Just hear those sleighbells jingle...

I was singing Christmas songs this week, and very fun it was too. Why Christmas songs in August? Well, I've wanted to record my band's Christmas set for several years, but Christmas itself is always insanely busy and there's never time... so last year I resolved that we were going to do it in the summer. We tried to do it in July, but two of the singers were unavailable, so we rescheduled for this week. Unfortunately there was a technical problem with the minidisc recorder (the rewritable discs refused to allow themselves to be rewritten and there were no blank ones) so we'll have to try again in September! But we sang the songs anyway, and because we love those songs, I don't think anyone really minded. And in any case, we forgot the coconuts (for the reindeer hooves in Sleigh Ride) so we would have had to do it again anyway :p

(You know, it always amuses me hugely to carry sleighbells round in my bag, because when they jingle, people can never quite work out whether or not they'd really heard what they thought they did. It turns out this is a million times funnier when it happens in August... and the best bit was that people in the office suddenly started talking about booking a Christmas do, for no apparent reason. I like to think that this was caused by someone subconsciously hearing my sleighbells!)

Anyway, today I've done something I meant to do last weekend, which is to create individual printable parts for Mahler 2 (to help with the memorising). You'll be able to find your own part somewhere in this index. When you've downloaded them, theoretically your printer should print each page at the correct size, however big it appears on the screen - if your printer doesn't do this, email me and I'll see if I can help. (I've also put the Sibelius file - with all the parts on - in the same index, in case anyone wants to fiddle with it.) EDIT (Tue 26th August, 7.40 p.m.): If you downloaded any of the parts (or the score) before now, please go and do it again - I noticed a mistake which I've now corrected! FURTHER EDIT (Fri 5th Sep, 11.10 p.m.): Couple of errors in Bass 2 part corrected; Bass 2 PDF and full score Sibelius file re-uploaded.

FURTHER EDIT: Because I was asked today how to pronounce all the German text, I've now added (to the same index page mentioned above) a file containing the text of the choir bits (with most of the repetitions removed, and there are some words that some parts don't get to sing), plus an mp3 of me speaking this text. I don't claim that my pronunciation is perfect by any means, but hopefully it's close enough that if you want to you can get it in your head before you start rehearsing it, at which point everyone's vowels will turn out to be not quite German enough anyway, so you'll be ready for the final language instructions!

What else? I'm a bit shocked at the latest results of Last Choir Standing. That means that all three of the choirs that I thought were the best are now out (Sense of Sound, Last Minute and ACM Gospel Choir). Of the three that are left, I do hope Only Men Aloud win, as I think they're much better than the other two. Although, much as I've enjoyed the programme, I do think it's a pity that it's reinforced the idea that choirs can only be good (and fun) if they're performing pop songs and dancing. It would have been lovely if there had been a choir that had stood still and wowed everyone with their SINGING... we know this is possible, but sadly the general public won't, at least not as a result of this! And surely they could have done SOME classical stuff? There's been a tiny bit - one choir last week did an edited version of O Fortuna, and one this week did a piece that was based on Beethoven 9. But that's been it. There haven't even been any opera choruses!

Some other random links: The Manchester Evening News has a preview of the new musical season in Manchester. And Manchester Confidential tells us that there are plans for a Royal Opera House North. The MEN also had an article about what it's like to sing as a twin. (Has anyone heard this group? I haven't, but I'm intrigued.)

David Griggs-Janower has some interesting thoughts on the state of choral music.

The Stage has some useful tips on preparing for an audition (the story is linked to the X Factor, but the advice is good in general, I think).

A friend of mine alerted me to the existence of some very clever music software (it also has an official website). Looks like it would take all the fun out of music-making, but I mention it here just to show you what can be done to fix mistakes on recordings these days!

There's a BBC Radio 3 Pianothon in Manchester (and other venues) in October. Ever wanted to play the piano in public but not had the opportunity? Here's your chance - and you might be on the radio! If nothing else, it would make you practise...

This band name generator may amuse some of you :-)

And finally, a few recent articles about conductors by Tom Service (he's the one who's writing the book): The Abbado effect; Wagner's dog whip; and Gergiev in South Ossetia. Also an article about West Side Story and why it's not performed more often; and an interesting interview with cellist Matthew Barley (yet another person I was at school with!)

Next time: some hints on how to memorise music, for those people who say they just can't do it...