"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!