If he delight in him

More Messiah this week, plus we tried a couple of things for the carol concerts. I actually quite like the sense of panic at this time of year (you know, the "so many concerts, so little rehearsal time" thing). And, just to be clear, I do love Messiah - that is, the piece itself. I like performing it - I just hate the rehearsals for it! I could write a long list of my favourite things about the actual piece. Top of that list would be the start of the Hallelujah Chorus, IF the audience stands uninvited (I hate it when the conductor patronisingly stands them!). (I realised last night that I like this SO much that I actually get a thrill when I turn a page in my score and see that we've reached "Thou shalt break them", because I know that "Hallelujah" is next!)

Also high on my favourites would be: 2. "He trusted in God", if done properly (i.e. with a true Lucius Malfoy sneer); 3. the bass part on the last page of the Amen Chorus; 4. the chords at the beginning of "Thy rebuke"; 5. the fast bit in "But who may abide" (unless they've annoyed me by getting a countertenor instead of a female alto, which seems to happen most years now). (I have no problem with the EXISTENCE of countertenors - although I've never heard one whose voice I've really liked - but it annoys me that there are already fewer opportunities for alto soloists than sopranos, so it doesn't help if countertenors take some of them. I realise this is a bit unfair of me, but I can't help it.)

But that's all in the performance, which isn't until a week on Saturday. My favourite bit of this week's REHEARSAL was right at the end, when we sight-read a bit of the Christmas Oratorio that was new to me - I do love sight reading, and sight reading Bach is more fun than most. Hint to people who find sight reading difficult - well, I've given lots of hints before (you can download some of them from the link on the right), but the single top tip would be: LOOK AHEAD MORE. I was HUGELY amused to see that there was an alto entry immediately after a page turn, and a large number of altos didn't come in because they didn't turn their page until the first barline on the page had already happened. But then I have to admit that when I get bored in a rehearsal because it's a bit where I'm not singing, I like to watch the rest of the choir to see which people turn their pages early and which people turn very late. I find it VERY illuminating.

It turns out that the Manchester Evening News did have a review of our Nocturnes gig - they just took ages to put it on their website.

From a website I've only just discovered - Muso - here's an article about routes into conducting. It includes comments from our ex-choral director. (Pity that the Muso website doesn't seem to have any RSS feeds - that's remiss of them. It means I won't look at it unless I remember, unlike all the sites that DO have RSS feeds, so that I automatically know when they're updated.)

From Tom Service, here's an all-too-rare article about the impact that performing has on the performers.

Many of you will have heard of HC Robbins Landon. I feel slightly guilty that I hadn't actually realised he was still alive until I heard that he'd died. Anyway, Tom Service writes about him.

Talking of things I hadn't realised, another is that Elgar played the trombone - badly (and again Tom Service has more to say about this). If it hadn't been for this story, I wouldn't have paid much attention to the reviews of the recent period instrument performance of The Dream of Gerontius, featuring Elgar's own trombone. As it is, I can tell you that neither the Guardian nor the FT thought much of it, and that apparently (according to the FT review) Elgar is out of fashion in most of England.

I think I linked to a video of a "complaints choir" ages ago, but I've only just discovered that this is apparently now a worldwide phenomenon.

From The Chorister, a really great post about how upset we can get when we get a poor reaction to our singing. I can identify VERY strongly with this.

Via ChoralNet, an article about why everyone in the choir needs to attend rehearsals, however good they are.

Did you know that Halifax is now a minster town? If you've never visited the church in question, I recommend it - it's lovely.

National Geographic had a photography contest, and The Big Picture has some of the entries. Spectacular pictures.

I feel oddly angry that from December the Circle Line will no longer be a circle. (The Times is calling it a tadpole.) It just seems so wrong!

Lovers of the Yorkshire Dales will be delighted to learn that Grassington Moor and Malham Cove will both feature in the final Harry Potter films.

And, finally - I can't seem to make myself read this article properly, because it includes several words that automatically make me glaze over and start skimming, but I find myself fascinated by the table halfway down the page, which compares our use of TV to our use of the internet.