I have loads of things to say about today, but I must start with the Vendee Globe because I didn't quite get to it before. (Sorry if you're sick of me going on about it!) If you've forgotten what I'm talking about, see towards the end of this post for a brief description which includes my reasons for cheering on two competitors in particular, and then updates in just about every post since then. Well, this week the race finally made it (briefly) onto the front page of the BBC News website - but not for the reason I'd expected! One of the competitors broke his leg - a big deal when you're alone on a boat EIGHT HUNDRED MILES from land - and what finally made the BBC take notice of the race was not actually this fact, but the fact that one of the British racers was asked to go and help him.
But even then, all the reports are misleading - Sam Davies didn't rescue Yann Elies, and it was never likely that she would. There was another competitor who was far nearer than her, and he was the one who threw supplies to the injured man and kept him company until the Australian Navy got there. Sam was only asked to head that way for moral support until the Navy arrived, but they got there faster than expected and she never actually got anywhere near the injured man. She and the other competitor who helped out have not even been disadvantaged in the race - they are to receive a time credit.
I'm telling you all this because I'm annoyed that THIS was the story that made it onto the front page, when what they SHOULD have been telling everyone is WHAT HAPPENED TO MIKE GOLDING. You may recall that Mike Golding and Alex Thomson were the two competitors I was rooting for, because of all the bad luck they've had in the past. You may also recall that Alex Thomson's curse struck again and he had to retire from the race a few days after the start. And if you've REALLY been paying attention, you'll know that last time I updated you, Mike Golding was in second place. Well... early last week he finally took the lead for the first time... and only THREE HOURS LATER, his boat was dismasted! I'm distraught - but I doubt I'm as distraught as he is. Another FOUR YEARS before he can try again! And I bet he's even angrier when he finds that the media were more interested in reporting that another competitor set off to provide moral support to a friend! (Well, he seems like a level-headed guy, so he'll probably take it in his stride. But I'm furious on his behalf!)
Anyway, there are several British sailors still in the race, of whom the aforementioned Samantha Davies is currently doing best, in 8th place at the time of writing. I'll keep you updated from time to time, but both my favourites are now out. Maybe next time I won't announce I'm supporting them, I'm good at cursing people by doing that!
So, to change the subject... carol concerts! Three down, one to go (of the main choir ones, I mean) and they've been great fun so far. The silly hats are getting sillier and more numerous, and the number of fairy lights being worn by choir members is increasing. And our conductor did indeed get a selection of hats to wear today. The experience of being conducted by a man in a turkey hat is one that will stay with me for a while! (Talking of head gear, I did manage to go onstage for the first half this afternoon with a pencil in my hair, and I didn't notice until just before the interval!)
The only obvious flaw with the concerts that still needs to be rectified is that Petroc Trelawny didn't have a silly hat to wear! I'm sure someone will find a solution to this problem :-) I've been quite impressed with him so far, actually. He sounds (unsurprisingly) as if he actually knows what he's talking about, and more importantly he hasn't just made exactly the same introductions, read from a card, like some presenters do - it sounds much more natural. I must admit I'd expected him to be possibly a bit boring, but he's not!
I'm thrilled that the march from The Nutcracker is on the programme, but it occurred to me that it's the only time I've been disappointed that the orchestra is arranged in their customary formation with all the violins at the front (1sts on the conductor's left, 2nds on his right) and the violas and cellos in the middle. The Nutcracker march has a rising scale that moves all the way through the strings, and with an orchestra that's arranged in the traditional way (cellos on the conductor's right, etc.) it produces a great visual effect, with all the bows moving a bit like a Mexican wave! This visual effect is lost with the cellos in the middle. Still sounds great though!
I just tried - and failed - to find something on YouTube to show you what I mean. But I did find a copy of the full orchestral score, and it seems that the strings don't actually do quite what I thought they did! The bit I'm talking about appears for the first time on page 12 - letter F - and it ALMOST does what I thought it did, but the 1st violins have a rogue phrase that breaks the visual pattern! I must have been so entranced last time I actually saw an orchestra play this that I didn't notice...
Talking of visual patterns... Last week I sang in a carol service, helping out a friend's choir. I hadn't been to a rehearsal for it, but most of the stuff was very familiar, and the stuff that wasn't was easy enough to sight-read. However, there was one carol that I'd never heard of before, by a composer I'd never heard of before. I've already forgotten both the title and the composer's name (although the title might have started with "Sleep"...) but it was one of those carols in which there are quite a few verses, and all the lyrics after verse 1 are printed at the bottom of the page, miles from the music. Not too much of a problem for those singing the tune, but I was amused, at the time, at the thought of anyone filming the faces of altos singing a piece like this... very good for the eye muscles, though, moving up and down the page so much! I was reminded of this by As With Gladness Men Of Old, which is on the programme for our current concerts. The alto part consists of repeated Ds for 90% of the time, but I don't know the song well enough to remember when it's not D, so the rapid eye movement sets in!
You know how last night I was trying to decide on my favourite moments of the current carol concerts? Well, there are two more contenders that I can't believe I forgot. One is the tuned sleighbells in Mozart's Sleigh Ride. Anyone who knows me well knows that sleighbells are absolutely my favourite thing about Christmas (I spent quite a while searching for a good picture of some sleighbells to put on my home-made Christmas cards, and I generally carry sleighbells in my pocket for at least a month or so before Christmas, merely because it amuses me so much!), so having TWO Sleigh Rides in the same concert, PLUS Jingle, Bells is fabulous. I'd always found Mozart's version quite tame compared to Leroy Anderson's - and it is, really - but this year I've realised how much I like it. Partly this is due to the trumpet part (very simple, yet very difficult due to its height, and played absolutely perfectly, as usual, by Gareth), but mainly it's the tuned sleighbells. For once I'm sitting in a seat from which I can see all the percussion players, and I love watching them play this in particular (there are three sleighbell players, with five sets of bells between them). (Very blurred photo of the sleighbell tray below - the large brown thing in the middle of all the sleighbells is a set of antlers...)
Tonight was even better. First of all, this was the moment when our conductor was persuaded to conduct wearing a turkey on his head. This was hilarious - I could go into more detail but you probably had to be there! Then, Ric (one of the percussionists) put the antlers on, and they kept falling down his face. This made us giggle rather more than it probably should have. But the funniest part - which is still making me giggle now, thinking about it - was when the audience were jingling their keys etc. to help out with the sleighbells part. The dreamy look on our conductor's face while he conducted them - well, I don't know why it was so funny, it just was!
Leroy Anderson's Sleigh RIde was of course the first encore as it always is (there was an outcry the year they didn't play it!) and it was as wonderful as ever. The concert, years ago, when Dave the Whip Guy (aka Principal Percussionist) tricked some of the choir into clapping by pretending to crack the whip in the wrong place - well, that's still my funniest memory EVER, which is unlikely to be repeated because these days everyone claps all the way through. (It was the look in his face that amused me the most!) But the Sleigh Ride encore is still the highlight of my Christmas every year. Tonight's version was the best of the three so far, because the brass stood up in the jazzy bit, which we'd been hoping they would :-)
But I must mention the drum solos. In The Twelve Days of Christmas, our conductor had the idea that in the last verse, just after the words "on the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me", there should be a drum solo before the words "twelve drummers drumming". The instruction - to Dave the Whip Guy - was something like "play a bit of a cadenza, something different every night, and end with a roll". Well, Dave the Whip Guy needed no further encouragement! At the first concert, he was quite restrained - he played a fairly standard marching-band-type drum solo, although it was possibly longer than the conductor had envisioned, because he brought us in while it was still going on...
This afternoon, at the twelfth day of Christmas, Dave started to play the side drum part from Bolero. This was funny in itself, but it was even funnier when the flute player joined in with the tune. Again, the conductor thought he'd better call a halt to this and finish the carol (I have no doubt that the orchestra would have played all 15 minutes of Bolero if no-one stopped them!) but by that point we'd all forgotten what key we were in. I now know (because I just looked it up) that Bolero is in C major, but at the time I was too fascinated by what was going on to think about my next note, so by the time I had to sing it, it was too late! Oh well - we recovered within a bar or two....
Tonight, it was even better. Dave had enlisted the rest of the percussion section AND the brass, and at the twelfth day of Christmas they played the 20th Century Fox fanfare! Sadly the conductor continued the carol before we got the chance to find out whether or not the violins would have played their bit, but it was still fabulous. And this time we managed to come in on the right note afterwards!
I am DYING to find out what they've planned for Tuesday night....
Other stuff: Our lovely Dr Liz finally had a good day, after some unpleasant ones she's had lately. She received a surprise proposal, which she has accepted!
Alison and I walked round the city centre for a while after last night's concert (there was an hour before our train) admiring pretty reflections in puddles and windows. We both took loads of photos but mine are all too blurry to be any good - she was using a proper camera, so hers should be better. I'll put some up here when I can get copies from her. But next time it's been raining, if you're anywhere near the Wheel at night, have a look around you - there are some amazing reflections in all the surrounding glass and puddles.
We also heard a really good busker on Deansgate (outside Kendals). It was a sax player - this used to be rare, but saxophonist buskers are all over the place these days. But not only was this one really good, he played tunes I was surprised to hear from a busker. It was Darth Vader's theme from The Empire Strikes Back that first caught my attention, but then he followed it up with the much lesser-known Princess Leia's theme, and then the theme from Back to the Future! I was very impressed - if I'd had any money, I would have given him all of it!
Today, between the two concerts, I spent a while wandering all over the city centre trying to find anywhere that sells second class stamps (turns out you can only buy them from a post office these days - and yes, I did go to Spring Gardens, but the stamp machine was out of order), and when I was in St Ann's Square I caught the very end of a performance by the Pantonic All-Stars Steel Orchestra. They sounded rather good, and I was disappointed not to have heard more of them. (I've only ever played in a steel band once, a VERY long time ago, and it was great fun - I'd love to do that again sometime!)
Someone asked me the other day what one of the words in Hymn to the Virgin meant, and I couldn't remember, but I think I claimed that lots of the words are flower-related. Now I've looked it up, this turns out to have been a bit of an exaggeration! I'm too out of practice with Latin to translate it confidently myself, but a bit of googling produced this translation, which mentions flowers far less than I thought :-)
While we're doing text files, I found my Christmas lyrics quiz that I created a few years ago. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might have seen this before, but if you haven't and you fancy a bit of distraction, here are the questions and here are the answers.
And, in case anyone wanted it, here's the text of A Visit from St. Nicholas. I've been meaning for ages to learn the names of all Santa's reindeer, for quiz purposes - now I have no excuse!
Finally, a couple more random links! Germaine Greer has a lot to say about didgeridoos (all of it interesting). And, via From the Front of the Choir, a Guardian article about vocal harmony.
And, last but not least, Manchester will have official fireworks for the first time in nine years!
1 comment:
Good luck for tonight - hope all goes well ( My money's on the beginning of the Thieving Magpie tonight!) I will think of you when I'm singing along to the Swiss Sally Army.
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