"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!