Concert cancelled due to waterlogged pitch

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

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

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

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

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

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

From Barbara: Songs of Praise with subtitles.

A possible reason for vocal problems - too many bones!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mind... the gap

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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