Don’t spend your time just lookin’ around for something you want that can’t be found

I've got The Bare Necessities on the brain, which is probably just as well since I'm trying to memorise it. (If any other members of my choir are having trouble getting it to stick, there is an mp3 on my download page that might help. I recorded it at tonight's rehearsal.) We finished the last three rehearsals with it (and that's in quite a short time - there have been MANY rehearsals in the past week). I think that's one reason why I've come away feeling as if I've enjoyed these rehearsals a lot more than some of the previous ones, but actually almost all the music we're singing at the moment is fun to do.

The wedding on Saturday (at which six of us sang an a cappella "I Was Glad" and Bruckner's "Ave Maria") went very well, although the priest got a bit confused and actually forgot to do the wedding vows - he'd done the next bit of the mass before he realised, and had to go back! Although he might have decided to ignore the order of service - it had dozens of mistakes in it. Most of them were very minor, but among the more significant errors were: the fact that it said we were going to sing "Amazing Grace" in addition to our other three songs (this was a total invention on the part of the printer as far as I can tell!); the spelling of "hymn" as "hymm"; and (my favourite) "deliver us FOR evil" (instead of FROM evil) in the Lord's Prayer. Changes the message somewhat!

Popstar to Operastar finished on Friday, and Darius won, although only by a very narrow margin (the votes are here if you're interested). You can see all the performances from all six weeks on the official website, or download mp3s of them (in a handy zip file) from my my download page. I thoroughly enjoyed the series (although there were many things about it that annoyed me) and it actually inspired me to practise! I don't do that often enough!

I was telling Ralph on Sunday about Eric Whitacre's blog, which is always interesting. Specifically, you may be interested in the post where he had an idea about an internet performance of "Sleep", and the post where he shares the surprisingly successful results of this idea. (Read the posts in between to find out how he solved the logistical problems - it's all interesting.) He's currently in the middle of another similar project, this time involving my favourite work of his, "Lux Aurumque". (I would LOVE to sing that.)

The Mahler in Manchester series is almost halfway through. Mahler 4 was last Thursday, conducted by the lovely Markus Stenz. The Guardian and the Times both seemed to like it - I haven't seen any other reviews yet.

I've been keeping a mental checklist of which of my "12 days of musical terminology" terms have come up in rehearsals in 2010 so far. I think I've only heard four of them actually mentioned by name, but more than that have come up in the music, even if they weren't pointed out at the time! For those of you who missed the series, here are links to the posts, with notes to say where the current examples are:

1. Dominant pedal - there's a sort-of dominant pedal in the Rachmaninov, in the 2nd bass part on the last line (all the repeated Gs). It's only "sort of" because although it seems fairly clear to me that the music IS in C major at that point (so that the G is the dominant), the piece actually ends on a G major chord, so you could argue that it's in G major. (You'd be wrong, though!)
2. Hemiola - I was about to admit defeat on this one, until I remembered bars 60 and 61 of "Faire is the Heaven" \o/
3. Suspension - "Lay a garland" has a suspension in just about every bar.
4. Ornaments - the Schubert has a few ornaments in the soprano part, although most of them are turns, which I didn't specifically write about.
5. Diminished chords - if you ignore the 2nd bass note, there's a great diminished chord in bar 11 of the Bruckner, but there are several in the Mahler too.
6. Neapolitan chords - the sf in the fourth bar of figure 41 in the Mahler feels like a Neapolitan, and sounds like one too, until you realise that the basses of the orchestra are all playing a B. Close enough, though.
7. Melisma - all the music we're doing has lots of these, but the Bainton has some particularly good examples, e.g. soprano five bars from the end.
8. Antiphonal - I already mentioned "I was glad" in the original post.
9. False relation - "Hear My Prayer" has loads of these, e.g. 1st soprano in bar 4.
10. Whole tone scale - soprano part (choir 2) three bars before figure 88 in the Mahler.
11. Recapitulation - Mahler 8, figure 15 in Part 1 (and other places too, but that was the one that was mentioned in rehearsal).
12. Fugue - none of the a cappella pieces are long enough to have a proper recapitulation, and the same goes for fugues, so it's Mahler again. Although there isn't a fugue in the strictest sense, the second half of part 1 (from figure 38 to the end of the movement) is often described as a double fugue.

(Next time you hear any of these twelve terms mentioned by a conductor, you will realise why I have a slightly smug grin on my face!)

Talking of me feeling slightly smug, at tonight's rehearsal it was decided that the 1st sopranos were drowning out the 2nds, and some of them were asked to move across so that there were equal numbers. However, there were (as usual) more than three times as many 1st altos as 2nds, but none of THEM were asked to move \o/

Anyway, a few links. Gareth Malone's next TV project sees him being an opera chorus master for a youth opera at Glyndebourne, and the Spectator has a great article describing what's been going on.

Hakan Hardenberger was busking outside the Bridgewater Hall on Tuesday, as publicity for his concert with the BBC Phil this Saturday.

On an Overgrown Path has a nice article about the death of St Francis of Assisi, who apparently died singing. I never knew that! It's a lovely story - do go and read it.

Here's another lovely story - I have no idea whether or not it's true, but I'm choosing to believe it is. It's called The Night I Met Einstein, and describes how Einstein encouraged a stranger to listen to Bach.

BBC News has a feature about the current popularity of the ukulele, and Tom Service talks about bagpipes.

Via ChoralNet, Jeffrey Tucker describes five great things about polyphony. I like this post - all five things are obvious when you think about them, but I hadn't really thought about them! (Scroll down a bit - there are a load of links at the top of the page that make it look as if there's no story there, but there is.)

Londonist and the Guardian report that seven out of ten Brits "said they'd like a Nessun Dorma-style theme tune for London 2012, played by a British orchestra". They're asking for suggestions - anyone have any?

BBC News tells us that teaching stroke patients to sing "rewires" their brains, helping them recover their speech.

I missed any mention of this at the time, but I would have loved to have been at this concert: Ex Cathedra celebrated their 40th anniversary by performing not just Spem in Alium, but a concert FILLED with 40-part choral works!

Here's a short but intriguing Spectator article about how to pronounce "Wednesday", and related topics!

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that there was part of an episode of "Shameless" set in the foyer of William Hulme's Grammar School. Well, the most recent episode took place partly in the WHGS car park and on the roof of one of the buildings. It was on E4 on Tuesday, but won't be on Channel 4 till next Tuesday night, after which you'll be able to watch it online. (It's not there yet - it's episode 6.) The scene in question is again right at the end of the episode - in the last ten minutes.

More Manchester news: it seems that this year there will be a big Manchester Day Parade! Hands up who never knew there was a Manchester Day? Yeah, me too. But the parade is on Sunday 20th June, and the theme is "Out of this World". If you want to get involved, here's the official website.

The MEN has a fascinating article about tunnels under the city centre.

I enjoyed the recent BBC series of The Virtual Revolution (which I think you can still watch via iPlayer - you should, it's very good), so I took the test on their website (it's HARD!) to find out what sort of web animal I am. I was a bit put out at first to be told I was a web elephant, until I realised that it wasn't entirely bad - I like to think I'm fast at doing stuff online, but the test results suggest I'm slower than I thought, but that it's because I'm thorough. Have a look at the descriptions and see what you think you are, then try taking the test!

And finally, it's rare that a week goes by without me discovering a new clever thing that Google can do. This week: the Winter Olympics on Google Maps. Great fun to play with! (Oh, and by the way, I'd never heard of skeleton or ski cross before a week ago, but now I'm a huge fan of both, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm just sad that I managed to completely miss the luge!)

Nicht schleppend

So, this Friday is the final of Popstar to Operastar, although I won't be able to watch it live as we have a sectional (on a Friday night! AND rehearsals all day Sunday! It's just as well I have no life...) Can't say I totally agree with the results so far, but I also can't say that the two finalists don't deserve to be there. It's between Bernie Nolan and Darius Campbell, and I imagine Bernie will win, but I've been wrong several times so far!

On Saturday I'm singing at a wedding in Yorkshire as part of a group of six. We're doing I Was Glad (my a cappella version that I arranged for Dr Liz's wedding) and Bruckner's Ave Maria (adapted so that it can be done with six singers), as well as an a cappella arrangement of a hymn called On Eagle's Wings. We rehearsed on Monday night, so it felt really odd when the first two things that we sang in tonight's full choir rehearsal were Bruckner's Ave Maria and I Was Glad - except the proper versions! A little confusing. And it's been a while since I've sung I Was Glad without having to also sing the organ part :-)

The Mahler in Manchester series continues, and there are a few reviews of Mahler 3: Guardian, Telegraph, Times and MEN. The most interesting thing from those reviews, in my opinion, is Robert Beale's observation that "Mahler seems to have more of a male following than any other composer – at least it’s only when he’s on the menu that you get queues in the men’s loos, in my experience." Fascinating, if true!

I'm sorry to have missed Sunday's concert, which featured the lovely Jonathan Scott playing Rhapsody in Blue. It sounds as if I was one of the few members of the choir who WASN'T there! But I think it was Graham that alerted me to the Scott Brothers Duo's YouTube page - have a look at this great video of them playing the William Tell overture!

Thanks to Sheena and various others for alerting me to the fact that Janet Cardiff's Forty Part Motet sound installation is visiting Leeds until 3rd March. I saw this when it was in Liverpool a few years ago and loved it, but I thought it was now fixed in a permanent home (somewhere in Canada). There's a choral workshop too, if you want to go and sing it, on 27th February.

It's Chopin's 200th birthday soon, and Tom Service has an article about him.

Latest news about the Manchester Central Library closure, from the MEN: while the renovation is in progress, rare works will be kept deep underground in salt mines in Cheshire. There's all sorts of interesting info in that article, but the salt mines was the detail that fascinated me most!

And finally, the Big Picture has great photos of the Winter Olympics opening ceremony.

I met a strange lady, she made me nervous

I'm a bit baffled by the recent court ruling about Men at Work's song Down Under. (There's coverage of the story by BBC News, BBC Music Magazine and Tom Service in the Guardian.) What baffles me is that I remember the song very well, and from the first time I heard it I assumed that the use of the Kookaburra riff was deliberate, in order to make the song seems authentically Australian. I knew the Kookaburra song from being in the Brownies, and it never occurred to me that it might be copyright (well, obviously I'd never heard of copyright when I was in the Brownies, but I had by 1983). Bizarre.

I'm also baffled by last week's episode of Popstar to Operastar, because in a huge miscarriage of justice Danny was voted out! Shocking. Anyway, there are two episodes to go (including tonight's), and if you're curious - but not curious enough to watch a whole episode - I've put all the songs performed so far into a zip file, which you can download from my mp3 page. Each song is under two minutes long, and the whole list takes less than 45 minutes! EDIT: I just added the most recent songs, so it's 50 minutes now (for 30 songs!)

Also new on my mp3 page: songs we're doing in the a cappella concerts. Plus, in case any of you couldn't find Mahler 8 on IMSLP, I've added the scores to my page too. (The full orchestral score is only a few pages longer than the vocal score.) (Although, I imagine anyone who's a regular reader of this blog will have known all about IMSLP, because it's been near the top of my sidebar for a while now.)

I'm enjoying rehearsing Mahler 8, but I must admit I'm very grumpy that we're choir 2. I remember being a bit grumpy about it last time, but last time we split and sang both choirs, so I was only grumpy that I wasn't in the half of the choir that got all the good bits. This time NO-ONE in my choir has the good bits. I know there are good reasons for us to be choir 2, but I don't have to like them!

Finally (for now) on the Mahler series: it's Mahler 3 tomorrow (with the BBC Phil and A Choir That's Not Us) so I look forward to seeing the reviews of that. I've been watching out for reviews of Das Lied von der Erde, which the Camerata did last week, but I hadn't seen one, until Graham pointed out this glowing one from the Sunday Times which also mentions both Mahler 1 and Mahler 2.

(Which reminds me: I was quite impressed with this Guardian article by Charlotte Higgins, about the current wonderfulness of British classical music, until I realised that she'd totally omitted any mention of Mahler in Manchester, which other critics seems to agree is a very big deal!)

This will mean nothing to anyone who's not in my choir, but last week's episode of Shameless had a whole scene that took place in the foyer of William Hulme's Grammar School, in the exact place where we queue up before our rehearsals. It was this episode, and in theory you can watch it online via that page, although it didn't work for me when I tried it just now. If you do want to see, the scene in question is right near the end - in the last ten minutes, if I remember correctly. And, unlike most of the rest of the programme, it has nothing rude in it!

I really like the Puma Hardchorus video - football fans singing in harmony! I suspect there may have been a few ringers added, but it's still fun.

An interesting post from Intermezzo about how much orchestral musicians earn, followed by an even more interesting part 2.

The Spectator gives us a bit of notice of some very big musical anniversaries in 2013.

Via BoingBoing: the New York Times warns us that if you're singing karaoke in the Philippines, it's best not to choose My Way as it could get you killed.

Here's an interesting article that I found while looking for something else: the search for a notation index. I have a copy of the Barlow and Morgenstern book - I've had it for years, so I didn't realise it was out of print. But I was pleased to find that there's an online version. It's a bit easier than the book (the book requires you to transpose your tune into C major or A minor, but the online version works in any key) but it doesn't have everything - I tried it with the first choir entry of Mahler 2 (which it didn't have) and the first theme of the first movement of Mahler 2 (which it did). (What prompted the whole of this search was that I was actually looking for a tune which has been stuck in my head all week. It's NOT "We'll Gather Lilacs", although my brain seems to have convinced itself that those words go with it. I'd write it out to see whether anyone here knows it, but I'm falling asleep. Maybe I will if I haven't identified it by next week!)

Chris Rowbury at From the Front of the Choir argues that choirs shouldn't sing pop songs. I agree with SOME of his points - I've tried to comment several times to say so, but Blogger keeps eating my comments!

They're planning to fix the whistling of the Beetham Tower. I've never heard it myself, but I believe it's quite loud at times.

And there's a month-long arts festival at Zion in Hulme starting in a couple of weeks. It includes choirs in Asda's car park!

Before that, though, it's the Chinese New Year on Sunday, and there are celebrations in the city centre, including a dragon parade starting from the Town Hall at 1pm and ending with fireworks at 6pm.

If you're sick of being freezing all the time, the groundhog said last week that there'd be six more weeks of winter - bad luck.

How to be a Retronaut is a fascinating site which is best explained by getting you to go and explore it.

And finally, a video which made me smile. At first you will think it's silly, but as you watch more of it I bet it makes you smile too!

Mahler 2 reviews

I will edit this list if more appear.

EDIT: Sunday Times

EDIT: Guardian

The Times

Manchester Evening News

Nottingham Evening Post

The Classical Source

I'm not convinced any of these has captured the full wonder of the concerts. And I take exception to the one that says we NEEDED the organ to keep us in tune. Oh, and the one that claimed the Matthews was in six parts. And both the ones that implied Markus Stenz wasn't PERFECT. Foolish critics - what do they know?!?

Nottingham, last night, was just as good as Manchester. They also had just as many inconsiderate coughers. (I considered urging the powers that be to include a page in every programme about what steps to follow if you HAVE to cough (and we all do, sometimes!) The steps would be as follows:

1. WAIT FOR A LOUD BIT.

(I'm thinking it could be in a really large font size.))

Finally on Mahler 2: I mentioned the series of posts by Kenneth Woods. He did a great post last week which concentrates on one particular aspect of the symphony - the keys. And this post really fascinated me, because I hadn't realised his main fact before he pointed it out. Summary: You know the series of brass chords in the last movement, immediately after the really loud "Was vergangen auferstehen" bit? Well, that chord sequence ends in E flat major, and that's the first time we reach E flat major in the WHOLE SYMPHONY. Which may not seem like a big deal, but the point is that since the symphony is in C minor, you would expect to have gone through E flat major (the relative major of C minor) quite a few times. But Mahler deliberately goes to unexpected keys instead, and saves the E flat major for the very end of the piece. I love facts like this :-)

Anyway, the next Mahler is Mahler 8. (Remember the tickets for the open rehearsal have gone on sale today - don't miss out!) I dug out my score last night and am excited already. For those of you who don't know it, you should be aware that (unlike in Mahler 2) the choir sings ALL THE WAY THROUGH. It's double choir, and the parts split occasionally within the two choirs. There is a separate part for boys' choir as well, and a million soloists (well, eight). And although most of it is in German, the whole of the first movement is in Latin just to confuse you! And there are some REALLY tricky bits. In case you want to listen, I've put the mp3s for the whole symphony on my download page (well, I'm actually uploading them now, so if you look and they're not there yet, try again in half a hour and they will be).

A few other links:

Rolando Villazon gives a very reasonable response to the people who are criticising Popstar to Operastar. (Latest news: Danny didn't have his best week, but he's still in it, while Jimmy Osmond is out. And Marcella Detroit did, as I predicted, finally sing the Queen of the Night aria.)

I'm a bit taken aback by another reality show story: a competitor from Britain's Got Talent is filing a discrimination complaint because she has a "condition affecting her ability to hear her own singing voice". And she entered a talent contest as a singer. *boggle*

There's a show at Earls Court in which you can perform with Abba holograms.

Great post about Bruckner from the ever-wonderful BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra blog.

On an Overgrown Path tells us about the Arabian Passion.

Intermezzo brings us the shocking truth about the classical charts. And it IS shocking.

Intriguing post by John Brough on ChoralNet about possible uses of the Apple iPad in choral music.

Manchester Confidential has some more detailed (and official) information about the Manchester Central Library renovation.

Here's another story about people wearing pyjamas outside the house: Tesco doesn't like it.

You'll already be aware that the Opera North production of Ruddigore is at the Lowry at the end of this month, but you may be even more inclined to get a ticket after you see this five-star review of it.

And talking of five-star reviews, Mariza is at the Bridgewater Hall this Saturday. She's a Portuguese fado singer, and I have an album of hers which I really like. Wish I could go this weekend: look at this review of her at the Festival Hall recently!