"If you DON'T praise his holy name, then we'll go into D minor, people, and it will be BAD."

It feels like much longer since I've updated here than it actually is. Sorry if it feels that way to you too!

Vaughan Williams is now a long-distant memory, because for the last couple of weeks it's been all Mendelssohn. (Incidentally, I'd forgotten how short Mendelssohn's life was - he died when he was 38.) I really like this piece, quite apart from its personal significance for me (being, as previously mentioned, the first thing I ever sang with the choir). It's a huge sing, though, and it'll be interesting to see whether any voices collapse under the strain, particularly as we're performing it more times than we do most things (we're doing this in Manchester, and at the Royal Albert Hall in the Proms, and in Valencia). My favourite bit is still the 4-part men's chord at the start of "The Night is Departing", but there are lots of other good bits too.

Last week we had a great rehearsal in which we sight-read through the whole thing. I love rehearsals like that (so much so that I gave up my ticket for that night's United game) but that's mainly because I love sight-reading. And yes, even though I have sung it before, it did feel like sight-reading... but bear in mind that it's over 15 years since I last sang it, and last time it was in English and this time it isn't, so there is no muscle memory (if indeed muscle memory works after 15 years!) On the whole the sight-reading was pretty successful - I do think most of the choir are getting better at this. (It occurred to me the other night that there's an easy way to tell - just from watching - who the best sight-readers are in any choir. Just wait for a page turn. There are still many singers (in all choirs) who only turn the page at the moment the music actually REACHES the end of the page. The good sight-readers will have turned several bars earlier.)

This week we didn't do the whole thing, but concentrated on some of the harder bits. There was also a ladies' sectional at which I'd expected we'd do the section where the men don't sing and the ladies are in 4 parts, but we didn't. I'd also expected we'd do the Planets, but we only spent 5 minutes reading through it at the end. Lots of people (who presumably hadn't done it before) seemed quite bemused by it, but I'm sure they'll find it easy enough once they've worked out which line to sing. The sectional was great fun though, as usual. I think it's because there are always far fewer people there than at the Wednesday rehearsals, so the atmosphere is much more intimate.

(They used to always alternate the sectional nights, so that people who have a regular commitment on a particular night, as so many of the choir do, don't always miss out. But recently all the ladies' sectionals have been on Thursdays and all the men's have been on Tuesdays, so any ladies who have to be elsewhere on a Thursday won't have been able to come to any of them. And it's been a pain when I've been trying to schedule rehearsals for my band, because Thursdays are the only nights none of us has any other regular commitment, so we usually rehearse on Thursdays, but since four of us sing in the choir we've found it extremely difficult to fit rehearsals in this year so far, due to the number of choir commitments on Thursdays.) (And even after we HAVE agreed dates, things keep happening to prevent us rehearsing as planned, due to people being ill or having to go into work. There are seven of us and we've NEVER yet had a rehearsal with more than five! One day...)

Anyway, at this week's ladies' sectional, we not only made lots of progress on the hard bits of the Mendelssohn, we were also treated to a one-man performance of My Evaline. (I recognised the tune but didn't know its name - I had to ask. It's from the Yale Songbook, a.k.a. "Songs of Yale", used by the Yale Glee Club.) Why? Because there's a bit in Mendelssohn 2 that is similar to a bit of "My Evaline"! There was also a bit of discussion of the Andrews Sisters (for those who've never heard them, their most famous song is probably Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, and there's a documentary about them on BBC4 at 9pm this Friday.). I love rehearsals like that! (And I realise I've now said that about two totally different types of rehearsal - well, I love both types!)

The other choir-related excitement this week was that I've spent quite a bit of time fine-tuning the details of our get-to-Valencia-by-train plan. In the next day or two the tickets will go on sale for the Paris to Barcelona leg of the journey, so I wanted to be sure that we know exactly what we're doing, and at what time, and how long we need for each connection. The plan is now thoroughly worked out, and all we have to do is buy the tickets. I think I'm actually looking forward to the journey more than the concert - well, we'll be doing the same concert at least twice in other locations, but this journey will be a one-off! (In case you're wondering, it will cost about £240 total for each of us - £220 if we stay with friends in London on the Sunday night on the way back and take advantage of the cheap fares on the Monday.)

Anyway, I have a few links to share from the last week or two.

At Sydney Opera House they had a dawn concert for the victims of the Australian bush fires. There is a clip on the BBC news site, although it cuts out just as the choir is about to sing - if anyone finds a link to more of it, please let me know!

Meanwhile, at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, they performed an opera in the bar after a power cut in the auditorium.

ACDA (the American Choral Directors' Association) has its own YouTube channel, where you can view lots of videos of choral performances. I've only looked at a few - please let me know if you discover one that you think everyone needs to see. (Thanks to ChoralBlog for alerting me to this.)

Here's a fascinating article about the technical aspects of a project to bring live opera to cyberspace.

From the front of the choir has had a great series of posts recently about "preparing to sing", but the one I found most interesting was the one that explained exactly why physical warmups are so important.

The Really Terrible Orchestra is having problems with other orchestras using its name. I'm very amused by this article: "Their CDs come with complimentary earplugs and their music is bereft of C sharps because it is a note that their principal bassoonist has never mastered." "Sometimes the orchestras' efforts are so excruciating that the conductor will stop a performance to offer his apologies to the audience." "“It does not matter that on more than one occasion members of the orchestra have been discovered to be playing different pieces of music by different composers, at the same time. We are The Really Terrible Orchestra and we shall go on and on.”

A nice story from the MEN about a member of the Youth Choir.

There is a new(ish) band called Fleet Foxes, and I just love their singing. Read this review of a concert they did in London this week. I would REALLY like to hear them live. (More reviews of their gig by The Times, the Financial Times and the Independent.)

Talking of London concerts, the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela will be at the South Bank Centre for a week in April. (That's these people, in case you'd forgotten.) I think it was only announced a few days ago, but already all the tickets are almost gone. That's someone else I'd love to see live, particularly as they're doing (amongst other things) Concerto for Orchestra and The Rite of Spring, two of the most exciting pieces there are. (Their conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, has been in London this week conducting the Philharmonia, to rave reviews (Guardian, Times, FT.))

By way of contrast, there's someone who decided to go for a month without music and blog about it.

In the news yesterday: doctors are planning to do voice box transplants. I'm intrigued by this, mainly because I can't help wondering what effect this would have on the singing voice. The article doesn't mention this question, but I hope some scientist is poised to investigate!

In the news today: well, not really news, but further mention of the prevalence of drinking problems in orchestras. I'd be very surprised indeed if it transpired that this was a problem that affected OUR orchestra, but I'd love to know which orchestras they're talking about in the article.

Non-musical stuff: the Big Picture has a great series of photos from this year's Carnival in Rio.

A date for your diary: Saturday 28th March (8.30-9.30pm) is Earth Hour. Get ready to turn your lights out.

I'm fascinated by Twitscoop - a constantly-changing summary of what people are talking about RIGHT NOW, taken from millions of Twitter posts.

And finally - apparently cats are fascinated by this spider, but I haven't been able to get either of mine to look at the screen for long enough to notice it!

EDIT: I almost forgot... the forthcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince film (due for release on 17th July) has a new official website, where you can see a trailer and hear the new version of the theme tune. Over four months to go and I'm ridiculously excited!