Polly put the kettle on

There's a bit in the Mahler 8 alto part that I've had on the brain for the past few hours. I think of it as "the Polly Put The Kettle On bit", and I don't think I've ever sung it correctly before tonight, but I practised it on the bus on the way to choir (in my head, in case you're wondering!) and I can do it now. It's just two bars, of which the first is "Polly put the kettle on", and the second is a kind of warped version of "Polly put the kettle on" in which Mahler deliberately changed every note just slightly, but in such a way as to make the resulting bar as difficult as possible. Evil man.

The only other thing I have to report this week (it's not been the most exciting of weeks!) is that I gave a one-off singing lesson to a soprano a few days ago. She was very late, and just when I was amusing myself thinking "typical soprano, they're ALWAYS late", she called to say she was lost. I nearly got the giggles at that point, because I couldn't help thinking that if she'd been flat as well, she'd have embodied all the main soprano characteristics in one go! (Sorry, sops, I couldn't resist that! I love you really!)

By way of a change, I'm going to start my links with a few videos. The first one was mentioned by Graham in the comments last week: a large barbershop chorus singing Seventy-Six Trombones. Do watch the whole thing - it's absolutely wonderful, especially the end.

Here's another one that will make you smile - several people have emailed this to me: Elderly Couple Plays Piano Duet.

The Bridgewater Hall website has a set of three fascinating chats between the two Manchester music directors, who discuss the whole Mahler series in detail. I discovered all sorts of interesting things from these videos.

Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir has completed its second project, and if you were impressed by their version of "Sleep", you'll be blown away by Lux Aurumque. This is my favourite of his works anyway, but the quality of this performance is unbelievably high given how they did it. (Read Eric's description of the process - it's a lot more complicated (and musical!) than what they did for "Sleep".) Also, we get to see Eric himself in this one, and I think he's quite pretty :-)

That's all the videos. What else? Well, I'm sorry I couldn't witness this, but a trombonist was planning to play a duet with a RIVER the other day. I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else - I'm hoping to find a recording eventually though!

Guy Garvey (from Elbow) writes in the Guardian about how albums are still important in these days of single-track downloads.

Oliver Condy, in the BBC Music Magazine, wonders whether London needs quite as many orchestras as it currently has.

Chris Rowbury (From the Front of the Choir) analyses the factors that make live performance different from rehearsal.

As with many things, I found this while I was looking for something else: something called the Complete Vocal Institute, which describes the four vocal modes. I'm mainly fascinated by this because I thought I knew quite a bit about singing, but most of the information on this page is completely alien to me, and I don't know how much of it to believe! I plan to ask Maggie to explain it to me :-)

Sad but true: an American high school banned an INSTRUMENTAL version of "Ave Maria" from a graduation ceremony, because it's too religious. *boggle*

Via Intermezzo, the chief exec of the London Phil tells the Times how it was possible for his orchestra to be defrauded of millions of pounds.

Also from Intermezzo: Aretha Franklin is singing opera. And from the same source: news of a Chorus Festival on the South Bank at the start of May. Some interesting ideas there - I'll be interested to find out what reception they get!

I'm a huge fan of Shazam, which is great for identifying music on the radio or during TV programmes. That only works with recorded music, though, and it's much less reliable for classical music, because the main information it uses is the beat, and there isn't always a clear and/or regular beat in classical stuff. However, the other day I heard about SoundHound, which allegedly works even if you sing or hum stuff into the phone. I haven't tried it, though, because it's not free - can anyone with an iPhone who HAS tried it let me know whether or not it actually works as well as Shazam?

I was in the Central Library today, wandering round trying to memorise everything about it (most of it closes next week). I love that place so much - I'll be very sad if it loses its character during the renovations. The Manchizzle agrees with me, but I'm mainly mentioning their post because it has a photo of the Social Sciences room - my favourite bit of the library. And I'm ashamed to say that today is the first time I'd ever really paid attention to the details of that room, and noticed that there is a quotation round the edge of the ceiling. I looked it up and found that it's from the Book of Proverbs: "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee." I really hope that's still there when the library reopens! But in the meantime, the library has set up a Flickr page for people to put up photos of the library. I haven't looked through them all yet, but if they're all as good as the ones on the first page, I will be delighted. And I'm even more delighted that I realised (if somewhat belatedly) why they're calling this project "Get Wisdom" :-)

What will you be doing at 8.30pm this Saturday? Can you do it in the dark? If you can, you should, because it's Earth Hour.

I've seen a few people raving about this recently: FutureMe gives you the chance to send an email to your future self. I might try it if I can think of anything inspiring to say, but my mind's a bit blank at the moment!

Merlin Mann pleads with everyone to take computer backups seriously. The details in that article might be a bit too technical for some people, but the message is important enough that I wanted to mention it: if you've never backed up the important (i.e. irreplaceable) data on your computer, YOU SHOULD! And if you HAVE done it, but not for ages, go and do it again RIGHT NOW. Always assume that your computer could die at any time, and if (when!) it does, you will have lost all the work you've done (and photos you've taken, etc.) since the last time you backed up. If that's not a problem for you, you don't need to bother with backups. Otherwise... you really, really do.

A friend pointed this out to me today: the London Review of Books personal ads. There is no way I can describe them effectively - just go and look!

And finally, if you're a bit of a drama queen (or king), you may find this button useful....