The chance of the note being right is MASSIVELY high

The Harmonium gig went pretty well last night. It wasn't perfect, but it was probably the best we'd done it. The sopranos' tuning was much better, no-one got lost at any point (at least, that I noticed) and the altos were unbelievably good at rowing! I think my most smug moment was when we finally changed to "rowing in Eden" after several pages, and he looked at us gratefully as if to say "oops, I meant to give you a cue then, but you did it with no help!"

It was all quite a relief, because it really didn't go brilliantly on Wednesday and Thursday. Nothing dire happened, but the tuning wasn't great, and people weren't watching so we weren't together, and things that have been worked on time and time again in previous rehearsals just seemed to have gone right out the window. But hopefully this inspired people to concentrate and/or practise.

Anyway, I look forward to hearing it on the radio on 20th November. Particularly the bit with the bells! That was really magical.



Next up: Messiah, and carols. Oh, and a visit this week from a guy who's going to "revoice" us. No idea how that will work or what it will involve, but I'm intrigued. In the meantime, a few links!

I'm very jealous of the Youth Choir people who got to sing in Manchester Cathedral with Elbow recently. The concert is no longer on iPlayer, but here's the MEN review, and the Manchester Confidential one has a set list, plus photos and video clips. And the BBC News site has an interesting article about pop music in sacred surroundings, prompted by the Elbow gig.

I'm sure most of you saw the first programme in the Symphony series on Thursday night, starring our own music director. It's on iPlayer if you missed it. There's a related recent Guardian article in which the man himself chooses five symphonies that changed music. What I found even more interesting, though, was that the BBC Music Magazine's current issue invites nine leading conductors to name the nine symphonies that inspire them most – one chooses his finest First, the next his finest Second and so on. In conjunction with this, some of the magazine's own staff have attempted to choose their nine favourites themselves: Jeremy Pound, Elizabeth Davis and Rebecca Franks. I tried to choose my own and found it very difficult – for some of the nine, I can think of several contenders that I can't choose between, whereas for others there isn't a single one that I'd claim is a particular favourite! So far I've got down to these:

1st: ?
2nd: Mahler (but I considered Mendelssohn and Elgar)
3rd: Mahler
4th: ?
5th: Beethoven (but Sibelius is a very close runner-up, and Tchaikovsky was also in the running)
6th: ?
7th: Beethoven (but I'm not entirely happy with this – it's mainly here because of the slow movement)
8th: Beethoven (only narrowly beating Mahler)
9th: Dvorak (but Beethoven came close)

Of course, it doesn't help that all the Mozart and Haydn ones I know and love have numbers far higher than 9! What would you choose?

There have been several reports recently in the Guardian about the possible closure of the UK's biggest music and drama lending library, which is in Wakefield. Here's the initial story, a further report highlighting the impact the closure would have on amateur music-makers, and a "cautiously optimistic" report on the outcome of the relevant meeting.

You've probably heard, in the past, that the Bee Gees song Stayin' Alive is the perfect speed for performing CPR, but this intriguing BBC report examines whether or not it's actually useful for first-aiders – and, if not, what other songs might fit the bill.

Stephen Hough has a new piano practice tip: this one stretches and contracts the fingers alternately.

A few weeks ago, I heard a cello and guitar duo playing live on Radio 3. Their sound was absolutely gorgeous, but I was fascinated to learn that the guitar in question was actually a Brahms guitar, and even more fascinated to learn that it was invented and popularised by my friend Paul Galbraith! (Well, I haven't actually been in touch with him in many years, so I suppose I can't really call him a friend... but he was in my class at school, and I think we were the only two people to take German O-level early – I certainly remember us wandering through Manchester together one day, on our way back to school after going somewhere or other to do our German oral exam. I'm pretty sure he'd remember me!) Anyway, there's a lot more info about the Brahms guitar on Paul's website, but annoyingly I can't remember who the duet was that I heard on the radio, or I'd recommend them to you!

Something that annoys me intensely is that when the word 'ironic' is mentioned, there's often someone around who chimes in "And of course the irony about the Alanis Morissette song is that it's not ironic at all!" ... which is mostly true, but the part that annoys me is that I'm pretty sure that if I were to ask these people to explain what the word 'ironic' actually does mean, they wouldn't be able to – they're only saying this because they've heard someone else say it. Anyway, if you are now realising that actually you can't explain the word, this page will help.

I haven't tried this yet, but I definitely plan to: how to make banana ice cream with NO INGREDIENTS OTHER THAN BANANAS.

And finally: I haven't seen the film of Sherlock Holmes (starring Robert Downey Jr), but it looks like the sort of thing I would enjoy. I have seen the recent BBC version (starring Benedict Cumberbatch). But I was very, very amused by this Guardian not-entirely-serious comparison of the two versions.

Too much cake!

"Surely such a thing can't be possible!" I hear you cry. But it turns out it can. It was my birthday a couple of weeks ago, so I took lots of cakes (and wine) to the rehearsal, as is the tradition with many of the altos. That night, however, there were free cupcakes in the tea room to celebrate our latest award, so we all had several of those as well as the cakes I'd brought. Even so, there were quite a few cakes left, and it took almost a week for me to finish them off at home!

We've been working hard at Harmonium for the last couple of months, and it's definitely coming together (which is just as well, because the concert is a week on Saturday). The third movement still causes everyone (well, the altos and basses, at least) to groan when it's announced, because it's just painful, although it's not quite as bad since I stopped trying to do all the top B flats. I can do the Gs and A flats at the start, and even the occasional B flat if it's just a brief one, but there's one bar in which there's a gap and then a top B flat, and that's just a bridge too far for me. Every time I tried it, it just hurt from that point onwards. But now I've given up and am dropping down the octave at that point, and it's OK. (There are an awful lot of people not even trying any of the notes at the right octave, which is fair enough if they tried it and it hurt, but I do worry that the choir won't be loud enough as a result. It's the composer's fault, though. What on earth was he thinking?!?)

At least the painful bit is only the first minute or two of the third movement - the rest of it is fine. Even the bit with all the fast words, which Alison and I learned in the car on the way to choir a few weeks ago (it was quite easy once we worked out the pattern of the "with thee with thee with with" bit) and which has been stuck in my head since. The "rowing" bit is quite satisfying, because it takes a lot of concentration not to get lost, and we haven't got lost yet (unlike some of the other parts who are doing less repetitive things!) I'm still convinced that a large number of altos who are supposed to be singing the alto 3 part are actually singing alto 4 with me, mind you, but hopefully they'll realise eventually! (I can't actually hear anyone singing the alto 3 part from where I'm sitting, although I can hear altos 1 and 2, who are much further away.)

The second movement still gives me more of a sore throat than the third movement, surprisingly, given that I mainly have to sing "ooh" on a fairly low note, but it was much better after I asked Maggie for advice and she suggested putting the vowels further forward. (Ten years ago, I would have had no idea how to do that, so I must have made some progress!) And I really like the first movement, although I may have to individually shoot the 1st sops if they don't go home and practise until they can actually come in on a D rather than an E – you had an excuse the first week, ladies, but it's been pointed out every week since!

I've done quite a bit of singing outside choir lately. In September I sang at a party in Staffordshire for Amy's parents, in a group consisting of three members of our choir and three members of the CBSO Chorus. That was a fun (and interesting) experience, although it was a bit depressing hearing about all the foreign trips they do! I'm very jealous! And I had a rehearsal with my band last week at which – for only the second time this year – everyone was present, which meant we could sing all our 6-part a cappella stuff. Great fun, and I thought we sounded pretty good.

I'm also doing a bit of work at the moment at a local high school - running their choir, and doing the vocal coaching for their school musical, amongst other things. The musical is Guys and Dolls, and is on in early December, and I'm really looking forward to it – the kids who are in it are great. I'm really enjoying working with the choir, too, and a couple of weeks ago they performed in a "Last Night of the Proms" concert, supporting one of the school's brass bands. We sang the usual stuff (and I sang, too, because the organiser was more bothered about volume than appearances on this occasion!) but it was not in the usual keys, as is often the case with brass band music. Jerusalem and Rule Britannia weren't too bad, being in D flat and A flat respectively, but Land of Hope and Glory was in E flat (try it – it's a terrible key to sing it in!) although at least it was in B flat in the coda. The evening overran by about an hour due to encores etc., but since I was being paid by the hour that suited me just fine!

Anyway, let's see what links I've got for you. In no particular order:

Classical Iconoclast has a 2011 Proms post-mortem. And, talking of the Proms, Daniel Barenboim will conduct an entire Beethoven symphony cycle in next year's Proms – pity we will have beaten him to it!

BBC News tells us that people who play musical instruments throughout their life have better hearing in old age.

The Daily Mail had an article about Lincoln Cathedral appointing a female chorister. Some interesting points are made, but I can't quite agree that the situation is 'tragic'.

There have been loads of articles about the copyright term being extended from fifty to seventy years, so I'll just mention a couple: one of many articles in the Guardian explains quite clearly why this change is becoming known as 'Cliff's Law', and a record company executive gives his point of view.

I think I mentioned a while ago that the London Philharmonic Orchestra was due to record the national anthems for every country in next year's Olympics. Well, they've done it. The bit I find most surprising is that they had only twelve minutes per anthem allocated for sight-reading and recording! The sight-reading should be straightforward enough, but we know what recording engineers are like...

Elbow are doing a concert in Manchester Cathedral this Thursday, featuring our own Youth Choir. The tickets were snapped up ages ago, I think, but it's being broadcast live on Radio 2.

Here's an interesting post from the BBC News website, regarding Adele's vocal problems, which have caused her to cancel several concerts.

Tom Service went to the last of this year's Limelight nights in London (their tagline is 'classical music in a rock'n'roll setting) and loved it. It sounds fabulous - I'd really like to go to one of those events sometime.

I'm very amused by this: apparently someone booked some professional opera singers for their wedding reception, and they made the guests feel physically sick!

I'd never realised before that The Sound of Music has never been performed in Salzburg, and many Austrians can't sing a note of it. This BBC News article reports that this is about to be fixed, and includes several fascinating details that had previously passed me by.

Another piano practice tip from Stephen Hough: when playing a passage in which the hands are an octave apart, practise with them two octaves apart.

I haven't been to MediaCityUK yet, but I might have to fix that soon, because I want to see the giant singing sculpture, and it's only there till 14th November.

Did you know about the new Chopin statue on Deansgate? Manchester Confidential has all the info.

No doubt you've heard the recent news about our orchestra being forced to drop its claim to be the UK's longest-established permanent professional orchestra. Here's the story from the BBC, the MEN, the Guardian and the Telegraph.

NASA has released downloadable versions of lots of their iconic sound clips. So, if you want 'Houston, we have a problem' as your ringtone, now's your chance.

This intrigues me: apparently there are people who believe wireless communication is making them physically ill, and they are hiding in the mountains to avoid it.

I knew most of the things in this BBC article about natural direction-finding, but I hadn't realised that satellite dishes all point south-east.

Also, I didn't know that the national flag of the Philippines changes according to whether the country is at war or not.

And finally, the mathematicians among you will smile at this.

Hoo-wild-ah!

We started a new season of rehearsals this week. Our first concert isn't until 5th November, and we'll be singing Harmonium by John Adams, which is a work that's totally unfamiliar to me, and probably to most of the choir. I wasn't expecting to like it very much, but I've listened to it a few times and I actually like it a lot! It reminds me quite a bit of the soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi by Philip Glass, which I've always loved. (It looks as if Harmonium preceded Koyaanisqatsi by a year or two, but they were both written round about the same time - in the early 80s - so I don't know whether or not Philip Glass would have heard Harmonium before he started Koyaanisqatsi.) If you want mp3s of it, you can download them from my page here.

The notes aren't very difficult, but the rhythms will take a lot of work to get right, so it's probably just as well that we don't have anything else to work on for the next two months. And the various different ways in which the choir has to be divided only add to the fun! We all arrived to find a list of all the singers stuck to the door, with everyone allocated to a lettered group. Then, inside the hall, there was a very complicated (and colour-coded) seating plan, showing where each group was supposed to sit. There was lots of confusion. But the thing that amused me most all evening was connected to this.

I was in group K (as are many, but not all, of the 2nd altos), and was sitting right on the end of the back row. There were several empty seats immediately in front of me, so when Judy arrived slightly late, she rushed in, spotted that there were seats among the 2nd altos, and sat in one of them. I leaned forward and explained to her that she needed to check which group she was in etc., so she went back outside, found that she was indeed in group K, and came back to sit in the seat she'd originally taken. Shortly afterwards, Sue (who's a 1st alto) arrived, saw that the only currently accessible empty seats were among the 2nd altos (i.e. next to Judy), and sat there, presumably planning to move later. Judy smiled welcomingly at her and said "Are you a K?" to which Sue grinned back and said "Fine, thanks!" *giggle* I very much enjoyed explaining to Sue what Judy had actually said :-)

We had a very clear list of printed instructions telling us which group was singing which line at which point, so I did what I always do with a new score and went through it, to mark my line, while I was waiting for the rehearsal to start. So I felt quite smug when, partway through the rehearsal, we were given five minutes to do exactly that. I must admit that when I saw how many people hadn't already done it, I realised why so many of the choir have problems when we're sight-reading. Hint: it's a lot easier when you don't have to work out what line to look at as well as how to get your note!

I have a gig later today, actually - I'm going to the wilds of Staffordshire to sing at a party for Amy's parents. There will be six of us - three from our choir and three from the CBSO Chorus - and we have never sung together before. Everyone's had the music (and mp3s) in advance, though - we'll be singing four of my arrangements, all in six parts - and we'll be meeting a couple of hours before the party to rehearse. I'm looking forward to it - I love one-to-a-part stuff, and it's always fun to sing with competent people (well, I've never met the CBSO ones, but I'm assured they're good).

I'm sure you've all been watching and/or listening to the Proms, as I have, although I haven't caught as many this year as I did last year. There hasn't really been one so far that bowled me over. I think the one I enjoyed the most was yet again the John Wilson one - such fun! But I'm a little disappointed that there hasn't been one that had the same impact on me as the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra the first time I saw them, a few years ago. I watched their Mahler 2 this season with great anticipation, and I did enjoy it, but I thought we did it a lot better last year. There have been very mixed reviews of it: the Guardian gave it five stars, but The Arts Desk wasn't quite as impressed. On an Overgrown Path was slightly baffled by the Guardian review, and then wrote a controversial post about Dudamel in general. Do read the comments on that one - fascinating, and not just because of the name-calling!

An interesting related story: did you know that the Venezuelan music system has also produced a prison orchestra?

The Last Night of the Proms is tonight, of course. I'll watch it later, because I'll be singing in Staffordshire at the time. But I'm disappointed that the Sea Songs aren't in it - I know they're not always, but it never feels like the Last Night without them. Incidentally, when I was a teenager I used to adore our own Last Night of the Proms at the Free Trade Hall, which always featured a Fantasia on North Country Tunes (specially commissioned for the occasion from Ernest Tomlinson) - I would love to hear that again! At one point they had half the audience singing "She's a Lassie from Lancashire" while the other half sang "My Girl's a Yorkshire Girl". The tunes clashed horribly but it was great fun. And I vividly remember galloping down the aisle to "Blaydon Races" with my friend. (They had proper promenaders' tickets - i.e. standing - but we stood at the back of the stalls rather than the front. However, as the night wore on there were more and more moments in which we promenaders danced round the hall - I loved it!)

But my reason for mentioning the Last Night is that there's a world premiere in the first half, and it features a part for the promenaders... and if you want to join in from home, here's a page that tells you how.

And another participation opportunity: they are looking for a thousand volunteer drummers to take part in the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics next year. No experience required. How much fun would that be?!?

Other links I have saved, in no particular order.... On an Overgrown Path has a list of actual fees charged by a few top musicians.

Classical Iconoclast has an intriguing article about BBC's safety advice to its orchestras, but the BBC (unsurprisingly) has a much more detailed (and informative) report on the Radio 3 blog.

An even more intriguing article from the same source: Mongolian Throat Singing Wars. I think that's the best title I've heard in ages :-)

I have Nigel Kennedy's Bach prom recorded but I haven't watched it yet. But he's been quite outspoken about the fact that (according to him) lots of musicians can't play Bach properly.

This will be a big story, but the New York Times explains it better than I ever could: US copyright law is in upheaval, because songwriters who had hits in 1978 can now reclaim their rights to their own songs from the record companies.

A related story: this Guardian article explains the bizarre world of topline melody writing, and the legal problems caused by this.

Here's a sad story about the impact that the recent London riots had on the Manchester independent music scene.

Speaking of the riots, it seems like they happened ages ago now (to me, at least), yet it was only a month (9th August). I was in the city centre that afternoon, but the first I heard of any trouble in Manchester was just as I was setting off home. I spent that evening following the Manchester Evening News's live blog, which was very informative and updated every couple of minutes - I recommend looking at their website next time there's any ongoing local incident (although let's hope it's a more pleasant one next time!) The Greater Manchester Police Twitter feed was also very reassuring. But, if you were away from Manchester that night, this Manchester Confidential post (which includes lots of pictures, as well as real-time reports) gives a feeling of what it was like.

On a more positive note (admittedly, this was written just before the riots), here's a great Guardian article about why Manchester is amazing :-)

I did lots of volunteer work for Manchester Pride this summer, and really enjoyed it. Here's an informative Manchester Evening News article about Manchester's tradition of tolerance. And if you missed the fabulous parade, put next year's date in your diary (Saturday 25th August, 1pm) and console yourself by looking at the photos and videos from this year's parade.

On a totally different note, I know that several members of the choir are keen hillwalkers. Did you know that there aren't as many Munros as there used to be? One of the mountains is shorter than they thought!

David Mitchell's Soapbox (on the Guardian website) always amuses me, but this one - about the habit TV companies have of squashing credits into a corner of the screen so they can put a trailer in the rest of it - is particularly good. Possibly because I hate that more than you can possibly imagine.

And finally... this sounds like fun! In a couple of weeks' time, you can go to Leeds and take part in a live action game in which you will be chased through the city streets by zombies. I'm quite tempted, I must say!

Hakuna matata

Oops, it seems to be over four months since I last posted here! Sorry about that! It feels a little as if my life started all over again in March, though, and it's taken a while to get used to things. It's all good, though - things are much better than they were before March!

Needless to say I have lots of links to share with you (and I'm hoping that after this batch I'll be able to update much more often, so there won't be so many - as it is, I've deleted over a hundred links that I saved but are now outdated!) but they can wait another few minutes. Let's have a quick state-of-the-nation bit first :-)

My house was due to be repossessed at the end of February, but I managed to sell it (albeit for a very low price) just before that; the sale didn't actually go through until almost a month later, but the mortgage lender agreed to put the repossession on hold because it was definitely happening. (This seems quite nice of them, but since they hadn't been nice at any other stage I'm pretty sure it was just because they knew they'd get more money out of me overall if I sold the house myself!) I'm now living in a rented 1-bedroom flat, not far from where I lived before, and I have now paid back everyone I owe, and currently have no debts. It's a very nice feeling! It's still weird not being in the house, though - I lived there for over fifteen years, which is longer than I've lived anywhere else in my life, including the house I grew up in.

I don't have a full-time job at the moment, but I do have quite a few things that I'm doing here and there, many of which I'm being paid for! So things are looking up, finally, and I'm very much enjoying the variety of things I'm doing, as well as the fact that I still have lots of free hours in the week. The main good thing that's happened is that Wardle High School (where, some of you will recall, I used to work - it was my first job - and I've done various other things there even when I was working at other schools) asked me to run their school choir from September. As it turned out, I actually started in June, because the guy who's leaving had to leave early. They're a great group of kids, and I've been having a great time working with them. And quite a few other things have also come up at Wardle recently (e.g. playing the piano for exams), and there's a good chance there'll be more.

I also currently have four private pupils: two singers (one of whom also wants to learn music theory properly), a pianist (who again wants to learn music theory as well), and a lady who wants to learn how to use the computer her sons bought her. This last one was indirectly as a result of the Silver Surfers classes I deliver at the local library (the 12th group starts this Monday), but they actually found me by Googling me (which is how they knew I did Silver Surfers!) and I'm still getting commissions (and passive sales) of musical arrangements via my website.

I did have a 'proper job' for a while, actually - in April and May I worked as a Census Collector, and had a great time! I was one of the people who went round knocking on doors to say "according to our records you haven't returned your census form, is there a reason for that?" It was incredibly exhausting - I've never had a job before that involves walking all day! - but very interesting. The vast majority of the people I met were lovely, and I discovered lots of unfamiliar bits of the area near me.

The other thing that's taking up a lot of my time at the moment, though, is unpaid: I've been doing lots of volunteer work for Manchester Pride; mainly faffing with spreadsheets, which I love! The festival is at the end of this month, so the volunteering will end then (until next year). Which reminds me: if you've never seen the Manchester Pride Parade, put it in your diary and come and watch - it's a real spectacle! It's on Saturday 27th August, starting at 1pm outside the Science Museum, then going along Deansgate and right through the city centre to the Gay Village.

It feels like ages since I've done any singing! Let's see... We did the Spring Symphony on 14th May, which I enjoyed much more than I'd expected to. And the reviews were good: the Guardian one didn't mention the choir at all, but a couple of commenters put that right. There was also the MEN and the Telegraph. Oh, and this isn't a review, but it's very interesting: a Guardian article about Sumer is icumen in, which is always a highlight of the Spring Symphony.

The following week saw us doing Mahler 8 in York Minster. I've only seen one review of this, but the occasion was definitely fun, even if it was very different from our last Mahler 8! And then we ended our season in June with a Choral Classics concert, for which again I've only seen one review. I'm still not convinced that Henry V is a choral classic, but it was good to sing it again anyway, along with everything else!

And then there were vocal assessments, which I presume everyone's done by now - I did mine right at the start to get it out of the way (and before I forgot the things I had memorised!) Since then, I've hardly sung at all, other than recording myself for YouTube birthday presents (my most recent one was Circle of Life, which I've had on the brain since, hence my title! As usual I did it in a huge hurry and didn't have time to redo the bits where the mic was overloaded, but never mind... the person I did it for liked it.)

Talking of YouTube, did you all see the finished version of the Virtual Choir 2 video? You may recall that I recorded my bit in January, but it took them till April to mix all the contributions together. Needless to say I couldn't see myself in the finished video, but my name is on the credits, so I'm happy!

I haven't been listening to all the Proms on the radio this year - not enough time - but I've seen all the TV ones. I was a bit baffled by the Glagolitic Mass, because it was only seven years ago that we performed it - and we knew it REALLY well at the time - but I didn't remember any of it. I didn't even recognise most of it, with the exception of a couple of phrases in the middle. This is odd, because it was much longer ago that I last did the Spring Symphony, and I didn't even enjoy that last time, yet I remembered almost all of it. So why did the Glagolitic Mass leave my brain so quickly! I liked that!

Last night I watched Alexander Nevsky - which we did in 2008 - and was relieved to find it all came straight back into my head. And I loved the CBSO performance - I'd forgotten what an exciting piece it is! I'd love to do that again. And as I'm writing this I'm watching the Human Planet prom. I like some bits better than others, but I'm particularly taken with the Mongolian band. Some amazing sounds.

I really enjoyed Prom 9, featuring our favourite orchestra, so I was delighted to see that the BBC Music Magazine was bowled over by it too. And I watched the "historically-informed performance" of Mahler 9 with interest. I knew nothing about HIP until I did an OU course that examined it thoroughly, and I'm fascinated by the arguments for and against it. On the whole I think I'm more against it than for it, but I do think it's a subject worthy of consideration. Classical Iconoclast seems similarly torn, but I was intrigued by the David Hurwitz article from Classics Today, which I discovered via the Classical Iconoclast post. But I have to say that when I watched the performance (having just read that article) it didn't seem that bad. Mind you, I don't know Mahler 9, so it may well be that I would have been more horrified if I remembered ever hearing it before!

Not a Prom, but really good anyway: you'll recall Whit Friday, the brass band contest that I go on about every year? (Next year it's on 1st June, if you want to mark it in your diary now!) Well, this year was as much fun as ever, but there was one really moving thing. Last year, a spectator was killed by one of the band coaches, so this year the Brighouse & Rastrick Band played a hymn as a tribute to him. Really lovely.

Here's a few things I liked from Tom Service at the Guardian: an orchestra that doesn't use a conductor (and, also, look what he says is on his iPod); the classical work he finds the most boring (it's Pictures at an Exhibition, if you can't be bothered reading it!); and he wonders whether there's a British equivalent of Ma Vlast.

More from the Guardian: Gerard McBurney loves Wagner despite everyone telling him not to; Orlando Gough considers what problems opera singers might encounter if they try to sing pop; and lots of pop stars describe their worst ever gigs.

A few things from Stephen Hough's Telegraph blog: a tip for pianists who play chamber music; a discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of playing from memory; some tricks to help pianists play trills; some interesting thoughts about the way the arts are funded in different countries, and why some models are better than others; and a brief thing about The Girl from Ipanema.

(I always think of the same thing when I think of The Girl from Ipanema, and it always makes me grin. Years ago, I saw a stand-up comedian who talked about the song. "It says 'When she moves, it's like a samba'. Have you ever seen a samba? If she walked like that, I'm not surprised each person she passes goes 'Ahhhh!'" It was much funnier the way he told it, mind you...)

I've read a few things now about classical music clubbing, but I haven't tried it, and I doubt I ever will... although that's only because I'm not the clubbing type! But it sounds like a great idea. Londonist talks about a few places in London that do it, and the BBC Music Magazine sent someone to try one of them. And Gabriel Prokofiev (grandson of the famous Prokofiev) is heavily involved in all this - here's a Guardian interview with him (and one of his compositions is being played in tonight's Prom).

This intrigued me (which won't surprise anyone who knows me well!) - a discussion of the first chord of A Hard Day's Night. (If you can't remember exactly what it sounds like, let me refresh your memory.) (The Beatles Bible page seems a bit broken at the moment - none of the images work at the time of writing - but just scroll down to the text.)

Peter Phillips writes in the Spectator about the differences between live and recorded concerts.

I was interested to see this list of the top 30 American music colleges, mainly because there are so many there that I'd never even heard of!

From Classical Music magazine, news that Boosey & Hawkes have launched a scheme in which anyone can look at lots of their newly-published scores online. I presumed, when I heard about this, that it would be stuff no-one's ever heard of, but it's not - have a look at the list!

From Bachtrack, a blog post by one of their staff, who's recently started taking singing lessons and has been surprised by several aspects of the process.

If you get on buses or trains as often as I do, you'll probably be just as irritated as me by kids who play tinny 'music' on their phones. (Apparently this is called 'sodcasting'.) But after reading this BBC News article, I started to consider it in a different light. (It still drives me up the wall though!)

On an Overgrown Path has discovered a miracle cure for coughs in concerts. I haven't got a cough at the moment, though, so I can't test it!

I didn't see anything in the Manchester Festival, which I'm a bit ashamed about, but if I had seen anything, it would probably have been the Damon Albarn opera, Dr Dee. So I was fascinated to learn, from that BBC News article, that he lived at Chet's, and that the burn mark on the table in the Audit Room there was supposedly made by Satan when Dee summoned him. I was told when I started school there, at the age of 10, that the mark was made by the Devil, but I never knew the rest of the story till now!

Something else I never knew: Norman Lebrecht writes in the Telegraph about Mahler's connection with Manchester. (He also suggests that Manchester has been 'overtaken by Birmingham in size and by Liverpool in wit, but it ... has the chance to reassert its intellectual swagger, and rebuild a city of the mind.' I think I quite like that idea.)

On a related note, a Guardian article about how Manchester has turned itself into a brand. (It says that our three main attributes are: "Openness. Inclusivity. And a certain amount of swagger.")

This sort of thing doesn't help, although I'm sure it's not just Manchester: apparently the behaviour of drunk women at the recent Take That concerts was much worse than the behaviour of men at football matches... and most of the ones who were taken to hospital were in their 30s and 40s!

Londonist has a list of interesting but untrue facts about London.

Here's a great article that explains why anyone who accepted the statement that 'two billion people watched the royal wedding' needs to think about this a bit more.

This is very reassuring: you've probably heard of CDC (the Centres for Disease Control in the USA, based in Atlanta)? Well, they have very helpfully given some official advice on how to prepare for a zombie apocalypse.

Also related to CDC is this excellent Wired article which describes the discovery and subsequent history of AIDS. Well worth a read.

Singing uselessly all the night

I really enjoyed the Sea Drift concert, and it went pretty well (there was one point at which it wobbled slightly, I thought, but there was a quick recovery and hopefully not many people noticed). It's on the radio on Tuesday, of course, so see what you think! (I forget exactly where it was I thought it wobbled, but I think it was round about the "lapping everyone close" bit in S/A octaves.)

(Oh, and when you do listen on the radio, note that Lovely Markus Stenz is on In Tune immediately beforehand. What a brilliant bit of programming!)

The only review I've seen for the concert was the Manchester Evening News one, which doesn't go into much detail, but he did seem to like it. As did the audience member who started clapping while the conductor was still lowering his arms. (Tom Service was correct - there should be fines for that sort of thing. There was a very brief grimace on the conductor's face when it happened, but he covered it well.)

EDIT: There's now a Guardian review too.

FURTHER EDIT: Two more, one from Music Web and one from the mighty Manchester Confidential (I don't think they've ever reviewed one of our concerts before - hope they continue!)

Needless to say, I've had bits of Sea Drift on the brain since Thursday, but the rest of the time I can't stop thinking about that poor he-bird! So sad. I looked up the original Walt Whitman poem - it's a part of his Leaves of Grass collection, and the specific part is called by different names in different editions as far as I can see, but it's the section that starts "Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking". It has ten sections, and Delius uses sections 2 to 7 inclusive. I actually wanted to know what happened after the end of "Sea Drift", but after reading the poem I'm not entirely sure! I can see why Delius stopped where he did.

Anyway, next up is the Spring Symphony and a Mahler 8 repeat, in quick succession. Also, I'm moving house on Thursday, and everything is going well other than the fact that the automatic packing spell they use in Harry Potter doesn't seem to be working for me! So I'm having to do it manually, and it's VERY tiring. But it'll soon be over. Worse than that is the fact that there isn't currently a phone line in the new flat, and the earliest BT can install one is 8th April. 8th April! Which means more than two weeks with no internet and no Sky. Eek. Luckily there are public internet places these days, and the pub next door does at least show live football, and it's not as if I'll have nothing else to do, so at least the time should pass quickly.

Other news... let's see. Still lots about Japan, obviously. The one I found most interesting was a post I saw just after I posted my last entry and added belatedly, so if you read as soon as I posted you may have missed it: about Japan's functioning in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. In the same vein, here's another article that advises people NOT to donate money to Japan, and the Disasters Emergency Committee says the same thing. Food for thought.

And more pictures, of course. The BBC News site has a good set of "before and after" pictures. There are also two new sets from The Big Picture: some from last Monday and some from Tuesday.

(On Wednesday, by the way, the Big Picture took a break from Japan and printed some fabulous photos commemorating Discovery's last flight.)

I missed most of Comic Relief on Friday due to being asleep, but I wasn't too upset. However, I would have liked to have seen the mass kazoo performance, so I must watch it online at some point. (It's on Listen Again for five more days.) I do know that they broke the world record, but only just!

You'll have seen the news about the Manchester International Festival lineup, no doubt. I'm a bit sad that there's no chorus in Die Walküre, so we won't be in it directly, but it's still exciting to be peripherally involved! The thing I'd most want to see, though, is the Damon Albarn thing. It looks intriguing, and the Monkey opera was one of the best live shows I've EVER seen. And the fact that Damon's actually in this one is a bonus!

And finally, I wanted to tell you about something I actually saw over a month ago, but forgot to mention here until I was reminded of it the other day while I was in the Molly House watching the BBC News channel with the sound off. It's a clip from See Hear, the BBC's programme for deaf (and Deaf) viewers. I've recorded this ever since I worked at RNID, and some weeks it's more interesting (to me, anyway) than others. But I thought this clip was absolutely fascinating. It's about how they do subtitling for live news reports etc. I think most choral singers will find it as fascinating as I did (may seem odd to say that, but you'll see what I mean!) I had no idea that this is how they do it, and I'm astounded at what's actually involved. Do watch it. The full programme is half an hour, but the bit I want to show you starts at 8:38 and lasts about 10 minutes.

Kimigayo

We're almost at the end of our Sea Drift immersion - the concert is in a few days. I'm looking forward to it, and on the whole I think we know it very well. We ended this week's rehearsal like last week's, by mixing ourselves up so that no-one was next to someone else singing the same part. I suspect there are a few people who don't like it when that happens, but I love it, as do most of my choir friends. Last week I was surrounded by basses and sopranos but couldn't hear any tenors, so it was nice that this week I had tenors on both sides and behind me, with sopranos interspersed. It was lovely. (And I'm glad to report that none of the sopranos near me sang a C in that bar I whinged about last week, although there were still quite a few sops who did! Hopefully they'll fix it before the piano rehearsal. But they all sang beautifully in tune this week, which is more important.)

Most of the other news this week is Japan-related. I texted Sakura (our Japanese 2nd sop) and she says her family is safe, which is good news. (One of my friends has a brother who lives in Japan - but at the other end of the country, I think - and he didn't realise anything had happened until almost 24 hours later!)

You'll no doubt be aware that the BBC Philharmonic were on tour in Japan when the earthquake happened. (That links to the MEN article, which allows comments - I have to admit that the comments flabbergasted me in their ignorance!) They've cancelled the rest of the tour now and are coming home, but their website had already reassured everyone quite quickly that they were all safe, and before then they'd kept in touch via Twitter (which, as usual, was where I'd actually found out about the earthquake in the first place). It was also via the BBC Phil Twitter feed that I learned that Daniel Harding was there too, and he went ahead with his concert on Friday, albeit with a vastly reduced audience, but one of them had walked 4 hours across Tokyo to get there!

As usual, the Big Picture has the best photos: some from Friday itself and some from the aftermath in the next day or two. BoingBoing also has some good photos, although some of them are duplicates of the Big Picture ones. And this Time Out Tokyo blog post, written by staff who were in their office during the earthquake, is fascinating. Be sure to watch the included video of Japanese earthquake-proof skyscrapers behaving as they were designed to - i.e. swaying quite a lot!

EDIT: Just saw this: a great blog post about Japan's functioning in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake. Do read this, it's fascinating. And would never have happened in the UK, I suspect!

A few non-Japan-related links: an interesting Observer article about female composers, which mentions our new composer in residence.

An Observer interview with Antonio Pappano, mainly about Italian music in general, but I was most interested in the stuff about Va pensiero - I could probably sing the whole of that from memory, but I didn't know most of its history.

From BoingBoing, news of two scientists who claim to have found a man who's 'beat-deaf' - i.e. he is is unable to move in time to music.

A great Guardian article in which Graham Johnson (the accompanist) describes his love of Schubert's lieder and how he got to know them.

And finally, this is both very relaxing and very difficult to do: Do nothing for 2 minutes.

Blow to me

A day or two before last week's rehearsal, I finally got round to practising the bit of Sea Drift that I knew I'd never once got right (i.e. the bottom of page 16). So I was quite frustrated when that section was the only bit we didn't do last week. And as a result, I was really hoping we'd start with it this week, as I'd had to practise it again just to ensure it had stuck. But then it occurred to me that there was one downside to rehearsing page 16... which was that we were quite likely to go on to page seventeen, and that page had filled me with increasing rage every time we'd done it. The last entry on that page involves the sopranos coming in on a B flat, and EVERY SINGLE WEEK, for over two months, most of them have come in on a C. I have no idea why this has gone on for so long without them sorting themselves out. I commented to Alison in the car that I felt as if I was this close to just standing up and shouting at them if they did it again. But then we started to wonder what would actually happen if someone actually did that in a rehearsal. We decided that most likely there'd be a brief shocked silence, and then possibly some scattered applause from others who'd been dying to do the same thing. But we weren't sure what would happen next, other than extreme embarrassment :-)

Anyway, of course we did start with page 16. There were widely varying renditions of the alto notes on the bottom line, but after a bit of work the first bar was sorted. I'd found, when I practised it, that the second bar is actually much harder than the first, but it's much harder to hear if that one goes wrong, so maybe everyone was getting it right and it was just me that found it hard. (It's the F sharp. A very unreasonable note to have to sing at that point.) But before we got to the notebashing, we'd read on through page 17, and - sure enough - most of the sops sang a C. Alison turned and grinned at me, but I was very restrained and didn't shout out! (I'd been sitting at the front for the last few rehearsals, having been one of the first to arrive and therefore needing to stake the claim of the 2nds to a few seats on the front row, but when I arrived this week, the 2nd alto seats were occupied by a soprano, a tenor and a bass, sitting there chatting for no apparent reason... so I sat at the back.)

Other than that note, though, the singing was much better this week. We did the a cappella bit, and the 1st sopranos actually managed to stay in tune throughout it for the first time, which made everyone feel extremely optimistic. And even better, we finished the rehearsal with a runthrough of the whole thing, with all the voice parts jumbled up, and they stayed in tune again. (They are all fabulous singers, but they do seem to go flat on every single phrase unless they're reminded not to.) It was a really satisfying end to the rehearsal, and I'm looking forward to the concert (which is next week).

My house sale still isn't sorted, but it's progressing (as is my packing, but that's a bit slower), and the bank seem to have halted the repossession process - although they never actually replied to my letter formally asking them to, which I sent as soon as I had written proof of the sale agreement! Very rude of them, don't you think? I still don't have a moving date, but I expect it to be in the next week or two.

A few links for you. If you use the IMSLP as often as I do, you'll be interested in this New York Times article about it. (I couldn't have done my Secret Spem thing without IMSLP - all the scores came from IMSLP, legally and free of charge.)

Tom Service is unimpressed (as most of us are) at audience members who shout out immediately the piece has ended. And in an unrelated (hopefully!) post, he wonders about the music for the Royal Wedding.

Charlotte Higgins, also in the Guardian, wondered what it would take to create a British orchestra of the stature of the Berlin Philharmonic. She got quite a few replies.

Stephen Hough has another practice tip: this time, how to improve your rhythms.

I last saw my friend Anna Crookes (née Markland) in September, when we were both at a book launch. She'd come straight from a recording session, which she'd thoroughly enjoyed, but she said she'd had to sign a confidentiality agreement and couldn't tell me what she'd been recording, until it was released in March. Well, from what she did say, I think it was this: Striggio's 40-part Mass. (She mentioned that she'd been standing next to the sackbuts, which narrowed it down a bit!) There are reviews in both the Observer and the Guardian.

Here's an exciting idea: three of Manchester's greatest arts institutions are joining forces to put on a musical!

This seems not to have caught the headlines, but Phil Collins has just retired. Turns out his hands are no longer strong enough to play the drums, and that even before that, he had to tape the sticks to his hands! The article doesn't mention why he can no longer sing, though (which I thought he'd done far more than play the drums, in the second half of his career at least). Maybe he just doesn't want to.

I've never heard of this band, but it's always fascinating to hear someone else's reaction to a place you know very well - in this case, BBC Studio 7.

And finally, I already have 7th July in my diary (world premiere of the final Harry Potter film - it's in cinemas on 15th July) but I was thrilled to see we're getting a studio tour opening next year! One day I'll make it to Florida to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter (which I'm told is AMAZING), but I'll have to be a lot richer than I am now before trips abroad are an option :-)

Like a motorway of happiness

Look at me, doing a post only a week after my last one! It's mainly a procrastination tactic, I suspect - I should be packing :-)

Not much to say, mind you. House sale still not completed, but the surveyor is coming on Monday morning, and that's the main remaining potential stumbling block. Fingers crossed. Repossession date is a week on Monday, and I haven't had official word that the other side will agree to put it on hold while the sale gets sorted, but I'm told they're likely to (it's certainly in their best interests). Either way, I REALLY need to get on with my packing! Maybe this evening.

Only one bit of singing this week, but it was good because our esteemed boss came to visit us, which always perks everyone up. We sang a bit of Sea Drift and a bit of the Spring Symphony. Both are going well. Although I was distraught that Fanny asked me for songs that include descending perfect fifths, and I couldn't remember a single one! Must memorise my own list (link to side)... Anyway, here's a selection (the fifth in each case is where the hyphen is):

Feel-ings, nothing more than feelings
Wise men - say only fools rush in (“Can’t help falling in love”, Elvis Presley)
Do you love - me (Brian Poole & the Tremoloes)
I love you ba-by (“Can’t take my eyes off you”, Andy Williams)
And - he shall purify (“Messiah”, Handel)
For - unto us a child is born (“Messiah”, Handel)
He - trusted in God (“Messiah”, Handel)

I think "Do you love me" is the one that's most familiar, but if you don't know the song you may disagree!

Just a few links for you. Tom Service, in the Guardian, writes intriguingly about the difference between British and European orchestras. On a related note, Charlotte Higgins, also in the Guardian, writes about what makes the Berlin Phil so special. And Stephen Hough explains very convincingly why Radio 3's recent decision to recommit to live concert broadcasts is such good news.

Winds blow south and winds blow north

Been meaning to do a post for ages, but I seem to be still spending most of my time falling asleep, either on buses or at home! But never mind. House update, for those who have asked: I have accepted an offer on the house, although it's an extremely low one (£17000 below the valuation). But it's the only offer on the table, and since time is running out I didn't have much choice. It will still leave me considerably better off than if the repossession goes ahead. So the only things to worry about now are the survey (it shouldn't be any problem in theory, but you never know), the court costs of the repossession process (which I've been told could be up to £40000, but hopefully most of that will be removed if they don't actually have to repossess), and where to move to. There have been a few places that would have been ideal, but they've all been snapped up quickly, so there's no point in looking seriously until I know when I'll be definitely moving. But rental properties are coming and going all the time, so hopefully there'll be somewhere decent when I can actually do something about it.

Oh, and packing, but I'm having great trouble with that - there's so much of it! Several people have offered to come and help, but the problem is that I need to actually get RID of about half the contents of the house, and there's only me that can decide what to keep and what to throw out. Until I've done that, there's no point anyone else coming round to help. Maybe this weekend I'll make some progress, though - I'm feeling a BIT more motivated and less exhausted.

(As for work, I'm still doing the part-time 3.5-hours-travel-per-day temp job for the NHS in Oldham - the job that was supposed to be for 3 months starting last May - but it will definitely be ending at the start of March. Recently I did apply again for a job at the RNCM - the fourth time I've applied for this particular job in the past couple of years, and the seventh time I've applied to the college overall - but they obviously don't want me!)

Anyway, onto singing. After the usual madness of December, it feels as if there's been hardly any singing this year so far. I've been trying to get my band together for a rehearsal, but have totally failed so far - there isn't/hasn't been a single day in January or February on which everyone was available. So much for trying to record a couple of our newer Christmas songs while they were still ingrained! Not to worry - I'll try again in March.

As for choir, we've been mainly concentrating on Sea Drift by Delius (for which the concert is on 17th March), although this week we also started working on bits of Britten's Spring Symphony (14th May). I've done the Spring Symphony once before, although it was a very long time ago (it was in the Free Trade Hall, so it must have been about 1994/1995) and I don't remember much about it, other than that I obviously didn't like it enough to buy a recording of it. But I think it will be fun to do it again, and I can't wait to hear the children's choir doing their bits.

I've never done Sea Drift before, and when I first tried it I thought it was one of the weirdest pieces I'd ever sung. I actually did a bit of quick research to find out whether Delius was a bit insane. (Answer: not particularly, although he did suffer from syphilis for many years.) But it's definitely grown on me, and there are bits of it that have been stuck in my head for weeks. I'm looking forward to the performance.

Dr Liz came back from Australia last week! Great to see her again. And it feels like much longer ago than last June that we did the Spem in Alium surprise for her. (Those videos are doing quite well on YouTube - if you search for "spem in alium manchester" they're the top results (unsurprisingly!), and even if you just search for "spem in alium" they come up as featured videos (at least they do for me). If you haven't watched them yet, go and look!)

Talking of YouTube, two other videos I want to show you: a promotional video for the wonderful Bournemouth Male Voice Choir (which includes two of my arrangements!) and (thanks to Barbara) an amazing set of improvised piano variations on the Harry Potter theme. I wish I could do stuff like that. I defy you not to watch it with your mouth hanging open in awe.

One bit of singing I did do in early January was Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir, which I mentioned here a while back (and, more recently, I think an email went round to choir members telling them about it). Originally the deadline was the end of December, but he extended it due to people having snow-related problems. That was good, because I still had too much of a cough at the end of December to sing anything (and the earlier part of December was much too busy). So I actually recorded my bit the night before the deadline - not great (I still had a bit of a tickle in my throat and my breathing was even worse than usual) but at least I sang the correct notes, and I think I was in tune. I hope lots of you did it as well. Anyway, in the end he got 2051 videos from 58 different countries - not bad considering he was aiming for 900. (There are some interesting stats here. A few people sang all 8 parts!) Currently his team is busy mixing everything together, and the finished version will be released in April.

Eric Whitacre also caused a bit of controversy when it was thought that he'd said that British choirs are the best... but, as he explains, that's not actually quite what he said!

For the Wagner fans amongst you: tickets are on sale for the Manchester International Festival performance of Die Walküre (which sadly doesn't involve a chorus, I'm reliably informed), and there's a video on that page of Uncle Mark talking about Wagner.

A bit late for this to be topical, but it's still interesting: the Radio 3 blog describes the issues involved in recording the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from King's. But I still don't understand why the TV version is different to the radio version - can anyone explain? I can understand why they film the TV one separately, but not why they have different carols!

In the Guardian, Cecilia Bartoli explains the problems faced by mezzo-sopranos. (Try being an alto - there are even more!) Also in the Guardian, Tom Service tells us about a postcard that Elgar sent to Hans Richter in Manchester, and the recent Henley report on music education. He also provides a useful commentary on the Bachtrack performance league tables.

I bet this was a weird experience: via Intermezzo, news of a performance at Covent Garden in which they couldn't move the safety curtain, so the whole cast had to do their stuff on the narrow bit of stage in front of it, and the chorus sang from the stalls!

On an Overgrown Path points us towards a BBC story about a record club in which they have very strict (but reasonable) rules: no talking, no texting, and you have to listen to the whole album in one go.

Also from the BBC: help them with their research by taking the Musicality Test.

Leanne at The Chorister blog hates Bach, particularly the B minor mass! It's one of my favourite pieces, and I think Bach was a genius, but then I've never sung any of his stuff as a soprano...

Stephen Hough has a series of blog posts (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4) discussing different types of recording sessions, in which he describes short patching sessions after live recordings as the most stressful thing he's ever done in his professional life. I must admit that when we've had to do these, I've been desperate to get home so I can rest, rather than particularly stressed, but I can imagine that it's probably a different matter for the soloists, conductor and producer. (The producer he mentions is the fabulous Andrew Keener, who's our regular producer too.)

Here's an interesting piece from the Guardian about the British habit of not caring about getting people's names wrong. It had never occurred to me before reading this that it was a mainly British thing, but I can certainly believe it. I've got used to having my name mispronounced or misspelt, but that doesn't mean it doesn't annoy me EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Also from the Guardian, a great story about a community that decided to protest about their local library being threatened with closure by taking all the books out. Brilliant!

Rands in Repose always does great articles, but I particularly like this one, which describes why it's important to get away from The Noise every so often.

I find that whenever I explain to a new group of my Silver Surfers (my current 12-week course is my tenth!) how internet traffic is conveyed between continents by cables under the sea, they're really surprised, as they'd always assumed (if they'd ever thought about it, which mostly they hadn't) that it went via satellite. So I was delighted that just after I told this to the current group, there was a news story about a cable finally making it to Cuba, which has the western hemisphere's lowest ratio of internet users.

As a temp, the vast majority of my working life over the past few years has been spent typing, and I certainly do lots of typing at home too... so I was a bit put out when a colleague informed me, a few months ago, that I was doing it wrong. If she'd been saying that my wrongness was because I type with only one hand, I would have probably agreed with her (even though I can type faster with one hand than many people can with two! I know it's wrong, but I've never learned properly - I just ended up doing it this way!) But her criticism was that I only use one space after a full stop and I should be using two. I tried to explain to her that the two-spaces rule was very, very outdated and didn't apply to wordprocessing, but she had been taught at secretarial college that two spaces were vital, and she would not be swayed. I wish this Slate article had been published before that argument - it might have convinced her! But I've definitely bookmarked it in case anyone tries to argue with me again about this :-)

Another thing that's worth bookmarking, for any of you who uses Twitter (or just reads it) and is a bit confused about hash tags. I was quite confident about what they were, until I tried to explain it to someone else! But this New Yorker article explains it quite well.

Also useful: Wikipedia's List of Common Misconceptions, and the National History Museum's Postcode Plants Database.

And finally, there was a total lunar eclipse just after I last posted here, but needless to say I didn't see any of it due to an overcast sky. But the Big Picture has some great photos of it.