me and Ian Benton, had to go out to the front and give someone something (I think we were shepherds giving our gifts to the baby Jesus or something - it's a nativity story, in case you didn't know).

Anyway, that wasn't the moment I remembered. The Great Moment is one that probably won't mean much to anyone who wasn't there, but to those who were... Let me take you back. We REALLY didn't like this work while we were rehearsing it. There was very little to sing, and what there was seemed a waste of time. So we weren't looking forward to the performance at all. But on the night, I'm sure I wasn't the only one who got totally swept up by the thing. Amahl is a little crippled boy, you see, and the kid they had playing him (from the Manchester Boys' Choir, I think, although I could be wrong) was BRILLIANT. And at the end, when he was miraculously cured... well, there were more than just audible sniffs at the moment when he threw his crutches away and walked without them. I, personally, was in floods of tears, and it wasn't just me. As I remember it, most of the women in the choir were in a similar state, and the men were trying to cover up their own emotions by mocking the weeping women :p

Heh, that took longer to explain than I expected! I could leave the second Great Choral Moment for another time. But it could be ages before I have this much energy again, so here goes :-)

This one is much more recent (November 2004) and involves several current choir members, but I'm not sure whether any of them found it as funny as I did! I'm paraphrasing a post I wrote for my LJ at the time, so this will be more thorough than might otherwise be the case.

Jackie H is friends with a tenor soloist (Martin Toal) who had sung a few national anthems at major sports fixtures, and he'd asked her to arrange a group of singers (mainly Sotto Voce) to be the backing choir when he sang at the Tri-Nations rugby league final (Great Britain v Australia) at Elland Road in Leeds. We were asked to prepare standard Last Night of the Proms stuff (Land of Hope & Glory, Rule Britannia, Jerusalem) in addition to the English and Australian national anthems. We had to learn the latter from memory (we already knew all the rest) - it has somewhat odd words which we found hard to get right.

The Great Moment happened before we'd sung a note. We arrived at 2.30 as instructed. We said we were the singers. We were ushered to a very impressive dressing room - well, it was two adjoining rooms. The men announced that they'd have the room with the TV in (typical!). But then the ground staff guy who'd shown us in said "no, the men will have to go elsewhere, only girls allowed in here". Well, we were even more impressed at this. Until, a few minutes later, the guy came back and admitted he'd meant "only Girls Aloud in here"... he was somewhat embarrassed that he'd thought we were Girls Aloud (there were 8 women, of which I was, I think, the youngest...)

That was the Moment (which still cracks me up every time I think of it - I was mistaken for one of Girls Aloud!) but I should probably tell the rest of the story in case anyone is curious...

That was the first I knew Girls Aloud were singing too - I don't think the rest of the choir hadn't heard of them, but I was very excited by this news. Even more so when we were shown to our actual dressing room, which turned out to be shared with about 20 soldiers (Paras, in fact) (in desert uniform, which they'd been asked to wear because they'd all been to Iraq) and the cheerleaders (who wore England rugby kits, but they'd all rolled up their shorts at the waist so that they were really short). So everyone had some eye candy :p

There was lots of sitting around, interspersed with a brief rehearsal, then at 5.50 we were led into the players' tunnel. (The kickoff was 6.15.) This was the first we saw of Girls Aloud, who were performing on the pitch. The ground was packed, the players were out warming up behind Girls Aloud, and there were TV cameras EVERYWHERE. Then everything happened in a rush - the players all suddenly came off and went back into their changing rooms, and we were told to get into position on the pitch sharpish, because things were 2 mins behind schedule. So we dashed onto the pitch as Girls Aloud dashed off, and it was straight into Land of Hope & Glory. So exciting standing there during the long instrumental intro, waiting to sing - the atmosphere was fantastic.

We had to skip Rule Brit and Jerusalem due to time running out, but then they brought the players out, and wow! Loads of fireworks let off. Confetti shot into the air above the entrance. The soldiers fired their guns (I don't know what they were, but there were two and they were huge. We thought they looked like howitzers, but none of us was sure. They banged very loudly, anyway.) 1812 overture played over the PA (the loud bit with cannons). The players came and lined up right in front of us, the Great Britain team to our left and the Australian team to our right, and two soldiers stood in front of us on the red carpet holding the Tri-Nations trophy. The Aussie team looked just... well, BIGGER than the GB team. But all the players looked fierce.

We sang both the anthems - amazingly I remembered all the words to the Aussie one, although there was some creativity going on in the bass section behind me... - and then nearly tripped over a cameraman in trying to get off the pitch. We'd been warned to move as soon as the last anthem finished, because kickoff would be seconds later, and they weren't wrong - the red carpet was rolled up and whisked away before half the choir was even off the podium, and as I entered the players' tunnel the hooter for the start of the match went off and nearly deafened me.

That was the end of our involvement. We were home in time to see the second half. Of course, it all ended in tears - Great Britain got slaughtered. I suspect I cursed them. Martin Toal (the tenor soloist) lost his lucky charm status as a result - until that day, England (or Great Britain) had never lost a match at which he sang the national anthem, apparently.

More Great Choral Moments another time. Until then, keep singing :-)