I've had a busy few days, but it's been fun. Dr Liz gets married on Saturday, and I've sorted out the mini-choir for the wedding, and I'm VERY excited about it. There are six of us, and I think we sound pretty amazing! We had a rehearsal on Sunday afternoon - the first time we've met as a group, and the only rehearsal before the day - and we all had a great time. I can't wait to see what Dr Liz thinks. Oh, and one of the things we're singing is an a cappella version of "I Was Glad", which no-one really thought would work - but it does! It sounded great in Claire's front room - I'm hoping it will be even more impressive in the church acoustic.
(We'd expected to end up giggling in "I Was Glad", but we didn't - the most amusing part of the rehearsal was actually one of the other songs, in which the sopranos have to sing a harmony part most of the way through, only getting the tune in the last two bars. The first time we tried it was HILARIOUS - they were very unsure of their parts, but when it got to the final two bars, they both eagerly sang as loudly as they possibly could. It's still making me smirk thinking about it - maybe you had to be there!)
I had fun last night because a friend bought me the 4-track iPhone app as an early birthday present, so I was experimenting. At first I was discouraged because it seemed as if it wouldn't work unless I had a microphone that would connect to the phone - I have several mics, but none that would connect, so that would have been no good. But it turns out that it works brilliantly with just the built-in mic on the phone itself. The only problem, if you're using the tracks for singing, is that you need to be able to hear the OTHER tracks you've already recorded while you're recording each new track, and the only way to do this is to plug in headphones, and even then it's really difficult to hear. So tuning can easily become an issue. (Keeping the beat is no problem, because there's a metronome that you can set up, and the clicking doesn't come out on the final recording.) It'd be fine if you were playing an instrument rather than singing, but unfortunately it'll be mainly singing I'll want to use it for. But it's still useful for rough recordings. (I'll make one for you and post it, so you can see what I mean.)
I enjoyed the last episode of Gareth Malone's community choir thing, in which he organised a festival which was attended by the entire population of the town, as far as I could see. What was particularly nice was that they actually showed a performance of a full song, with no interview clips in the middle and no commentary over the top of it. It's sad that this is a remarkable occurrence, but there you go! And as a nice postscript to the series, the choir begged Gareth to stay longer than he'd planned, and he agreed. (They have a website too.) There's a nice article by Norman Lebrecht about the series, and another one on the Radio 3 blog.
Tom Service at the Guardian has an interesting interview with Bernard Haitink.
ENO are looking for people to take part in Messiah - but not singers or instrumentalists!
Via J-Walk blog, the strangest thing I've seen in a while: Concert Hands: "a revolutionary product that allows you to play the piano in hours". *boggle*
During last week's Kingdom rehearsal, there was some discussion of a statue I'd never heard of, so I looked it up: the Ecstasy of Saint Theresa (clearer picture here).
The Guardian brings to our attention the effect of changes in copyright law on session musicians.
The LA Phil website has a conducting game in which you can pretend you are Gustavo Dudamel. You can download it as a free app if you have an iPhone (you then conduct by waving the phone around!) - the non-phone game on the website is nowhere near as much fun, sadly.
The Manchester Camerata are doing a live synchronised concert with a group in Venice. Interesting idea. Hope it works a bit better than that time we sang in the Last Night of the Proms and we were supposed to be synchronised with the orchestra in the Albert Hall....
I'm fascinated by this: I mentioned to a friend yesterday that I was on my way to Gorton for a wedding rehearsal, and I was a bit taken aback when she immediately said "Gorton girls know all the words to songs by Chaka Khan"! Turns out this is a famous piece of graffiti that appears all over Manchester. I've never seen it myself, but I will be looking out for it from now on!
Talking of Manchester things, don't forget it's the Manchester Food and Drink Festival soon.
Did you know you can now borrow books from any library if you're a member of a different library? I like this idea. (I was in my local library today, actually, teaching my Silver Surfers class, and the librarian asked us to fill in a survey. One of the questions asked what effect my library use had had on my personal relationships, which seemed a bit of an odd thing to ask!)
I recently discovered the Rands in Repose blog, and I particularly like the article about book stalking and the one about people networking.
And finally - the always-wonderful Big Picture has some great photos of a recent dust storm in Australia. I don't think I saw this even mentioned on the news over here, but it looks like a big deal!
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Monday, September 21, 2009
Welcome to Manchester
I'm mainly posting today to correct an error in a recent post, but I couldn't resist the title! Many of you will be aware of the controversy caused by the billboard poster that appeared just after Carlos Tevez moved from City to United a few months ago. Yesterday the teams played each other at Old Trafford, and the fans unfurled a banner in reply (above), except that this one was able to mention the silverware United had won, thus rubbing in the fact that City haven't won anything since 1976 :-)
The match was very exciting indeed, and could have gone either way, but United won 4-3 in the end, courtesy of a Michael Owen goal in the 95th minute. This being the case, I expect the police will be even more worried about what might happen on Wednesday (23rd September), when both teams are at home on the same night. This is the main reason for me posting today - I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but for some reason I told you that these matches are on 23rd *October*, and they're not. (United are at home on Wednesday 30th September too.)
I watched Gareth Malone trying to teach Barber's Agnus Dei to his community choir, did you? (Oh, and later the same night he presented How a Choir Works, which was not quite as interesting as I'd hoped but DID feature a bit of our very own scratch performance of Spem in Alium, conducted by David Lawrence.) I was very unconvinced by his reasons for why this was the best thing for them to try for their FIRST EVER CLASSICAL PIECE, and he did actually seem to have doubts later on, but they did perform it, and it was better than you might think... although I got the impression that the community choir was only singing in 4 parts rather than 8. The commentary mentioned - VERY briefly - that some members of another choir joined the community choir for the performance so that all the parts could be there, but they didn't show ANY rehearsals with that happening, so it was very glossed over. Oh, and he also has a kids' community choir, and he got a few of them to join the adult choir so they could sing the very high notes that the sopranos in the adult choir were scared of, but I have no problem with that because they didn't try to hide what they were doing in THAT case. The rest of it, though... it just seems so odd that they would choose such a hard piece and then hide the full details of how they got away with it. Why not just choose something slightly easier?
Anyway, a few links.
This made me laugh a lot: a story about how a Tesco employee got in trouble over being a Jedi. The last line is my favourite.
It's a couple of days late for this year, but as a reference guide for the future, here are some hints on how to talk like a pirate.
You've probably seen all the recent fuss about how the new London tube map has no river on it (Boris is trying to get them to change it back) but here's an even simpler one.
I forgot to mention that our Gerontius recording is up for a Gramophone award.
Elbow played another Manchester gig the other day, and they think they might have set a world record for biggest backing choir.
I really, really, really, really want this, but it costs £5.99: a 4-track recorder for the iPhone!
And finally, I hadn't previously realised that there was a BBC Music Blog, but I've added it to my soundbar now I do.
Friday, September 18, 2009
These men are full of new wine
Still rehearsing The Kingdom, which I think I must be enjoying more than I expected, given that I've had bits of it on the brain all week! It's still not my favourite piece, but it does have quite a few bits I really like. Actually, I think its bittiness is possibly the main thing I don't like about it.
There was a bit of seating chaos this week - if anyone had looked at the area of the choir in which I was sitting at the end of the rehearsal, they would have wondered how on earth we ended up in the formation we did. It was a real mess! The first cause was that we started the rehearsal with the ladies in the main hall and the men in the tea room, and it was only tutti after the break, so everyone had to move seats. This always causes problems! But I think more of the problem was caused by the fact that sometimes we sit with choir 1 at the front and choir 2 at the back, and sometimes we sit in wedges so that both parts have people on the front row. Last week the seating plan told us to sit in wedges, but this week there was no indication as to how we should sit, so the 1st altos defaulted to all sitting at the front (which has been more common in the past) while the 2nd altos attempted to follow last week's instruction and sit in a wedge... and also people hadn't moved across far enough to let the basses sit in their places... so there was a huge crush in our corner, and a whole row of empty seats at the back of the 1st altos, and we were trying to get some 1sts to move there but they didn't realise, and then the rehearsal started so we all just kind of sat in a huddle. And to make matters worse, we had to stand up a few times, and lots of us 2nds are quite short, and we can't see the conductor AT ALL when we're standing up, unless we're at a venue with tiered seating.
I can't believe I wrote so much about that. It wasn't actually a huge deal!
Anyway, a few links for you. But first, please can I repeat my request from last week? Do any of you know of a swing band or big band in Manchester or Salford or Cheshire, which is accepting new members? The person who asked me is a Grade 8+ tenor sax player who is keen to find a band to play with, and I have been unable to come up with any suggestions.
The BBC Music Magazine rounded up the Proms season and said that our Mendelssohn 2 was their best new discovery.
Here's a lovely post about performing the American national anthem. I really like this.
A very interesting and detailed review - by someone who describes himself as an audiophile - of the recently-released remastered Beatles albums.
If you didn't sign up to Spotify any of the first few times I told you about it, you've missed your chance for the moment (unless you sign up for the non-free premium version). Due to hugely increased demand, they've reinstated their invite-only system, which means that for the time being you can't sign up unless you have an invite from someone who's already signed up. And before you ask, I can't give anyone an invite, presumably because I only have the free version myself. Those of you who DID sign up when I advised you to can now feel smug :-)
There are going to be ghost hunters at Chet's! I never saw a ghost when I was there, but every so often someone would insist they'd seen the Grey Lady.
There's a plan to make St Peter's Square traffic-free - hope they fix Metrolink before they do that!
The Guardian is outraged about the sacking of the guy who reads the shipping forecast - and so am I, now I've read what they say.
There are only allowed to be three days of heavy snow this winter - Calderdale Council says so.
While running my Silver Surfers courses, I've usually started by explaining to each new group how the internet works, and they're always amazed to hear about the broadband cables that run under the sea to connect continents etc. together. I've found that it's not just my silver surfer students who don't know that these exist, so you may be interested in this picture of where the cables are. (Note: when you load the page it shows you the 1999 cables - drag the slider at the bottom to show where they are in 2009.)
I like the simplicity of this: howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com.
And finally, a café in Westhoughton has been famous right across the internet this week, because of its £10 breakfast.
EDIT: Almost forgot! This weekend is the 24-hour race on the Marine Lake at Southport - 12 noon on Saturday to 12 noon on Sunday. Go and watch a bit of it if you're in the area. But, more importantly, don't forget that Saturday is International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Arrrrrgh!
There was a bit of seating chaos this week - if anyone had looked at the area of the choir in which I was sitting at the end of the rehearsal, they would have wondered how on earth we ended up in the formation we did. It was a real mess! The first cause was that we started the rehearsal with the ladies in the main hall and the men in the tea room, and it was only tutti after the break, so everyone had to move seats. This always causes problems! But I think more of the problem was caused by the fact that sometimes we sit with choir 1 at the front and choir 2 at the back, and sometimes we sit in wedges so that both parts have people on the front row. Last week the seating plan told us to sit in wedges, but this week there was no indication as to how we should sit, so the 1st altos defaulted to all sitting at the front (which has been more common in the past) while the 2nd altos attempted to follow last week's instruction and sit in a wedge... and also people hadn't moved across far enough to let the basses sit in their places... so there was a huge crush in our corner, and a whole row of empty seats at the back of the 1st altos, and we were trying to get some 1sts to move there but they didn't realise, and then the rehearsal started so we all just kind of sat in a huddle. And to make matters worse, we had to stand up a few times, and lots of us 2nds are quite short, and we can't see the conductor AT ALL when we're standing up, unless we're at a venue with tiered seating.
I can't believe I wrote so much about that. It wasn't actually a huge deal!
Anyway, a few links for you. But first, please can I repeat my request from last week? Do any of you know of a swing band or big band in Manchester or Salford or Cheshire, which is accepting new members? The person who asked me is a Grade 8+ tenor sax player who is keen to find a band to play with, and I have been unable to come up with any suggestions.
The BBC Music Magazine rounded up the Proms season and said that our Mendelssohn 2 was their best new discovery.
Here's a lovely post about performing the American national anthem. I really like this.
A very interesting and detailed review - by someone who describes himself as an audiophile - of the recently-released remastered Beatles albums.
If you didn't sign up to Spotify any of the first few times I told you about it, you've missed your chance for the moment (unless you sign up for the non-free premium version). Due to hugely increased demand, they've reinstated their invite-only system, which means that for the time being you can't sign up unless you have an invite from someone who's already signed up. And before you ask, I can't give anyone an invite, presumably because I only have the free version myself. Those of you who DID sign up when I advised you to can now feel smug :-)
There are going to be ghost hunters at Chet's! I never saw a ghost when I was there, but every so often someone would insist they'd seen the Grey Lady.
There's a plan to make St Peter's Square traffic-free - hope they fix Metrolink before they do that!
The Guardian is outraged about the sacking of the guy who reads the shipping forecast - and so am I, now I've read what they say.
There are only allowed to be three days of heavy snow this winter - Calderdale Council says so.
While running my Silver Surfers courses, I've usually started by explaining to each new group how the internet works, and they're always amazed to hear about the broadband cables that run under the sea to connect continents etc. together. I've found that it's not just my silver surfer students who don't know that these exist, so you may be interested in this picture of where the cables are. (Note: when you load the page it shows you the 1999 cables - drag the slider at the bottom to show where they are in 2009.)
I like the simplicity of this: howmanypeopleareinspacerightnow.com.
And finally, a café in Westhoughton has been famous right across the internet this week, because of its £10 breakfast.
EDIT: Almost forgot! This weekend is the 24-hour race on the Marine Lake at Southport - 12 noon on Saturday to 12 noon on Sunday. Go and watch a bit of it if you're in the area. But, more importantly, don't forget that Saturday is International Talk Like A Pirate Day! Arrrrrgh!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Seek first the Kingdom
First choir rehearsal of the new season last night, and it felt really weird. Several old friends returned, but several OTHER old friends have left. I know things have to move forward but it'll be a while before we're used to this change, I think!
In a way it's a pity it's The Kingdom that we're starting with this year, because I have to admit it's not one of my favourite pieces, although it does have some good bits. (Quick summary for those who don't know it - it's about what the apostles do after the Ascension. Longer summary here.) Lots of us bought our own copies of the score last time we did it, and I know I wasn't the only one who kept finding quotes I'd written in the margins. Here are a few of them (note: these may not mean much to you if you don't know who's being quoted - and I can't say who it is - but those who DO know who it is will smile!):
"Have you thought about that part of your body today? Why not?"
"We don't do diction here - we do words."
"Altos, this is where your chests come into their own."
"Sing the end loud, but piano."
"Gonzo chicken bit." (I have NO IDEA!)
"It shouldn't really sound like Flanders and Swann, but it does."
"In cricket they have a thing called the TFC award. It means 'thanks for coming'. Tenors, you just won it."
"Sing as if you've got a rhino horn." (a soprano suggests he means a unicorn horn) "No, I'm talking about the TYPE of horn, not the position."
"I've always wondered why 'monosyllable' has so many of them."
"Hulme Bridge bit!"
"Eddie Izzard, 2nd clarinet sketch."
("Where are we breathing?") "You know what, I was actually hoping 'never'."
"When you've got two notes together which are the same pitch, the first of which is correct and the second of which is not... I'm not sure I can help you."
"What I think you need to do is be a little more ambitious, pitch-wise."
Tonight, by way of a change, I had another rehearsal, this time for a wedding at which I'm singing (along with some other Pleiades) on Saturday. I have a bit of a curse on Pleiades rehearsals - someone is almost ALWAYS ill or unavailable at the last minute. Tonight no-one was ill, but there was an accident on the M60 which meant that the whole motorway was closed after junction 17, which is where we had to come off to pick Lindsey up. I've never seen anything like it - it took us 45 minutes to get from the start of the J17 sliproad to the far side of the J17 roundabout. The police were trying to clear the bit of motorway UNDER the roundabout by bringing traffic up the other sliproad the wrong way. This traffic was being added to an already gridlocked roundabout. Unsurprisingly a few people tried to get away by driving across the grass verges. Total chaos.
(EDIT: Turns out a minibus had overturned.)
Anyway, we were already stupidly late by the time we got to Lindsey's in Whitefield, so plan A, which was to go to Claire's in Chorlton, had to be abandoned, because there was no way to do it without crossing the motorway, and there was gridlock as far as the eye could see in every direction. So we rehearsed at Lindsey's without Claire. It'll all be fine on the day though - it's not as if Claire doesn't know the songs. Maybe one day I'll organise a rehearsal that's not cursed!
(I'm praying my curse doesn't extend to the mini-choir I'm organising for Dr Liz's wedding - the rehearsal is organised, although it took SEVEN WEEKS between the first time I asked the singers about their availability to the final confirmation! Very much looking forward to that rehearsal though - some fun arrangements to try!)
I'm still enjoying The Choir, although I would have liked to see more of how he taught them to sing in harmony and less of the ANNOYING INTERVIEWS. And I'm a bit suspicious of the fact that when he decided he didn't have enough men, and the ones he had were a bit woolly, he miraculously managed to find a load more really good ones. But while I'm mentioning the programme, I should remind you about the BBC's Sing page, which includes both The Choir and the Sing Hallelujah project. They also have a new Performing Arts Fund which may be of interest to those of you who run your own choirs. (I found out about this via A Cappella News.)
EDIT: I just looked at the Radio Times and discovered that next week Gareth wants his choir to try something classical, so they will be singing the BARBER AGNUS DEI. *boggle* Because that's an obvious, easy first piece to try.... right? I suspect they won't show much of how he actually does it!
The MEN tells us that this year's Manchester International Festival was a big hit. And also that the Opera House North thingy will be split between the Palace and the Lowry.
Talking of things moving north, the London Evening Standard points out that because most of the BBC's sports staff are moving up here, they'll have a £3 million bill getting them all back to London for the Olympics. Good planning, eh?
Here's a nice feature about the fact that it's 40 years ago this month that Chet's became a music school.
There is an interesting looking free festival in Piccadilly Gardens next weekend - Platform 4 Piccadilly. (Note: despite the name, it's not at the station.)
In other wacky Manchester news, Urbis is to be recreated as an ice sculpture. (A friend of mine works in an office that was involved in the decision as to whether or not this would happen, and he had me in tears of laughter describing their discussion about where one might obtain a jelly mould of Urbis. I can't remember now why it was so funny - I suspect you had to be there!)
Has anyone had a go at Beatles Rock Band yet? It came out on Wednesday. I don't own a Wii etc. so I'll have to wait to try it at a friend's house, but the plans to do so are already in place. Should be fun! Oh, and here's an interesting article about whether or not Guitar Hero is discouraging people from playing ACTUAL guitars.
A thought-provoking list of 50 things that are being killed by the internet.
Members of my choir may be interested to know that on 23rd September both United AND City are playing at home, and both games kick off at 8pm. Oh, and United are also at home on 30th September. (I've given up maintaining my own online schedule because I don't think anyone's looked at it in ages - if I'm wrong about that, please tell me, because it would be easy to reinstate it! - so I'll just mention football fixtures here.)
Oh, and a final question, which I was asked last week but didn't know the answer to: do any of you know of a swing band or big band in Manchester or Salford or Cheshire, which is accepting new members? The person who asked me is a Grade 8+ tenor sax player who is keen to find a band to play with.
Yet again I seem to be months behind with my email, which is a bit ridiculous considering I've also been unemployed for months and therefore at home most of the time! I do intend to try to clear the backlog soon, though, so if I owe you an email, sorry for the delay and I hope to get to you soon.
In a way it's a pity it's The Kingdom that we're starting with this year, because I have to admit it's not one of my favourite pieces, although it does have some good bits. (Quick summary for those who don't know it - it's about what the apostles do after the Ascension. Longer summary here.) Lots of us bought our own copies of the score last time we did it, and I know I wasn't the only one who kept finding quotes I'd written in the margins. Here are a few of them (note: these may not mean much to you if you don't know who's being quoted - and I can't say who it is - but those who DO know who it is will smile!):
"Have you thought about that part of your body today? Why not?"
"We don't do diction here - we do words."
"Altos, this is where your chests come into their own."
"Sing the end loud, but piano."
"Gonzo chicken bit." (I have NO IDEA!)
"It shouldn't really sound like Flanders and Swann, but it does."
"In cricket they have a thing called the TFC award. It means 'thanks for coming'. Tenors, you just won it."
"Sing as if you've got a rhino horn." (a soprano suggests he means a unicorn horn) "No, I'm talking about the TYPE of horn, not the position."
"I've always wondered why 'monosyllable' has so many of them."
"Hulme Bridge bit!"
"Eddie Izzard, 2nd clarinet sketch."
("Where are we breathing?") "You know what, I was actually hoping 'never'."
"When you've got two notes together which are the same pitch, the first of which is correct and the second of which is not... I'm not sure I can help you."
"What I think you need to do is be a little more ambitious, pitch-wise."
Tonight, by way of a change, I had another rehearsal, this time for a wedding at which I'm singing (along with some other Pleiades) on Saturday. I have a bit of a curse on Pleiades rehearsals - someone is almost ALWAYS ill or unavailable at the last minute. Tonight no-one was ill, but there was an accident on the M60 which meant that the whole motorway was closed after junction 17, which is where we had to come off to pick Lindsey up. I've never seen anything like it - it took us 45 minutes to get from the start of the J17 sliproad to the far side of the J17 roundabout. The police were trying to clear the bit of motorway UNDER the roundabout by bringing traffic up the other sliproad the wrong way. This traffic was being added to an already gridlocked roundabout. Unsurprisingly a few people tried to get away by driving across the grass verges. Total chaos.
(EDIT: Turns out a minibus had overturned.)
Anyway, we were already stupidly late by the time we got to Lindsey's in Whitefield, so plan A, which was to go to Claire's in Chorlton, had to be abandoned, because there was no way to do it without crossing the motorway, and there was gridlock as far as the eye could see in every direction. So we rehearsed at Lindsey's without Claire. It'll all be fine on the day though - it's not as if Claire doesn't know the songs. Maybe one day I'll organise a rehearsal that's not cursed!
(I'm praying my curse doesn't extend to the mini-choir I'm organising for Dr Liz's wedding - the rehearsal is organised, although it took SEVEN WEEKS between the first time I asked the singers about their availability to the final confirmation! Very much looking forward to that rehearsal though - some fun arrangements to try!)
I'm still enjoying The Choir, although I would have liked to see more of how he taught them to sing in harmony and less of the ANNOYING INTERVIEWS. And I'm a bit suspicious of the fact that when he decided he didn't have enough men, and the ones he had were a bit woolly, he miraculously managed to find a load more really good ones. But while I'm mentioning the programme, I should remind you about the BBC's Sing page, which includes both The Choir and the Sing Hallelujah project. They also have a new Performing Arts Fund which may be of interest to those of you who run your own choirs. (I found out about this via A Cappella News.)
EDIT: I just looked at the Radio Times and discovered that next week Gareth wants his choir to try something classical, so they will be singing the BARBER AGNUS DEI. *boggle* Because that's an obvious, easy first piece to try.... right? I suspect they won't show much of how he actually does it!
The MEN tells us that this year's Manchester International Festival was a big hit. And also that the Opera House North thingy will be split between the Palace and the Lowry.
Talking of things moving north, the London Evening Standard points out that because most of the BBC's sports staff are moving up here, they'll have a £3 million bill getting them all back to London for the Olympics. Good planning, eh?
Here's a nice feature about the fact that it's 40 years ago this month that Chet's became a music school.
There is an interesting looking free festival in Piccadilly Gardens next weekend - Platform 4 Piccadilly. (Note: despite the name, it's not at the station.)
In other wacky Manchester news, Urbis is to be recreated as an ice sculpture. (A friend of mine works in an office that was involved in the decision as to whether or not this would happen, and he had me in tears of laughter describing their discussion about where one might obtain a jelly mould of Urbis. I can't remember now why it was so funny - I suspect you had to be there!)
Has anyone had a go at Beatles Rock Band yet? It came out on Wednesday. I don't own a Wii etc. so I'll have to wait to try it at a friend's house, but the plans to do so are already in place. Should be fun! Oh, and here's an interesting article about whether or not Guitar Hero is discouraging people from playing ACTUAL guitars.
A thought-provoking list of 50 things that are being killed by the internet.
Members of my choir may be interested to know that on 23rd September both United AND City are playing at home, and both games kick off at 8pm. Oh, and United are also at home on 30th September. (I've given up maintaining my own online schedule because I don't think anyone's looked at it in ages - if I'm wrong about that, please tell me, because it would be easy to reinstate it! - so I'll just mention football fixtures here.)
Oh, and a final question, which I was asked last week but didn't know the answer to: do any of you know of a swing band or big band in Manchester or Salford or Cheshire, which is accepting new members? The person who asked me is a Grade 8+ tenor sax player who is keen to find a band to play with.
Yet again I seem to be months behind with my email, which is a bit ridiculous considering I've also been unemployed for months and therefore at home most of the time! I do intend to try to clear the backlog soon, though, so if I owe you an email, sorry for the delay and I hope to get to you soon.
Saturday, September 05, 2009
Big name signing for Hull!
You may remember my fascination with Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (note: that's an old post and some of the links no longer work). Well, I was upset recently to discover he'd been released by Celtic... but all is now well, because Hull City have just bought him. So we'll see him on Match of the Day!
(Talking of links not working, I've had a few problems with my online mp3s... the server on which I've always stored them belongs to a friend, who's let me use it for free as a favour. He's had some technical issues, which have meant that that server has been offline for a few months now. I'm trying to find a solution, but for the moment all my mp3s are offline, sorry. I hope to be able to get things sorted in time to give you mp3s of The Kingdom, but in the meantime you can find it on Spotify. (In theory, if you have Spotify installed, this direct link to my playlist should work. If you don't have Spotify installed, what are you waiting for?!?))
I've been very bad about updating here in the past year or two, I know. I just lost my inspiration. But I've resolved to try to improve, and the first step is to share all the links I've saved in the past month.
First and best: Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the pentatonic scale. This is the best thing EVER. It was being talked about all over the web a month ago, but although I saved the link, for some reason I didn't actually WATCH it till today. (If you're wondering where you've heard the name before, he's most famous for this song.)
Most of you are probably watching The Choir: Unsung Town. What do you think? I always get vaguely annoyed with things like this - it's all the little mini-interviews they insist on putting in, I think (e.g. when Gareth confesses that everything is a nightmare) - but I have ended up really enjoying the other Gareth Malone things despite this, so I'll stick with it.
A great post from the Bournemouth Male Voice Choir blog, about confidence in singing. It occurs to me that I'm usually pretty confident when actually singing (in a group, at least - far less so if I'm singing alone) - when I have a crisis of confidence (and I've had some big ones this year) it's always when I'm THINKING about singing.
I'm amused by this review of Die Walküre, which includes the line "The singers needed all the help they could get, but received none."
An interesting article which compares Handel to, well, all other composers.
This had been bugging me for ages - I kept hearing a particular bit of music all over the place, and had no idea what it was. I finally remembered to use Shazam while it was actually playing, and found that it is Escape by Craig Armstrong, and is from the soundtrack of the film Plunkett & Macleane. No idea how it ended up being used for so many other things.
The Royal Opera House is putting on a Twitter opera. I think this is silly. Much as I'm a fan of Twitter, I'm NOT a fan of desperate-seeming attempts to jump on bandwagons.
Did you know that there is now a Manchester Show Choir? I didn't, until yesterday. I'm intrigued by their plans for a world record attempt: "Manchester Show Choir will be attempting the Guinness World Record for the longest singing relay. We have to beat the current record of 202 singers lined up, who each sing one word of our chosen song. The song has to be performed in time and in tune! Wish us luck!" I found out about them because they are advertising for singers, by the way.
Don't know whether any of you will be interested in this, but there is an online thingy for arranging rehearsals.
I'm very much enjoying the Proms, although not that many have stood out. I have three favourites so far. Berlioz Te Deum has always been one of my favourite pieces - I did it a couple of times at school, and I think I've done it ONCE with an adult choir, but it was so long ago that I can't remember which choir or when. I would LOVE to do it again, but in the meantime I always love listening to it.
Also by Berlioz, the Symphonie funèbre et triomphale is another one I did at school, this time as an oboist, and I don't think I've ever heard it since, till this Prom. The sound was incredible - I'd love to have been in the hall for this.
My very favourite Prom, though, was definitely the Ukulele Prom. Such a pity this wasn't on TV! They gave the audience the option of bringing their own ukuleles, and a THOUSAND of them actually did! That was only a small part of it though. This prom made me laugh out loud several times - which is rare for a concert - but there were beautiful bits too. The eight players sang as well as playing ukuleles, and although it wasn't always the greatest singing ever, it didn't matter. In particular, they did several items which involved three different songs going on at the same time - very clever. Sadly it's no longer on the iPlayer, but I have it downloaded, and can put it on a CD for any choir members who are interested. (I'll put it online too when I have server access restored.)
Via ChoralNet, a useful post about vocal health.
This sounds great, although I haven't explored it yet: the sound archive of the British Library is now available online for free.
I'm sure you heard about the opera singer who fell into the orchestra pit but I couldn't resist mentioning it anyway!
And now some non-musical links:
There are plans for an interesting new building in Bangkok.
A useful site that I use quite often, but it occurred to me you might not know about it: Down for everyone or just me? The idea is that if you go to a website and it doesn't seem to be working, you can enter it onto this page to find out whether the website is REALLY not working or the problem is actually at your end.
An addictive online word game: Must Pop Words. Don't blame me if you get nothing done for the next hour, though!
I will be printing this out and framing it as soon as I have any ink: Tech Support Cheat Sheet.
Manchester Confidential has a walking trail of the city centre which visits lots of places significant to the lesbian and gay heritage of Manchester: part 1 and part 2.
Apparently the Manchester accent confuses devices using voice recognition technology.
My latest favourite Big Picture photo set: Californian wildfires.
I seem to have talked about Neil Gaiman a lot recently to various people, most of whom had never heard of him - but even if you know nothing about him, you'll be impressed by the library in his house.
And finally, Radio 4 repeated I Was a Child Prodigy last week, and the programmes are currently still on iPlayer, although not for long. I think anyone who was interested has probably heard them, but if you haven't, episode 2 is entirely about me and episode 5 has a few minutes about me too. (I do have mp3s of both episodes and will put them back online when I regain server access.)
Four days till the dawn of a new age for the choir! It'll be strange but exciting. I'll write again then.
(Talking of links not working, I've had a few problems with my online mp3s... the server on which I've always stored them belongs to a friend, who's let me use it for free as a favour. He's had some technical issues, which have meant that that server has been offline for a few months now. I'm trying to find a solution, but for the moment all my mp3s are offline, sorry. I hope to be able to get things sorted in time to give you mp3s of The Kingdom, but in the meantime you can find it on Spotify. (In theory, if you have Spotify installed, this direct link to my playlist should work. If you don't have Spotify installed, what are you waiting for?!?))
I've been very bad about updating here in the past year or two, I know. I just lost my inspiration. But I've resolved to try to improve, and the first step is to share all the links I've saved in the past month.
First and best: Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the pentatonic scale. This is the best thing EVER. It was being talked about all over the web a month ago, but although I saved the link, for some reason I didn't actually WATCH it till today. (If you're wondering where you've heard the name before, he's most famous for this song.)
Most of you are probably watching The Choir: Unsung Town. What do you think? I always get vaguely annoyed with things like this - it's all the little mini-interviews they insist on putting in, I think (e.g. when Gareth confesses that everything is a nightmare) - but I have ended up really enjoying the other Gareth Malone things despite this, so I'll stick with it.
A great post from the Bournemouth Male Voice Choir blog, about confidence in singing. It occurs to me that I'm usually pretty confident when actually singing (in a group, at least - far less so if I'm singing alone) - when I have a crisis of confidence (and I've had some big ones this year) it's always when I'm THINKING about singing.
I'm amused by this review of Die Walküre, which includes the line "The singers needed all the help they could get, but received none."
An interesting article which compares Handel to, well, all other composers.
This had been bugging me for ages - I kept hearing a particular bit of music all over the place, and had no idea what it was. I finally remembered to use Shazam while it was actually playing, and found that it is Escape by Craig Armstrong, and is from the soundtrack of the film Plunkett & Macleane. No idea how it ended up being used for so many other things.
The Royal Opera House is putting on a Twitter opera. I think this is silly. Much as I'm a fan of Twitter, I'm NOT a fan of desperate-seeming attempts to jump on bandwagons.
Did you know that there is now a Manchester Show Choir? I didn't, until yesterday. I'm intrigued by their plans for a world record attempt: "Manchester Show Choir will be attempting the Guinness World Record for the longest singing relay. We have to beat the current record of 202 singers lined up, who each sing one word of our chosen song. The song has to be performed in time and in tune! Wish us luck!" I found out about them because they are advertising for singers, by the way.
Don't know whether any of you will be interested in this, but there is an online thingy for arranging rehearsals.
I'm very much enjoying the Proms, although not that many have stood out. I have three favourites so far. Berlioz Te Deum has always been one of my favourite pieces - I did it a couple of times at school, and I think I've done it ONCE with an adult choir, but it was so long ago that I can't remember which choir or when. I would LOVE to do it again, but in the meantime I always love listening to it.
Also by Berlioz, the Symphonie funèbre et triomphale is another one I did at school, this time as an oboist, and I don't think I've ever heard it since, till this Prom. The sound was incredible - I'd love to have been in the hall for this.
My very favourite Prom, though, was definitely the Ukulele Prom. Such a pity this wasn't on TV! They gave the audience the option of bringing their own ukuleles, and a THOUSAND of them actually did! That was only a small part of it though. This prom made me laugh out loud several times - which is rare for a concert - but there were beautiful bits too. The eight players sang as well as playing ukuleles, and although it wasn't always the greatest singing ever, it didn't matter. In particular, they did several items which involved three different songs going on at the same time - very clever. Sadly it's no longer on the iPlayer, but I have it downloaded, and can put it on a CD for any choir members who are interested. (I'll put it online too when I have server access restored.)
Via ChoralNet, a useful post about vocal health.
This sounds great, although I haven't explored it yet: the sound archive of the British Library is now available online for free.
I'm sure you heard about the opera singer who fell into the orchestra pit but I couldn't resist mentioning it anyway!
And now some non-musical links:
There are plans for an interesting new building in Bangkok.
A useful site that I use quite often, but it occurred to me you might not know about it: Down for everyone or just me? The idea is that if you go to a website and it doesn't seem to be working, you can enter it onto this page to find out whether the website is REALLY not working or the problem is actually at your end.
An addictive online word game: Must Pop Words. Don't blame me if you get nothing done for the next hour, though!
I will be printing this out and framing it as soon as I have any ink: Tech Support Cheat Sheet.
Manchester Confidential has a walking trail of the city centre which visits lots of places significant to the lesbian and gay heritage of Manchester: part 1 and part 2.
Apparently the Manchester accent confuses devices using voice recognition technology.
My latest favourite Big Picture photo set: Californian wildfires.
I seem to have talked about Neil Gaiman a lot recently to various people, most of whom had never heard of him - but even if you know nothing about him, you'll be impressed by the library in his house.
And finally, Radio 4 repeated I Was a Child Prodigy last week, and the programmes are currently still on iPlayer, although not for long. I think anyone who was interested has probably heard them, but if you haven't, episode 2 is entirely about me and episode 5 has a few minutes about me too. (I do have mp3s of both episodes and will put them back online when I regain server access.)
Four days till the dawn of a new age for the choir! It'll be strange but exciting. I'll write again then.
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