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 :-)
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
"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.)
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.)
Monday, September 17, 2007
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 :-(
Friday, September 14, 2007
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!
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!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
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!)
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!)
Thursday, September 06, 2007
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!
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!
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