"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.