"Make more mistakes. Bach's dead. He's not gonna mind."

What a good idea, to put sight-reading hints on the choir website! Wish someone had thought of that before...

(Jamie was giving tips on how to sight-read tonight, and at one point suggested that someone should write them all down and put them on the website for reference. I couldn't decide whether to be smug because I'd already done it, or upset because no-one seemed to know I'd done it! Oh well.)

First post-Mozart rehearsal, and we started on stuff for the a cappella concerts (note to those who can't remember the spelling of that - "two words, two Ps, two Ls"). The Music Makers will form the second half, with Maggie doing the solo and the lovely Jonathan being the orchestra. Also on the programme will be one of Rachmaninov's Vespers, again with a Maggie solo, and my favourite Bach motet, Komm Jesu Komm. I've done that before, but it was a very long time ago - it was the first thing I sang with the Manchester Cathedral Cantata Choir under Stuart Beer, and I can't remember when that was, but it was at least 15 years ago.

Here are some mp3s:

Bach - Komm Jesus Komm, part 1
Bach - Komm Jesus Komm, part 2
Bach - Komm Jesus Komm, part 3
Bach - Komm Jesus Komm, part 4
Rachmaninov - Vespers, no. 2

(I'm assuming everyone has the definitive recording of The Music Makers and therefore won't need mp3s of that!)

Not many Jamieisms (although I liked the one in the title of this post). He did have us doing an amusing warmup which involved the choir split into two halves and then individual pairs, singing "nooey nooey nooey nooey nee" (half a beat apart from each other). Oh, and there was "I'm doing it so loud that the bell's ringing every time but no-one's listening!" (this followed an impression of "the man with the hammer at the fair, and the little thing that gets hit all day", and referred to his downbeats!)

I almost forgot to mention that we spent the whole rehearsal learning Komm Jesu Komm, and it was fabulous, and choir 2 was CLEARLY vastly superior to choir 1 (in terms of sight-reading and following the beat and ACTUALLY COMING IN), yet Jamie failed to acknowledge this fact! We were outraged!

P.S. They're making a Messiah musical!