"Sopranos, if you're struggling with the concept of a minim, let me tell you: it's got TWO BEATS."

Some mp3s of The Kingdom for you all:

page 1 (no choir)
page 9
page 33
page 47
page 56 (no choir)
page 63
page 76
page 108
page 124
page 139 (no choir)
page 151
page 168
page 179

Sorry for not putting those up earlier, they're quite large so I knew it would take a while. Also, I don't think much of the choir on this recording, so in order to avoid libel suits I won't tell you which choir it is (although they're a lot better these days!) I hadn't heard the recording before I bought the CD, and I can't afford to buy another one. It'll do for those of you who want to learn the notes but are unwilling to spend any money in order to do so.

(I hope we're only performing stuff next year that I already have recordings of, because it'll be a while before I can afford to buy any more CDs myself! I sold my car this week, which will save me quite a bit of regularly outgoing cash, although the cheque I got in return would've been much more help if I hadn't immediately had to spend half of it on a new computer! Eek. Anyway, I haven't run out of money YET, but it won't last much longer. I have various plans to deal with this problem, but none of them have worked yet!)

(Of course, this is the worst possible time, financially, for me to suddenly fly off to Italy for the day, but that's exactly what I'll be doing on Wednesday, for the away leg of Man Utd v AC Milan. I just couldn't resist it - the San Siro Stadium is second only to Cape Horn in my list of places-I've-always-wanted-to-visit. Long story why, but it is. I'm so excited!)

Anyway, back to choir-related news... We did most of the Poulenc on Wednesday, with the Youth Choir. I didn't see Katie, but Becky (and I was right, she is called Becky) was sitting right behind me - in fact she was supposed to be next to me, but as usual there weren't enough chairs for everone to follow the seating plan, so no-one was in quite the right place. I liked the Jamieism in the title, but my favourite one was "It's almost as if the composer wrote 'piano, slightly slower, please'..." (describing the effect of us singing a section where we're very confident except for one awkward bar). (Several people told me about one I missed on Tuesday, which was something about "paintbrushes - not those little ones, but the big fat ones you use on a wall". This was towards the end of the last movement, and was, I'm told, followed by "put the lid on on the paint tin reluctantly". I think I see what he means...)

Actually, the thing that's amused me most in the last few rehearsals has been not a Jamieism at all, but what I think of as the "comedy 1st alto moment". This is on the last page of the 3rd movement, and it's where they're supposed to sing a G but tend to sing an F sharp. The first few times we did it, they ALL sang an F sharp, but now quite a few of them have actually worked out what they SHOULD be doing. And the result is that the note now usually starts as an F sharp with a few Gs audible, followed by a huge sudden crescendo from all the people who know they're correctly singing a G and want to drag the F sharp crowd with them, followed by a dramatic slide as all the F sharp people shift to the G together. Luckily the note is 4 (slow) beats long, and now by the 3rd beat it's correct. This is progress :-)

Very sad news today about the death of Rostropovich (obituary here, and another BBC article about his life here). He was originally scheduled to appear at the RNCM cello festival, but that was cancelled (his appearance, not the festival!) when he became ill. However, I just found out that the guy who seems to be doing Svyati with us, Ivan Monighetti, was Rostropovich's last student! So it seems particularly fitting that we're doing that piece, doesn't it? I imagine it'll be a very moving occasion.

Another cello story in the news - did you hear the one about the eight cellists on the train? And a non-cello story that mentions Mark and the Hallé: free concert tickets for schoolkids. Oh, and talking of Mark, Radio 3's Artist Focus features him next week - every night (Mon-Thu) at 10.30 p.m.

You may have seen the news stories the other day about the fact that there's finally a legal song lyrics website, but I can't say I'm too impressed - the two words I tested it with did not produce the songs I know they're in... It'll be better when they've got ALL the record companies on board, but for now the illegal websites seem more likely to have songs you're actually looking for, even though there will be many errors! (I find Lyrics on Demand better than most, if you're wondering.) Actually, if you really need some accurate lyrics, you may be best just asking me - I have thousands of them on disk!

A more impressive music website I discovered this week is Music Map. Again, it's pop rather than classical, but if you're a pop music fan I think you'll enjoy playing with this.

And finally - want to be part of the world's longest canon? It involves recording yourself singing a bit of Kylie Minogue's "I believe in you" and sending it to the Scala Choir. (You may not have heard of them before, but they're fairly famous online - they do great choral cover versions of pop songs. Have a listen to clips from their latest album if you want to know what they sound like.)

I'm pretty sure the other one is called Becky

I went sailing tonight, as I usually do on Mondays, at Hollingworth Lake. But this time one of the Youth Choir altos was there too! I recognised her immediately - at least I thought it was her, but when she didn't recognise *me* I thought maybe I was mistaken. But when I was dismantling my boat at the end she asked me if I was in the Hallé Choir. I was delighted, because she is one of the only two people in the Youth Choir whose names I always remember (because they've been in since the start), so I was just about to impress her by knowing her name, when my mind went blank! Very annoying. I was determined to remember it, but I didn't get the chance because someone else told me it was Katie while I was still thinking. Oh well. Sorry, Katie, I did know really! (She told me it's her birthday on the day of the Poulenc concert, so when people sing "happy birthday" to her, as I'm sure they will, you'll work out who I'm talking about!)

(I thought there were only two HYC people I knew the names of, but I've just remembered James the Red-Nosed Reindeer as well...)

As a matter of fact, I also went sailing during the Easter holidays, with Soprano Claire - she hadn't done it before, and we had a great time. We didn't capsize, but we did crash into a wall (my fault, I wasn't looking where we were going!) We sang some duets afterwards, and played some piano duets. The previous day I'd also played piano duets, this time with Abi - she's REALLY good (much better than me, whereas I think Claire and I are of a similar standard) so we had a bash at the piano duet arrangement of The Planets that Dr Liz bought me a couple of years ago. Unsurprisingly they're really hard, and I've never managed to get very far with them with anyone else, but Abi and I played more or less the whole thing, although some bits were rather more accurate than others!

And to complete the musical-things-I-did-while-choir-was-on-a-break, last Monday we had a Pleiades rehearsal, but we were a bit depleted, so since it was just Rachel, Alison and I, we sang ALL THE TRIOS THERE ARE. (Well, probably.) Great fun.

Lots of singing yesterday, because we had an all-day Kingdom rehearsal, and it was fabulous! Oddly enough there were no Jamieisms that I noticed, despite Jamie being back (well, unless you count "Wonderful pain!" during the warmup), but we sang most of the piece. And we sang lots of it in long sections of sight-reading, continuing for page after page even if almost everything sounded terrible. I know some people hate it when we do that, but it's SO good for improving sight-reading. And I love it!

Anyway. Ladies' sectional tomorrow, which I also love, but unfortunately I'm going to have to miss it because I'm off to Old Trafford. I've been very good and not missed any other choir things due to football, but this is a Champions' League semi-final so I can't bear to miss that!

(Oh, and ladies might like to note that there's, erm, a football match on tomorrow night. Plan your journey accordingly.)

Finally: Hallelujah Nuns. Can you imagine how much fun that must have been to rehearse? :p

He plays on the left, he plays on the riiiiight

Do you recognise that tune? I've had it on the brain for the last couple of weeks. It's called "Optimistic Voices" and is from a really famous film - but which one? Here's a slightly more complete version (with 3-part harmony), and here's the mp3 from the film soundtrack. Answer at the end of this post :-)

I suppose I should write something about this week's rehearsal, but I don't really have anything to say about it. No Jamieisms because it was Fanny. We spent the whole time on Poulenc, and I now know it a lot better than previously, but I really didn't enjoy the rehearsal at all. I think this was probably more to do with me being in a bad mood than anything else - I know there were lots of people who did enjoy it! You'd think I'd be really cheerful, having not had to go to work, and I must say that's certainly pleasant... no luck on the job-hunting though (although that's not really why I was in a bad mood), and what was particularly frustrating this week was that I found the *perfect* job, but it was in Brighton. I reckon it would be possible to do it from home and only visit Brighton occasionally, but sadly I didn't manage to persuade them of that... (I'm hoping they'll rethink that decision when they find that there's actually no-one else in the country who fits the whole of their person specification! We'll see!)

Anyway, I need to be up to go to an all-day choir rehearsal in a few hours, but I seem to still be awake, and I think I need to write a post about football chants. I've been thinking about this for ages - and yes, it is choir-related... more than you might expect!



This chant is the one that started me thinking about football chants from a choral perspective. It looks quite straightforward, doesn't it? But it amuses me every time I hear it, because the crowd NEVER finishes it in the same key in which they start! They start on roughly the same pitch each time (which in itself is fascinating, but that's not what I've been thinking about) and get through the first half of the tune with no tuning problems. But then it goes up.... and the top note in bar 6 is never anywhere near an octave above the starting note! So at that point the crowd changes key, coming down the scale from the top note they actually reached rather than the correct one, the result being that they finish a tone or two lower than they started. Do have a listen next time United are on TV, it's hilarious! (Well, I suppose it's quite possible that it's only me that's amused by this....)

What's even more fascinating, though, is that there are some songs - with octave ranges - that the crowd CAN sing in tune. And at this point I need to refer you to a whole load of examples (tell you what, if you have no interest in what I'm actually talking about, you could always use these for sight reading practice!)

Manchester United chants, sheet music: page 1, page 2, page 3

(I started by writing out the ones that illustrated my point, but then, being me, I got obsessive about it and decided I needed to write out ALL the current chants. I must say I didn't realise there WERE so many different ones in actual usage until I undertook this task, so that in itself was interesting! There are actually a few more, but I wasn't 100% certain of the words so I need to check before I add them. But all these are not only in current usage, I heard them all at Old Trafford TODAY.) (Well, I suppose strictly it's yesterday now.) (And, actually, I don't think I did hear the Ryan Giggs song, but he only played half the game and wasn't very good! But I included it anyway, because it's the one that started the whole thought process.)

Anyway, as I was saying... I find it fascinating that the crowd has such a problem with the Giggs song, because there are many other songs they sing that have a similar range, yet they stay in tune. And I've come up with a theory about why that should be - I think it might be because the tune starts on its lowest note, AND that note is the tonic. To compare, let's look at the other chants that have a range of roughly an octave. Example 2 (Mourinho) goes down to a low F and up to an E, but it starts on the dominant - a helpful pivot point of C. Example 5 (That boy Ronaldo) starts on its lowest note, but that note in this case is not the tonic but the dominant, so the mind (assuming it knows the tune) has an unconscious pivot point (the B flat) which is higher than the start note. Example 12 (You are my Solskaer) is similar (pivot note being the A).

Example 4 (Que sera sera) starts on the tonic, but in this case it's almost the highest note. It's interesting that in this case the pitch actually doesn't drop noticeably by the end of the tune - how often, in choir, does someone have a descending line in which they have to be reminded not to descend too far? If we were asked to learn "Que sera sera", I'd bet large sums of money that at some stage Jamie would demand that the second note be really high, etc. And this brings me on to my other fascination - descending minor thirds. The interval that gets mentioned more frequently than all the others combined. Just look at how many chants are based on it! Let's see - examples 3 (U-N-I-T-E-D), 6 (there's only one Ronaldo), 7 (Rooney), 8 (come on you Reds), 9 (Red army), 11 (Manchester), 13 (Ole)... Why is it that this interval seems to be the one that crowds latch onto, and seem to like to sing - and don't sing too badly - yet it's the bane of choirs' existence?

Anyway, I don't actually have answers to most of my questions, I just wanted to share with you something that's been on my mind for months! If I refine my theories I'll let you know :-)

To change the subject, I'll finish by sharing a load more links:

I found a couple more pages of choir humour. There's some duplication between the two of them, and some stuff that I already had on my website, but there are a few new bits that I think will amuse you: Rehearsal Police etc., and choir aptitude test etc. (on that second page I particularly like this sight reading test!)

I recently discovered a blog that made me cry with laughter. He's doing this thing called "Venn That Tune" - for example, this is the first one . If you don't find that one funny, there's probably no point you looking at the later ones!

Some great posts on the Singer's Life blog recently. I particularly like the one about the value of fluency in languages, but there's also part 1 and part 2 of a post about vocal warmups. Nothing too startling to those of us familiar with Maggie/Jamie warmups, but it's always useful to hear a similar message from a different person, I think, and I did enjoy the tongue-twisters :-)

Barbara points out that there are midi files on the Cyberbass site for those who need assistance with the Poulenc. I haven't tried any of them myself, but they look useful.

You may well have heard of the service that, if you ring them up and play them a song over the phone, sends you a text telling you what it is. Well, it's called Shazam, and seems very clever. Sadly it doesn't work with classical or live music, but never mind! Again, I haven't tried it - has anyone else?

Very interesting article here about a singer who developed Bell's Palsy and suddenly found that certain consonants were much harder than others.

Even more interestingly, a fabulous interview with Mark in today's Guardian. I won't spoil it by listing highlights here, but it made me raise my eyebrows a couple of times! And, talking of the Bridgewater Hall (well, I almost was...), did any of you spot it making an appearance in the last ever episode of Life on Mars? I don't think we saw the doors or name or anything, but I recognised the wall! And just in case there are any Life on Mars fans who are still trying to work out what happened, here's an interview with the writer that explains lots of stuff.

And finally, you may think that I find all this stuff because I spend too long wilfing... but in fact I hardly ever do that - if I look for something online, I tend to find it fairly quickly, but I often spot other things in the process. Also, I have a large number of sites that I check daily (mostly by RSS), and I often find other things via links from those sites. But I admit that if someone other than my cats was watching me do all this, it WOULD look rather like "wilfing" :p

(Oh, and "Optimistic Voices" is from The Wizard of Oz! It's near the end, when Dorothy is dancing down the road in sight of the Emerald City at last.)

"It's the glove compartment we're after."

"... It must be tidy. Dust-free. With a torch in it... that WORKS."

Jamie was on top form last night! I think this glove compartment quote was probably his best (it referred, if you're wondering, to the fact that many of the notes in the Poulenc are almost right, but that lots of them need tweaking). The one that made people laugh the most, though, was one that I didn't write down (mainly because he said it so fast), but it involved him imagining a conversation between the two sides of a bass's brain. (The gist was as follows... Left side: "That note was wrong!" Right side: "Yes, but we can LEARN from it!") YHTBT :-)

Also to the basses, we had "I love the fact that you disagree with one another. ... None of you are right." (Note to 1st basses: Regarding the phrase in question, if you had at any stage glanced at the alto line, you might have realised that we were singing the exact same notes as you. Might've helped!) And, to the whole choir (I forget why): "I don't want you to look like an ill-fed dog!" But my favourite Jamieism of the night didn't seem to amuse anyone else: "ATB, 2 bars before 8. Let's get some groovy harmonies on." (It was the total seriousness in which he said it that tickled me!)

We spent the whole rehearsal on the Poulenc, which is a really fun piece - I haven't done it before. I was slightly distracted by incoming (silent) texts about the United game in Rome (I'll be at the second leg, on Tuesday - should be exciting!) Thank you to those who asked how my throat was - it's still tickly, but not as bad as last week. This week it gets worse when I lie down, for some reason, which makes sleep difficult, but since I currently don't have to get up, I can cope! Thank you also to the many people who asked how it feels to be FREE! Well, it hasn't really sunk in yet - this week just feels like the first week of any school holiday, i.e. I'm catching up on all the housekeeping stuff that there's never time for in termtime, and I feel totally wiped out and am sleeping a lot. And, of course, playing lots of World of Warcraft. I haven't done much jobhunting yet (other than emailing various people to ask their advice, and scanning lots of relevant websites several times daily), but I have a bit of a breather because I still get paid till the end of April. I must step up my money-seeking efforts in the next few days though. I suspect the reality of the situation will finally sink in on 16th April, when everyone else goes back to school and I don't \o/

Anyway, no choir next week, and no Jamie the week after! (I presume he'll still be recovering from his St Endellion week.) I have various bits of non-choir singing planned in the meantime, but for now I thought I'd share a load of links with you. These have been building up for a while! So, in no particular order....

If you've ever wondered what that music from the Lloyds TSB advert is (you know, with the wordless soprano), the Boosey and Hawkes website has the answer.

I forgot to mention at the time, but there are a few photos from before the Ashton gig on the choir photo page. Not great, and not many, but they'll hopefully give a feel of the occasion to those who weren't there.

You may have seen recent news stories about the uproar in Japan caused by incorrect forecasts about when the cherry blossom will bloom. Here's the current official forecast, and while I'm at it I'd like to recommend that you all read Hokkaido Highway Blues, which is one of those books that you'd probably never consider reading unless someone gave you a copy, but it's absolutely fascinating. Plus, it sheds some light on the cherry blossom story! (I've loved cherry blossom trees ever since I was at school, because there were (and probably still are) a load of them in the grounds, on the side near the Cathedral. At least I think they were cherry blossom... they might have been apple blossom... I just spent half an hour trying to find an online photo of that bit of Chet's, but I failed. I did consider going upstairs to dig out my old photo albums, but that would mean standing up!)

Talking of the Cathedral, when Alison and I passed it last night, it was surrounded by dozens of police officers and police cars. "I wonder why. Perhaps the Queen is there?" I said, and then remembered that she was! Well, not at that moment (probably), but she was certainly there today.

Oh, and while searching for photos of the Chet's grounds, I found a Wikipedia page about the emo/goth/mosher gathering place behind Urbis!

Ever heard of a chord hat? No, me neither. But I was quite intrigued by the concept. Before you watch the video, decide what you think a chord hat ought to be, and see if you were right!

Look at this weird tower they're building in Singapore! If the Beetham Tower was like that, I'm not sure I'd dare walk near it :p

They're repeating the Manchester Passion tomorrow night (Good Friday) at 7 pm on BBC3, so if you didn't see it last year, now's your chance. And then go and vote for it in this Radio Times competition!

Have any of you ever played any of the SingStar games on the PS2? I don't own a PS2 myself, but my friend Lindsey does, and a while ago she introduced me to these games. They're a bit like Donkey Konga, but with mics instead of bongos... You have to sing along to songs, through mics connected to the PS2. But although you do get the lyrics onscreen (like in karaoke), you don't get any sheet music. Instead you get a very precise display of when the tune goes up or down, and how long the notes are, and the game analyses what you sing and determines how close you are to what it thinks is the "correct" version. I beat both Lindsey's young sons quite easily (mainly because several of the songs went lower than they could sing, so they lost loads of points on the pitch), but lost to Lindsey on almost every occasion, because I was singing the songs how I thought they should go, whereas she'd played the game before and knew that following the display was more vital. (Plus she's a fabulous singer!) In a couple of songs it turned out that the part I'd always thought of as the tune was actually considered to be a harmony part, so I lost LOTS of points for singing that part, because the game considered that to be "singing off pitch". Meh. Great fun, though!

I'd always thought the longest concert ever was that Messiaen thing we did a few years ago (or did it just FEEL like the longest?) but it seems not - a new record has been set - 182 hours! That's more than a week!

Especially for Meg - a stripe generator to play with :p

Graham E emailed me about this strange piece of music he heard on Classic FM last week. It turned out to have a strange story behind it. Intriguing. Has anyone heard the CD?

Lots of interesting stuff on this Nikon website about sizes of stuff. Wait for it to load (it can take a while, even with broadband) and then click on everything!

Still the usual searches coming in all the time, but I was amused that there was one for Russian gibbon recently, and then today someone was looking for second tenors are not geeks! This made me giggle, and also caused me to investigate what the person might ACTUALLY have been looking for... which led me to an amusing song! I found the answer here, but since for some reason the author of that blog seems to think it's a good idea to have grey text on a black background, I've pasted the text here. For maximum enjoyment, listen to the mp3 before (or while) reading the lyrics, it's funnier that way!

MANLY MEN'S CHORUS EXTRAVAGANZA, composed by Kurt Knecht. Recording is of the 2002 NY All-State Men's Chorus. (The first few pages of the score are online too.)

We are men and we like to sing
In big block chords and close harmony.
Our songs all sound the same,
And most of them are really lame;
But though we may not always inspire
At least we’re not a women’s choir.

First tenors have the highest voice,
for most of us it’s not by choice
Singing still at twenty-three
Like we missed our puberty,
When our pitch turns sour
We just sing a little louder
Tight underwear’s the key
To singing a high C.

Second tenors are not geeks
We’re just first tenors with poor techniques,
But should you love us any less
Just because we crack when we try to sing an F?
We don’t sing too high and we don’t sing too low
And we’re not as arrogant as the first tenors we know
We want you to love us like the rest
Of the “Pips” and “Garfunkels” who are second best.

Baritones are by far the sexiest.
Feast your ears upon our vocal studliness.
We will sing when we’re just forty-five
With vibratos five miles wide.
If God came down and took our brains away
Then they would sing “la donna mobile.”

We are tired of root progressions,
Walking bass lines, record sessions
Where all we sing is that stupid
“dip di dip dip dah”.
We try so hard with all our mights
To sing so low we shake the lights.
We wish we had voices like
James Earl Jones or Barry White,
But we’re just human, our throats are hurting
And our low singing sounds more like burping,
But we’re the basses we keep singing, ‘cause...

We are men and we like to sing
In big block chords and close harmony.
Our songs all sound the same,
Like bad rewrites of “There is nothing like a dame”
And though our repertoire consists
Of drinking songs and sailor songs
And barbershop quartets,
We thank God every day
From our head down to our toes
That we are not sopranos or altos.
Amen.
(Or tenors).

---

And finally, an mp3 I thought I'd posted ages ago, but it seems I haven't. It's Lux Aurumque by Eric Whitacre. If you haven't heard of it, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. It was only written a few years ago (in 2000, I think), and is hugely popular in the USA, although not that many people over here seem to know it. (It's the last track on this CD.) I'd love us to sing it sometime. (The first part of the score is online here.) The title means Light of Gold, and the music depicts (at least, I'm sure I read this somewhere) heaven at night. It's very lovely. Happy Easter!

"I'm the worm. You are the blackbird. Watch me!"

(This was Jamie's instructrion to the sops in The Music Makers just before Friday's gig. It was preceded by him telling them that they should be "Like a very excited blackbird who hasn't fed for two days and has just seen a worm.")

I haven't sung as much as I would have liked to, in the last week. I've had a sore throat and a tickly cough which has been driving me up the wall. I actually had it before the Ashton gig, and I think it would probably have been sensible, in hindsight, not to sing in that, but I thought I could just about manage. It would probably also have helped if I'd cancelled my singing lesson on Tuesday, and taken some time off work so I wouldn't have to use my voice. But it was my last ever week as a teacher, so I had a huge number of loose ends to tie up. And now I'm free! Just need to work out where to get money from :p

I thought my throat was OK on Wednesday, so I went to the rehearsal (I would have done so even if I'd been ill, because I'd promised Maggie I'd provide her with the 500 Miles CD - and before you ask, it was her idea, not mine! I thought it went down very well - fun, wasn't it?) (For those who weren't there, I should probably explain that Maggie started the warmup by playing the Comic Relief song for us to do our stretches to.) I discovered after about 10 minutes, though, that I couldn't sing without coughing, so I stopped trying, and at the break I moved to sit at the back to listen. It was particularly frustrating because I *love* sight reading, and I missed the chance to do loads of it! Jamie seemed very determined to get to the end of page 123, because he finished almost 10 minutes late in order to do so, naughty man. And now I know that my sight-reading skills aren't actually as vital as people tell me they are, because the altos didn't do too badly without me! I'm a bit more enthused about The Kingdom than I was - there are some good bits. I'm looking forward to learning it.

My throat wasn't much better by Friday, but I was determined to try to make it through the concert, if only because I'd been looking forward to it for so long (singing on the day I stopped being a teacher - yay!) Typically, it was fine in the rehearsal and the first half of the concert, but as soon as the intro to The Music Makers began, the tickliness came back, and I had a really difficult time trying to hold it in until the first loud bit. I made it to the end, but not without various coughing bouts and the consumption of half a packet of Hall's Soothers. Sorry to anyone who was sitting near me and had to put up with the fidgeting.

(Does anyone know, by the way, why a tickly throat always becomes more tickly at moments when one needs to be silent and still? Is it just psychological or is there some other reason?) (And, also - is there anyone who has ever actually tried CAYENNE PEPPER to cure a sore throat? It seems a bit unlikely to me, and I'm not quite brave enough to experiment - but this page of sore throat cures suggests it's the best one!)

The concert went well, I thought, and I loved singing in the Cathedral again - it's one of my favourite buildings, and I haven't sung in there for many years. There were various hassles beforehand - a huge number of people were really, really late, which meant that the seating took absolutely ages, because Jamie arranged people and then had to keep rearranging as more people turned up and had to be accommodated. Unsurprisingly this meant that the actual rehearsal started very late indeed, which resulted in Jamie still rehearsing at gone 7.20 p.m., at which point lots of the audience were in their seats. Maybe he didn't realise. The seating was then messed up even further by at least one person (and possibly more) turning up to sing in the concert but not having been in the rehearsal. I presume this was the cause of poor Lizzy being without a seat. No-one would move for her, so she had to sit in the only seat available, which was next to me on the back row of the 2nd altos - but she's a soprano! We tried to get someone to swap with her so that she was at least on the FRONT row of the altos and hence just behind the sopranos, but the two people in those seats wouldn't swap - I'm not sure why. Maybe they didn't realise why we were asking and thought they wouldn't be able to see if they moved back. But the result was that poor Lizzy had to sing the Bach as a soloist - at least, that's how it must have felt to her, surrounded by 2nd altos. Thankfully, after the Bach we did manage to get one of the altos in front to switch with her - just as well, because in the Rachmaninov the 2nd altos spent most of it humming, so she would have stuck out even more!

Anyway, I don't seem to have any Jamieisms from Wednesday or Friday, apart from the worm/blackbird one. I did have one from the previous week, which I don't think I've quoted: "Otherwise it sounds like a lovely crust with no pie. Gentlemen, you are the pie." (This was in Svyati, and referred to the tenors at the beginning and similar bits. Which they did perfectly on Friday - yay!)

Finally, though, I wanted to mention my favourite moment of last week's rehearsal, because I forgot to do so at the time and only remembered this week. It was in the warmup, when Jamie had us arpeggiating on a chord (I think it was C major, but I could be wrong). That in itself was lovely - I like it when we do that! But then he asked us to all shift up a semitone (continuing to arpeggiate) and then down a tone, and finally back up a semitone. So the resulting chord progression went C - Db - B - C. And when the whole choir shifted from Db to B - mmmmmmmmmmmmm :-)