Faster than fairies, faster than witches

Early tomorrow morning I will be setting off on a 1400-mile train journey from my house to Valencia. The journey involves five separate trains in each direction, and I am RIDICULOUSLY excited that it's about to happen, having been planning it for so long. My mum has arrived at my house in preparation for her catsitting duties. Really I should start packing, but I have the urge to tell you all the details of the journey (sorry Libby!)

For comparison purposes, I should explain that he main group from the choir is setting off from Manchester Airport at stupid o'clock on Wednesday morning and flying to Alicante, from where they will transfer to Valencia by coach, arriving about 2pm. They are setting off again on Saturday teatime, and will be back in Manchester in the early hours of Sunday. I believe this is costing them about £265 each.

The main reason I started looking for another option was that a deposit had to be paid last autumn, and the rest of the money had to be paid in January. Neither of these was an option for me, so I was encouraged to discover that not only is it possible to make the whole journey by train, but it would be a bit cheaper, and (most importantly) we wouldn't need to pay anything until much nearer the time. As it's turned out, I still don't have any money at all (so I'm EXTREMELY relieved to find out that we will all be given some money for food while we're in Spain - I was quite worried about how I was going to eat!), but luckily I have some nice friends. My fellow altos Alison and Judy and Sue are travelling with me, and the agreement has been that I would do all the investigating and booking etc., and they (well, mainly Alison) would pay for my share on the understanding that I would pay them back when I could. So, I feel a bit guilty that so far I haven't paid anything at all, but I'll feel slightly LESS guilty if it turns out that we get to Valencia with no problems.

It should all be fine - we do have all the tickets, and we know where and when we've got to be at each place. And we will get to spend time in both Paris and Barcelona in both directions, which no-one else will! So, here's my schedule:

OUTWARD:
Tue 26th May
0745 Depart Littleborough
0814 Arrive Manchester Victoria
Walk across city centre
0915 Depart Manchester Piccadilly (Virgin Trains)
1123 Arrive London Euston
Walk or tube to St Pancras
1332 Depart London St Pancras (Eurostar)
1647 Arrive Paris Gare du Nord (Paris is an hour ahead so only 2h15m)
Metro to Gare d'Austerlitz
2032 Depart Paris Gare d'Austerlitz (Trenhotel sleeper)

Wed 27th May
0824 Arrive Barcelona Estaçion de França
1500 Depart Barcelona Estaçion de França (RENFE regional train, along the coast)
1821 Arrive Valencia Estaçion del Norte

RETURN:
Sat 30th May
1000 Depart Valencia Estaçion del Norte (RENFE regional coast train)
1339 Arrive Barcelona Estaçion de França
2105 Depart Barcelona Estaçion de França (Trenhotel sleeper)

Sun 31st May
0900 Arrive Paris Gare d'Austerlitz
Metro to Gare du Nord
1213 Depart Paris Gare du Nord (Eurostar)
1328 Arrive London St Pancras (London is an hour behind so actually 2h15m)
Walk or tube to Euston
1855 Depart London Euston (Virgin Trains)
2111 Arrive Manchester Piccadilly
Walk across city centre
2208 Depart Manchester Victoria
2235 Arrive Littleborough

Total cost: £256. So it's not MUCH less than flying, but in my opinion it's well worth it, mainly because of no-one having to pay anything until much more recently, but also because it will be so EXCITING! The trains themselves will be great (I've always wanted to travel on Eurostar, ever since the tunnel opened) and the chance to spend significant amounts of time in both Paris and Barcelona is just a bonus. Not to mention we get to sing in a concert. Whee!

Anyway, I may as well clear up some links while I'm here.

First, and most importantly, football. (What? You know you were expecting it!) You will no doubt be aware that last year, when United won the league AND the champions' league, there was no victory parade because the council was too scared after Rangers Day. This year, they have relented slightly. They are still insisting that there will never again be any live football on big screens in Manchester, but they have agreed that if - and only if - United beat Barcelona on Wednesday, there will be a parade on Thursday. (I'm sad I'll miss this, but those of you who will be in Manchester may wish to be warned about the road closures.) It does seem a bit mean, though, that if United lose on Wednesday, there will be no parade. If it was any other team in any other city, you can bet there'd be a victory parade if they won ONE trophy, let alone the FOUR trophies that United have already won this season (the Champions' League would make it five). Oh well.

In other Manchester news, I assume most people know that there are no trams running in the city centre till September, but did you also know that there will be no trams on the REST of the Altrincham and Eccles lines for the whole of August?

Music-related stuff now: Have you seen the new Cadburys Cluster advert? I saw it a couple of weeks ago and was very amused. You know I love sleighbells, especially in May :-)

On 18th May, a pianist called Gonzales broke the world record for the longest solo performance: over 27 hours. Here's how he prepared for it.

You probably already know about the Royal Opera House stuff on Radio 3, but the Intermezzo blog has a few more details.

Mendelssohn 2 is on this month's BBC Music Magazine cover CD, and Robert Tear talks about it on their website.

Via ChoralBlog, an interesting post from This Blog Will Change The World, about introverts as performing musicians.

From The Chorister, a selection of remedies for when you have a bad throat but you HAVE to sing.

From The Spectator, an interesting article about authenticity.

And one last non-musical link before I go off to pack: via the J-Walk Blog, a fascinating article about logos with hidden messages. There are lots of extra ones mentioned in the comments - well worth a read!

Hasta luego :-)

Que sera sera, whatever will be will be - we're going to Italy!

Well, I've been saying for ages that the Champions' League Final would be between Manchester United and Barcelona, and so it has turned out. I'm very much looking forward to watching this from Spain - I'm told that Valencia fans hate Barcelona, but whether or not they'll support them in a match where the opponents are English remains to be seen!

As for the title, I was amused at Old Trafford on Sunday when the crowd realised that "Italy" and "Wemberlee" not only rhyme with each other but also have the same number of syllables, which meant that all the songs which include the world "Wembley" could be instantly adapted to become Champions' League Final songs. Recycling is always good!

I didn't sing in the Wagner concert this weekend, but the reviews are impressive - Manchester Evening News, Guardian and Times so far (I'll add others if they appear). Only the MEN mentions the choir, but since the MEN is the one that hardly EVER mentions the choir, that's good!

EDIT: Graham points out a couple of posts on the Intermezzo blog (I used to edit a newsletter called "Intermezzo", but that's a scary amount of time ago!): half-time report and the final score.

FURTHER EDIT: A couple more reviews: Telegraph and Musical Criticism.

FURTHER FURTHER EDIT: Here's the Independent review.

AND ANOTHER ONE: The Spectator is maybe not quite as impressed as the others, but they still liked it!

I went to Thursday's rehearsal because we were due to rehearse music other than just Wagner. As it turned out this only happened in the final five minutes, but never mind. Before that, I did get to sing the 15 notes of Wagner, but because I wasn't doing the concert I had no music. But I hate having to share copies, so I'd prepared by putting the music onto my phone. I wouldn't recommend singing from a mobile phone screen usually, but for 15 notes it was good enough, and it amused me that it was possible! (There were more than 15 notes on the screen - of course I had to add cues...)

I've been at home for almost four weeks now - temp assignments seem to be vanishing along with permanent jobs - but at least I'm well rested and have been able to work on Plan A. My website is ALMOST ready to go - watch this space.

Other stuff: which opera would you say is England's national one?

As you've probably seen, the bells of Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral are to play "Imagine".

Here's more news about that Elgar statue I mentioned a while ago (Graham sent me the link at the time but I am very behind with my email).

The ABBA guys have written a song for their staff choir - very sweet of them!

Via Allen Simon on ChoralBlog: Liz Garnett on How much practice do you need?

The always-wonderful Overgrown Path tells us more about the recent goings-on at Snape. (I have recently been reading lots of Harry Potter fanfiction so it took me a few minutes to realise that the Snape in question was not a Hogwarts professor...)

Talking of Harry Potter, anyone who's read the books or seen the films will know about the Weasleys' clock. Well, soon you will be able to buy one!

There's an interesting new initiative to provide free rehearsal rooms.

If you have a PS3 in your house, you may be interested to know that you can now get SingStar with wireless mics. (If you've never tried this game, I recommend it - great fun! I've only played it once myself but I did enjoy it.)

I think I already mentioned this, but Usain Bolt will be running down Deansgate on Sunday.

And finally, this isn't anything to do with music (at least, not directly), but I found this 15-minute talk about creativity fascinating. (If you like this sort of thing, there is lots more at TED.)

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo was yesterday. It's a festival that I remember every year but have never actually had a chance to celebrate. Nice that Mexicans have SOMETHING to cheer them up at the moment! (If you can't be bothered to follow the link, Cinco de Mayo is Spanish for 5th May, and is a Mexican holiday which commemorates them kicking the French out of Mexico.)

I'm in a bit of a slow period with my attempt to learn Spanish, because I'd been mainly studying on the train, but I've been at home for the past three weeks, so no train journeys! Must get back to it soon. Three weeks from this moment, my train will have just arrived in Barcelona. Three weeks from today is also the Champions' League Final, which I always knew United would be in because I wouldn't be able to go! (Mind you, I was sure we'd be in the FA Cup Final for the same reason - it's on 30th May - and that didn't work...) It's still very possible that Barcelona will be our opponents - they just need to beat Chelsea (at Chelsea) tonight. (Actually a score draw would be enough, due to the away goals rule.) I do hope it's Barcelona, it will add to the atmosphere in Spain if it is! And just in case you feel the urge to burst into song, here is some music for you:



(Higher quality version here in case you want it!)

Before I leave football, I can't resist mentioning last week's story from the Newcastle-Portsmouth game - the "swearing opera singer" was one of the soloists when we did St Cuthbert! He was very nice too - I seem to remember he saw me taking pictures and offered to take a photo of the choir for me (on my camera).

I have an mp3 that I'd love to share with you, but I think the people involved might not be too impressed, so I won't! But I do want to mention it anyway. It's a great example of how it's possible for a group of a cappella singers can rescue a song that's gone horribly wrong, just by listening to each other and not giving up! I did a couple of 6-part a cappella arrangements almost two years ago for my band, but for various reasons we never managed to get six of us in the same place at the same time till last week. I had been DESPERATE to try these two songs, but since we had a gig a couple of days later, we mainly had to concentrate on that - but we tried the two 6-part songs right at the end. Unfortunately no-one had had a chance to look at their part - or, at least, maybe they looked when I first gave them the music but forgot in the following two years! This meant that things did not go well.

One song wasn't too bad, because at least everyone knew the tune, but the other was so bad it was hilarious! Despite that, I'm quite proud of the recording of our attempt at sight reading it. Why? Well, the first two notes are fine. Immediately after that, things start to go wrong, but because there was one person singing who DID know their part (me, because I wrote it!), it didn't totally fall apart, just sounded awful. When the song reaches its last verse, there is a complicated key change, which you'd think would make things worse... but the person who has the tune at that point came in very confidently on what FELT like the right note (he had few other options, since most of the notes he was relying on for his cue didn't happen) and everyone else recognised his confidence and pitched their next note from his. Immediately there was audible harmony, which increased everyone's confidence - and the last couple of bars were perfect. To cap it all, when we checked with the guitar, we'd ended perfectly in tune! So the message is: any performance can be rescued, if you trust each other :-)

I have a lot of links to share, but first I wanted to mention All the Small Things, which finished its first series last night. I imagine lots of you watched it - what did you think? I expected to hate it, but actually I really enjoyed it. It even brought a tear to my eye once or twice. There were a few things that annoyed me, though... Mainly, the fact that they made classical music slightly evil. (Well, not really, but if you watched it I'm sure you know what I mean.) The breakaway choir was made to seem more fun partly because they sang choral arrangements of pop songs, and the original choir (with the nasty people in it) was shown singing classical stuff most of the time, except for a couple of occasions when we were plainly supposed to be slightly sympathetic, and then they sang pop! But I suppose this was to be expected from a primetime BBC1 programme.

(Just to be clear, I love pop songs as well as (if not more than) classical, so I'm not saying they should have reversed their portrayal - it just seems a bit unreasonable to give the impression that pop is fun and classical isn't.)

There's also the fact that the main choir only sang one piece of music most of the time (Haydn's Creation) - which I suppose is fairly realistic, because the series didn't last very long - except that they only ever rehearsed one movement of it! And then, at the last rehearsal before the contest they'd been working towards, the conductor abandoned Haydn and gave them a pop song to sight read (not just for fun, they performed it in the contest final). Uh huh.

However, I did really like the fact that they concluded that contests were not the be-all and end-all of choral singing, and also that they showed that even the best singers can fall apart in auditions! And I loved the fact that they filmed the finale on my platform at Victoria Station. I felt so proud to see it! Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing what they do with the next series - maybe they might even learn another movement of The Creation...

(Talking of Haydn, have you seen the official website of the RNCM's imminent Haydn fetsival? And, while we're at it, have you seen what they're doing - non-Haydn-related - at Piccadilly Station on 4th July? I wish I could see that - very mean of them to do it while we're singing elsewhere!)

The other main thing I wanted to mention here today is Spotify. I've been hearing about this for ages, but I only tried it a few days ago. Until fairly recently you could only sign up if you had an invite, but this is no longer the case - go to the official page to start an account. I'm very impressed with it - it gives you the option to listen (legally) to full pieces of music (both pop AND classical). Those of you who use iTunes will be aware of how useful it is to be able to listen to 30-second clips of music before buying it... Spotify lets you listen to the WHOLE THING. It also gives you links to buy the music if you want to, but you don't have to. So, what's the catch? Lots of you won't even think it's a catch, because it's just this: you can't save the music to your own computer, you have to go online to hear it every time. But there's no limit to how many times you can do this, and you can save the link so that you don't have to search for the song again. There is one more tiny catch if you sign up for the free account, which is that after every few songs you have to listen to a short advert before you can play your next song. They don't interrupt the song to play an advert, and each time you have a forced ad break it's only ONE advert. I've found it a small price to pay for such a good service. Try it and see!

On a related note, the Overgrown Path blog tells us about things you can download from the British Library. I haven't tried this yet but I plan to do so soon. (I'm also amused by his post about music journalists! But I particularly liked his post about the difference between "lean-forward music" and "lean-back music". Food for thought.)

TV things coming up: I think I mentioned a while ago about the Birth of British Music series - well, it starts this Saturday (BBC2, 8pm). The first episode is about Purcell, and there's also a performance of Dido and Aeneas (from the Royal Opera House) on BBC4 next Friday night (15th May, 8.05pm). (I had an unexpected job interview just after I last posted, during which - amongst other things - I had to identify a couple of musical scores from untitled pages. One of them was Dido, and I knew the others too. Needless to say I still didn't get the job! I must admit I'm curious about whether or not the successful candidate got all the questions correct....)

Oh, and also on Saturday - and also at 8pm - there is a Radio 4 programme about John Barbirolli. Bit rubbish of them to put it on then, but thank goodness for iPlayer! (If you can't use iPlayer, it's repeated on Monday afternoon.)

What else? The blog at ChoralNet has moved, and I didn't realise until Podium Speak pointed it out. I've fixed my link now, but there have been lots of articles posted there in the meantime, of which the ones that caught my attention for longest were the ones about Germanic Latin and singing styles you may never be able to master.

Via Eine Kleine Nichtmusik, this thing about Mahler's markings made me laugh a LOT :-)

Here's a delightful video of a load of buskers round the world playing Stand By Me. Do watch the whole of it, it will put a smile on your face. And, entirely coincidentally, here's another performance of Stand By Me, together with a nice article about the wonderful Gareth Malone, which explains very well what effect a good choirmaster can have on many lives. (I had tears in my eyes watching this video, but that's mainly because I remember crying my eyes out when I saw it at the time, and THAT was because I'd watched what they'd gone through to get to that point - I'm glad that series won a BAFTA, it was great!)

And a few quick links to finish, in no particular order:

Interesting article about the power of live performance (prompted by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, but the point is more general).

Norman Lebrecht wonders how much justification there is for calling London a music capital.

Another alarming article about libraries - this one tells us that some Gloucestershire libraries are to have piped music! Argh!

Not three tenors any more: Placido Domingo has switched to baritone.

An article about playing Bach to hippopotamuses (mentioning our very own orchestra).

Ben Folds has released an album of his own songs covered by university a cappella groups. More pop stars should do this!

The Guardian points out that the UK's last piano maker is to cease production soon. Very sad.

Manchester Confidential tells us of a charity karaoke day in Manchester next Wednesday (13th May): 24 Hour Karaoke People at Tiger Tiger. (They also mention that karaoke was born in Stockport!)

And some non-musical links: the Manchester Evening News says it was 40 years ago yesterday that G-Mex stopped being a train station. Some interesting facts, most of which I didn't know!

Blackle is an alternative to Google which claims to save energy.

And finally, a game for you to try: Foldit. It's a bit of a time sink (like all the best games!) but at least it's all for a good cause (unlike most other games!)

Verrath? An wem? ... Siegfried? Gutrun's Gemahl? ... Brach er die Treue?

So, I've been sent rehearsal mp3s of the Wagner (thanks to those responsible, you know who you are) and they are now on my mp3 page. The total length of all 19 clips is less than 19 minutes, and sure enough the ladies only seem to sing for a total of about one minute (three separate bits, in clips II-39A, II-43 and II-45B). I looked up the score online (at IMSLP) and found that the entirety of the ladies' role is in the title of this post - and none of those words are repeated! A total of 15 notes, not even in harmony. Good old Wagner.

It's just as well I already decided I couldn't do the concert due to the Manchester derby, because due to United beating Porto last night, there is now a Champions' League semi-final at Old Trafford on the evening of 29th April, which I will NOT be missing. (It's against Arsenal, and Dimitar Berbatov - who is not the most popular United player, but I love him - had this to say: "They are a great team. But we are Manchester United, so I think we are going to win.")

A few links for you: firstly, our Abraham Lincoln gig is now on the official site. (Note to self: must go and look at that statue sometime.)

On An Overgrown Path reports on the latest I Fagiolini project - Tallis in Wonderland. Sounds intriguing - I'd love to see that. (I've still never seen them live despite one of my best friends being a member!)

Operas from Glyndebourne are to be shown on Sky Arts this summer.

In non-musical news, several bits of Greater Manchester are to lose their postmarks (I'm actually pleased about this - I hate having an Oldham postmark when I don't live in Oldham), and here is a heartwarming story about robots and nice people: Tweenbots.

Oh, and I finally finished my most recent temp assignment (at the university) yesterday, and I'm taking all the paid holiday I'm owed (which is only about a week, because I had to use some of it for recent bank holidays) to try and make some progress with Plan A, which has always been to do musical stuff from home. I have a new website that no-one has yet seen, with a proper domain name and everything - I'll let you know as soon as it's ready to be unveiled! In the meantime, I'm still applying for relevant musical admin jobs when they come up, but having been rejected now by every major musical organisation in Manchester (one of them has rejected me FIVE TIMES) I don't hold out much hope there. But working from home is much better if I can manage it, because it saves me three hours' travelling every day plus £23 train fares each week.

Just a couple of requests in the meantime, though - hope you don't mind me being cheeky... If you know anyone who's doing an Associated Board exam soon, and they're worrying about the aural and sight reading aspects, please suggest that they contact me, because I would love to give them a crash course (two or three lessons). Similarly, if you know anyone who wants a few maths (or music) GCSE or A level lessons before their exam, please send them my way. Thanks!

Shoes off!

Well, it seems to be three weeks since I last wrote here. Sorry for the delay, things have been stupidly busy, but hopefully they are starting to calm down now. I have a million links to share with you, but first let me summarise recent choral goings-on.

We've done The Planets twice, once in Manchester and once in Leeds. Both performances went well, although they were very different from each other. In Manchester, we stood in the choir assembly area in a big group facing away from the doors (which were opened just before we sang and closed gradually at the end, as instructed in the score). We (well, the altos at least) were instructed to sing as loudly as we possibly could. In Leeds, there were far fewer people singing, and we stood in a curved, narrow corridor just outside one of the doors to the auditorium; unlike in Manchester, there were audience members sitting right by the door, and we could see into the hall when the door was open. So when we sang as we'd been instructed in Manchester, of course it was far too loud, so some rapid adjustment was required.

(Apparently, after the Manchester concert, an audience member was heard to say "that was really good, but it's a pity they used a recording for the ladies' voices!" I hope that at least the Leeds audience was convinced we were really there...)

Actually, it was very odd singing The Planets without moving! I don't recall ever doing that before. We seem to have done the fadeout differently each time, although each time we've usually stood still until the actual fadeout bar. Let's see how many ways I can remember of doing that last bar:
• gradually turn through 180 degrees so we're facing away from the door
• gradually raise our music to cover our faces
• both of the above, one after the other
• walk backwards away from the stage
• gradually turn and then walk FORWARDS away from the stage (our favourite example of this was the time (at the Bridgewater Hall) that we sang from the side of the stage and then walked along the corridor to the bar)

Anyone remember any others?

We also had our first Mendelssohn 2 gig last Sunday (this is the only performance in Manchester, but we'll also be doing it in Spain and London). It went well, although I've only seen one review so far, in The Times, who said that "time and again [the choir] plunged us into a luxurious warm bath, scented with emollient harmonies". Not bad, although given that we were going for lightness and clarity, maybe not the review we might have hoped for! I think we DID achieve lightness and clarity, though, so maybe the reviewer just didn't have enough words to say that too...

I must admit that, although I really enjoyed the concert (as I always do), I'm feeling very demotivated about choir at the moment, and my self-esteem as a singer is at an all-time low. This is more to do with me (and the way my mind works) than with the choir, but I've been thinking about whether this summer might be a good point to leave. It has a certain symmetry - as I've mentioned before, Mendelssohn 2 is the first thing I ever sang with the choir, so it'd be fitting if it was the last thing as well. I haven't decided yet though - and maybe the trip to Spain will reinspire me and give me back some self-belief. I hope so, as I can't imagine life without choir!

Anyway, there are a LOT of links I need to share with you. Oh, and if you're looking for mp3s to practise with, my mp3 page doesn't yet have any Wagner, but it will as soon as I have the relevant mp3s (I have a source who has promised to send them). The Mendelssohn is still there, and I've just added the Barber Agnus Dei (I know we won't be doing that for a while, but it's hard so I thought I'd put it up while I remembered!)

(The Guardian included the Wagner gig on their list of top 50 things to see this spring, by the way. I think it's unlikely I'll be there, though, because the Manchester derby (i.e. United v City) has just been rescheduled to the afternoon of Sunday 10th May. Oh, and in case you haven't heard it, there's a very interesting interview about the project which you can download from the orchestra's website.)

The 2009 BBC Proms season has finally been unveiled, with the highlight of course being Prom 19 on 30th July (although I see that the Youth Choir get to go twice - they'll also be there on 6th September for Messiah). Advance booking (limited online and postal only) opens on Monday 20th April and general booking opens on Tuesday 26th May. In the Guardian, Charlotte Higgins lists her potential highlights; Tom Service does the same; and Stephen Hough (who was a couple of years about me at school - I wonder if he'd remember me?) talks about his Tchaikovsky proms.

From the Front of the Choir has a great post (although a slightly depressing one!) about the difficulties of hosting an English sing-along.

Norman Lebrecht writes about the Messiah tradition (there have also been a few TV programmes this weekend about the same topic, but I haven't seen any yet, although Sky+ has them for me!)

An interesting new CD release - a four-CD survey of British songwriting. Tom Service tells us more, including the interesting fact that the project is possible due to The Planets!

Paul Johnson writes about Richard Strauss (I'd forgotten it was an anniversary year for him!)

Here's a piece about Kathleen Ferrier's death, discussing what (if anything) she had in common with Jade Goody.

Via On an Overgrown Path: a performance of Cosi Fan Tutte in New York is asking the audience to send texts to choose the ending!

It was on the same blog that I first heard the sad news about the death of Maurice Jarre (do read the comments there too). The Guardian has an obituary.

Have you heard of the Sashimi Tabernacle Choir? No, I hadn't either. You may regret clicking on the link, especially if you watch their video! (And if you HAVE watched their video, the name you're trying to remember is this!)

Good news for opera fans - the BBC is extending its opera coverage - more on TV, and the radio stuff available online (I must admit I hadn't realised it wasn't already!)

If you, like me, knew nothing of the link between Manchester and Abraham Lincoln until recently, you may be interested by a recent MEN article that mentions it. (I can't find a link to our Abraham Lincoln gig - or in fact any of the summer prom concerts - on the orchestra's website - am I being blind?) (EDIT: Sheena points out that it's on the B Hall site.)

The prolific Tom Service has a thought-provoking article about why young people have been driven away from classical music.

A recent Guardian editorial compares Purcell with the Beach Boys.

Gramophone has a list of orchestras that change lives.

From VHK, news of a choral music exhibition at Oxford's Bodleian Library. I wish I could go and see this, but it's very unlikely, so I'll have to make do with living vicariously through VHK.

A great article (not specifically music-related) on the BBC News site, about how a piece of art can change your life.

From ChoralNet: the choices facing the conductor when the performance falls apart.

From the same blog: news of how a Canadian choir is trying to recruit tenors.

And also via the same blog: news of Handel's eating disorder.

An interesting initiative by Sky Arts: a virtual trip to the opera, including backstage camera. I don't have Sky Arts - did any of you see this?

Peter Phillips writes about vibrato.

Charles Hazlewood writes about British classical music - and it looks as if he has a TV series about this starting soon too.

Anthony Sayer, at the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra blog, writes about what conductors are for.

And in today's news, the pianist who has conquered Tourette's.

Finally, a few non-musical links: Rachel Cooke writes about fighting to save libraries. Nostalgic, thought-provoking and depressing.

The Big Picture is always fabulous, but I particularly liked these photos of the recent Earth Hour, in which you can click to see the difference with the lights out.

If you're still a bit baffled by Twitter, here's an article explaining it more thoroughly. And if any other choir people (other than Dr Liz and I) have signed up, let me know!

Here's a handy list of things you may not have realised you can do with Google.

Other things you may not have realised existed: several of my friends are raving about Graze, which I haven't tried but seems like a great service.

TV Catchup is a free LEGAL online service for watching programmes from the most popular UK TV channels.

Couch Surfing is a way to travel very cheaply by staying on people's couches.

And, finally finally, two things that have amused me this week: a recent Dilbert comic, and this incident at the station on Wednesday night:



(The guy on the bench was extremely drunk, and it seems he had created that puddle...)

"You really did kind of miss it... except for the back row of the altos."

It's very rare for me to miss a choir rehearsal, so it felt very weird to be there on Wednesday having missed the previous week due to the Inter Milan game. It felt much longer than two weeks since I'd been there! Anyway, it doesn't sound as if I missed too much, and I had two separate people who took notes for me so I'd be up to date. (Oddly enough, they didn't both give me the SAME notes, which is a little intriguing!)

This week we spent the first half separated into two rooms - the ladies did Neptune while the guys had their first go at Götterdämmerung. (It's because of the Wagner that we're likely to have lots of free time after the Holst is out of the way - the ladies only have "about 9 bars" to sing in the whole of it, whereas the men have lots to do.) Neptune was a bit dire at first, and I got quite cross, as you will have realised if you follow me on Twitter (I won't repeat it all here). But it got better, and I'm sure it will be alright on the night. To finish the first half, we did the bit of the Mendelssohn where the men don't sing, which is nice because it's the only time we get to split into 1st and 2nd altos.

The second half of the rehearsal was great fun, though, because we moved into the jumbled-parts formation, in which the instruction is "sit wherever you like, as long as you're not next to anyone singing the same part as you". I absolutely LOVE it when we do this. (I think some people don't love it, because it usually transpires that there are clumps of people who haven't moved until they are individually instructed to do so!) Last time we did it, I sat between two basses. This time it was two young tenors called (I think) Josh and Michael. They were a bit shy, and I think they lost a lot of their confidence when they found that they couldn't hear any other tenors, but they did much better than I think they think they did. Points in their favour: 1. I could hear them both, and they both sang in tune and on the beat; and, 2. They didn't get every note right, but when either of them got a note wrong, they realised, and put a ring round it, and in most cases if we then sang the same section again, they got it right the second time. All choral singers should be like this.

The next two weeks will be a bit hectic, since they include 3 concerts and various extra rehearsals. Hope everyone's feeling healthy! (I often try to explain to non-choir people why it's so tiring, but I don't think they believe me. It's hard to get across to non-singers how physically exhausting it is. So we get no sympathy!)

Anyway, a few links for you. The biggest news of the last week has been the unveiling of the 2009 Manchester International Festival programme. We already knew about Prima Donna (Rufus Wainwright's opera) but the two pop/orchestral collaborations were a very pleasant surprise - I hope I'll be able to find enough money to get tickets. If I can only see one of them, then it will definitely be Elbow with our favourite orchestra, but I'd also quite like to see Antony and the Johnsons with the Camerata.

Talking of unveiling, our boss has unveiled an Elgar statue.

Here's a Spectator article by Peter Phillips talking about whether or not choirs should attempt Allegri's Miserere.

And a new craze: Bikearoke! Or, singing while you cycle. I think I'd be too out of breath!

Me gusta cantar

I am slowly making some progress with my Spanish, see, although the inconsistency of pronunciation is still really confusing! I'll get there. Currently I can understand a lot more of it than I can speak, but there's still a couple of months before I need to be able to speak it, so all is well. (Yes, I'm sure it's possible to go to Spain without knowing any Spanish at all, but not if you're me.)

There is one thing I've noticed while I've been trying to learn Spanish, which I wanted to mention here, and it's something I've never noticed when working on Italian or German or French. (I have O-levels/GCSEs in all three, but I don't use them regularly enough to keep in practice, so every so often I try to build up my skills again.) The thing is that we sing in all three of those languages, so their pronunciation has been regularly reinforced, and I hardly ever have to think how to pronounce the words. This was actually a bit of a problem when I was in Italy last year with my mum, because I could pronounce things so well (e.g. on menus) that the waiters assumed I could actually understand and compose sentences perfectly too! So I often had to disappoint them by slowing them down.

Anyway, I got sidetracked there for a minute... What I actually wanted to explain here was that Spanish is much more unfamiliar to me. I think I've only ever sung in Spanish once, and that was a section of a fabulous piece by Bill Connor called "Land" which was commissioned by the Manchester Cathedral Cantata Choir almost twenty years ago. (I don't know if the work has ever been performed since, but I'd love to do it again.) Other than that, my only Spanish singing has been "La Bamba", and I only know a few of the words to that! So, I've had to concentrate much harder on listening carefully to the pronunciation. I've got a CD that accompanies the textbook I'm using, but at the moment I'm mainly concentrating on podcasts such as SpanishPod and Coffee Break Spanish. (Both are available free on iTunes and updated regularly.) Anyway, it was actually Coffee Break Spanish that made me realise what I wanted to explain here (I'm getting to my point, honest!) because whereas SpanishPod has two hosts who both speak Spanish fluently (although only one is a native speaker), Coffee Break Spanish is made in Scotland, and whereas one of the hosts is a fluent speaker, the other is a beginner, so you often get to hear him demonstrating pronunciation to her, and her repeating it (somewhat haltingly). And what I find fascinating is that even though I'm not familiar with the language yet, I can instantly identify what's wrong with her pronunciation, because exactly the same sort of issues come up every single week at choir, regardless of which language we're singing in! For example, if the teacher guy says a phrase and the girl repeats it, I know immediately that the reason it sounds wrong is because her vowel is more "ew" than "oo", or her T sound is too hard, or her R isn't rolled enough, etc. And every time I spot something like this and then the teacher mentions it to her a moment later, I feel really smug :-)

TL;DR version: being in a really good choir helps with language-learning, in ways you might not have realised!

It does feel like several weeks since I was last in a choir rehearsal, although it was only six days ago. I've been busy nonstop since then, including spending the whole of the weekend earning some extra cash by doing a load of data entry. I'm regretting having volunteered for that now, because although I do need the cash, I probably needed the rest more. And I'd promised myself I'd catch up on emails this weekend... Oh well. If I owe you an email, I apologise - it's not just you! I do read all my emails the day I receive them, but at the moment I can only reply to them immediately if I can do so in one line or so. I do have a folder of emails-that-need-longer-replies going back to December, so if you're one of them, sorry - I'll reply eventually, I promise. (Unless I don't know you at all, in which case I *might* reply, but you must understand that when I have time to clear my inbox, I will give priority to people I *do* know.)

There was no Holst at last week's rehearsal, which is a pity because it looks as if the main rehearsal for that will be tomorrow, when I won't be there. (I'm going to Old Trafford to see United play Inter Milan - I do usually give up my season ticket when football clashes with choir (as it so often does!) but there's no way I'm missing this one!) It was great to be at the BBC though - I love it when we rehearse there (even though we had to go in via the basement on this occasion). It's well-lit and the toilets are clean and numerous (I wish our usual venue could say the same on either count) but most importantly it is in the CITY CENTRE and therefore very easy to get to. Pity we can't rehearse there all the time, but I imagine they charge us an arm and a leg so it probably can't be helped.

Yet again I have had "und alles Fleisch" (the octave leap bit) on the brain ever since the rehearsal - well, until this afternoon, when I heard a colleague use the phrase "always the bridesmaid", and this caused the chorus of "Why Am I Always The Bridesmaid" to lodge itself in my head. (After tomorrow night hopefully it'll be replaced by "Mourinho, are you listening...")

On Thursday I went with a friend to check out an open mic night in a pub near where he lives. Luckily we hadn't rehearsed at all - if we got to go on stage, we were just going to do songs we knew well enough to do at the drop of a hat - because it turned out that the pub had put the open mic nights on hold for a while (I suspect they saw us coming!) However, we spent a couple of hours there anyway, just chatting - very pleasant, I hardly ever do that. My friend's wife has been learning the piano, and she told me that her teacher has persuaded her to take the grade 1 exam. However, it transpired that this teacher hadn't mentioned anything at all about aural or sight-reading, so I think I scared her by explaining what was involved! Hope I haven't put her off the exam... I did say I'd help her if she wanted me to, so hopefully all will be well. (I have many thoughts about aural and sight-reading, many of which I've mentioned here in the past, but I don't think it helps students not to tell them they'll have to do it.)

Anyway, a few links: Someone has investigated the use of a click track on various pop songs. The article itself is quite technical, but if you ignore the numbers the conclusions are still comprehensible.

YouTube has finally chosen its orchestra, and the Guardian has a couple of articles about this (here and here).

The Guardian also has a couple more articles related to the ABO conference: one about speeches in Welsh and one responding to last week's article about drunkenness in orchestras.

And in non-music news, if you're a fan of "Raiders of the Lost Ark", you may find this as fascinating as I do: the transcript of the first story meeting has emerged. (Fuller story here.)

And finally, here's a really nice idea for a birthday present - wish this had happened to me!

P.S. Only just saw this and had to edit to add it: Manchester Confidential samples the buffet at Victoria Station and really, really regrets it. It's funny but sadly all too true!

"If you DON'T praise his holy name, then we'll go into D minor, people, and it will be BAD."

It feels like much longer since I've updated here than it actually is. Sorry if it feels that way to you too!

Vaughan Williams is now a long-distant memory, because for the last couple of weeks it's been all Mendelssohn. (Incidentally, I'd forgotten how short Mendelssohn's life was - he died when he was 38.) I really like this piece, quite apart from its personal significance for me (being, as previously mentioned, the first thing I ever sang with the choir). It's a huge sing, though, and it'll be interesting to see whether any voices collapse under the strain, particularly as we're performing it more times than we do most things (we're doing this in Manchester, and at the Royal Albert Hall in the Proms, and in Valencia). My favourite bit is still the 4-part men's chord at the start of "The Night is Departing", but there are lots of other good bits too.

Last week we had a great rehearsal in which we sight-read through the whole thing. I love rehearsals like that (so much so that I gave up my ticket for that night's United game) but that's mainly because I love sight-reading. And yes, even though I have sung it before, it did feel like sight-reading... but bear in mind that it's over 15 years since I last sang it, and last time it was in English and this time it isn't, so there is no muscle memory (if indeed muscle memory works after 15 years!) On the whole the sight-reading was pretty successful - I do think most of the choir are getting better at this. (It occurred to me the other night that there's an easy way to tell - just from watching - who the best sight-readers are in any choir. Just wait for a page turn. There are still many singers (in all choirs) who only turn the page at the moment the music actually REACHES the end of the page. The good sight-readers will have turned several bars earlier.)

This week we didn't do the whole thing, but concentrated on some of the harder bits. There was also a ladies' sectional at which I'd expected we'd do the section where the men don't sing and the ladies are in 4 parts, but we didn't. I'd also expected we'd do the Planets, but we only spent 5 minutes reading through it at the end. Lots of people (who presumably hadn't done it before) seemed quite bemused by it, but I'm sure they'll find it easy enough once they've worked out which line to sing. The sectional was great fun though, as usual. I think it's because there are always far fewer people there than at the Wednesday rehearsals, so the atmosphere is much more intimate.

(They used to always alternate the sectional nights, so that people who have a regular commitment on a particular night, as so many of the choir do, don't always miss out. But recently all the ladies' sectionals have been on Thursdays and all the men's have been on Tuesdays, so any ladies who have to be elsewhere on a Thursday won't have been able to come to any of them. And it's been a pain when I've been trying to schedule rehearsals for my band, because Thursdays are the only nights none of us has any other regular commitment, so we usually rehearse on Thursdays, but since four of us sing in the choir we've found it extremely difficult to fit rehearsals in this year so far, due to the number of choir commitments on Thursdays.) (And even after we HAVE agreed dates, things keep happening to prevent us rehearsing as planned, due to people being ill or having to go into work. There are seven of us and we've NEVER yet had a rehearsal with more than five! One day...)

Anyway, at this week's ladies' sectional, we not only made lots of progress on the hard bits of the Mendelssohn, we were also treated to a one-man performance of My Evaline. (I recognised the tune but didn't know its name - I had to ask. It's from the Yale Songbook, a.k.a. "Songs of Yale", used by the Yale Glee Club.) Why? Because there's a bit in Mendelssohn 2 that is similar to a bit of "My Evaline"! There was also a bit of discussion of the Andrews Sisters (for those who've never heard them, their most famous song is probably Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, and there's a documentary about them on BBC4 at 9pm this Friday.). I love rehearsals like that! (And I realise I've now said that about two totally different types of rehearsal - well, I love both types!)

The other choir-related excitement this week was that I've spent quite a bit of time fine-tuning the details of our get-to-Valencia-by-train plan. In the next day or two the tickets will go on sale for the Paris to Barcelona leg of the journey, so I wanted to be sure that we know exactly what we're doing, and at what time, and how long we need for each connection. The plan is now thoroughly worked out, and all we have to do is buy the tickets. I think I'm actually looking forward to the journey more than the concert - well, we'll be doing the same concert at least twice in other locations, but this journey will be a one-off! (In case you're wondering, it will cost about £240 total for each of us - £220 if we stay with friends in London on the Sunday night on the way back and take advantage of the cheap fares on the Monday.)

Anyway, I have a few links to share from the last week or two.

At Sydney Opera House they had a dawn concert for the victims of the Australian bush fires. There is a clip on the BBC news site, although it cuts out just as the choir is about to sing - if anyone finds a link to more of it, please let me know!

Meanwhile, at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, they performed an opera in the bar after a power cut in the auditorium.

ACDA (the American Choral Directors' Association) has its own YouTube channel, where you can view lots of videos of choral performances. I've only looked at a few - please let me know if you discover one that you think everyone needs to see. (Thanks to ChoralBlog for alerting me to this.)

Here's a fascinating article about the technical aspects of a project to bring live opera to cyberspace.

From the front of the choir has had a great series of posts recently about "preparing to sing", but the one I found most interesting was the one that explained exactly why physical warmups are so important.

The Really Terrible Orchestra is having problems with other orchestras using its name. I'm very amused by this article: "Their CDs come with complimentary earplugs and their music is bereft of C sharps because it is a note that their principal bassoonist has never mastered." "Sometimes the orchestras' efforts are so excruciating that the conductor will stop a performance to offer his apologies to the audience." "“It does not matter that on more than one occasion members of the orchestra have been discovered to be playing different pieces of music by different composers, at the same time. We are The Really Terrible Orchestra and we shall go on and on.”

A nice story from the MEN about a member of the Youth Choir.

There is a new(ish) band called Fleet Foxes, and I just love their singing. Read this review of a concert they did in London this week. I would REALLY like to hear them live. (More reviews of their gig by The Times, the Financial Times and the Independent.)

Talking of London concerts, the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela will be at the South Bank Centre for a week in April. (That's these people, in case you'd forgotten.) I think it was only announced a few days ago, but already all the tickets are almost gone. That's someone else I'd love to see live, particularly as they're doing (amongst other things) Concerto for Orchestra and The Rite of Spring, two of the most exciting pieces there are. (Their conductor, Gustavo Dudamel, has been in London this week conducting the Philharmonia, to rave reviews (Guardian, Times, FT.))

By way of contrast, there's someone who decided to go for a month without music and blog about it.

In the news yesterday: doctors are planning to do voice box transplants. I'm intrigued by this, mainly because I can't help wondering what effect this would have on the singing voice. The article doesn't mention this question, but I hope some scientist is poised to investigate!

In the news today: well, not really news, but further mention of the prevalence of drinking problems in orchestras. I'd be very surprised indeed if it transpired that this was a problem that affected OUR orchestra, but I'd love to know which orchestras they're talking about in the article.

Non-musical stuff: the Big Picture has a great series of photos from this year's Carnival in Rio.

A date for your diary: Saturday 28th March (8.30-9.30pm) is Earth Hour. Get ready to turn your lights out.

I'm fascinated by Twitscoop - a constantly-changing summary of what people are talking about RIGHT NOW, taken from millions of Twitter posts.

And finally - apparently cats are fascinated by this spider, but I haven't been able to get either of mine to look at the screen for long enough to notice it!

EDIT: I almost forgot... the forthcoming Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince film (due for release on 17th July) has a new official website, where you can see a trailer and hear the new version of the theme tune. Over four months to go and I'm ridiculously excited!

The night is departing

Very busy week - out every night and have had loads of stuff to do at home too, which has meant not going to bed till... well, now! - so I'll write properly at the weekend. This is just a flying visit to let choir members know that, thanks to the wonderful Sheena, Mendelssohn 2 is now available on my mp3 page (also linked on right of this page). The choir on the recording isn't great, but they're good enough to help with notebashing at least. Oh, and my prediction about what language we're singing in turned out to be correct! Drat!

A demonstration of quality unaccompanied singing

I'm quite impressed with the MEN review of last night's concert, although their perception of what part of our performance was the best is interesting (by which I mean, I don't agree with it!) I really enjoyed the concert (well, our bit at least - the rest of the programme wasn't really to my taste, although the Britten thing was fun). I don't think we sang as well as we were doing last week, but it was amazing after the rehearsal the previous night, which did not go as well as we might have hoped (plus it ended with us receiving some very bad news). People always say that a bad dress rehearsal makes for a good concert, and it certainly worked in this case!

I actually got quite overcome at some point in the Gloria when I realised that the performance was going to be good after all, and couldn't sing properly for a minute or so because I had a lump in my throat. After that I was OK, but I got so excited by the end that I couldn't keep my breath for the very last phrase - a pity, because how often do the altos get to start *and* finish a piece? Oh well.

Anyway, no more Vaughan Williams for us - next up, Mendelssohn 2 and the Planets. I'm really, really hoping we do the Mendelssohn in English (which will probably guarantee it's in German...) because it was the first thing I ever did with the choir, in 1993, and we did it in English then, so that's the version I've got in my head. (I wasn't allowed to sing in the concert that time due to being "on probation", so this will be my first performance of it.) Does anyone have (or know of) a recording of it IN ENGLISH? I've been looking for one for the past 16 years and not managed to find one... In the meantime, if anyone has a recording in German that they'd be willing to share, I'd appreciate it. (I've never bought one because I've been holding out for the English version.)

Finally, a couple of links: talking of Mendelssohn, there is a sing-a-long-a-Mendelssohn day in May.

From the BBC, the healing power of drumming.

And a composer tries to recreate Neanderthal music.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful

As if there weren't enough problems this week caused by the weather (although Manchester did pretty well compared to most enough places - there are still several inches of snow on the ground at my house, but this hasn't stopped me doing anything) I had a difficult day yesterday caused by a student sit-in. Apparently this started on Thursday, but the first I knew of it was on Friday morning when I arrived at the university (where I am currently temping) to find security staff all over the place. I was sent to three doors before they eventually let me in (I don't have a staff card, see, being a temp). Turns out the students had expanded into the post room, and our office is very near there.

So, not only was it a pain to get in (so I couldn't start work on time despite my train being early for once), we didn't receive any post and couldn't send any (there was one package that apparently HAD to go yesterday, so I spent a while after work trying to find a postbox with a wide enough opening, having bought stamps at lunchtime only to find that the package was too big for the nearby postbox, and I didn't have time to go in search of a post office). And by lunchtime, our part of the building was deserted, with only one security guard left, who said that if I went out he wouldn't be able to let me back in, so I had to arrange for someone to come up and meet me... I found out later that apparently the university had emailed everyone in that building to tell them to go home. They certainly didn't email me, nor anyone else in my office (at least I don't think so, because they stayed there all day too), but it's probably just as well because if I'd had to go home I would have lost half a day's pay!

And I didn't even see any of the student sit-in, despite having to go right past it - the many, many security guards kept people shielded. Oh well.

Anyway, choir this week was particularly good fun. The gig is on Thursday, so this was our last session before joining up with the youth choir (who will be singing the four solo lines - not as solos, just to give a different sound). We did sing every note of the Mass, for the first time (although not in order). I think it will be fabulous. And what made it even better was that we spent the majority of the rehearsal sitting muddled up (i.e. no-one was next to someone singing the same part). I *love* it when we do this, and wish we did it more often! I think it's really good for showing people which bits they need to work on individually. (In every choir I suspect there are a lot of "followers" who don't realise how much they are following - hopefully sitting jumbled up alerts them to this!)

I ended up sitting between Peter and Cliff, both 2nd basses, and it was WONDERFUL. I had never noticed how many glorious low notes they have in this piece - it was spinetingling. Actually, I thought the men in general sounded much better when they were jumbled up - I have a theory as to why this might be, but I will leave you to come up with your own!

On Wednesday we'll be rehearsing in the hall with the youth choir, which I'm very much looking forward to. Then on Thursday it's the concert, which I think will be our best one in a while (and ALL our concerts are great, so that should give you some idea how good this one will be!) I'm very pleased that they've changed their minds about having us sitting in the choir seats during the main concert - so we're back to being a proper post-concert event as originally planned. (I'd hoped we'd be performing on the stage rather than from the choir seats, but it turns out this isn't an option because there is no way we can *rehearse* on the stage, so I agree we should perform as we've rehearsed. It'll still be great!)

I'm particularly excited because not only is my mum coming on Thursday, my best friend and his wife will be there too. He hasn't seen the choir in *years* - and his wife never has - so I can't wait to hear what they think!

Anyway, hopefully there'll be a lot to say about the concert, but in the meantime I have, as usual, a few links.

On an Overgrown Path talks about unusual performance spaces (including Belle Vue) prompted by a concert he went to in Great Yarmouth.

The BBC Music Magazine tells us about opera singers in the crowd at rugby games.

There's a nice audio slideshow about the Soweto Gospel Choir on the BBC website today.

The Soweto thing is uplifting, but this is quite the opposite: Time magazine tells us about the increasing use of Auto-Tune software to improve vocal performances. The very thought of it makes me shudder.

Oh, and I applied for a music-related job this week. I've actually applied for this particular job three times in the past 18 months - I got an interview the first time, but not the second. So I don't hold out much hope, but I think I would be great at it, so I wasn't about to give up! I'll let you know if I get anywhere...

If thou wilt foil thy foes with joy

I've had a bit of a mixed week in which some good things have happened, but far more things have not gone according to plan. I spent far too much time chasing a certain organisation to get them to pay me for some freelance work I did for them. I was desperate to get this money by Friday so I could pay this month's mortgage, but it was not to be. They do say they're GOING to pay me, but don't seem in any hurry to actually do so! Argh!

Choir was fun though - not just the fact that we finally did the last few bits of the VW that we hadn't previously looked at, but also because during the warmup there was a great impromptu variation on the regular off-the-voice quiet staccato "hoh-hoh-hoh" thing (choir members will know the one I mean, I hope). This time we were instructed to do a long note every so often and then go back to the staccato. The sound of the whole choir doing this together was amazing!

The VW gig is a week on Thursday and I'm really looking forward to it. It was originally billed as a post-concert event, but now it seems we are part of the main concert after all. I hope they still change the lighting like they did last time, I thought that made all the difference.

I had a rehearsal with my band on Thursday. There was a last-minute rethink about what we were going to be able to rehearse due to a couple of people not being able to make it, but I was delighted that we were still able to try "This Little Babe" (from Britten's Ceremony of Carols) (yes, I know January is not the most obvious time to be singing this, but I only thought of it a couple of weeks ago and couldn't bear to wait 11 months to try it!) It occurred to me that there's no reason why it wouldn't work with guitar accompaniment instead of harp, and in fact it worked really well. Better than you might expect, actually, given that the three of us who were singing it all knew it very well, but we'd all previously sung the alto part. Since the other two are both 1st altos, though, I decided it made more sense for them to sing the soprano parts and me to stick with the alto part. To be fair, it only goes high right at the end... Anyway, I thought we sounded fabulous! The most amusing part was that I'd sent my guitarist an mp3 because he's never heard the song before, and he said he'd found it difficult to practise to due to the "weird echo effects on the recording". It took me a moment to realise that he meant the canon! I had to show him the vocal score to explain that what was going on in verse 3 was entirely down to Britten :-)

(The other amusing part was that we instructed him to pay no attention to us as we would put him off, which was fine until it got to the last line and his chords were supposed to alternate with ours... Despite that, he did very well for a first attempt, given that he doesn't really read music (he was playing from a chord sheet I'd created, as usual). Next time we'll be trying "Balulalow" as well - that needs 4 singers and we only had 3 on Thursday.)

In non-musical news, the Vendee Globe has been won, although only one competitor is home so far - the rest are a long way behind him. The winner is Michel Desjoyeaux, who also won it the year Ellen MacArthur came second (which is what originally made her famous). It's not been in the news at all, but maybe that's because there have been no British sailors with any chance of winning after Mike Golding and Alex Thomson had to pull out. Oh well. Maybe in 4 years' time!

A few links to finish. The Guardian tells us of how Argentina and Uruguay have been arguing about the history of the tango.

Someone at Manchester Confidential went to her first classical concert.

Boston.com has a theory about a sensitive female chord progression. I'd be more convinced if they'd quoted more songs I actually know (and I do know LOTS of songs!)

Boston.com is also responsible for the Big Picture, which I've mentioned before, but recently they had a great series of photos of London from above, at night.

It was a spreadsheet in my case!

At one point during this week's Vaughan Williams rehearsal, we were told that we needed to think of whatever had made us happiest so far that day, so that our singing would sound livelier. (Note to any non-singers reading this: this may sound ridiculous, but it does actually seem to work.) I was amused to realise that my happiest moment of the day was caused by a spreadsheet I'd created. It was the conditional formatting that did it, I love that :-)

Not much to say other than that, and I'm on my way out of the house, so let's see if I can quickly share a few links.

I'm very, very amused by The Choral Conductor's Flowchart (courtesy of ChoralBlog). Some of the language might be NSFW - be warned.

From the Guardian, a great article about why Guitar Hero is such fun. If you've never tried the game, and/or never heard of it, and/or think you would never enjoy a video game - read this.

Also from the Guardian, a great interview with Acker Bilk.

Tomorrow is Burns Night, and it's a special one this year, kicking off the Year of Homecoming. And here's a great article by the wonderful Jackie Kay about Burns.

If you've ever read the fabulous children's book Coraline (by Neil Gaiman), you will be delighted to know that an animated film of it is released next month. and here's a trailer featuring Neil himself talking about it. (This is one of the best books EVER to read aloud to kids; I did so for several classes when I was at Rydings Special School, and it went down very well.) (Also, after reading Coraline you will never think of buttons in the same way again.)

And finally, the Vendee Globe race is almost over - the leaders are in the North Atlantic, and Michel Desjoyeaux is still a long way ahead of the rest - but in the meantime the Big Picture has some great photos of recent sailing events.

Types of cadence

Quick quiz for any of you who have ever studied any music theory: Before reading any further, how many types of cadence can you name?

One of the things I love about choir rehearsals is that they very often remind me of things I once knew and ought to still know, so I have to go home and look them up. Tonight it was English cadences, of which there are many in the Vaughan Williams. When the term was first mentioned last night, I thought I knew what they were, but when the explanation was given I was wrong. Turned out I was getting them muddled with feminine cadences, which are basically cadences in which the final note is on a weak beat of the bar. And while I was looking this up, I got sidetracked and was reminded of Phrygian cadences, and discovered their link with Andalusian cadences - I'd never heard of those before! (Well, not by that name, although the sound of the cadence is very familiar.)

If you mentioned any of these in your list of cadences, you definitely win. However, the four standard ones (that I think are probably on the Grade 5 Theory syllabus, although I could be wrong about that) are Perfect (V-I); Plagal (IV-I); Imperfect (anything-V) and Interrupted (V-VI). If you got all four, give yourself a pat on the back! (Lots more info, as usual, at Wikipedia.)

(Oddly enough, Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for Phrygian cadences - maybe I will write one - but while checking my info elsewhere, I discovered this very useful dictionary of musical terms. Worth bookmarking, I think.)

Lots of singing this week - there was a full rehearsal last night and a ladies' sectional tonight, both concentrating on Vaughan Williams. It's very wonderful and I can't wait to perform it. (My favourite chord is at letter E on page 20 - I *know* you wanted to know that!) Two things I only noticed tonight, mainly because we looked at the Agnus Dei for the first time: The last page of the score is the first time all 12 parts sing at the same time, and the very last phrase of the piece (sung by the altos) is identical (well, apart from a tiny difference in rhythm) to the very first phrase of the piece (sung by the altos). How clever is that?!

I don't have many links for you this week, because I seem to have had no time to do anything. (Oh, and if you're one of the many people to whom I owe email, please be patient and I'll get to you in the end. I had a bit of an inbox explosion after that article appeared in the paper, and I haven't managed to summon the energy to reply to ANYONE yet - so it's not just you!) In fact, the only musical one is one that I saw a while ago (can't remember if I mentioned it at the time) but Dr Liz reminded me of: a load of monks performing the Hallelujah Chorus. (Note: they don't actually sing...) (Further note: it's entirely possible they're not actual monks...) I don't think I've ever been quite so amused by the word "and" - watch and you'll see what I mean! (Hint: fast forward to 1 minute 30, because it's boring until then.)

A totally different video is a physicist describing what it would be like to die in a black hole. (This is half an hour long, and it's all very entertaining, but the black hole bit is just the first seven minutes of it. If you listen to the rest, don't worry - that asteroid is NOT going to hit us!)

The most entertaining bit of my week so far, though, was being at Old Trafford on Sunday to witness United thrashed Chelsea. The funniest part was the reception John Terry (the Chelsea captain) got. Unsurprisingly he is very popular at Old Trafford these days, because it was mainly due to him falling over in Moscow that we won the Champions' League. This meant that he was cheered when his name was read out (which is unusual for an opposing player) and every time he touched the ball. You probably had to be there to appreciate how funny this was!

As good as ever

I suppose it's not ENTIRELY a bad thing if the only mention your role gets in a review is "as good as ever", especially if the reviewer in question has been known, in the past, not to mention you at all. But anyway, in case anyone missed it, the Manchester Evening News very belatedly reviewed our carol concerts.

I was still listening to Christmas music until yesterday, but that's because I have a playlist of "all the Christmas music there is" and once I've started to listen to it, it feels wrong not to finish. Plus, I really like the Zither Carol! This list has grown each year and currently contains 214 tracks (some pop, some classical), so it takes a while to listen to all of it.

Christmas for the choir is finished for ten months or so, though, and this week we started on the lovely Mass in G Minor by Vaughan Williams. (Wikipedia claims it is the first mass written in a distinctly English manner since the sixteenth century, and I must admit I can't think of a counterexample.) We'll be performing this on 12th February, at a late-night performance following an interesting-looking concert whose main work is Schumann's 3rd Symphony, although I love the title of the Colin Matthews piece! Last time we did one of these post-concert events, it was the Tippett Negro spirituals, and the atmosphere was absolutely magical - I hope this one's as good, and I suspect it might be. (That Tippett performance was recorded, and if memory serves I think we heard it in a rehearsal but there was some reason why we couldn't all have copies of it - can anyone remind me?)

Anyway, I enjoyed sight-reading the Vaughan Williams on Wednesday, and am looking forward to starting work on it properly. My favourite aspect so far is that it's for double choir, and the two choirs are sitting separately. This means that us 2nd altos feel even more special, because it's much more obvious how outnumbered we are by the 1sts (I think there were literally three times as many 1sts as 2nds, last time I counted). On Wednesday we ended up totally surrounded by 2nd sops - as in, there was a circle of them enclosing us! We'd been instructed to sit in wedges so that each row contained all eight parts, but the 2nd sops had already filled all the 2nd alto spaces on the second row before any of us got there, so we started at the third row... and then a load of 2nd sops arrived late and sat behind us (and to our right as well) because there were no more seats. As a result I now know the 2nd sop part quite well but couldn't hear the men at all. Still, it'll give me a new experience next week!

I may have posted these mp3s before (we did the Sanctus for last year's vocal assessments) but here they are again anyway for those who want to practise:

Kyrie
Gloria
Credo
Sanctus
Benedictus
Agnus Dei

I've acquired a load of links over the last few weeks - I didn't want to include any of them in my Twelve Days of Christmas song posts because I knew I was less likely to keep my vow of posting for twelve consecutive days if I did! (If you didn't read any of those, do go back and look - my readership dropped each day I did them, but I enjoyed doing them anyway so I don't really care!) So, here are some things for you to read.

I suspect there'll be quite a few things about Haydn this year (he died on 31st May 1809) and here are the first: The great Haydn road trip and Long live Papa Haydn; both from the Guardian, the first about a trip to places associated with Haydn while listening to all 106 of his symphonies, and the second specifically about his vocal works.

Also from the Guardian, an article about a new film about Carl Orff, and another about footballers' tastes in pop music.

You may well be aware of last year's story about Joshua Bell busking (I thought I'd mentioned it at the time, but it looks as if I didn't). I was recently reminded of it by, of all things, a Snopes post. (In case you haven't encountered Snopes before, it's an invaluable site for checking the truth of those emails you get that tell you "this is a true story, forward it to everyone you know!") The event was actually an experiment by the Washington Post, and the full story (including a link to the video of his performance) is a very thought-provoking read, as is the followup discussion with the writer, which explains how the experiment came about and why he waited three months to write about it!

Here's a not-entirely-serious Guardian artcile about the effect of Guitar Hero on guitar design.

And some double bass related T shirts.

Another VERY interesting article by David Griggs-Janower, this time about what conductors do in rehearsals and why it's so exhausting. (The followup post, about being a teacher, is also worth a read, and the two posts together explain very well the main reason I gave up teaching!)

From ChoralBlog, a piece about church congregations not being able to sing as high as they used to. (The full original post at Soho the Dog is interesting too.)

MIke Barnes writes in the Guardian about loud noise in music causing tinnitus.

From the J-Walk blog: apparently Microsoft are introducing a thing called Songsmith, which creates an instant accompaniment as you sing. If any of you tries this I would love to hear your reports!

That's the end of my music-related links, but I have a few more non-musical ones to share. Firstly, the Big Picture continues its excellence with some amazing photos from recent events in Gaza.

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, so it's great timing for an announcement that there is to be a dark sky park in Scotland. I'll definitely be visiting that as soon as I can afford the trip. (Talking of astronomical things, if you've been wondering what that very bright "star" is that you can currently see in the south west in the early evenings, it's Venus, and it sets at 8pm.)

I'm currently teaching myself Spanish in preparation for our trip to Valencia in May, and I'm relieved it's not Portugal we're going to, because I imagine it would be VERY confusing to learn Portuguese at the moment - they're changing all their spellings!

Working at RNID for over a year showed me how much I had to learn about deafness, so it doesn't surprise me to find that there are aspects of blindness that I had no idea about. For example, I had no idea, until I read this, that children learning Braille used to have to do so backwards!

Liverpool's year as European Capital of Culture ends tonight, so I thought I'd mention a new banner that's recently been put up at Old Trafford. (Thanks to Republik of Mancunia for the picture.)

And from Manchester Confidential, news of an opportunity to become a hermit for two months at the Manchester Museum!

Finally, I know you've been wondering about the Vendee Globe. (I forgot to remind you about my other favourite yacht race, the Rolex Sydney Hobart race, which takes place every Boxing Day between Sydney and Hobart (Tasmania), but there were no big surprises in it this year.)

The leaders are now on the home stretch, having rounded Cape Horn and being well on their way up the Atlantic, to the east of South America. The leading British competitor is currently Samantha Davies (the one who didn't quite rescue that guy), who's in 4th place of the 12 who are still in the race, but 1800 miles behind the leader (Michel Desjoyeaux, who has won the race before - in fact, he was the winner in 2001 when Ellen MacArthur rose to fame by coming second). There's been more trauma recently, though - two more of the leading competitors have had to withdraw, because one of them (Jean Le Cam) capsized near Cape Horn (in one of the most treacherous stretches of water in the world) and then the guy who rescued him (Vincent Riou) was dismasted as a result of damage caused during the rescue. Both sailors are now safely in Chile, but they might easily not have been - this is what happened to Jean Le Cam's boat...

The twelfth day of Christmas: Manchester Rap

To finish with, a song that was never a hit, and was never (as far as I recall) performed on TOTP. If there was a video, I never saw it (and I can't find one on YouTube). It's not on Wikipedia, and googling it merely turns up a few people trying to find a copy of the mp3. (This being the case, I can't guarantee what year it was released - I could dig out my 7" vinyl copy, but that would require more energy than I currently have - but I think it was 1989.) I don't think it was ever even played on the radio... except on Manchester local radio!

The Bosnians - Manchester Rap

It's entirely possible that this song will do nothing for you if you're not from Manchester. It has the same chord - and in fact more or less the same backing entirely - all the way through. The vocal line has no tune - it's all spoken. That being the case, there is obviously no vocal harmony. There are no interesting instruments. Nothing musical of note happens at all.

And yet.... this song makes me giggle every time I think of it. "MAXEEEEENE!"

Anyway, tomorrow, back to normal - I could continue this series forever, but I suspect no-one wants me to (my readership has gone down each day for the last twelve!)

The tenth day of Christmas: Mansize Rooster

Well, yesterday's song was slightly silly. Today's is a bit sillier. (And, just to warn you, tomorrow's is very silly, and the last one is totally ridiculous!)

Supergrass - Mansize Rooster

Supergrass became a very big band, but this was their first (minor) hit; it got to number 20 in 1995. To me, though, none of their subsequent songs was a patch on this one. This song has just about everything! And I must admit I never knew what it was supposed to be about until I looked it up on Wikipedia - and now I know, I still can't see what the lyrics have to do with that!

Apart from the slight silliness, this song does have something else in common with Johnny Remember Me: a galloping horse rhythm on the guitar. But I love the fact that it doesn't do this all the way through - there are different sections with quite different accompanying rhythms, and I particularly like the way the song moves from one to another. For example, in the intro, the drums play on every beat (which makes for a very powerful intro!) but then the drums start galloping to bring us to the first verse.

There's also one bit where all the backing stops totally, leaving the vocals alone briefly - very exciting. My only complaint is that they should have made the end as definitive and exciting as that - they actually fade out... but I can't have everything! However, there are some Jellyfish triplets :-)

As for the vocals - well! Vocal harmony throughout, obviously (and all the harmony is interesting - some unexpected chords! I always love that) but there's also a high howling bit of BV that comes several times. And I also love the way that the last time he sings "crazy" the glissando is twice as long. And he even shouts "ROOSTER!" in a silly voice in the middle! Perfection.

The eighth day of Christmas: My resistance is low

This one was actually written by the wonderful Hoagy Carmichael and was a big hit in the UK in 1976.

Robin Sarstedt - My resistance is low

The singer, Robin Sarstedt, is the younger brother of both Peter Sarstedt ("Where Do You Go To, My Lovely?") and Eden Kane ("Well, I Ask You") This song was his only hit. I could only find one version of it on YouTube, but it doesn't show any of the performers other than Robin, and it misses out the very end!

The end (both the singer's very low note, and the fact that it ends with a whispered "yeah!") is possibly my favourite bit of the song, but there are also fabulous Disneyesque backing vocals, and a full orchestra which has all sorts of interjections to contribute. Also, the intro is one of the best intros ever, and I defy you not to start swaying by the end of it!