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!