Concert cancelled due to waterlogged pitch

This is certainly a first for me. I was supposed to be singing for FC United this afternoon, but the game (at Gigg Lane) was postponed due to the pitch being unable to cope with all the rain. Probably just as well, because Alison currently can't speak above a whisper, and without her our repertoire is rather restricted. (She can't do Messiah tomorrow either, which makes my transport arrangements quite a bit more complicated, since the first train into town on a Sunday for me doesn't arrive till 1001 - assuming it's on time - and the last one home leaves at 2215. The latter would be OK for any concert other than Messiah, but as it is the only way I can get home involves getting a taxi for the last part of the journey. Do you think the HCS will reimburse me? No, I don't either, which is why I won't also be getting a taxi in time to get there for the start of the rehearsal, I'm afraid - I'll just have to be late!)

I'm not particularly looking forward to Messiah - I haven't for years - and I'll explain why in a minute. So if you're one of the people who loves it above all other concerts (i.e. the majority of the choir, as far as I can tell), you may wish to stop reading at that point, as I'm unlikely to say anything you'll agree with. In fact, you should probably ALL stop reading immediately, as I'm only going to whinge. I've been angry at just about everything lately (not just choir-related things, although lots of them are) - I suspect lots of it is to do with having too much to do. (The cancellation of today's gig was a disappointment, but it's been lovely to have a day when I didn't have to leave the house - first one in several weeks. I should have been at Old Trafford but I'd already given my ticket away. So I'm currently well-rested and in a much better mood than I *was*!)

For example, things I did on Wednesday night/early Thursday morning after returning from choir: 1. Wrote out the music for "Fairytale of New York" so that when we sing it there is no uncertainty over how the tune goes; 2. Amended the guitar chord sheet for "Merry Christmas Everyone" so that it involves a capo and hence is in G major going into A major rather than A major going into B major; 3. Spent a while considering (and then typing out) set lists for today's gig (which turned out, the next day, to have been a waste of time, because the organiser had changed his mind about what he wanted); 4. Amending the lyric sheet for "Do They Know It's Christmas" to clarify who sings which line, because our personnel has changed since the last time we performed it; 5. Printed out all the above and sorted the copies into a pile for each person; 6. Put my folder in order as per set lists in step 3 (again, this turned out to be a waste of time even BEFORE the gig was cancelled).

I didn't get to bed till 4am and had to be up again at 7 - and then I was late for work anyway because Northern Rail cancelled my train. So my bad mood wasn't shifting any time soon. I could continue telling you what else went wrong that day but you get the picture! And if you're wondering why I didn't start the above tasks *before* 11pm on Wednesday, that's because that's the first chance I'd had since Sunday's gig at which the need for most of them became apparent.

A few links before I tell you the stuff I forgot about the Verdi Requiem and then rant about Messiah...

Via ChoralBlog, the fabulous Stubby Symphony. (Don't worry about the "Are you over 18?" question - it's only because alcohol is involved, there's nothing rude.)

From Barbara: Songs of Praise with subtitles.

A possible reason for vocal problems - too many bones!

Hands up who knew that Roy Goodman (this year's Messiah conductor) was the boy treble soloist on the famous recording of Allegri's Miserere? Well, now you do!

Some fabulous photos of the London trip from Martin, one of our new basses. (Who I think is the kind gentleman who brought me a copy of Carols for Choirs 4 - am I right? Thank you, anyway - it was most useful and saved a lot of photocopying!)

So, the Verdi Requiem PS (i.e. the bits I meant to say the other day but forgot). I enjoyed the Manchester concert far more than the London one (well, except for the amazing echoes). This was mainly because of the different personnel involved. The London Symphony Chorus sang with us in both concerts, and they seemed very well rehearsed and blended well with us. However, in London (but not Manchester) there was another choir too, which I won't name, because of what I'm about to say... which is that they ruined it for me.

Quite apart from the red sash element (which I'm STILL furious about), they just didn't enhance the performance, and the ones who were near me (male altos) actually detracted from it. For a start, they refused to join in the warm-up, saying "we warmed up at 6 this morning". This was at 1.15 pm... They didn't seem to have any of the breaths etc. in their scores, and seemed quite surprised at the roving in the Dies Irae etc. Then, their voices just didn't blend. I didn't really expect they would, but it was far worse than I feared - they pronounced all their words with extremely clear English consonants and vowels. For example, they were very careful to enunciate both Ts in "et tibi". I found this really demoralising - we worked so hard to get the Italian pronunciation in place, and it was ruined by these people. (And even when the instruction to make the Ts Italian was repeated several times during the rehearsal, they still ignored it!) On top of all this, one of them, who was leading on a row, decided to ignore the instruction he'd just been given about walking to the middle of the stage before going up to his row, and cut straight across - with the result that everyone behind him did the same, and it looked awful. And then the last straw was when I noticed they had no folders!

Anyway, in Manchester it was just us and the LSC, and it was much better. The trumpets were spectacular again (I was sad they didn't get a bow at the end, but I expect they were in the pub long before that) and I could see them much better this time. The bit when they pointed their bells to the roof and blasted out the Ab minor arpeggios... WOW.

Oh, and Amy and I were amused at the idea of Mark quoting titles of Take That songs. We got this idea because of the trumpet bit having been used in Never Forget, and then he said something about having Patience, and shortly after he advised someone to Pray. There was scope for so many more - he could easily have worked in Shine, or Sure, or It Only Takes A Minute, or Everything Changes, or even Could It Be Magic... but he stopped!

And finally, Messiah, a.k.a. "the piece I'm most heartily sick of above all others". I was going to write something about its good bits but I can't summon the enthusiasm. I did realise the other day that if I was asked to list my top 10 works we've ever sung, Messiah wouldn't even make the Top 10. And I used to love it - I've just been put off it by the experiences of the last few years. I've only enjoyed it once in all the times I've done it with the Hallé, and that was the year Jamie conducted it and we did the last bit from memory. Now THAT was something special. But every other year... meh.

It's not particularly the fault of any of the conductors. Most of them have had all sorts of interesting ideas - some I've liked, some I've hated, but at least they tried to do something different. What I hate is the way the choir is when it's Messiah. For so many people it's their favourite piece, at least partly because they know it so well. But the trouble is that because we only rehearse it for a very short time, people aren't confident enough to look up from their scores, so they sing it on autopilot and never leave their comfort zone. I'm bitter about the fact that we didn't build on the doing-the-end-from-memory year - we should be doing it ALL from memory by now. That's the only way people would respond properly. The guest conductors are quite happy because they get a very competent performance - but they don't hear how much BETTER we can be! To me, when we sing Messiah, it feels as if we've slipped back several years.

I don't think I'm explaining myself very clearly, so I'm going to try to illustrate my point with another example from Wednesday's rehearsal. In the warmup, Maggie asked us to sing "Joy to the World", and explained that this was because of the fact that it has a descending scale followed by half an ascending scale, followed by similar patterns, and she wanted us to think about pivot points and tuning the top and bottom notes. But what happened? At least half the choir sang the HARMONY parts that they know so well, thus TOTALLY MISSING THE POINT OF THE EXERCISE.

And it got worse. She then asked us to finish with "Ding Dong Merrily On High", explaining that this was so that we got to practise a big sweeping "Gloria" which would help with the runs in Messiah. The choir knows this carol better than any other, so needless to say 90% of the altos, tenors and basses sang their well-known harmony parts instead of the tune - and therefore wasted the exercise, because they didn't get to sing a run at all.

This is what I mean by hating the way the choir is when it's singing Messiah. Far too many people forget how fantastically they can sing, and ignore the work they've done over the past few years, preferring to lapse into "we like this because we know it". And I HATE it. I'd be quite happy if we didn't do Messiah again for at least 5 years. Or if we have to - and I imagine TPTB will say we do, for financial reasons - at least insist that it's from memory. Or do SOMETHING to shake people out of the choral society mentality they slip into at this time of year.

I imagine that lots of people will love this year's performance due to the fact that it's the most traditional one I remember. There are two things that please me about that, actually: one is that it's a female alto soloist rather than a male (well, actually it's a mezzo, but we can't have everything) and the other is that HOPEFULLY he will allow the audience to decide for themselves if and when to stand for "Hallelujah". That's my favourite moment of the whole piece, and I hate it when conductors spoil it by giving a signal. It's just not the same!

Anyway, maybe I'll be wrong and the choir will sing as well tomorrow as they did last Saturday. Fingers crossed :-)

"A mega-choir of magisterial power..."

... that's us! (says The Guardian). The Manchester Evening News loved us too - particularly pleasing given that they often don't mention our presence at all!

I had several things to say about Saturday, but I can't remember them right now - they're written in my score, which is downstairs. So, maybe tomorrow. But I will report that (a) it was good; (b) Mark's soloists' curse struck again! Amanda Roocroft caught a cold (so no wonder she couldn't sing that top Bb) and this time Claire Rutter stepped in - at such short notice that she didn't make it till the end of the rehearsal! A very different voice to Amanda Roocroft, but she got the job done pretty spectacularly... including the top Bb, for which I love her!

One thing I do remember I was going to post.... about Messiah. Lots more to come on this topic, but since Wednesday is the only rehearsal before we meet the conductor and I know there are some people who've never sung it before, here are the ones you most need to look at:

And He Shall Purify
For Unto Us a Child is Born
His Yoke is Bloomin' Difficult
All we like sheep have gone astray... a LOT
Let us break their bonds

(Which reminds me... a belated but huge thank you to the several people who told me that they wouldn't have survived the Sibelius gigs without my mp3s. I love to feel useful!)

Finally, a couple of new choir blogs for you to investigate: Podium Speak and Choral Music Resource. Both found via From the Front of the Choir (which I thought I'd linked to before, but maybe I haven't) although the post that led me there was on ChoralBlog. Several of these bloggers seem to think there are no other choir blogs of note, but if I google "choir blog", mine is the first result... so either they haven't looked very hard or they don't think I'm worthy of note (a feeling I'm getting from lots of people, particularly employers, at the moment!)

And finally finally, something weird for you to mull over - the colour-blind synaesthete. It makes my brain hurt just thinking about it!

EDIT: I almost forgot. If there is anyone - that I haven't already asked - that has a copy of Carols for Choirs 4 (the soprano & alto one), I would love to borrow it if you don't need it for the next week or two, please. (I have 3 copies but I need 4.) Thanks!

Mind... the gap

There were lots of extra-long gaps during Thursday's St Paul's gig. This was due to Mark Elder allowing the amazing echoes to continue uninterrupted until they died down. The sound really had to be heard to be believed - in the gap after the trumpety section, I found myself crying in delight!

All sorts of minor things went wrong on the day - many of them didn't affect me, as I'd gone down on the train the previous day (it only cost £12.50!) and was staying with a friend. So I didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night to make it to the coach, and I wasn't an hour late for the rehearsal like most of the choir (and orchestra) who were delayed by a big accident on the motorway. (So many people were affected that Mark delayed the rehearsal until they arrived.) And I was able to spend the gap between rehearsal and concert having some food and going to visit St Pancras (you should all go if you get the chance - it's fantastic! Very Narnia-like!) rather than being stuck on a coach that got lost between St Paul's and the Barbican.

(I also went to see the crack in the floor at Tate Modern in the morning, but it's very underwhelming. Don't go out of your way. But I was very excited to be able to use my Oyster card when travelling round. I ordered it when I went down for the Cup Final but it didn't arrive in time. But I used it for the past three days - it saved a HUGE amount of time, plus it's cheaper! If you ever go to London and you haven't got one, I recommend you investigate.)

Mark's usual soloist curse struck again, and this time it was the soprano who'd had to pull out. But she was replaced by Amanda Roocroft, which was an impressive coup (even I've heard of her!) She was great, too, although she did miss out my favourite note in the whole piece (the ppp top Bb). Hopefully by tonight she'll have had time to practise it - she wouldn't have had much notice by Thursday, and it's not exactly an easy note to sing. We loved what she did in the rehearsal when she did the scale rising to the top C though - she kind of marched on the spot as she went up to it, and as she hit it she flung her arm out in a triumphant gesture. Disappointingly she didn't do that in the performance! All the soloists were great, though. Mikhail Petrenko is still my favourite :-)

Oh, and also, she wore a gorgeous green and red dress. And the St Paul's choristers who were scattered through the choir wore their usual uniform of black cassocks with wide red sashes. Choir members (particularly the ladies) will realise the significance of these two facts - I will say no more here.

The trumpets were definitely the things that will stay in my memory longest. They were authentic period instruments borrowed from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and they sounded AMAZING. When they were practising while we waited for the coaches to arrive, it was great. Turned out they were in the Whispering Gallery for the echo bit, and they came down to the side of the stage for the loud bit. Can't wait to hear them again tonight, but the sound they made in St Paul's will stay with me for a while.

That weird instrument that was playing the tuba part is a cimbasso, by the way. (No, I didn't know either - I lookd it up!) Lots more info in the Cimbasso Page.

I'm sure there was more I meant to write, but I've forgotten it - it'll come back to me after tonight, I assume. (Feature in the MEN if you're interested.) Must go out now though.

Is it Christmas?

My new favourite website will tell you!

It certainly feels like Christmas. Last night I sang in the first of 11 concerts in a month. That only happens at Christmas! I was helping out Sotto Voce at an interesting concert in Sale. I say "interesting" because the programme consisted entirely of music by two composers, both of whom were present and took part in the concert - one conducted the choir and one played the organ. I don't think I've ever been in any other concert where this was the case! The music was much more tuneful than you might expect from modern composers, but it was quite difficult. However, I thought the concert went pretty well. (I always enjoy singing with Sotto Voce but it's very tiring because they rehearse at the opposite side of Manchester to me, so I don't get home till midnight. For that reason only, I'm relieved that the project is now over. Now I can concentrate on the remaining 10 concerts I have before Christmas!)

(In case you're wondering... Verdi Req 29th Nov and 1st Dec; Pleiades at a community Christmas fair on 2nd Dec; Pleiades at FC United on 8th Dec; Messiah on 9th Dec; Pleiades at Henry Watson Music Library on 15th Dec; carol concerts on 21st, 22nd and 23rd Dec (x2).)

The Verdi is going to be fun. Wednesday's rehearsal did indeed start with the Sanctus as I predicted, and everything feels pretty secure now. Mind you, the altos were somewhat unimpressed to be told, at one point, that it wouldn't make any difference whatsoever whether we sang or not. I feel a challenge, ladies! (For anyone who missed the moment in question, it referred to the bit in the Tuba Mirum where we've supported the tenors in the past.) Pity the rehearsal was followed by England's exit from Euro 2008 - we had a very tense drive home listening to the end of the match on the radio, and I imagine we weren't the only ones.

Which reminds me - I presume everyone has received the message that Tuesday's rehearsal has been moved to the BBC? Please also note that Man Utd are at home that night - Sporting Lisbon are in town, so expect to be delayed by Portuguese traffic :p (The third consecutive home game I'm missing due to choir. I'm not impressed!)

Oh, and another football-related thing (thanks to Despina for this): apparently the guy who sang the anthems at Wembley on Wednesday wasn't perfect in his Croatian....

NIce review of the whole Sibelius cycle in the MEN. They particularly praise the Youth Choir, but they liked the men too. I guess the ladies' efforts at Finnish made no impact! We'll have to quadruple our efforts for the Verdi... see if we can get a reviewer to acknowledge our existence!

Five Years Gone

The episode of Heroes that's on BBC2 tonight ("Five Years Gone") is probably my favourite of all of them, so don't miss it! I was reminded the other day that I haven't mentioned Heroes for a while, when someone who I thought read this blog asked me if I ever watched it.... The number of readers has plummeted since the events of the summer - probably at least partially because so many people used to come here from the link on my website, which I had to remove. But there are still one or two people reading, because some of them have asked me stuff recently, so I thought I'd do a quick post to answer questions and share stuff.

Most urgently, the Radio 4 programme mentioned during last night's rehearsal is Tracing Your Roots, and it's at 1.30 pm today (Wednesday). If you read this after that, you should be able to hear it online for the next week.

The Verdi mp3s that I posted were in this post, where I also mentioned some of my favourite features of the Requiem (other than THE WHOLE THING!); and the list of interesting things to circle in your score was in this post. I was asked tonight to explain how to download the mp3s so that they are saved on your own PC (and can then be put on a CD). Assuming you're using a PC and not a Mac, here's how: right-click on the link (i.e. the underlined bit). A small menu should pop up, which should include the option "save target as..." (or something similar like "download linked file" etc.) Select that option, and a dialogue window will appear to let you specify where to save the file and what to call it (just like when you save anything any other time). (If you're using a Mac and you have a mouse with only one button, just hold down the "ctrl" key when clicking the link - this has the same effect as right-clicking.) (Note that if you can see the "save target as..." option but you can't select it, you may have your security set too high - try turning off the content advisor.)

And, finally... notes on "Behold the Lamb of God" (in Messiah) - at least one person wants to know specifically what the changes are, so maybe others might need this too. Hmmm.... I really must do some rubbing out - I can't remember which markings are this year's and which are old ones! But I *think* this year's version (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) is: "Behold" starts with a SEMIQUAVER upbeat every time it comes. "The sin" = quaver upbeat. "That taketh" = quaver. "The Lamb" (bar 16-17) = quaver. And finally, the alternative editorial rhythms (e.g. bar 20)... I'm not sure which ones are in and which are out! I have conflicting marks. Can anyone help?

For those who missed last night's rehearsal, it was great, but then we were doing my favourite piece. Slight shock when we (altos and basses) were asked to do some roving in the famous loud bit of the Dies Irae - the one bit everyone knew, and suddenly we don't any more! Oh well, no doubt we'll get the hang of it. Other than that, we spent most of the rehearsal, somewhat predictably, on the Libera Me, but since that's my favourite bit I was quite happy! We also did a bit on the Sanctus, but no doubt there will be more tomorrow. See you then!

Choir Wars

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. This can't be good.

While I'm doing links, there's an email doing the rounds that claims that Mama Cass's vocal range increased when she was hit on the head by a pipe. It's not true! And, while we're on the subject, can I please implore you all to bookmark Snopes? Then, next time someone sends you one of those emails that says "warning from Microsoft, forward this to everyone you know!" you can be the one who points out that it's a hoax, rather than one of the many who just look stupid because they believed it. 99% of such emails are hoaxes - trust me on this.

Anyway, Sunday night was our Sibelius gig, and it went really well. Even the bits where the sopranos kept going flat (whoever else kept being accused, it sounded like the sopranos to me - sorry, sops) stayed in tune. Only one review so far, in the Telegraph, and they seemed to like it. Well, they liked the choir... they liked the 4th symphony more than the 5th, which seems amazing to me - I love the 5th a lot, and Sunday's performance satisfied me. (Unlike that one in the Proms this summer, which I was very disappointed with even though the reviews all disagreed with me.) It's true that the 4th was played very well on Sunday (hey, it's the Hallé Orchestra, they don't often play badly!) but it's just not a listener-friendly piece....

A colleague who works in my office came to the concert and she loved it - and she liked the a cappella songs the best. And a guy from my sailing club (who goes to all the Hallé concerts) rang me up tonight to tell me how much he enjoyed the choral parts of the concert. And, actually, it seemed to me that the a cappella songs got the best reaction from the audience - there were whoops! If I'd seen any of the Youth Choir there I'd have assumed it was them, but I didn't see any of them.

Open rehearsal for the Verdi tomorrow, which will be fun. I'm really sad we're not doing the Classical Spectacular again this year, though. It's depressing to see posters ALL OVER TOWN for something that we used to be in every year. Which of our other events are advertised that heavily? None of them. There are still people I know who go to the Classical Spectacular and not to any other concert. My own MOTHER isn't coming to Messiah because it's the same weekend as the Classical Spectacular, which she wouldn't dream of missing. Oh well.

But our Proms Gerontius is on Radio 3 again on Thursday!

My land is strawberry

This picture is from the link I posted about the Finnish proverb, but I thought I'd make it a bit more prominent because not many people clicked on the link and I think it's really pretty!

This week it's Sibelius all the way. The men have their Origin of Fire concert tonight, and tomorrow it's the whole choir for Oma Maa and the 4 a cappella songs. (All the Sibelius concerts are billed under the title "Origin of Fire", which is a bit confusing, but it's tonight's that features that actual work.) We had the orchestral rehearsal last night, and it doesn't sound too bad at all. The men sounded spectacular in the Origin of Fire - although they were very behind at times, but they usually get better at that by the actual performance. At least they did eventually manage to all stand up together! And the Finnish soloist reported that he could understand every word they sang :-)

Oma Maa is much yummier with the orchestra, but I like the a cappella songs the best (which we rehearsed in the Bridgewater Hall foyer last night! That was a first!) I think my favourite is Min Rastas - especially the men's bit on the first page - but they're all lovely. Carolina the Finnish language coach (at least I think that's her name) told us that Sydameni Laulu is much loved in Finland - it's about the death of a child, but was sung at Sibelius's funeral as his coffin was lowered into the ground.

We spent a lot of time on the a cappella songs on Wednesday too, but we also did a bit of Messiah - this was planned, but I didn't think it would actually happen! There was the first batch of new markings (these particular ones clarified which notes in Behold the Lamb of God are quavers and which are semiquavers - it changes every year!) and we also sang through a couple of choruses that aren't as familiar as the others (because they're often cut) but are in this year's performance: But Thanks be to God and Let All The Angels of God Worship Him.

And next week it's VERDI! I can't wait. But before that, here are a few links.

There are posters all over the trams reminding people that there are no trams going through St Peter's Square for a few hours tomorrow. People who are going into town early before the rehearsal may find this useful to know. (Oddly enough there is no mention of it on the actual Metrolink website, but nothing they do surprises me. I wrote to them a few weeks ago with some questions and comments, and have had no response.)

A Guardian blog story about Sibelius performances in general.

Another Guardian story, this time about a rediscovered Requiem by John Foulds. EDIT: And I just saw a BBC news story about an even more unlikely Requiem!

News of a new music research centre at the University of Manchester.

News of restricted bits of St Paul's being opened up. Sadly I doubt it'll be in the next 3 weeks!

Have you seen the new Guinness advert with the dominos?

You know I love great footballing names? Well, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink is still my favourite, but recently I discovered one almost as good - Danny Invincible! What a great name! He's Australian and he plays for Kilmarnock. (His actual name is Daniele Invincibile, but all the commentators say "Danny Invincible".) I will watch his career with interest!

Finally, keep an eye on the sky - there are great astronomical things going on! For details, have a look at my Astronomical Notes page (this is part of a website I put together for a school I used to work at, and because several of them still look at it, I update it when I remember). Currently there are 4 planets easily visible, plus a comet! (Here's a diagram of exactly where the comet is, but it won't mean much to you unless you already know how to find Cassiopeia etc.)

Kansalliskuorolle kiitollisuudella omistettu

This fabulous phrase appears above the title of Oma Maa. I've been wondering what it meant ever since I first noticed it. Tonight I finally got round to doing a bit of googling. I can tell you that the middle word appears to mean "gratefully" or "with thanks", but I got nowhere with the other two. However, I assume it's just a dedication rather than anything more interesting.

It was the Sibelius piano rehearsal tonight. It was an awful lot better than many of us expected it to be - either people had done some homework, or Mark inspired them, or both! It was all a bit behind the beat, but no doubt it will get better as the words become second nature. (Personally, I'm finding it VERY hard to say "yön" or "yöt" without the y, but I'll get there. At least I know how to say that one in theory - there are still a few sounds I don't think I've been told about!)

I think I need to mutter Finnish to myself for the next week and a half. (Luckily everyone already thinks I'm weird...) If you want to see the words on their own, try this Finnish wiki page. Oh, and while I was looking for that, I also found this, about a Finnish proverb. Pretty!

EDIT: I noticed that the words on that wiki page don't all correspond to our version, so here's an accurate version for you to download. (That's the alto line, but I'm sure others can edit it if they need to.) I had it by my desk at work today and found myself muttering "Raittihit talviset säät". Bits of it are starting to stick!

Some memorable moments of the rehearsal were: the Finnish language coach (I *still* haven't caught her name) illustrating how we should sing page 6 as if we were shivering in snow at -20 degrees; Mark telling us that every house in Finland has a ladder built onto the side of it so that people can easily climb onto the roof to remove snow; the fact that I sat next to Adam from the youth choir, who allowed me to grumble at him about life in general, knew who I was as soon as I told him my name, and said nice things about this blog! Oh, and best of all - the ladies got an early night! I don't think I was the only one who failed to put two and two together and work out that the men also had to rehearse The Origin of Fire tonight. Whee!

2nd EDIT: Someone at work today showed me the Man Cold clip, which amused me a lot :-)

"The mood is right... The spirit's up... We're here tonight... And that's enough!"

I imagine I'm not the only one who's already rehearsing Christmas stuff. My band is taking part in the Henry Watson music library's Christmas Music Day on 15th December, so it's sleigh bells all the way till then! Last week I did a new a cappella arrangement of "Wonderful Christmas Time" (which is where the title of this comes from). I'd planned to save a bit of time by adapting parts of the Youth Choir arrangement that we all enjoyed so much (I bet I'm not the only one who surreptitiously photocopied it!) but then I realised that it omitted some of my favourite bits (like the intro!) so I started from scratch. I was delighted to find that it worked perfectly first time, although I'm not sure whether or not we'll include it at the Henry Watson. But I've had it on the brain ever since.

Sorry for the gap in posting. Since I can no longer write about the most entertaining aspect of choir rehearsals, it's hard to get motivated to write at all. But I seem to have accumulated a few links to share, so here you are!

I've just updated my online choir schedule to reflect recent changes. There are several football fixture changes too, for those who like to know about such things. I'm unimpressed that I can't go to any of United's home games in November - 7th and 27th clash with choir, and the game on 10th (which I could have gone to) has now been moved to 11th (when I can't). Argh. Although, I suppose it balances out, because they've also moved a game from 1st December (when I couldn't go) to 3rd (when I can). And I was alarmed to find they'd moved one from 22nd December (which was easy) to 23rd (which is a day featuring 2 concerts). But it's a 12 noon kickoff, so I reckoned I could still go to that *and* make the 3pm concert, if I could get from my seat at Old Trafford to the Bridgewater Hall in less than an hour. I knew it'd be more or less impossible by tram or bus or car (if I had one) so it came down to whether or not I could walk it in that time. So I tried yesterday. The players left the pitch (and I left my seat) at 4.55pm, and I reached the Hall at 5.40. Easy!

I had a couple of unexpected emails this week. The first says "Hi - is the expression 'Halle racket' anything to do with the choir?" to which I replied "Not as far as I know - I have to admit I've never heard the expression, and I've been in the choir for 14 years! I'll ask around though. Where did you hear this expression?" and received the response "It is a very common expression used to describe a great noise, in a respectful way. I was told many years ago that it came from either the Halle Choir or the Halle Orchestra." ... Is it just me that's NEVER heard this expression? I googled it and found nothing. I also asked a few people, and none of them had ever heard of it either. We did wonder whether she'd got it muddled with "hell of a racket".... any other suggestions?

Other unexpected email, which I can only imagine he intended me to mention here (although he didn't say so): "I'm contacting you regarding our forthcoming BBC1 Saturday night primetime television series 'The Ultimate Tribute' - hosted by Graham Norton. We are looking for singers for this new talent show, who think they have what it takes to be transformed into a successful tribute artist for a number of musical icons. And the stakes are high - with a performance contract in Las Vegas for the winner! Auditions will be held around the country from November 2nd 2007. We are looking for both amateur and professional performers around the country - so anyone who may feel that they have a talent can apply to come along and audition. There's not long until auditions, so people who are interested must get in touch soon! Deadline for applications is midnight on Thursday 1st November 2007. More information can be found here. Should you have any further queries, you can contact me on: 020 8222 4786." (I should add, for people who like this sort of thing, that you can also audition for Big Brother soon...)

And one more thing I've been meaning to mention for ages: I heard on the Guardian Unlimited Football Weekly podcast (which I highly recommend to any footy fans) that the Spanish word "cantar" not only means "to sing" (as you'd expect) but also "to make a goalkeeping error". So a few weeks ago, they said, there were lots of headlines in Spain comparing a certain goalie to Pavarotti, because he had a nightmare of a game. However, I can't find anything to back this up - can any of you confirm or deny?

So, finally, those links I promised.

The BBC Phil did The Planets without us! I'm unimpressed. I wonder if we were even asked? We could easily have squeezed it in.

For Harry Potter fans: the Leaky Cauldron has a page where they're summarising all the info released by J.K. Rowling since book 7 came out. They're a little bit behind but they're always very industrious so I'm sure they'll get caught up soon.

Here's a link to a YouTube video that the Guardian blog called the greatest of all time. See if you agree.

Recently I discovered the existence of a company called Big Wilf's Bell Muffles (Big Wilf himself emailed me at work). I found the FAQ - and, in fact, the very existence of the company - totally fascinating! Do have a read.

Also work-related: I discovered an online British Sign Language dictionary (with videos). (It works on mobile phones too.) From this, I discovered the sign for "sing", which amused me greatly!

FreeRice is a vocabulary game (for a good cause) that's far too addictive. Hint: don't waste time, like I did, trying to get higher than a vocab level of 50 - you can't!

We're getting a new Santa on top of the Town Hall this year. About time... although it's never been quite the same since we had the old Santa climbing up the tower and his reindeer on the roof, in my opinion.

Have any of you noticed the huge poster on the side of the Palace Theatre and exclaimed "That CAN'T be David Essex!" Well, apparently there is some discussion going on about how large he is, too...

Kent Nagano's been upsetting his choir in Canada. I can just imagine it - "If only you were as good as that choir I used to work with in Manchester!"

And finally, I'm sure that we all wish Russell Watson a speedy recovery.

ASBOs for strings

I'm sure everyone must have heard about the Hallé noise nuisances. Thanks to the many people who emailed or texted me about this story. I actually first saw it when I went out yesterday lunchtime and saw the word Hallé plastered across all the Manchester Evening News billboards. I don't normally pick up free papers (it seems such a waste of trees when I read all my news online) but on this occasion I did. I'll be interested to see what happens, but in the meantime I imagine the Hallé are secretly delighted at the free publicity!

(I was on my way back from Office Angels, who not only found me a great temp job half a day after I'd registered (particularly good since the first temp agency I'd approached had turned me away), but they very unexpectedly sent me a birthday card (it was my birthday yesterday, and their card was actually the only one I received on time due to the postal strike, so I was doubly delighted!) Then, to impress me even further, they happened to choose yesterday to put on one of their regular free lunches for their temps. So I'm very happy to give them some free publicity here!)

I'm currently watching England hammer Estonia - 3-0 up so far, with little over half an hour gone. The anthems were sung by an Estonian singer called Hannah, who has a very low voice - she sang the English national anthem down the octave, which I've never heard a female singer do before. (The Estonian anthem was very low too, but maybe it always is!)

Not much to report from choir this week - we didn't see the men because they were off doing Brahms (I'd be interested to hear how that went) so we did a bit of Sibelius with Jamie and then a lot of Holst with Fanny and David. We rehearsed altos and sopranos separately for a while, and there were some very strange noises coming from the sops when they came back, but they improved rapidly, and by the end of the rehearsal, when we were together to run the Holst, it sounded pretty good. I've had it on the brain since.

Anyway, it occurred to me that there are still some bits of Sibelius I haven't posted, so here's all of it again plus the new bits. Many thanks to Graham and Terry for supplying the mp3s.

EDIT: Some of the links weren't working. They're fixed now, but you may still get a 404 error the first time you try. If so, try hitting refresh and it should work.

Choral songs:
Sibelius - Saarella
Sibelius - Venematka (slow version)
Sibelius - Venematka (fast version)
Sibelius - Min Rastas
Sibelius - Sydameni laulu

With orchestra:
Sibelius - Origin of Fire (original version)
Sibelius - Origin of Fire (revised version)
Sibelius - Origin of Fire (choral bit only)
Sibelius - Oma Maa

And, in case anyone missed it last time I posted it:
Holst - Ave Maria

To finish, a pretty picture. (If you don't already have Astronomy Picture of the Day bookmarked, I suggest you do!) This isn't actually Finland, but it's how I imagine Finland to be. Maybe one day I'll go there and all my illusions will be shattered!

Urhoin or yö?

I can't decide which is my favourite Finnish word. It's one of these two. "Urhoin" means "hero" or "brave" or something like that, and has what was described as a "character-giving r". "Yö" means "night" and is the sound everyone seemed to most enjoy making - I certainly did!

We finally met our Finnish language coach on Wednesday, you see, and she was very nice. Sadly I've forgotten her name - can anyone remind me? She spent the second half of the rehearsal telling us how to pronounce the words of Oma Maa. It's not actually as hard as it looks - once it had all been explained, I found it much harder to find the words on the page (see last post for explanation) than to remember how to say them. Anyway, it's nice to be able to add another language to the list of those I can claim to be able to read. That's quite a long list - must write it down sometime! (With the proviso, of course, that I may not actually REMEMBER how to pronounce, say, Hungarian, even though we only did it a year ago.)

That was just the second half of the rehearsal - the first half was spent in sectionals, with the ladies learning Holst's 8-part Ave Maria with David while the men went off to polish the Brahms with Jamie. The Holst was very lovely - and not that hard - although I got more and more irritated by the fact that a large number of people didn't seem to know the meaning of pp, sotto voce or senza crescendo. Argh. But no doubt they'll catch on eventually.

And I've just realised I haven't posted since our first gig of the season, the Eric Chadwick Memorial Concert in Salford. That went really well despite our numbers being very depleted - Komm Jesu Komm was possibly the best it's ever been, although the audience (predictably) seemed to prefer the Hallelujah Chorus. But that was good too :-) Plus, I was excited to notice that the tenor part of Onward Christian Soldiers starts the same as the tune, except with the two phrases reversed. I've never spotted that before! Sadly no-one else seemed as interested as me :p

Anyway, I seem to have accumulated a load of links I've been saving to post. That'll teach me to leave it for nearly two weeks! These aren't in any particular order....

Lucky Voice Pods in Tiger Tiger - the new variation on karaoke. Has anyone tried this?

G sharp is the hardest note to identify, allegedly. I'm not convinced by the explanation either.

An interesting article about how they get the fireworks to explode in time with the music at outdoor gigs.

An article about a choir of Russian monks.

A very strange set of Gilbert and Sullivan comics.

It seems Mozart wrote something very rude. I'd never heard of this before.

A useful A-Z guide to Wagner's Ring cycle.

Iggy Pop's extremely long and detailed (and funny) rider (i.e. what his requirements are when he comes to do a concert).

A review of the opening Hallé concert of the season. (I'm quite taken by the reference to the Elder Wand! But you know I love Harry Potter.)

Talking of Harry Potter, Fred and George Weasley are coming to the Bridgewater Hall!

An article investigating why Sibelius wrote nothing in the last 30 years of his life.

Is there anyone else who's baffled about why they're having swimming championships in the MEN Arena next year, when we have a perfectly good Olympic-standard pool at the Manchester Aquatics Centre?

Some of you might be interested by this video on writing fugues. The narration is irritating, because they did THAT like a fugue too, which means that for most of it you can't understand a word... but the fugue itself is clever, and the only one I've ever seen that's based on a Britney Spears song! If you don't really understand how a fugue works, this might help. (The "Der Saure Weg" section of Komm Jesu Komm is the most recent fugue we've sung, in case you were wondering. Also, the Sanctus and Libera Me sections of Verdi's Requiem both have fugues.)

Sadly Manchester Cathedral has had a stained-glass window smashed by vandals. I just can't begin to understand the mindset of someone who would do that.

English National Opera's new production of Carmen is not receiving as much praise as they might have hoped.

An interesting story about what the Hallé marketing director does at concerts!

An analysis of the theme from Some Mothers Do 'Ave "em. I never realised it was based on Morse code!

And, finally, more details on the Manchester Boys Choir story that I mentioned last time.

Oh, and I almost forgot... the Finnish word that's the one most commonly used in English is indeed SAUNA. Well done, the anonymous person who guessed that (or looked it up on Wikipedia like I did!)

Deep-voiced men 'have more kids', allegedly

What? You don't believe me? I read it in the news! Now, I just need someone to work out whether or not the Hallé men prove or disprove this statement...

Oh, and also, there's a story on Manchester Confidential about defectors from the Manchester Boys' Choir. What I want to know here is which choir they've defected to!

Anyway, currently I have a really sore throat as a result of tonight's choir rehearsal. Yes, yes, I *know* that means I was doing something wrong! It's because we spent most of it singing just vowels - that always causes me pain (for reasons I don't fully understand - must ask Maggie). Whatever the reason, I think I need to try not to speak tomorrow. It's probably a good thing that I'd already decided not to go to choir, because I thinking singing again would probably make it worse, and I want to be able to sing on Friday, particularly as hardly any of the elusive 2nd altos can make it! Tomorrow night, instead, I'm off to see United. I did try to get rid of my ticket, but no-one was interested, so it would have been wasted if I didn't go. (Cup games cost extra to the season ticket, but it's one of the conditions of having a season ticket that you have to buy a ticket for every home cup game.)

You may be thinking that going to a football match is possibly not the best course of action with a sore throat, but I actually don't make that much noise, apart from frequent squeaks and gasps of alarm, which greatly amuse the guys who own the seats on either side of me :-)

Tonight at choir, in case you were wondering, we only did one piece - Oma Maa. It's nice enough, and has some good chords, but it's not wildly exciting. (Not like the Verdi, which was also scheduled for tonight but which we didn't actually do! I was outraged! Just watch him do a bit of it tomorrow....) We still don't know much about the Finnish words, but we had a bit of a go at them anyway. (Note: I'm sure I've read somewhere that Sibelius himself wasn't very good at Finnish, because he was brought up in a Swedish-speaking family. I'll look it up when I'm less tired.) And we discovered that the altos and basses are going to have a very difficult time. You see, the words are printed in Finnish and Swedish. For most of the piece, the Finnish words are under the soprano and tenor lines, and the Swedish words are under the alto and bass lines. Which is a pain, because we're so used to reading words under notes, it's a real strain to have to read them from elsewhere. (This is, of course, at its worst in hymns and Christmas carols, where the words aren't even printed anywhere near the music except for verse 1. Fine for the sops who just have the tune, but not for the rest of us!)

However, it was worse than that. For SOME parts of the piece, both the Finnish and Swedish words were under every line. Great. Except that it switched between mode 1 and mode 2 totally randomly, almost always on line changes and page turns. And, needless to say, there's no space to write the words in the right place (and in any case I can never read them when I do that!), so I was reduced to a system of crossing out all the Swedish bits and putting arrows and rings all over the place. And all of this is before we've even been taught by a Finnish language coach! Things will go downhill from here, I imagine...

I'll end on a quiz question. Which Finnish word is the one most commonly used in English? Answer in my next post :-)

"Let the 2nd tenors have their moment of glory!"

I was incredibly tempted to just do a post that repeated "I love it I love it I love it!" lots of times. Have I mentioned that the Verdi Requiem is my absolute favourite work and I love it more than all the other things we've ever done ALL PUT TOGETHER? Well, I do :-)

And last night we sang the whole thing. It was extremely wonderful. Can't wait to do it in more detail and get it even better! (Mind you, it'll immediately improve when everyone realises that the dynamics are there for a REASON. There were far too many people who seemed to think pppp didn't apply to them, and didn't sing below mf until TOLD they were too loud. Why would he have wasted ink writing pppp if he didn't mean it?!) We had the lovely David Lawrence guiding us through the experience, and he did a brilliant job - apart from anything else, he managed to time things so that we finished the last note at 9.15! Impressive!

The 2nd tenors quote isn't from last night - it's something I already had written in my score, although I can't remember who said it. It's from page 67 in the Rex tremendae bit of the Dies Irae, and in that bar the 2nd tenors go up to a top B flat while the 1st tenors stay on middle C. I presume someone must have asked whether it would make more sense to switch the parts round, and the answer above is the one that was given! (Seems fair enough to me - our current 2nd tenors are really rather brilliant.) Wish I could remember who/when it was - I've done the Requiem several times, but I'm told the last time was in 2001. (If anyone can remember who it was with etc. I'd love to know!)

Anyway, I thought I'd post a few other things I discovered scribbled in my score. I know there are a few of you who like to know random bits of information about the music! Note that I don't know who any of these quotes are from, sorry - but none of them are mine. I suspect a lot are Stuart Beer (Manchester Cathedral) - the first time I did the Requiem properly was with him. (I don't count the first time I *actually* did it, which was a "Verdi Requiem from scratch" alumni day at my old university. As is often the case on this occasions, I sang 1st tenor that day.)

Requiem/Kyrie

p.7 last bar: "Like a door opening into a world of light"

p.8-9: In this section the soloists "dance across the stage one by one, like ballerinas making their first entrance and saying 'hi!'"

Dies Irae

p.22: Watch the audience (obviously!)

p.23: Note the difference between the first bar of the bottom line and the first bar of the previous page.... the MOST FAMOUS BASS DRUM IN ALL MUSIC. Just wait till you hear it live. (Oh, and also, this is the first time it plays in the piece, and the direction in the score is "le corde ben tese onde questo contrattempo riesca secco e molto forte". Which I'm having a bit of trouble translating, but I think it's something to do with making the snares tight so that the sound is dry and very loud (I'm sure you got that last bit!))

p.31: "Sing as if you're too nervous to sing legato, but also too nervous to breathe in the gaps." "DON'T LOOK DOWN."

P.32-7: Trumpets! The score shows which bits are played by the trumpets in the distance. But it doesn't show that the "afar" bits switch from side to side (e.g. the entry in the 3rd bar might be on the right, and the octave echo on the left). All the trumpets join in one by one, and get louder, till they're joined by the rest of the orchestra at letter D. But if you thought the trumpet bit ended at letter D, read on! After the men try to drown out the orchestra with their "tuba mirum" entry, the trumpets play arpeggios all over the place, and they echo each other. Plus, I've done the piece at least once when the distant trumpets were asked to move closer to the stage every few bars, until in the bar before E, when it says "trumpets afar", they were actually onstage. The effect was electric.

(On pages 36 and 37, everything I have written - which is a lot - is in much, much bigger writing than I usually use. I suspect this is probably because I'm always so excited in this section!)

(For the last chord in this section - on "omnes" - in one performance I did, we were instructed to sing the highest note in that chord that we could manage, regardless of what our part said...)

p.37-8: Look at all the notes marked "con 8va sotto" on the last beat of each bar. That means "with the octave below", and it's that bass drum again (just a BIT quieter than its previous entry) along with a pizzicato double bass note (that's where the octave comes in). The bass players have to work hard here, because (unlike the bass drum) they have to play the rest of the bar too, but the first three beats each time are marked arco. Always fun to watch! Will this be the year one of them drops their bow? Also, watch out for the 2-bar-long F sharp halfway down p.38. This is a unison note played by all the oboes, clarinets, bassoons (did I mention there are 4 bassoons in this piece? I'll mention them again later) and horns. But the horns always stand out, because (a) they're marked frizzante (sparkling), and (b) they're horns! And I'm an oboist... but I love horns doing stuff like this.

p.46: The top line is in 4. The rest of the page is in 2. So, although it looks at first as if there are fewer notes, it actually goes from groups of 6 to groups of 8. ("Lo stesso movimento tra le sei e le otte note" means, more or less, that the six notes ('sei note' and the eight notes ('otte note') are the same speed as each other - i.e. the beat stays the same despite changing from 4 to 2.) On the bottom line I have written "Scream!" I *think* that was an actual instruction....

p.50-55: The bass line of the accompaniment here is a virtuoso bassoon solo. The two clarinets play the first bar and similar bits (until the violins steal it from them beautifully at the start of p.54), and the strings do very subtle backing chords, but otherwise it's the 1st bassoon all the way. Oh, and page 51 starts with a Neapolitan chord - you know how I love those!

p.56: Lots of instruments play along with the basses, but it's the trombones that usually make their presence most felt. Then the horns double the tenors. Just in case you were wondering.

p.63: I love the last bar of this page, where (although it's shown in the vocal score) a solo horn doubles the mezzo solo. It's yummy! You'll see.

p.66-7: A quadruple-dotted note! I don't remember ever seeing one of those anywhere else. And actually, in my miniature score, the preceding three phrases have quadruple dots too, and I think we've usually been asked to do them all like that. Then on p.67 is the famous 2nd tenor glory bit. And, not to be outdone, the 1st sops were asked to sing along with the soprano soloist last time we did this....

p.76-9: Last bar of page 76 is the start of another mega bassoon solo. I think Verdi liked bassoons. Whereas the top line of page 78 is a lovely *oboe* solo. About time. And the last line of page 79 is a *very* Verdi-ish operatic tenor bit.

p.80: The second bar of the bass solo has lots of instruments joining in, but it's the timps that always grab my attention. Also in this section I really like the double bass/bassoon (again!) octave bit on the bottom line of page 80, and the wildness (with the piccolo leading the attack) in the last bar of page 81.

p.84: It's watch the audience time again! And for utmost shock value, we've usually been instructed to only stand when the moment actually arrives. My score says "STAND IN TERROR!"

p.88: Bottom line... Officer Krupke bit. Or is that just me?

p.91: "Light at the end of the tunnel."

p.92-4: The trombones, timps and bass drum play a ppp oom-cha-cha type accompaniment. You'll never notice it unless you're watching out for it, especially because we all have a good tune to sing at the same time.

p.96: I *love* the descending bass line here (cellos and - guess what - bassoons). The basses in the choir join in halfway through, but the orchestral basses have already done a full octave scale before that. Similarly, the 2nd basses have another good line on page 100.

Domine Jesu

p.106: Lovely cello solo that goes on till the bottom of the next page, when - shock horror - the 1st bassoon joins in.

p.112-3: The semiquaver arpeggios here are much more complicated than they look. The piccolo goes down one octave then up again; the 1st flute goes down *two* octaves then up again (so they're only going the same way at the start and end of each bar); the 1st clarinet goes up two octaves *then* down; and the 2nd violins split themselves into 4 parts and play on alternate semiquavers while going down one octave then up again. No, I'm not making this up. (Oh, and of COURSE the bassoon joins in when the violins stop.)

p.121: The first bar of this page, in the soprano line, is a hint of the Agnus Dei tune that we've not yet heard.

p.127: I like the ppp string quavers on the top line.

Sanctus

p.131: This is a double fugue, which means two subjects (= main tunes) that fit together even after they've developed themselves. The first subject is the one that the 1st sops lead off with; the countersubject is the one that the 2nd sops lead off with. Everything different is just filler. (In particular, the violins start to get a bit clever on pages 140-1, but the last three bars of p.141 are the ones I usually notice - just after the soprano soloist blasts out her top B flat. p.144 onwards is a similarly pretty bit of accompaniment.)

p.149: The chromatic scales start in the last bar of the page, and continue for 3 pages... the high instruments get one first, then the bass instruments (yes, the bassoons again) and then in the last bar of page 151 the whole orchestra joins in (usually drowned by the trombones, but in a good way!) and we get a WOW moment.

p.153: My score says "preposterous!!!" I wish I could remember who said that!

Agnus Dei

p.155: "Like an Italian monastery."

p.156-7: Flute and clarinet have a nice almost-counter-melody in octaves. And I really like the chord progression at the top of page 157.

p.159: The accompaniment here is a flute trio (and nothing else). Lovely.

Lux Aeterna

p.163: The demisemiquavers in the vocal score are actually a double timp roll - 2 different players both rolling at the same time, one on a B flat and one on an F. This goes on for ten bars, and for large parts of those ten bars it's the only accompaniment. I also like the bit that I've got annotated as the "very requiemish trombone bit" on the top line, and the flute solo (the A to B flat) on the bottom line is much more impressive than it looks!

p.168: Good flute and clarinet bit on bottom line. (They do it again on the last page of the movement, and this time the flute gets the last word.)

Libera me

p.175: "Like priests at the far end of a cathedral."

p.176: Remember those 4 bassoons? As if they haven't had enough flashy bits earlier, halfway down this page they get a quartet all to themselves! The last two notes before letter A are the first time all four of them are in unison, and it's a weird sound. It's followed immediately by the flutes playing chromatic crotchets while the violins dance around them.

p.177: On the second line, the 1st violins continue their semiquavers and the flutes move to a unison low trill. But the fun bits are in the 2nd violins and violas, who swoop up and down as if they're chasing each other. (The viola swoops are in the vocal score, but the 2nd violin ones aren't shown - they come in between the viola ones.)

p.178: Watch the audience again :-) This bit has different words to before - it makes it much harder for some reason.

p.189-192: THIS is my favourite bit of the whole piece. It occurred to me the other night that when I said "the a cappella bit in the last movement", you might have thought I meant the chanting at the start of it - but no. The last four bars are my VERY favourite (they finish on a pppp top B flat! Imagine!), but I do love the rest of it too - especially the Neapolitan-with-extra-bass-note at the bottom of page 191. Mmmmmmmm.

p.193: And then, not satisfied with showing off her quiet top notes, she continues with another dramatic bit! But this one's even better than the first one, because it leads to another funky fugue, and this time THE ALTOS START IT. Clearly Verdi realised that it was safest to give it to the best people in the choir - things could go horribly wrong horribly soon if this bit wasn't right :p I also like the fact that it's totally a cappella apart from the cadential chords from the ENTIRE ORCHESTRA. Whee!

p.196: Last bar top line, the tenors are the last of the four parts to finish the fugue subject, so at this point the development starts and the whole orchestra joins in with the voices.

p.203: The soprano soloist gets bored with being out of the limelight, and interrupts to change the mood. However, the choir sops are on the warpath by now, and they battle for top note supremacy with her. I suspect this upsets her, so she drops out again at the end of page 207.

p.208: The fugue gets going again, this time in a stretto section (that means the subject comes in much sooner so the tunes overlap more) accompanied by a woodpecker motif thrown round the upper woodwind. (The quavers shown in the vocal score in (e.g.) the last-but-one bar of the page are part of this motif, but the vocal score is very misleading - there are actually 6 quavers in almost every bar of these couple of pages.)

p.211: I have "WATCH!" and "READY!" etc. written all over this page. Last time we did it, it slowed down dramatically in the last two bars of the page... then it was a tempo AND subito ppp immediately after the page turn. You can imagine the carnage until people got the hang of this :p

p.215: "STEADY, then... VOOM!" The sops were distraught to learn, last time, that the small notes that lead them up to the top C are an editorial addition, and nothing to do with Verdi at all! Just as well, because if they sang that, we'd probably never hear the repeated quavers the trumpets are blasting out at that point, and I like that bit :-)

p.217: Unbelievably, every time I've sung this, on this page there's always been someone who either hasn't come in, or sang the wrong line. This suggests to me that they were too lazy to mark their score. It's bad enough that they sang it the first time without having looked ahead to see which line they were singing - but every time I've performed the piece, people have still got this page wrong in the orchestral rehearsal. Hopefully the choir is enlightened enough these days that it won't happen this time!

p.218 (last page): I can't remember who said this, but I have a feeling it might have been Mark.... "Verdi was agnostic. So the end has to be uncertain... but hopeful." The octave semiquavers on the bottom line are actually a timp roll (not in octaves at all - that's just to make it easier on the piano), which is the only accompaniment that continues under the whole of the last line.

That ended up rather longer than I'd expected. If you read this far, I hope at least some of it was interesting and/or useful!

---

Oh, and before I forget, Man Utd are at home on Wednesday (when the choir are rehearsing in Salford, not far from the ground). You may wish to plan your travel accordingly. (I may yet go to the match instead of the rehearsal - depends on whether or not I can get anyone to use my ticket.)

Go go Adam and Chris :-)

Well, I spent a large part of the weekend in Southport watching the 24-hour race. I only found out at the last minute that my sailing instructor, the lovely Adam McGovern, was attempting something unprecedented in aid of Sail4Cancer. If you want to sponsor him, even though the race is now over, I'm sure he'd be thrilled - there are links at both of the sites. I didn't actually see the end of the race - I left at 8.30 a.m. in order to get the first train home, having been outside all night - but he (with his crew, Chris) did finish, and in 2nd place too! (83 laps means they sailed more than 100 miles, in case you were wondering.) The picture at the end of this post is of him just before I left.

Thanks to those who responded to my query about mp3s sounding wonky. It seems as if it might be just Graham and I who have the problem, so I won't worry about it too much for now! That being the case, I'm going ahead and posting Verdi Requiem stuff.

I was a little surprised to find that a lot of the choir have never sung it, and don't know about its EXTREME AWESOMENESS, so I will introduce it a bit! This is possibly my favourite piece. I could explain why, in detail (and maybe I will, nearer the time), but a short version will do for now: All of it is amazing, but the most entertaining part when we do it live is the start of the second movement. I have, written in my score at that point, "WATCH THE AUDIENCE!!!!" Because the first movement ends very quietly (like this), and the second movement starts with one of the loudest noises you'll ever hear in a concert (this one). (The start of the second movement is of course the bit that everyone knows, although a surprising number of people don't know what it's from.) It always amuses me a LOT when half the audience literally jump out of their seats :-)

(Oh, and the bass drum in that bit has been described as the most famous bass drum in all of music. Often a specially large bass drum is used - one that is never used in any other piece - and they even do special Verdi Requiem mallets (scroll down) "for maximum volume".)

(And, and, and, the offstage trumpets! They appear later in the second movement. Take That used a bit of this section at the start of Never Forget", but that doesn't give anything like the live effect of all the trumpets surrounding you, and the buildup from one solo trumpet to the entire orchestra playing ff. (In theory there are 4 onstage and 4 offstage, but they sometimes add players if they can.) That's always spinetingling in the Bridgewater Hall - I think that in St Paul's it will make the hardest backbone melt.)

Those are by no means my favourite parts of the music - I love all of it, but my favourite part is the a cappella bit in the last movement. Mmmmmmmm. (I even once wrote a song based on the last line of that section... not that anyone who heard it realised that!) But the whole piece is one of those pieces that just isn't the same unless you experience it live. And I can't wait to hear how it works in St Paul's.

Anyway, Verdi Requiem mp3s:

1. Requiem & Kyrie Eleison
2. Dies Irae
3. Tuba Mirum
4. Mors Stupebit
5. Liber Scriptus
6. Quid Sum Miser *
7. Rex Tremendae
8. Recordare *
9. Ingemisco *
10. Confutatis
11. Lacrymosa
12. Domine Jesu (Offertorio) *
13. Sanctus
14. Agnus Dei *
15. Lux Aeterna *
16. Libera Me

(These don't quite all fit on one CD (at least, not if you do it in standard audio format), so it may be helpful to know that the tracks marked * don't involve the choir.)

And finally, I thought you might like to hear my current favourite song. It's by Mika (the Grace Kelly guy) and is called Happy Ending. I love the backing vocals, but the whole song just puts a smile on my face. Enjoy!

EDIT: If you're not a fan of the Wheel of Time books, this will mean nothing to you, but if you are, you will be as distraught as I am to learn that Robert Jordan died yesterday :-(

Twirling trumpets!

I hope you all remembered to watch the Proms thing last night with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra. I'm annoyed because I meant to post earlier to remind people, but I totally forgot. Oh well. (I was a bit worried that BBC1 wasn't going to show the encore, but they did, right at the end. Whee!)

Those who missed Wednesday's rehearsal may be wondering what we did. Well, the plan had been to have sectionals with Fanny and David, but unfortunately Fanny was ill, so David saved the day by taking the whole rehearsal himself. This meant we couldn't do the Holst, which I'd been looking forward to (because the intention had been for the ladies to do that while the men did the Brahms), but we did do the middle section of Komm Jesu Komm and then spent the rest of the time on a new bit of Sibelius (Oma Maa) before the ladies went home early and the men started on the Brahms.

Oma Maa wasn't too hard (although the fact that we had no accompaniment or cues AT ALL in our scores didn't help - we all hate scores like that!) I think it'll be much improved by adding the orchestra though. The Bach wasn't great, despite our familiarity with it - I don't know why, although I suspect it's a combination of three things: We didn't sit in 2 choirs, so that might have put some people off. Lots of people were late (at the start of the rehearsal there were only two 2nd altos to battle the eighteen 1st altos, but by the time we'd finished the Bach our numbers were more respectable... not that the 2nd altos did anything wrong, mind you!) But mostly, not enough people had practised the bit they'd been asked to. I'm sure it'll be fine by the time we do it in the memorial concert - which, by the way, we now know more about: the only thing we're singing OTHER than the Bach is the Hallelujah Chorus, so anyone who doesn't know that from memory should dig out their Messiah score ASAP. Also, the concert will be over pretty early (8.45 was mentioned, and it might be even earlier) and there will be food for us afterwards!

Now, I was going to post some more mp3s, but before I do, I need to solve a problem. Can you please tell me whether the mp3s I included in my last post sound OK to you or not? The reason I ask is that (for example) Saarella sounds very buzzy to me, whereas the Alto Rhapsody sounds fine. But Graham says Saarella sounds fine to him, while the Alto Rhapsody is crackly. I haven't done anything differently, but before I can work out what the problem is, it would be helpful to find out whether it's just me. Could you all have a listen and let me know please?

Finally, I hope you're all loving Heroes. If you've missed any, this weekend is your chance to catch up - BBC2 are repeating the whole series from the start, from 9pm tomorrow (Saturday). 6 episodes on Saturday and 3 on Sunday, and then you're up to date in time for episode 10 on Wednesday!

Oh, and if you're up to date on Heroes and want a trip out this weekend, it's the 24-hour Race on the Marine Lake at Southport. It starts at noon tomorrow and finishes at noon on Sunday. Currently the weather forecast predicts that it will be much windier on Sunday, so that'll be better. But if you do come, try to come so that you see at least some of the night sailing. You don't often get the chance to see a yacht race under floodlights!

Beschaffenheit, tust du butch?

I was very amused to notice that someone found my blog by searching for a German translation of "Tenors, do you do butch?" ... which is a Fannyism from a couple of years ago. (I have no idea if the above is an accurate title of the phrase - can anyone whose German is less rusty than mine tell us, please?)

Anyway, I'm off out to an interview (woo!) in a few minutes, but I thought I'd post some mp3s before I go. Oh, and also tell you that due to the whole Sibelius anniversary thing (Thursday 20th is the actual day), he's composer of the week on Radio 3 next week (17th - 21st September), and there are also a couple of Classic FM evening concerts devoted to him on Wednesday and Thursday (19th/20th). And you may be interested in a lot of background info about his choral music.

Sibelius - Saarella
Sibelius - Venematka
Sibelius - Min Rastas
Sibelius - Oma Maa
Brahms - Alto Rhapsody
Holst - Ave Maria

More later!

EDIT: (9pm Thu) I've just replaced Venematka and Oma Maa with slightly better versions, so if you listened earlier, do try again. I know Saarella is still a bit buzzy but Graham says he will look into this for me. (Thanks Graham - and Terry!)

Il nome suo nessun saprà... e noi dovrem, ahimè, morir, morir!

Hands up how many Hallé Choir ladies still have those words imprinted on their brains, years after we were last asked to sing them? (Translation is roughly "no-one will know his name, and we, alas, must die". Now you know.)

If this means nothing to you, I should explain that we used to do the Classical Spectacular every year, and Nessun Dorma was always on the programme, and that line is the only line that the choir sing, and we always had to do it with no lights on us, so we had to memorise it. Some ladies found the words impossible to remember and had various strategies for getting round this, mainly involving luminous marker pens!

I mention all of this because, in case you haven't seen the news, Luciano Pavarotti died today. (There's all sorts of information about him on Wikipedia, of course, in case you're interested. I also saw an interesting description about how Nessun Dorma came to be a football anthem, and Thomas Allen describing what it was like to work with Pavarotti.)

I wanted to remind you all to watch the Proms highlights on BBC1 later tonight, when the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra from Venezuela was due to be featured, but when I looked up the link I found that it's not on any more - it's been replaced with a Pavarotti programme. Pavarotti shared my birthday, so I've always felt a bit of a connection with him, but I wish they'd picked a different timeslot to show his tribute! That's just me being unreasonable, though, because he does deserve a tribute, and the Proms slot is the obvious one. Plus, it looks as if the Proms thing is being shown next Thursday night instead. I'll try to remind you then.

Choir started back last night after a gap of what seems like several years, and it was good to see everyone - and to sing properly again! We did a couple of the Sibelius a cappella songs (one about a fire on an island, and one about a surly fellow with a boat (!) - the rest of the Sibelius hasn't been given out yet) - very easy, although we haven't attempted the Finnish yet - and also revisited Komm Jesu Komm, which we'll be doing in a memorial concert in a few weeks' time. (No word yet on what else is in that concert.) Next week is sectionals (on Brahms and Holst) with Fanny and David, and a look at more of the Sibelius, if the music's arrived by then; the week after is Verdi with David Lawrence. It's no longer an official open rehearsal, but guests are still welcome. The following week, Schola Cantorum are back from China, and it's all hands to the pump for the memorial concert.

Oh, and we were pleased to learn that a to-be-confirmed a cappella gig has been added to our diary for 27th April, so that we can perform some of the stuff we did at the choir weekend, together with maybe a with-organ version of the Harty piece which we're doing with the orchestra a few days later. (My online schedule has been updated to include everything I've just said.)

Finally... Schoenberg's Friede auf Erden was mentioned again last night, so some of you may like to know that the mp3 that I put online last time it came up is still there. Plus, anyone who still hasn't got a recording of Komm Jesu Komm... that's still online too. But if anyone's got (or gets) a recording of any of the Sibelius stuff, I'd appreciate some mp3s (and I'll put them online for everyone else, unless you ask me not to) because I still don't have a job, so I'm broker than ever so iTunes is not an option!

El Sistema

Have you all been watching the Proms? I love the fact that the combination of BBC4 and Sky+ means that I can see all the ones that are televised (which is not all, but lots of them) without having to remember. This year's season has definitely been the one I've enjoyed watching the most. I was disappointed, though, that the one involving the Hallé wasn't on TV, but at least we saw Mark conducting the National Youth Orchestra. However, neither of those was my favourite. I know a few people who were looking forward to the one with Rhapsody in Blue with an additional jazz trio, but it left me a bit unmoved. Mind you, I wasn't exactly looking forward to it - it would be more accurate to say that I was intrigued to see how it would work, but I expected to hate it. This is because although I have no problem with improvisation in general, I get very uncomfortable when things that I know really well are changed slightly. As it turned out it wasn't as bad as I'd feared - they played most of the piece 'properly', and interspersed improvised bits. The only bits that I didn't like were those where the jazz trio altered the really well-known bits - boring of me, I know, but there you are!

My favourite Prom until a few days ago was from the very first weekend of the festival - in fact I heard part of it on my way home from the last day of the choir weekend. Seems ages ago now! It was a concert that on paper sounds extremely unlikely to have ever happened - it featured Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the English Baroque Soloists, the Monterverdi Choir, a load of soloists... plus a South African string ensemble and a load of French and South African dancers... performing Rameau! I'd love to know whose idea it was in the first place, and how it came about. [EDIT: This Telegraph story gives some idea.] But however it happened, it was fabulous - just full of joy from beginning to end. Well, I assume it was - I only actually saw the last fifteen minutes, and was annoyed that I missed the rest, because it was so wonderful. Particular highlights were the tenor soloist who sang brilliantly while dancers whirled round him (you'd have to see it to see how impressive he was - sadly I don't know which of the listed soloists he was), and the very cute little boy who brough the house down when he appeared to lift the ballerina with the false nose :-)

I raved about this concert for weeks to anyone who would listen, and didn't expect to see a more enjoyable one this year. But then last Sunday (19th) there was one that I enjoyed far more - so much so that I actually cried with joy, and I can't remember the last time I did that. (Well, actually, yes I can - it was while reading Harry Potter 7!) It was the one featuring the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela, which is the pinnacle of a music education system whose correct full title is "Fundación del Estado para el Sistema de Orquesta Juvenil e Infantil de Venezuela", but is usually just called "El Sistema" for short. Now, I'd already seen Proms featuring the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain (under Mark) and the European Union Youth Orchestra (under Sir Colin Davis), but I think the Venezuelan one was better, and I just hadn't expected that. I knew nothing about them before this concert, but when I looked them up afterwards I found that not only had there been all sorts of articles about them, but many of these articles were on websites that I read every day! I even remembered reading some of them, but I just hadn't realised how very good the orchestra actually is until I'd seen them, so the articles didn't stick in my mind.

I'll link to some of the articles (and reviews) in a second, but first I must explain why I loved this concert so much. Many reasons!

• All the music was fabulous in its own right, even if it wasn't a conventional programme by any means... and given the pieces that were played, I doubt most orchestras would have played them in the order this one did. They started with Shostakovich 10, just as a bit of a light warmup (ha!) before a second half that started with Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story and ended with some Latin American music by composers I'd never heard of.

• The orchestra was absolutely huge, and sounded amazing. This is particularly impressive given the background of the kids who are in it (see later). All the section leaders who played solos were excellent, but I think my favourite was the principal horn, if only because he had the best grin when he took his bow! The strings, in particular, had a gorgeously rich sound; the brass were just spectacular; the woodwind were full of individual character yet blended beautifully too; and the extremely energetic percussion section raised the excitement level several notches higher.

• The conductor - Gustavo Dudamel - is only 26 years old, and he was the most enthusiastic conductor I've ever seen. (Simon Rattle describes him as "the most astonishingly gifted conductor I've ever come across". He also says "If anyone asked me where anything really important is happening for the future of classical music, I would simply say here in Venezuela.") Not only was he extremely competent and enthusiastic, but he also had two more good points: he didn't wear one of those awful black smocks that all the top conductors these days seem to love so much, and when he was receiving applause, he didn't stand on his podium but in the middle of the orchestra with his arms round the players.

• I'm never seen an orchestra enjoy themselves so much. They were clearly having a whale of a time the whole way through, but when it came to the encores they took it to a whole new level: they all (including the conductor) put on jackets made out of the Venezuelan flag, and they added movement to their performance! They stamped their feet, held their instruments in the air, did Mexican waves while taking applause... the double bass players twirled their instruments... then, not to be outdone, so did the trumpeters. They swayed in their seats. They stood up and danced WHILE STILL PLAYING. And throughout all this they SMILED. It was great :-)

I believe the second half of the concert is to be shown on BBC1 at some point (it hasn't been on yet, and it's not in the listings for the next week), and I'm sure BBC4 will repeat the whole thing eventually (which would be great, because if you don't see them playing the Shostakovich in the first half, you won't realise how good they really are). But if you want to see what I'm talking about, someone has helpfully put my favourite encore on YouTube. Not great picture quality, but it'll give you the idea. And if you're quick you can still catch the whole concert on Radio 3's Listen Again, but of course you won't be able to see the twirling trumpets there...

In case you want a second opinion, here are lots of reviews, many of which have many pictures: a lengthy one from Londonist that captures the atmosphere brilliantly; one from Alan Coady's blog; one from the Intermezzo blog; a 5-star one from the Guardian; a 5-star one from the Times (strictly this is a review of the orchestra's Edinburgh gig a few days earlier, but it was the same programme); a 5-star one from the Independent; one from the FT; and finally one from the Telegraph that suggests it was the "greatest Prom of all time". EDIT: Here's a review by Rob at "Eine Kleine Nichtmusik" which tends to agree! Again, this is of the Edinburgh gig, but he watched it again on TV when they did it in London.

If you're interested in background info on the orchestra and the conductor, here's a Guardian article from last November; a Times article from this February; an Observer article from last month; an Independent article from earlier this month; and another Independent article from a few days ago. (I should point out, in fairness, that there are some people who don't entirely agree with all this euphoria - see On An Overgrown Path for some food for thought.)

Most importantly, though, make sure that if you didn't see this concert when it was on BBC4, that you move heaven and earth to see it if it's ever repeated, or at least catch the second half on BBC1 (presumably soon). And in the meantime pray that we all eventually get the chance to see them live!