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.