"No, no, no - you need some sort of ecstasy, surely?"

Sorry, etc., etc.! (After the next three weeks I will have much more free time and promise to update more often!)

I missed choir last week (i.e. 11 days ago) because I'd been up working for most of the previous night, so by the time I'd been to work as well, I couldn't stay awake any longer. I was almost as tired this week, but I was determined not to miss another rehearsal, and I'm so glad I made it, because it put me in the best mood I've been in for ages. I sat next to Soprano Claire, and we had a whale of a time - we were just buzzing at the end!

I'd got there early for the alto vocal coaching, in which we sang bits of The Music Makers, including singing the last page to each other with our fingers in our ears (a REALLY weird sensation - try it!). Then, in the main rehearsal, we moved onto Bach, with (again) most of the time being spent on the chorale at the end. That produced all this week's Jamieisms: the one in the title, plus "An eternal frisbee right next to God" (I can't remember what that meant!) and "Ladies, can I check your underlay?" (which made us all giggle, which (probably quite rightly) seemed to really irritate Jamie, but it's because we were in a good mood!)

We then sight-read Syvati, which is very lovely although goes on a bit too long. Can't wait to do it with the solo cello. (And the basses sounded magnificent.) And we finished by sight-reading, with very few stops, the whole of the Poulenc Gloria, which we're performing in May. This gave the lovely Jonathan (our pianist for the night) something to do at last. (I see he's updated his website, by the way, but be warned - bits of it crashed my computer!) I've never sung this before, and I really like it - I've just bought the CD (mp3s below). I made loads of mistakes, so Jamie should be very happy. (In my defence, the score is very hard to read, which always seems to be the case with French music for some reason - does anyone know why that is?)

I bought a CD of The Kingdom along with the Poulenc, by the way, and I listened to that yesterday. I've never heard the piece before, and I can't say it grabs me. Mind you, it doesn't help that the choir on the recording is a bit flat in places and I can't make out most of their words. Maybe the piece will inspire me more when we do it properly!

Anyway, two rehearsals for everyone this week, although not all at the same time. I must go and do some work. But first....

Some Poulenc Gloria mp3s:

Poulenc Gloria: Gloria
Poulenc Gloria: Laudamus te
Poulenc Gloria: Domine Deus
Poulenc Gloria: Domine fili unigenite
Poulenc Gloria: Domine Deus, Agnus Dei
Poulenc Gloria: Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris

And, finally, some random links I've accumulated...

You may have heard about this alarm clock, which wakes you up with soothing messages from Stephen Fry. Sadly all the messages are addressed to "sir", but I believe there is a "madam" version coming soon.

I'm sure you were all dying to know how to do harsh death metal vocals. Now you can!

Here's a recent BBC article about why boys don't join choirs.

I recently discovered A Singer's Life - a blog which has a huge amount of interesting stuff on it. I've added it to the sidebar, along with Choralation. Most interesting recent post on the latter was this one about how conductors are largely superfluous. Food for thought!

Oh, and if you're reading this on Sunday, don't forget our Question Time opera is on BBC2 tonight at 10pm :-)

"It's on the edge of what's legal. We should do it sometime!"

This referred to a Schoenberg a cappella piece, Friede auf Erden, which Jamie told us about on Wednesday while going through the German pronunciation for Komm Jesu Komm. I'd never heard of it, but was interested enough to go in search of a recording: here's an mp3 for anyone else who wants to hear it. (It's not very tuneful!)

Talking of mp3s, I did post some for the Bach and Rachmaninov a couple of posts ago, but in light of the discussion about the many radically different versions of the Vespers, you may be interested to know that the one I posted is by a Russian choir, from this album. I bought it a few years ago, and chose it because it's the version recommended by the Rough Guide to Classical Music.

(EDIT: Talking of Russian things, I've belatedly remembered that someone emailed me and asked me to publicise a concert in Northenden on Thursday, by a group of Russian singers. Details here.)

And here are two more mp3s (I do spoil you!): Pearsall's Lay a Garland (which we're not singing, but Jamie mentioned it last week); and Tavener's Svyati, which we are singing, not only in the a cappella gigs but also in the newly-added late night gig at the RNCM as part of the Cello Festival. (And Yo-Yo Ma is in fact in the same concert as us, albeit slightly earlier - and since he's being presented with an award immediately before our bit, I imagine we WILL see him!) (In fact, the list of artists appearing is very impressive. And we're on it!)

I have to admit that my main excitement about seeing Yo-Yo Ma is the fact that he played a central role in my favourite ever episode of The West Wing. I think I will have to rewatch my DVDs in preparation!

Thanks, by the way, to those people who offered me recordings of Svyati and Lay a Garland. And to those who offered recordings of the Bach and Rachmaninov, having not noticed that I'd already put them online! Svyati looks as if it might be entertaining, if a bit too long (especially for the 3rd and 4th bass parts - good luck, guys!) - I love stuff that splits us into millions of parts, and this has every section in 3 parts and the basses in 4. Whee!

I only had a couple more Jamieisms from Wednesday:

"Let's just do the first phrase to a tractor." (the was the chorale at the end of the Bach, which is extremely amusing when sung to silly noises...)

"My spirit's ready for action upstairs. ... Not THAT sort of action!" (this was also during the chorale, when he was telling us what it all meant, but reckoned without our dirty minds!)

(We had an impressive-looking visitor at the rehearsal, by the way, and for those who missed it, it was Andrew Wailes from Melbourne.)

No Jamie next week - don't know where he is - so we'll see Fanny for the first time this year. And coincidentally, the Question Time Opera thing, which several of us sang in thanks to Fanny's invite, now has a broadcast date - it'll be on BBC2 at 10pm on Sunday 11th March. (We also recorded a bit of the soundtrack for the first episode of the series, that's on tomorrow (25th Feb), but you'll only hear us rather than see us on that. Oh, and that's the bit that involved the sopranos being asked to take a quaver out of their bitch!) There's now an official BBC web page about the series, which includes a link to a video feature which features many clips from all the episodes, including ours.

And finally, for those who don't already know: I am really, really, REALLY looking forward to the a cappella gig on 30th March, because 4 hours earlier I will have ceased to be a teacher. FOREVER. Yay! (I can safely say this now because I have officially resigned.)

So, if anyone needs someone to do anything musical (for that's what I'd love to do)... please let me know!

Before I forget....

1. My online choir schedule has now been updated with today's new info. (A gig at 10.30 p.m.! How exciting!)

2. I was about to say that Jamie's Oxford Blues Service is being repeated on Sunday, but I've now realised that it's actually a new thing - an Oxford Blues Matins service, live on Radio 4 at 8.10 a.m.

3. If you can get the Sci-Fi Channel, you MUST watch Heroes, which starts at 10pm on Monday. I've seen 15 episodes of it and it's REALLY good.

"Make more mistakes. Bach's dead. He's not gonna mind."

What a good idea, to put sight-reading hints on the choir website! Wish someone had thought of that before...

(Jamie was giving tips on how to sight-read tonight, and at one point suggested that someone should write them all down and put them on the website for reference. I couldn't decide whether to be smug because I'd already done it, or upset because no-one seemed to know I'd done it! Oh well.)

First post-Mozart rehearsal, and we started on stuff for the a cappella concerts (note to those who can't remember the spelling of that - "two words, two Ps, two Ls"). The Music Makers will form the second half, with Maggie doing the solo and the lovely Jonathan being the orchestra. Also on the programme will be one of Rachmaninov's Vespers, again with a Maggie solo, and my favourite Bach motet, Komm Jesu Komm. I've done that before, but it was a very long time ago - it was the first thing I sang with the Manchester Cathedral Cantata Choir under Stuart Beer, and I can't remember when that was, but it was at least 15 years ago.

Here are some mp3s:

Bach - Komm Jesus Komm, part 1
Bach - Komm Jesus Komm, part 2
Bach - Komm Jesus Komm, part 3
Bach - Komm Jesus Komm, part 4
Rachmaninov - Vespers, no. 2

(I'm assuming everyone has the definitive recording of The Music Makers and therefore won't need mp3s of that!)

Not many Jamieisms (although I liked the one in the title of this post). He did have us doing an amusing warmup which involved the choir split into two halves and then individual pairs, singing "nooey nooey nooey nooey nee" (half a beat apart from each other). Oh, and there was "I'm doing it so loud that the bell's ringing every time but no-one's listening!" (this followed an impression of "the man with the hammer at the fair, and the little thing that gets hit all day", and referred to his downbeats!)

I almost forgot to mention that we spent the whole rehearsal learning Komm Jesu Komm, and it was fabulous, and choir 2 was CLEARLY vastly superior to choir 1 (in terms of sight-reading and following the beat and ACTUALLY COMING IN), yet Jamie failed to acknowledge this fact! We were outraged!

P.S. They're making a Messiah musical!

Spee reet een eet!

JAMIE: Are you still saying 'spiritu'? I don't recommend it. It sounds dull. Say 'spee ree too'.

CHOIR: Spee ree too.

JAMIE: Yes! That's so much better. It's actually got spirit in it.

CHOIR: Spee reet een eet!

---

This was the most amusing moment from a REALLY long and tiring - but good - day today. It was the Mozart C minor mass gig with Mark. We were there at 11.30 a.m. this morning, having also rehearsed last night. And of course we had the piano rehearsal with Mark on Wednesday. And I haven't blogged about any of them, due to various nightmarish non-choir-related reasons that I can't go into here - at least, not yet - but those who don't know may be able to guess if they notice that my profile has changed ever so slightly... Sorry, anyway. I should be asleep now but several people asked me today what had happened to the blog, so I thought I'd better at least post the accumulated Jamieisms and Markisms!

The concert went really well, by the way. We got Petrushka in the first half - not really my cup of tea - and then the stage was totally rearranged for the Mozart. (Mark, ever innovative, had the woodwind right at the front, i.e. in front of the strings. Never seen that before!) The soloists were all fabulous, particularly Susan Gritton. (Although we almost scared her away with our tractors... she arrived in the choir assembly area just as we started warming up, and seemed quite startled!) And I must admit I hardly spotted any mistakes from the choir. The 1st altos got their F# right in the middle of Qui Tollis for possibly the first time ever, although the C-G-Eb-Bb bar in the Credo was still a disaster area for the altos as a whole (very few people got the G) and a scary number of people were still double-dotting in the Gratias - I say 'scary' because of the number of times this was mentioned and practised. But apart from these two aspects, I think everything was pretty good. (Well, apart from the alto seating plan, which has been riddled with mistakes for ages now - every time a new one is produced, we have to amend it by swapping seats with each other so that the firsts are actually all sitting with firsts and the seconds are all with seconds. There are quite a few people who have given up hope of ever being put in the right place. At least everyone was ON the plan today, though, which is a big improvement on the last few rehearsals, so maybe there's hope yet!)

Anyway, a few more quotes from the last week:

Jamie: My favourite joke just happens to involve pandas. (Dr Liz went to find out what this joke was, and it was so rubbish I can't even remember!)

Mark: Ma-éstro! (suggesting that this was a word that we might like to practise in addition to 'Deo'!)

Mark: "Sancto-sss - it's a Spanish word originally. ... I'm lying."

A tenor came in early at one point.... Jamie: "Nice!" (nodding a la Fast Show jazz guy)

Jamie: Sometime we'll have to get a video camera in - you'd be surprised what tenses up when you're singing.

Jamie: Have you had sun-dried tomatoes in the last week? (I can't remember why on earth he said this! But it seemed relevant at the time....)

Must sleep now. Word to the wise: if you have your own copy of The Music Makers, you might wish to dig it out and put it in your choir bag....

Technical problems

The server on which the mp3s are hosted is currently inaccessible. I've emailed the friend who administers it, and he's already on the case, so please try again in a few hours if you want some Mozart (it may well be working by the time you read this). EDIT: Working now. EDIT 2: *Really* working now. Honest.

Sibelius FTW!

Brownie points if you know what the title means without looking it up :p

It occurred to me that I haven't yet posted any Mozart mp3s, and today is his birthday. So, here are all the choruses from the C Minor Mass. (I should warn you that on this recording they use Germanic Latin, so some words will sound a bit odd, but the music is OK.)

Kyrie
Gloria
Gratias
Qui tollis
Jesu Christe/Cum sancto spiritu
Credo
Sanctus/Osanna
(Benedictus)/Osanna

And then I went one better and created some extra mp3s... especially for Libby, who said she couldn't practise the runs properly because they're too fast on her CD and she can't play them on the piano. I have no doubt a few others are in the same predicament! Here's the alto part (only) of the Cum Sancto Spiritu, and the 2nd alto part (only) of the Osanna, recorded at various different speeds. (Don't worry, this didn't take NEARLY as long to do as you might imagine!) I think the crotchet = 200 version of the Cum Sancto Spiritu and the crotchet = 80 version of the Osanna are the closest to the probable concert speed, but you never know! (And sorry for not doing any other parts - as I explained in my last post, my score is different to the one most people have, so I couldn't guarantee the notes would be right.)

Cum Sancto Spiritu (alto part only): Crotchet = 80, Crotchet = 120, Crotchet = 160, Crotchet = 200, Crotchet = 240

Osanna (2nd alto part only): Crotchet = 40, Crotchet = 60, Crotchet = 80, Crotchet = 100

Hope someone finds those of use :-)

Oh, and can I just remind you all again that there's football at Old Trafford on Wednesday night, since my efforts to get this information announced and/or added to the schedule have so far come to nothing? I will be dutifully coming to choir and sending my brother to sit in my seat at the match. Incidentally, when I explained to the guy who sits next to me why I won't be there, I found myself trying to defend the Hallé for not paying the choir - he thinks we should get the same rate as the orchestra! I must admit his argument was very convincing :-)

"If I was changing from a natural to a sharp, I'd be more excited about it than you are."

Oops, I seem to have broken the first rule of blogging again! Sorry about that. January has, on the whole, been not just dreich (I use the word in honour of Burns Night!) but pretty horrible in every way. But I won't bore you with why, because choir has successfully managed to cheer me up \o/ And although I didn't make it to the first rehearsal of the year (which is very rare for me, but that was a nightmare week) I have accumulated many Jamieisms from the subsequent ones, so I thought I'd send them your way.

For those not in the choir, I should explain that we're currently rehearsing Mozart's C Minor Mass, which we'll be performing on 11th February. This is a fabulous piece, which I know pretty well, having done it two or three times before, although not for quite a few years. But I'm finding it slightly confusing, because I have the Breitkopf edition, bought the first time I did it. It is a complete version of the mass setting - Mozart didn't finish the C minor mass himself, so the editors of this version have filled in the missing bits with relevant movements from other (lesser-known) Mozart masses. So it's all proper Mozart, and hence wonderful, and that's the version I first performed. However, I've never been able to find a recording of this full version - all the recordings I've ever seen have just the actual C minor mass bits, i.e. the Credo stops after a couple of movements and there's no Agnus Dei. And the other problem - currently much more of an issue - is that we're using a different edition for this performance, and quite a few of the movements have different parts. For example, in the Osanna, the 2nd alto part that I know is almost entirely in the 1st alto line, and some bits of it don't appear at all. The line that everyone else has as the 2nd alto line is the 1st alto line in my copy, apart from a few bars where I've had to write stuff in, because those notes don't appear in any part at all in my copy. It's really offputting. And you're probably wondering why I don't just use a borrowed choir copy... well, I do like to have my own copies of things, because I write loads of stuff in, and it's a big help when I come to do the same work again years later. And, being a bit broke at the moment, I couldn't justify buying a new copy when I already had one. Oh well.

Anyway, Jamieisms! Some of these are from last Wednesday. Some are from the ladies' sectional this Tuesday. And some are from the open rehearsal in Wythenshawe this Wednesday. (I think the one in the title was from then, actually.)

----

During a warmup, Jamie was doing facial stretches, along the lines of "Can you look shifty? Can you look amused? Can you look startled?" And when he got to "Can you do The Scream?" I was highly amused that almost half the ladies (for this was at the sectional) actually screamed :p

"Just think of this as foreign music. It was written in a weird place, by a weirdo."

"The microphone's going to be about here. Live relay. Just so you know."

"It's got to sound like music somewhere near the edge of what it's reasonable to ask."

"Altos, this is the reason you come to choir." (This was, sadly, the 1st altos, but referred to the "qui sedes" in bar 38 of Qui Tollis.)

"I'm going to stand on that chair." (This preceded a spell of Jamie in fact standing on several chairs in an effort to listen to individual rows of singers...)

"Tenors, listen to more pop music. I prescribe 20 Hail Marys and an album of popular music. Your rhythm SUCKS."

"It's so funky!"

"It's a little bit like a one-legged sparrow. A sad sight." (This referred to the alto jumpy bit bar at bar 177+ of Cum Sancto Spiritu, and was followed by a demonstration of how one-legged sparrows move...)

"Graffiti yourself over the music." (2nd sops bar 98 of Credo)

"Invisibilium - that well-known town near Chester."

"Can you do those two chords again... but with tremolo?" (This was to David, and was intended to illustrate how bar 50 of the Credo is actually Hammer Horror music!)

"Look slightly evangelical for a moment." (This was accompanied by wild hand gestures, in an effort to get a particular tone quality!)

After several minutes of exercises involving everyone singing repeated chords on a D consonant... "We have a first note!"

And, my personal favourite (which possibly had to be heard to be understood) came in bar 67 of the Credo... "Altos - wohhhh! ... That's not a specific instruction, but you might know what I mean." His grin, a minute later, when we showed that we knew EXACTLY what he meant, was very satisfying :-)

How to sight-read

Hope you've all had the break you hoped for! I spent most of it asleep, and most of the rest of the time playing World of Warcraft, but that suited me just fine :-) I'm back at work on Monday, so no doubt the sleeplessness will return, but for the moment I'm quite mellow. I'm supposed to be doing schoolwork right now, in readiness for Monday, but I seem to have found lots of other more urgent things to do instead, and blogging is one of them!

I'm not sure what made me think of this last night, but a while ago I promised to give you all some tips for improving your sight-reading. So, I've just jotted a few down. Please don't think I'm saying you're all rubbish at it - I'm not! - but it's something I'm pretty good at, so I'm just trying to help the people who say they can't do it at all.

The first thing to say in regard to sight-reading is: Please don’t be one of those people! By which I mean someone that says “I can’t sight-read, I’ll never be able to sight-read, so there’s no point me trying to do anything about it, and in any case even if I did want to, I’m too old and it’ll take too long.” It’s true that getting to the stage of being able to sight-read perfectly will take some time (although probably not as long as you’d expect, if you try hard enough)... but if you think you currently can’t do it at all, then surely any improvement would be a good thing?

Some of these tips are ones you can follow instantly; others require some degree of preparation. Of course, you don't have to follow all the tips - just doing any ONE of them will help. Maybe you could make it a new year's resolution to try a new one each month? :p I should also point out that Jamie regularly gives general sight-reading hints, and they're always good ones - I include some of them here. So, if he gives another one, listen to him!

Hints for improving your sight-reading

1. Sight-read EVERY CHANCE YOU GET, and make as many opportunities to do so as you can. I don't believe it's possible to improve your sight-reading without ACTUALLY SIGHT-READING. A LOT.

2. As part of this, you HAVE to embrace the "loud and wrong" philosophy. By which I mean "sing SOMETHING, even if you're not sure it's right". Only by doing this will you increase the proportion of times when it IS right, because you'll soon realise when you're wrong, and you will automatically start to self-correct. No conductor worth his salt minds hearing wrong notes when people are sight-reading. (In performance is a different matter!) I really can't stress this one enough - until you start doing this, there isn't much point worrying about any other aspect of sight-reading.

3. Sing on the beat, whatever happens - you have to regard watching the conductor as more vital than getting the notes right. Seriously. Now, this may seem a bit odd, but think about it - if lots of people don't sing on the beat, the resulting sound is just a mush, in which no-one can hear the harmony, because there ISN'T any harmony for large parts of the time. And, as you'll see from later hints, being able to hear the harmony and relate your own part to it is key (hee! you see what I did there?) to being able to sing the right notes. Also, if no-one sings on the beat, the rhythm is nonexistent, making it really difficult for people who struggle with rhythms to work out where the notes fit. But now, just imagine for a second a scenario in which half the choir are singing the wrong notes, and half are singing the right notes - but this time everyone is singing ON THE BEAT. Well, first of all, which half are singing the right notes? Probably the confident half! So they'll be louder than the "wrong" half. And because everyone is singing on the beat, two things are now possible: 1. Those (of the "wrong" half) who are listening can now hear the harmony quite clearly, AND they can hear, much more clearly, the people on their own part who ARE singing the right thing. Both of these aspects will help them self-correct. 2. The *conductor* can now hear exactly where the problems are, and can solve them very quickly.

4. When you are given a new piece of music, go through your part BEFORE STARTING TO SING IT. (I'm always amazed that most people seem not to do this!) Go through every page and mark which line you're singing. Look to see where you'll get notes from (see later). Mark VSs (i.e. pages where you have a long rest at the end but sing again at the start of the next page). Put a ring round anything else that you think might be a potential stumbling block - e.g. speed changes, time signature changes, new key signatures, etc. Note: there's almost always time to do this while you're waiting for the rehearsal to start, even if you've only just been given the music. (Because, invariably, the rehearsal starts late when music's being given out!)

5. When you're looking through your line, try to hear the notes in your head - don't hum (or try them out on the piano, if you're near one at the time). If you always rely on external sounds, your inner sight-reading machine won't develop as quickly. (And if you hum during a rehearsal when you're supposed to be being silent, it's incredibly offputting for other people.) You need to develop the skill of pitching a note in your head so that you can come in confidently after a silent bar.

6. When you're actually singing, LOOK AHEAD all the time. Turn pages earlier than you might previously have been used to. You should NEVER still be looking at any page while singing the last note on it - you should have got that note into your short-term memory and turned the page to see what's coming. The only exception to this is when you know (because you've gone through your part and WRITTEN IT IN) that you have a rest on the next page, AND you've been told not to turn. (If you've NOT been told not to turn, I think you should turn anyway, just to keep in the habit.) What about if you've been told not to turn, yet you don't have a rest over the page? Then you have to memorize a bit more of the page leading to the turn, and turn EARLIER.

7. Also while singing, keep looking at the other parts - and the accompaniment - and work out from this where to get your notes from, and how your part fits in with the others. This helps much more than you might expect. For example, often the basses have trouble getting a particular note, yet on many of these occasions the altos - who sit right next to them and invariably get stuff right :p - have just sung the same note. It's obviously harder if the clefs are different - but not impossible, particularly if you make a habit of looking so you get used to it!

8. Try and do everything - don't ignore the words or dynamics just because you're sight-reading. Now, I know lots of people refuse to even try this, and I know it does make things harder in the short-term... but trust me, if you MAKE yourself try this, it really improves your sight-reading, and it does get easier.

Now, all of the above are things that you can do immediately, at the very next rehearsal, with no preparation. They're also all fairly general hints. The last four, though, are specifically about how to sing the right notes, but they may take some work on your own.

9. Be really, really familiar with all keys (major and minor) and know how to recognise what key you're in (not just from the key signature - if the music modulates temporarily but doesn't change key signature, it will really help your sight-reading if you can spot this). By "familiar", I mean: know what key you're in, and know which note of its scale you are singing (e.g. if the key is F Major and you're singing an A, it's the 3rd). This is vital if step 10 is to work. It’s also incredibly helpful for tuning purposes - you will, I’m sure, be aware that, in relation to the 1st note of the scale, 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 generally need to be tuned higher than you think, and 4 generally needs to be lower. (That’s in a major scale - in a minor scale, 3 and 6 are low as well. Why? Because of the pattern of tones and semitones. Tones need to be wider than you think; semitones need to be smaller than you think.) If you’re familiar with what number in the scale any note is, you’ll automatically be able to sing in tune more often! Now, all this may sound impossible if you've never had theory lessons, but most of you HAVE had theory lessons, and this stuff is easily learned if so. And if not... well, you have something to aim for!

10. Be able to sing any degree of a scale, having heard the tonic chord. So if I played you an F major chord (without telling you what chord it was), and asked you to sing the 3rd of the scale, you could sing an A without necessarily knowing it was an A. The Kodaly sol-fa exercises that Jamie does from time to time (you know, with the hand signals) are brilliant for practising this skill, although, sadly, I get the impression that most people can't see the relevance. But I had a lesson every week on the Kodaly method when I was at school, and I'm pretty sure that's why I can sight-read. Most of you weren't lucky enough to go to the same school as I did, so I'm afraid I've got quite a big headstart on the practice of this skill. The unfortunate part is that it's hard to practise it on your own - you need some way of knowing when you're right and when you're not. There are ways round this, but maybe the best solution, at least temporarily, is to hope that Jamie does more of his hand-signal exercises! Actually, another relevant exercise that he does sometimes - but not as often as I'd like - is the "choral chords" one. You know, where he plays a G major chord and says "sing any note of this G major chord", and then directs us, as a choir, to sing C major, D major etc. In order to do this, you have to (a) know what the three notes in the chord are (you do know that the notes in any chord are the 1st, 3rd and 5th of the scale, right?); (b) know which of them you're singing; (c) know what the three notes in the next chord are; (d) know which one is nearest to the one you're currently singing, and how to get to it. You can see how this will help you practise the skill of being able to sing any degree of any scale, I hope.

11. Step 10 is FAR more help with sight-reading than being able to sing intervals. If you base your sight-reading on being able to accurately sing the interval from one note to the next, as so many people do (including most of the ones who claim not to be able to sight-read very well - funny, that...), you have to do a mental calculation on EVERY NOTE in order to work out the interval to the next one. If you look at the music in terms of what key it's in, though, you notice that many degrees of the scale (e.g. the 1st and the 5th) come up quite often, and they're easy to sing, so you find that you can automatically sing half the page without thinking very much about it. However, occasionally you get a modern atonal piece, and in these cases you have to use step 10, which is to know your intervals. Note that even in an atonal piece, short sections are quite often fairly tonal (i.e. in a key), so if you can work out what key you're in for those few bars, step 10 still applies. But if you have to use the interval method (which is very rare), practice will help. I did a list of these a few years ago - you may find it useful if you haven't seen such a list before.

12. I should probably mention something about how to sing the right rhythms. The thing is that generally people DO sing the right rhythms, I think, but they're less good at singing them in exactly the right place! The solution to this is to ALWAYS relate everything to which beat of the bar it's on... and always KNOW which beat of the bar the music has reached at any given moment! Once you can do these two things without thinking, rhythms become much easier. But never be ashamed of having to write in the beats of the bar (probably not in EVERY bar, but in tricky ones) in order to see more easily how the rhythm fits in with the beats. I also find it useful, in bars with lots of notes or notes in unexpected places, to divide the beats up with vertical lines. (And in pieces like Belshazzar where there are sections with dotted barlines, so that each mini-bar acts as one beat of the maxi-bar, I find it invaluable to (a) make the non-dotted barlines much clearer by extending them; and (b) write the beats in over the mini-bars.) Also, if you have trouble following certain conductors, remember that however the conductor beats, the downbeat is usually clearest, so if you get temporarily lost you know you can join in again on his next downbeat. Oh, and one final tip: If there's a section of music in which the beat is hard to follow (because of offbeat accents or no accents at all etc.), watch the conductor like a hawk (obviously), but also count out the bars with your finger (while watching the conductor - you don't actually need to look at the music to do this, you'll find), tapping on a new bar every time the conductor does a downbeat. I have often needed to do this - the example that springs to mind is the page of Belshazzar leading up to "Then sing, sing aloud", where if you listen to the orchestra you have no idea where the downbeats are. Many times when I've sung this, using my ignore-the-orchestra-and-count-the-bars method, I've been the only one to come in correctly at the bottom of the page :p

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Right. There you are. That was much longer than I intended it to be! Hope you find it useful. And if you're thinking "pfft, what a stupid way to sight-read, I'll stick to how I've always done it thank you very much"... that's fine - this is just the way *I* do it! :-)

Some links to finish. Firstly, I can't believe I totally forgot about that pillow fight in Albert Square! So I didn't see any of it. But if you didn't either, here's a slideshow of photos that some helpful person has put on Flickr.

Here's a Telegraph article about Christmas urban myths - I meant to post it when it was a little more relevant, but it's still interesting!

For some reason the Question Time Opera has hit the news this week. Why now, I have no idea, but it is also mentioned in the current Radio Times (on page 12, if you missed it) as due in "early 2007".

Slightly more alarmingly, the BBC has also announced a new reality show - not satisfied with the whole Sound of Music thing, they're looking for a cast for Joseph! Sacrilege!

Here's a blog post about the top 51 classical music blogs. I haven't looked at many of these, although there are a few I recognise (and they're on my blogroll to the right). If any of you has time on their hands, maybe you could let us all know which are the good ones from the list?

I also found this really useful site called Second Hand Songs, where you can find out which was the original version of a song.

And finally, Musicovery. It's a self-explanatory interactive web radio, and normally such things just annoy me, but this is a pretty good one. If only because of the pretty colours! Enjoy :-)

EDIT: Almost forgot... I notice that the football fixtures are still not on the official choir schedule, so until they are (I've asked!) you might want to keep an eye on my unofficial one, which is up to date AND has the fixtures on. To save you the hassle for now, you may wish to add to your official schedule the fact that these dates clash with football at Old Trafford: Wed 31 Jan, Wed 7 Feb, Sat 10 Feb, Wed 7 Mar. There are currently no clashes with City games. I'll keep checking and let you know when there's an update.

Inflatable horn players, basses in drag, and remembering John MacMurray

All these photos are from tonight. (Again, bigger versions are here.) Sorry they're not very good, especially the ones of Cliff! And the zoomed-in one of the inflatable horn player shows the limitations of digital zoom :p

Last carol concert tonight, and it was the most fun yet. Even I was in a good mood by the end! (I was still ratty at the start, for which I apologise to anyone who spoke to me (particularly poor Sue-Ann, who had to speak to me several times and probably got several undeserved glares!)) There was lots of new silliness. I think the first bit was in Sir Christemas, where the tuba (I think) added a little unscripted chromatic run in the middle. But most of the changes were in the second half. There were rather more Santas (as in full costumed Santas, not just hats) than on previous occasions. But the best one was the horn player (I think it was Dicky - someone please correct me if I'm wrong) who waddled onstage in a huge inflatable Santa suit. (See blurred pictures above.) He could hardly walk, and had particular trouble negotiating the step up to his seat. Then he leaned forward to sort out his music and found he couldn't reach his stand. I've no idea how he managed to play his horn like that, but he did, although the suit was rather more deflated by the end!

We were also quite taken with the various Santa hats worn by the woman on the front desk of the 2nd violins. Yesterday she had a really cute Santa hat - cute because it was only about 3 inches tall! Today she had a normal-sized one, but it flipped from side to side at apparently random intervals (I presume it was battery-operated). Oh, and towards the end, while Gwenan Edwards was about to introduce the next item, the stage manager came on and told her something, and she announced that the timp player had had to go home ill, and could anyone in the audience step in? We knew nothing of this, and at first (before she asked for help from the audience) I think most of us thought it was genuine - I know I did! Needless to say, at this point Father Christmas ran in from the back of the stalls, and wandered across the stage dispensing presents to various people before producing some timp sticks and making a big show of tuning the timps before settling down to play the rest of the concert :-)

I think what most amused most of the choir, though, was Cliff (one of our basses), who came out for the second half dressed as an alto, in a proper Hallé ladies' frock, complete with windsock and huge dangly earrings! No idea whose frock he wore, or whether he actually sang the alto part :p

I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks of John MacMurray every time I hear Sleigh RIde, for it was always him that did the reindeer impression on his trumpet at the end. Tonight all three trumpeters did it together - maybe in memory of him. I like to think so, anyway :-)

Finally, if you've never heard of the NORAD Santa Tracking thing that the U.S. military do every year, and you have kids, you might want to take a look! Hint: if you read this after Christmas, you've missed it.... it starts at 4 a.m. (our time) on Christmas Eve.

Quiz answers

Just realised I haven't posted these yet, so here they are. Anna the Commenter got 36 out of 65, did you beat her?

Also, Muso magazine asked me to mention this survey, and although I usually ignore such requests, this one might amuse some of you and seems harmless enough :-)

And, if you got bored by all the ranting on my last post, you might have not read as far as the pictures. Sorry - I've had some sleep now, so if I find anything new to complain about tonight, I'll try to keep it to myself! Instead I'll focus on those oboes in The Shepherds' Farewell....

Oh, and this is what's going on at G-Mex tonight (and last night), in case you were wondering. Review here.


Christmas lyric quiz answers
25 carols

1. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear:
And man, at war with man, hears not the love song which they bring // O hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing.

2. O Little Town of Bethlehem:
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more. (Note: this is from a verse that isn't included in "Carols for Choirs" for some reason.)

3. Nativity Carol:
Far away silent he lay // Born today, your homage pay

4. Jingle Bells:
Now the ground is white // Go it while you're young // Take the girls tonight, and sing this sleighing song

5. In dulci jubilo:
O that we were there, O that we were there!

6. Good king Wenceslas:
Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer.

7. Unto us is born a Son:
So he gave the word to slay // And slew the little childer

8. Il est né le divin enfant:
Jouez hautbois, résonnez musettes

9. A merry Christmas:
And we won't go till we've got some, so bring some out here

10. Here we come a-wassailing:
And God bless you, and send you a happy New Year

11. O come all ye faithful:
Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation

12. I saw three ships:
And all the bells on earth shall ring on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day

13. Hark the herald angels sing:
Born to raise the sons of earth // Born to give them second birth.

14. We three kings:
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying // Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

15. Coventry Carol:
Herod, the king, in his raging // Chargèd he hath this day // His men of might, in his own sight // All young children to slay

16. While shepherds watched:
Goodwill henceforth from heaven to men begin and never cease

17. Sir Christèmas:
Who is there that singeth so?

18. Ding dong merrily on high:
May you beautifully rime your evetime song, ye singers

19. O come, o come, Emmanuel:
From the dread caverns of the grave // From nether hell, thy people save.

20. Sussex carol:
All out of darkness we have light // Which made the angels sing this night

21. In the bleak midwinter:
What can I give him, poor as I am? // If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb

22. Silent Night:
Glories stream from heaven afar // Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia

23. Gabriel's Message:
Most highly favoured lady, Gloria!

24. The shepherds' farewell:
God go with you, God protect you // Guide you safely through the wild

25. Past three o'clock:
And a cold frosty morning


... and 40 Christmas songs

1. I believe in Father Christmas (Greg Lake):
They said there’d be snow at Christmas // They said there’d be peace on Earth // Alleluia, Noël, be it Heaven or Hell // The Christmas we get, we deserve.

2. Lonely This Christmas (Mud):
I just break down as I look around and the only things I see // are emptiness and loneliness and an unlit Christmas tree

3. Do they know it's Christmas? (Band Aid):
Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears

4. The Power of Love (Frankie Goes to Hollywood):
I'll protect you from the hooded claw // Keep the vampires from your door

5. Fairytale of New York (Pogues & Kirsty MacColl):
You took my dreams from me when I first found you // I kept them with me, babe // I put them with my own

6. Santa Claus is coming to town (Crystals/Bruce Springsteen/others):
He knows if you’ve been bad or good, so be good, for goodness’ sake!

7. Have yourself a merry little Christmas (Judy Garland/others):
Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow

8: Merry Xmas Everybody (Slade):
Does your granny always tell you that the old songs are the best?

9. Winter Wonderland (Darlene Love/others):
He’ll say “are you married?” - we’ll say “no, man! But you can do the job while you’re in town!”

10. Mary's Boy Child (Harry Belafonte/Boney M):
Trumpets sound and angels sing - listen to what they say // That man will live for evermore because of Christmas Day.

11. Christmas Alphabet (McGuire Sisters/Dickie Valentine/others):
M is for the Mistletoe where everyone is kissed

12. Walking in the air (Aled Jones):
Children gaze open-mouthed, taken by surprise // Nobody down below believes their eyes.

13. Frosty the Snowman (Ronettes/others):
And he only paused a moment when he heard him holler “stop!”

14. Please come home for Christmas (Eagles/Bon Jovi):
Friends and relations send salutations // Sure as the stars shine above

15. All I want for Christmas is my 2 front teeth (Spike Jones/Tiny Tim/others):
It seems so long since I could say “Sister Susie sitting on a thistle!” // Gosh, oh gee - how happy I’d be if I could only whistle!

16. Sleigh Ride (Ronettes/others):
Let’s take that road before us and sing a chorus or two

17. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow (Vaughn Monroe/others):
But if you’ll really hold me tight // All the way home I’ll be warm!

18. Santa Baby (Eartha Kitt/Madonna/Calista Flockhart/others):
Think of all the fun I've missed // Think of all the fellas that I haven't kissed

19. O Holy Night (*N Sync/others):
Fall on your knees // Oh hear the angel voices!

20. I wish it could be Christmas every day (Wizzard):
Oh when the snowman brings the snow // well, he just might like to know // he’s put a great big smile on somebody’s face.

21. Wonderful Christmas Time (Paul McCartney/Tom McRae):
We're here tonight, and that's enough

22. A spaceman came travelling (Chris de Burgh):
This lovely music went trembling through the ground // And many were wakened on hearing that sound

23. All I want for Christmas is you (Mariah Carey):
I don't want a lot for Christmas // There's just one thing I need

24. Christmas Song (aka "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire") (Nat King Cole/others):
Although it’s been said many times, many ways

25. Stop the Cavalry (Jona Lewie):
Wish I was at home for Christmas

26. Cold Cold Christmas (Dana):
Yesterday I saw your Mom and Dad // We bought our cards together

27. Little Saint Nick (Beach Boys):
Run run reindeer // He don't miss no one

28. Rockin' around the Christmas tree (Brenda Lee/Mel Smith & Kim Wilde):
You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear voices singing: "let's be jolly, deck the halls with boughs of holly"

29. The Winter Song (Angel):
Hear the angels join the choir, let them take the music higher

30. Another rock and roll Christmas (Gary Glitter):
You never know, it might snow tonight

31. Last Christmas (Wham):
I thought you were someone to rely on // Me? I guess I was a shoulder to cry on

32. Stay another day (East 17):
Good times we had return to haunt me // Though it's for you, all that I do seems to be wrong.

33. When a child is born (Johnny Mathis):
A silent wish sails the seven seas // The winds of change whisper in the trees // And the walls of doubt crumble tossed and torn,

34. Keeping the dream alive (Freiheit):
The hopes we had were much too high // Way out of reach but we have to try

35. He's the little boy that Santa Claus forgot (Nat King Cole):
I'm so sorry for that laddie // He hasn't got a daddy

36. Christmas (baby please come home) (U2):
They're singing "Deck the Halls" // But it's not like Christmas at all

37. Merry Christmas Everyone (Shakin' Stevens):
Snow is falling, all around me // Children playing, having fun

38. Thank God it's Christmas (Queen):
Oh my love we've lived in troubled days // Oh my friend we have the strangest ways

39. Wombling Merry Christmas (The Wombles):
Open your eyes, look to the skies when you're lonely

40. 2000 miles (Pretenders):
... is very far through the snow

Who is there that singeth so?

Weird, isn't it, how some experiences can cause you to seethe with fury one minute (well, for quite a lot of minutes, actually) and shed tears of joy the next? I was struck by this dichotomy last Sunday, and again tonight. And the thing is, I can't recall any non-singing experience that has ever had the same effect on me. Odd, that.

Somewhat predictably, I spent most of tonight's concert fuming again - so much so, that I made a mental note that I must try to smile tomorrow! Should be easier after some sleep :-) I was irrationally furious with myself because I kept being reminded of things that had made me angry last week and realising that I'd forgotten to list them in my earlier post! I hate my mind at times! The extra fury-causing things, just to set my mind at rest, are: 8. Altos who are still ignoring the rhythmic instructions for the different verses of The Shepherds' Farewell; 9. Basses pronouncing "ver" with a v rather than an f in the Bach; 10. The clapping in Sleigh Ride - by which I mean the general clapping all the way through. We never used to do that, and to me it totally spoils the effect of the surprise claps that I used to love so much. 11. Altos who appear to have either not written in any instructions, or not attended any rehearsals, or just can't be bothered to pay attention, and are therefore singing in the wrong bits of lots of the audience carols (someone near me did this a LOT tonight); 12. (as ever) The behaviour of a few members of the adult choir. I couldn't hear any of the instructions during the warm-up because of people talking near me. Mainly this was the youth choir, but I'm not too surprised that they think it's OK to talk while Jamie is giving instructions, when members of the adult choir are doing exactly that. And then, backstage while Jamie was trying to rehearse the foyer choir, I witnessed two altos having a fairly loud conversation a few feet away, and they actually INCREASED the volume of their speech every time the singing started, presumably so as to be able to hear themselves over the top! I was staggered by their selfishness and rudeness.

I'm sorry to rant (again) but I'm just so sick of all this. I love the actual SINGING in the choir, but I spend almost every rehearsal getting angrier and angrier about all this other stuff, and as a result I can't remember the last time I was in a good mood by the time I got home from choir. Which is sad, because everything ELSE in my life is depressing me at the moment, and choir used to be the one thing that cheered me up. And it still does, every time, but sadly the anger is overshadowing the cheer at the moment.

Anyway, I did promise to list the good stuff, so let me end on a positive note! I'd be interested to hear other people's favourite bits :-)

MY TOP 10 MOMENTS OF THE CAROL CONCERTS

10. "Who is there that singeth so?" from Sir Christemas
9. Jazzy brass bit in Sleigh Ride
8. All the descants - probably O Little Town of Bethlehem is my favourite one, but I love them all
7. The drum fill just before the singing starts in White Christmas
6. The fff bit of the Wassail Song
5. The a cappella verse of O Little Town of Bethlehem
4. The orchestration of the men's verse of Unto Us Is Born A Son
3. Several bits of In Dulci Jubilo - mainly, the bit when both choirs sing together at the top of the second page, and the bit when the men sing a nice A7ish chord to get us to D minor
2. The words (practically all of them) of It Came Upon The Midnight Clear, and the timp roll that emphasises the very last line
1. The 3rd verse of The Shepherds' Farewell, where the oboes have those gorgeous extra bits. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

P.S. Here's some pictures I surreptitiously took tonight and on Sunday, while we were waiting for the orchestra to come on. There are bigger versions here.

"Not Silent Lee, who sounds like a guy down the pub who never says anything."

Sorry for the long gap between posts, things have got on top of me. Which is probably also part of the reason I was in such a very bad mood on Sunday... I had to do loads of work when I got home from the second concert, and didn't get to bed till about 3 a.m., and the thought of this made me grumpy for most of the day. (Why didn't I do it on Saturday when I was totally free, you may well ask? Because I needed a break!)

I've finally finished for Christmas today, though, so I can go to tonight's concert in a slightly more cheerful frame of mind. Maybe the extra things that were increasing my grumpiness might have fixed themselves - but I doubt it! I was repeatedly filled with fury on Sunday. Main causes: 1. that alto note in "A Merry Christmas"; 2. that alto bar in "White Christmas"; 3. the note in the last line of "It Came Upon The Midnight Clear" (at least there was only one harmony verse this time, so the altos could only get it wrong once each concert); 4. the very many mistakes in the programme; 5. the behaviour of some members of the Youth Choir (bringing cups of water on stage and then leaving the empty cups all over the floor was the least of their sins); 6. the whole mess about the foyer carols; 7. people who quote me in newsletters but plainly don't actually read stuff properly (because several of the "Jamieisms" lifted from here were not actually Jamieisms at all!)

(I'm doubly furious with the first three, because (a) they're wrong EVERY SINGLE YEAR; (b) no conductor or chorus master has ever done anything about them (in fact, a previous chorus master, when I asked him, said "oh, no-one will ever notice"!); (c) when I mention it to people, they invariably say "Oh, I know - but at least I know *I'm* doing it right." NO YOU'RE NOT, I CAN HEAR YOU! So I can only assume people either aren't listening to what's going on, or are listening but not hearing. Argh.)

Anyway, I need to run for a train now, but when I get home I will post again and tell you about the things about the carol concerts that make me really happy. It may surprise you to hear that there are quite a few!

"You are the juicy bone, I am the dog."

I should probably point out that this, tonight's best Jamieism, followed "Sopranos, I'm going to come back to that." :-)

Lots of carols tonight, although very few of them all the way through. We were joined by the HYC, who we've not seen for ages. They still seem to like to sing behind the beat most of the time, but then so do most of the adult choir! And I was unsurprised (but disappointed) that the notes that the altos have got wrong every year in living memory are STILL wrong, and I expect they'll be wrong in the concert, although I'd love it if they weren't. (I'm talking about the infamous note in We Wish You A Merry Christmas (p167, bar 47, first note) and White Christmas (page 4, last bar). Argh! (The singing behind the beat thing was particularly bad tonight. There was an alto near me who was almost a full beat behind, almost all the way through almost every piece. It's really difficult to sing in time when you have that in your ear. (She was by no means the only one, but she was the loudest one near me.))

Other Jamieisms: "Otherwise you sound like the Swedish Station Radio Choir... is there such a thing?"
"Sopranos, you shouldn't all go wrong on the same note! I'm always curious about a soprano section that does that. It seems bizarre. And unlikely."

Oh, and if you are a new member of the choir, and no-one has told you about the following 3 aspects of the carol concerts:

• tinsel and glitter
• silly hats
• clapping in Sleigh Ride

you should probably ask someone!

To change the subject completely, have you all seen this video? It's doing the rounds of the internet, and shows stupid drivers in Manchester city centre (Cross Street, to be specific). It explains why signs have now been put up there saying "no tailgating"!

And finally, some entertainment for you. I did these two Christmas lyrics quizzes a couple of years ago and just found them while I was looking for something else. Test yourself - leave your answers in the comments if you like, or email me if you prefer. I'll post the answers in a few days :-)

25 Christmas carols

1. And man, at war with man, hears not the love song which they bring // O hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing.
2. The dark night wakes, the glory breaks, and Christmas comes once more.
3. Far away silent he lay // Born today, your homage pay
4. Go it while you're young // Take the girls tonight
5. O that we were there, O that we were there!
6. Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer.
7. So he gave the word to slay // And slew the little childer
8. Jouez hautbois, résonnez musettes
9. And we won't go till we've got some, so bring some out here
10. And God bless you, and send you a happy New Year
11. Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation
12. And all the bells on earth shall ring on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day
13. Born to raise the sons of earth // Born to give them second birth.
14. Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying // Sealed in the stone-cold tomb
15. His men of might, in his own sight // All young children to slay
16. Goodwill henceforth from heaven to men begin and never cease
17. Who is there that singeth so?
18. May you beautifully rime your evetime song, ye singers
19. From the dread caverns of the grave // From nether hell, thy people save.
20. All out of darkness we have light // Which made the angels sing this night
21. What can I give him, poor as I am? // If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb
22. Glories stream from heaven afar // Heavenly hosts sing Alleluia
23. Most highly favoured lady, Gloria!
24. God go with you, God protect you // Guide you safely through the wild
25. And a cold frosty morning

... and 40 Christmas songs

1. They said there'd be snow at Christmas // They said there'd be peace on Earth // Alleluia, Noël, be it Heaven or Hell // The Christmas we get, we deserve.
2. I just break down as I look around and the only things I see // are emptiness and loneliness and an unlit Christmas tree
3. Where the only water flowing is the bitter sting of tears
4. I'll protect you from the hooded claw // Keep the vampires from your door
5. You took my dreams from me when I first found you // I kept them with me babe. I put them with my own
6. He knows if you've been bad or good, so be good, for goodness' sake!
7. Through the years we all will be together, if the fates allow
8: Does your granny always tell you that the old songs are the best?
9. He'll say "are you married?" - we'll say "no, man! But you can do the job while you're in town!"
10. Trumpets sound and angels sing - listen to what they say // That man will live for evermore because of Christmas Day.
11. M is for the Mistletoe where every one is kissed
12. Children gaze open-mouthed, taken by surprise // Nobody down below believes their eyes.
13. And he only paused a moment when he heard him holler "stop!"
14. Friends and relations send salutations // Sure as the stars shine above
15. It seems so long since I could say "Sister Susie sitting on a thistle!" // Gosh, oh gee - how happy I'd be if I could only whistle!
16. Let's take that road before us and sing a chorus or two
17. But if you'll really hold me tight // All the way home I'll be warm!
18. Think of all the fun I've missed // Think of all the fellas that I haven't kissed
19. Fall on your knees // Oh hear the angel voices!
20. Oh when the snowman brings the snow // well, he just might like to know // he's put a great big smile on somebody's face.
21. We're here tonight, and that's enough
22. This lovely music went trembling through the ground // And many were wakened on hearing that sound
23. I don't want a lot for Christmas // There's just one thing I need
24. Although it's been said many times, many ways
25. Wish I was at home for Christmas
26. Yesterday I saw your Mum and Dad // We bought our cards together
27. Run run reindeer // He don't miss no-one
28. You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear voices singing: "let's be jolly, deck the halls with boughs of holly"
29. Hear the angels join the choir, let them take the music higher.
30. You never know, it might snow tonight
31. I thought you were someone to rely on // Me? I guess I was a shoulder to cry on
32. Good times we had return to haunt me // Though it's for you, all that I do seems to be wrong.
33. A silent wish sails the seven seas // The winds of change whisper in the trees // And the walls of doubt crumble tossed and torn
34. The hopes we had were much too high // Way out of reach but we have to try
35. I'm so sorry for that laddie // He hasn't got a daddy
36. They're singing "Deck the Halls" // But it's not like Christmas at all
37. Snow is falling, all around me // Children playing, having fun
38. Oh my love we've lived in troubled days // Oh my friend we have the strangest ways
39. Open your eyes, look to the skies when you're lonely
40. ... is very far through the snow

EDIT: Answers are here.

"What's after L? K? Thanks."

Here are Fliss and Tessa showing off their new hairdos :-)

The title of this post was a Jamieism from In Dulci Jubilo (on Wednesday), in which Jamie started by saying that everyone was behind the beat (which was true), and dealt with this by making the back row sing on their own (because he said they were the furthest behind). But then he got sidetracked into finding out what different semi-random groups within the choir sounded like. We had each row separately, then everyone whose surname started with a letter between A and L, then... well, that's when the quote above emerged :-)

I was also amused by "From there we have to go to the babes" (the word "babes" appears in the Shepherds' Farewell) and "It should, I think, be a bit more distant... and slightly more inebriated..." (in the Wassail Song). But this might have been just me :p We also did the non-carol-book carol concert pieces - one was the end of Bach's Christmas Oratorio (Herr, wenn die stolzen Feinde). This was totally new, and not that easy, and (as Libby said) it seems a bit silly not to have given it out earlier so that people could look at it. But it did give me the chance to show off my sight-reading, which I always love! And we finished by reading through a truly bizarre "new" carol called "Strike! seraphs, strike your harps of gold" (written in 1850 by someone called John Fawcett). Apparently the musicologist who prepared the edition is coming to talk to us about it next week - should be interesting...

Did you watch the People's Chorus tonight? I didn't see me at all, other than in the distance once, and that was only because I knew where I sat and was looking. But most of the other Hallé people were on loads, especially Dr Liz. That's what I get for volunteering to be a tenor instead of an alto! But then I have been on TV many times before, so it's only fair that everyone else should have a chance. Oddly enough, I *did* see myself, very unexpectedly, in the programme *before* - the 10 Best Choral Masterpieces. Not a bad list - I have no problem with most of them, although there are a few others I might have included that were omitted (no Mozart Requiem or B Minor Mass or Creation, but they include Land of Hope and Glory?!?) But when they got to Gerontius, they showed a large chunk of our prom from last year! And I could see me in the background, behind the tenor soloist. If you missed the programme, it's repeated late on Tuesday night (well, actually 1 a.m. on Wednesday).

Finally, two more pictures - these are some of the angels in Albert Square. Go and have a look, they're lovely! And in the meantime, if you need some Christmas music to get you in the mood, there are various Christmassy mp3s still online, listed in this post from last year.

"TWINS!"

Not really in the mood to blog - I'm totally exhausted, plus my computer repair has turned out to be not quite as straightforward as hoped, which I could really do without. Also, I know there are some people in the choir who are able to take a day off work following a long day like Sunday's, but not only could I not do that, I had a parents' evening yesterday, which meant that I didn't get home till 9 p.m. - and then I had a pile of marking still to do! But never mind all that, let's talk about Messiah.

Having been less than enthusiastic about the whole thing, I actually really enjoyed it in the end, and I think most other people did too. Three highlights for me:

1. For the first time in several years, he DIDN'T MESS WITH "HALLELUJAH". My favourite part of the whole piece has always been the audience standing up at the start of that - it always makes me cry, for some reason - and the last few Messiahs have been spoilt for me by conductors INVITING the audience to stand. That's just not the same! But on Sunday Nicholas Kraemer just let it happen, and it was wonderful :-)

2. Similarly, the cheesy stand in the middle of "Glory to God", which I'd thought was silly, actually worked really well, and felt very powerful - I'd love to know whether or not it came across that way. (I'd also love to know whether or not anyone in the gallery noticed that, as instructed, I sang in their direction almost all the way through.) (They probably just thought "Why has she got her head sticking up in that unnatural manner? ...)

3. Carolyn Sampson, the soprano soloist. All the soloists were pretty good, but she just blew me away. She made it sound so easy! Even "Rejoice Greatly", which seems to me to be one of the most difficult arias there is. Her tone was sublime, and her top notes were effortless. Even her walk to and from her seat was amazing - she seemed to GLIDE. (Like Galadriel walking down the tree when you first see her in The Lord of the Rings. If you've seen it, you'll know exactly what I mean.)

It was all good, though. Although I'm surprised the tenors' heads made it through the door after all the praise heaped on them in the rehearsal. A sample (from Nicholas Kraemer): "It's very rare to have tenors in a chorus this size who sing as well as you do." Which is true - they ARE good - but we wanted compliments too!

An amusing contribution has come my way from Barbara's husband, who very much enjoyed the concert but overheard the following from audience members:

"Those 4 violinists at the back, they haven't played much - what's that all about?"

"Did you notice there are 2 types of women singers?"

"I know you didn't enjoy it but it's the sort of experience you ought to have!"

---

Just one negative thing I want to say, which I hope doesn't get forgotten in the euphoria of how well everything went. We didn't warm up AT ALL. AGAIN. That's two concerts in a row - and they were two BIG sings. A few years ago I wouldn't have been too bothered, but I can really feel the difference now if I've not warmed up properly. I think Jamie should make his mind up - either warm-ups are important, or they're not. I think most people would agree that they are - so can we have some consistency, please? Warm-ups should be done AT THE EXPENSE OF LAST-MINUTE NOTES. I imagine Maggie will be furious when she hears that yet again her work has been undermined.

Is it just me that thinks this?

Anyway, some other stuff to finish:

Here's an interesting Times article about choirs being in the public eye recently.

There was a thing called The Choir on BBC2 last night. If you missed it, I'm sure next week will summarise enough for you to catch up!

And of course, this Saturday is the best TV programme of the year so far - that is, unless they only show the sopranos :p The People's Chorus is on BBC4 at 8 p.m.

Ooh, I almost forgot - "TWINS!" was the most amusing moment of the "warm-up" - when Jamie was trying to get the men more enthusiastic about singing about a child being born unto them. Again, you probably had to be there :p

P.S. United are at home tomorrow, in a huge European game. Be warned!

Gerry the Genius

I met Gerry today. He is the lovely man who is going to fix my iBook (that's my laptop computer, for those who've never heard the term). It died yesterday (the logic board has given up the ghost, it seems) and the repair would be costing £500 if it wasn't for the fact that I took out AppleCare protection, which covers it. So at least there's some good news... Gerry works at the Genius Bar in the new Apple Store in the Arndale Centre. (If you've never been inside an Apple Store, do visit sometime - they're impressive places!)

In the meantime, I have no access to any of my files - or to World of Warcraft! (*sob*) - but I can at least get online - just - by using a PC laptop I've been allocated by school. I say 'just' because it's the SLOWEST MACHINE IN THE WORLD. It takes ten minutes - literally - to open a single program, and opening two things at once is just not an option. Argh.

What do you mean, I haven't mentioned the choir yet? Well, there's really not much to say. Last night was the orchestral rehearsal for Messiah, and it was OK musically (we finished 20 minutes early, always a good sign) but yet again had to stand up for most of it. And no doubt there'll be lots more standing tomorrow. Oh, my poor feet.

"I wouldn't insure you!"

Jamie started tonight's rehearsal by torturing us physically. He was unimpressed with our bodily flexibility, hence the quote in the title. There was the evil exercise where you put (and keep) the palms of your hands together and stretch in various directions; tonight this was followed up with an even more sadistic one which involved putting our elbows AND palms together and then stretching. Oh, the pain! I still ache now.

I really didn't enjoy tonight's rehearsal very much - not because of the pain at the start, but for all sorts of other reasons. It was the piano rehearsal for Messiah, with Nicholas Kraemer (NOT "Nick", as he pointed out when Jamie called him that). He was fine, but he made us stand up for a large proportion of the time, and I couldn't see him at all when we were standing, as all the people in front of me were taller. And my aching shoulders ached even more as a result of trying to stand in twisted positions so I could follow the beat. Add to that the fact that my feet, which had just about recovered from Saturday, were soon aching again; and also the fact that Mr Kraemer spoke fairly quietly, so that I couldn't hear what he was saying unless (a) he happened to be facing towards me, and (b) no-one was coughing. (Luckily there wasn't a lot of talking in the altos tonight, thank goodness.) Given all these factors, and the fact that I've had very little sleep this week, AND the fact that I had to miss a United match to be there tonight, I think my foul mood is excusable! And don't get me started on the people near me who seemed unable to sing quieter than mf...

Anyway, I wasn't going to post because I had nothing to say other than to whinge, but a couple of people told me they were disappointed that I keep not blogging till the weekend, so I thought I'd make the effort and at least share a couple of links! Firstly, I'd like to point out that my online choir schedule (link deliberately not given; email me if you don't have it) is still online, as it has been for years, and it does include football fixtures, which I don't think the official one does. (I have offered to supply the info, but haven't been taken up on this.)

(In case non-choir people are wondering why on earth the football fixtures need to be on a choir schedule, it's because of the traffic - if United are at home, people have to allow more time for their journey.)

Only two more things. If you're interested in the Mike Golding/Alex Thomson sailing drama that I mentioned last time, you might like this blog post written by Mike Golding shortly after everything happened. (Mike and Alex are still making their way - slowly, in a badly handicapped boat - to Cape Town.)

And finally - on the day of our last carol concert, it seems there'll be a very large pillow fight in Albert Square that afternoon :p

O holy marmalade

Tonight I did, for the first time, something I've always wanted to do :-) But before I tell you about it, let me get everything else out of the way.

Wednesday's rehearsal produced no Jamieisms, as there was no Jamie. (I don't know why, because I was having vocal coaching when the announcement was made.) It was David instead (which meant we had the lovely Jonathan on the piano - always a pleasure! And he was most amused at our gibbon impression...) and we did almost all of the Mozart C minor Mass. We're not performing it till February, but because it's a big sing and many people haven't done it before, Jamie wanted to start it early so it has time to sink in. I was disappointed that we didn't do my two favourite movements - Qui Tollis and Sanctus (I like them because of the antiphonal effect of the double chorus) - but no doubt we'll get to them soon enough. Also, I couldn't help thinking that a lot of the ladies will end up having to relearn the music we did on Wednesday, because I would put money on Jamie wanting to replace the SSA divisions with the high/middle/low parts we used for Ravel etc. And no, I don't know whether he plans to or not - it just seems to me to make sense.

Other stuff, in no particular order (and mostly nothing to do with choir!): The People's Chorus thing is being released on DVD on 11th December (just after it's on TV).

There's an ice rink in Piccadilly Gardens at the moment. I'm going skating with my family on the afternoon of Messiah day - anyone want to join us (at 3.15)? It'd be amusing if half the choir turned up for the gig with broken legs :p If you want to skate, on that or any other day, you can book online.

I was amused by this news story - Coventry City were playing QPR today, but their coach got stuck in traffic in London, so they abandoned it and all went on the tube! And the best part is that only one of them knew how to get to where they wanted to go, and he didn't even get picked to play :p

I can't understand, though, why a minor thing like that (funny as it is) is in the news, yet the recent huge stories from the world of sailing haven't hit the headlines at all. Last week was the news that Tony Bullimore, who'd been missing for ELEVEN DAYS, had been found safe and well. This would be newsworthy enough even without the fact that he's been missing before. And then there's been HIGH DRAMA in the Velux 5 Oceans Race (formerly the Around Alone race). It has been mentioned on the BBC site, but not unless you happened to look at their sailing page... Some of you might remember that in the Vendee Globe race in 1997 (that's the race that Ellen Macarthur almost won in 2001) not only did Tony Bullimore get rescued when assumed dead (as mentioned above), but Pete Goss became a hero by turning back to rescue a fellow competitor who'd capsized in horrendous weather, at huge risk to himself (the weather was so bad that no-one else could get there in time). Well, a similar thing has happened this week, but I've not seen it on the news at all. Alex Thomson, one of the favourites to win the race, had a disaster when his boat suffered an extreme structural failure and capsized. And Mike Golding, another of our top British sailors, went back to rescue him. The rescue turned out to be extremely difficult and dangerous, but Golding managed it. But now he's had trouble of his own (and that's after his boat was hit by a giant squid a few weeks ago!)... Let's hope he manages to fix it and get back in the race.

Anyway, I've been writing for ages and haven't yet got to tonight's event! It was the Mozart Requiem gig at Bury Parish Church, in which (thanks to the generosity of Dr Liz) I was singing the alto solo. That's the thing I've always wanted to do - sing a proper solo in a proper concert. (Yes, I've sung many things in the past that could be probably described as that, but you know what I mean.) And tonight I did! It was very exciting. I'm pleased it was this piece that I managed to get for my debut, because I know it really, really well (although not so much the solo bits), so I didn't have to spend any time learning the notes. I did have a couple of lessons - and practised quite a lot - in order to get the breathing and tone quality better, because those two things are not my best points! (To clarify - I have singing lessons regularly anyway, but I had two lessons in which we concentrated specifically on the Mozart.)

It was a scratch performance. To the uninitiated, that means it was performed by a group of people who only met for the first time on the day; there's no prior rehearsal. Needless to say, scratch performances are often not very good, but in this case the choir was surprisingly impressive - you'd never guess it was a scratch choir. (It did include two Hallé altos apart from me - Chris Hughes and Margaret Dickinson were there. Lovely to see Margaret, it's been a while!) There was no orchestra, but the accompaniment was played by Ronnie Frost on the organ, so it was pretty good. But my reason for mentioning that it was a scratch performance is that because of this, the conductor (Nick Castell, who was excellent) asked the soloists to sing in all the choruses as well. Advantages of this: 1. It's one of my favourite pieces, so I'd probably have had to try really hard not to sing it all; 2. It meant that I had already sung properly, in front of the audience, before having to sing on my own, which was much less nervewracking; 3. It meant I got a decent warmup (there was nowhere to do that before the concert). Disadvantages of this: 1. I got a bit carried away and sang too enthusiastically in some bits, giving myself a bit of a sore throat in time for my solos; 2. I had to stand up ALL THE WAY THROUGH. Stupidly, I hadn't registered that this would be the case, so I was wearing shoes with heels (low ones, that I wear at work all day, but still). I've been home for two hours now, and my feet are just starting to get their feeling back :p

I must admit, though, it was a really good feeling to remain standing when the whole choir around me sat down. (We were seated as a quartet in the middle of the choir, rather than at the front - there wasn't room for a soloists' row.) I like feeling special :-) So special, in fact, that the two tiny choristers on the front row kept turning round and staring at me (and the other soloists). This was really disconcerting, especially as they did it most often at the points where I was most nervous, i.e. right at the start of the first phrase I sang in each bit. Maggie, bless her, had warned me about all sorts of things related to being a soloist, most of which hadn't occurred to me - but she never mentioned the offputting antics of small children!

Anyway, everything went pretty well. So well, in fact, that the rehearsal finished an hour and a half early, and I don't think anything went wrong in the performance at all. My bit wasn't perfect by any means - the breathing wasn't great (although I can cover that up fairly well), and a couple of high notes were a bit croaky. But on the whole it was OK, and there wasn't anything I did that I was horribly embarrassed about, so I'm encouraged! It might be years before anyone asks me to be a soloist again, but at the moment I'm in a pretty good mood :-)

(Oh, and the title of this post? That's what the Manchester University choir apparently sings for Quam Olim Abrahe :p)

"Like a lovely wheel that potters use... I've forgotten what it's called..."

Quite a few good Jamieisms this week (sorry for the delay in reporting them) - the one in the title was the most amusing, because he really didn't remember the phrase "potter's wheel"! We did the whole of Messiah - well, not every single note, but all of them were at least referred to in passing. Other quotes:

"If the audience goes away saying 'that was jolly nice, wasn't it?' I shall die."

"And suddenly we've got this 3 bar phrase that's like a little island off the coast of Norway."

"We have winners, and they are called tenors!" (this referred to their singing of the word 'astray' in 'All We Like Sheep')

"Since boy man... Betty..." (you probably had to be there!)

"Altos, you should do as you please. (no change there...)" (this referred to the dynamic for 'the glory of the Lord' at the end of 'O Thou That Tellest')

---

So, did anyone watch How Music Works last night? I quite liked it - not as much as Big Bangs, but it was OK. I was slightly put off because I spotted an error early on, and that always distracts me! They played clips of 5 songs and asked what the melodies had in common. Well, I spotted that the first one was pentatonic, and the next three examples confirmed my guess that this was the connection. But then the last example was Sailing, which doesn't fit! The pentatonic scale in C major consists of only the notes C, D, E, G and A. "Sailing" (if sung in C major) includes an F! Look: G A C C... E G A A... A G G F... F E E.

Yes, I know I'm sad :-)

Anyway, some random links to finish. Here's a thing about another reality TV show featuring a choir - sounds excruciating! Here's yet another thing about girls singing in cathedral choirs. You might like this video of a Finnish choir listing things they hate about life (I found it entertaining but a bit too long - and thanks to all the people who have sent it to me, but I'd already seen it!)

The photo at the top shows some of the new Christmas lights in Albert Square - I really like the toys! Here's a slightly clearer version of the same lights:



And here's a rather blurry one that has the Manchester Oasis thingy and the pretty trees and the Bridgewater Hall in the background (wish I had a steadier hand!)



And, finally, I haven't given you any mp3s for a while, so here are a couple. The Joyce Grenfell one is not her best, but may amuse some of you (it's about ladies who sing in choral societies). And the Bulgarian one is one that someone asked me about recently - I said I'd never heard of it, but when I looked it up I realised I had. It's from this album, which I must get a copy of at some point - it sounds intriguing.

Joyful Noise (Joyce Grenfell) (5.8 MB)

Polegnala e Toudora (The Bulgarian Voices) (3.9 MB)

"Some of you have gone too far, and you sound like Jimi Hendrix."

I'm not entirely sure whether he meant Jimi Hendrix's guitar-playing or his singing, but whichever it was, Jamie addressed this comment to the altos during "Lift up your heads" on Wednesday. (For some reason that chorus was cut last year - I'd totally forgotten, but it says so in my score so it must be true!) He also said to the tenors, on the next page, "Bounce your Sunday lunch on top of it." What a delightful mental image :p

There was also something or other about "the whale and the nightingale" which caused the biggest laugh of the night, but annoyingly I couldn't hear exactly what was said because a couple of basses near me were talking (about the music, to be fair, but still). Did anyone catch it?

Other than "Lift up your heads", we also did "Let all the angels" and "The Lord gave the word" (which featured some run practice to the words "scooby dooby doo and scrappy doo" - much easier than the actual words!) I think that means we've now done the whole of Messiah at least once. No time for anything else on Wednesday though (no carols, and still no Mozart) because most of the night was taken up with the AGM.

No dramatic scenes at the AGM, although it did overrun by half an hour, mainly because Jamie talked for ages in his bit. What he had to say was all interesting stuff though, including some very exciting plans for the future which, as usual, he can't give us any details about other than the date! It was my last night as alto rep too, and (much more significantly) Chris Holroyd's last night as chairman. He is a great guy and has put in an unbellievable amount of work for the choir (a lot more than most non-committee members probably realise) over the past few years - quite how he's managed to do that while being a headteacher is beyond me!

I must admit I was slightly taken aback at the news of the new choir website, because that was the first I'd heard of it. I felt a little awkward having to admit this to the many people who came to ask me about it at the break, presuming that I'd had some involvement in it, and they all seemed as surprised as I was at this! It's unfortunate that I was unable to attend the last two committee meetings, at which this was apparently discussed, but as it wasn't mentioned in the minutes, I didn't know I'd missed it so didn't ask anyone! Maybe they thought that if I was too busy to attend the meetings then I'd also be too busy to talk to anyone about my experience of running choir-related websites? Or maybe they thought that since my original choir website is so low-tech and rudimentary (which is true; I'd be the first to admit that) that I wouldn't know anything about putting together a more modern-looking one? Or maybe it just never occurred to them to ask me?

Despite leaving the committee on Wednesday, I did go to one last meeting, on Thursday. This was at the invitation of David, so I could pass on any final bits of alto feedback I'd been given recently. (I didn't stay for the whole meeting though; I left after I'd said my bit.) I was glad of this opportunity, particularly since I'd missed the last two meetings, because I have had a lot of feedback in the last month or two. Most (but not all) of it has been altos who are (like me) sick to the back teeth of being unable to hear what Jamie says because of other altos talking. But my feelings on this matter are well-known (which is maybe why people have come to complain to me about this more than about all other matters combined) so I won't go on about it again right now.

When I was in town for the meeting, I happened to go through Piccadilly Gardens and see the Christmas lights in the trees (picture at top of post). Aren't they lovely? I was quite enchanted. And did you know that Manchester is having a greener Christmas this year? I approve of this. (Oh, and on a similar subject, you know that strange alternative energy thing that was in the middle of Albert Square and has now moved to the front of G-Mex? It seems it's called the Manchester Oasis.)

Another couple of links to finish: firstly, there's a new series starting on Channel 4 next Saturday which sounds quite fun - it's presented by Howard Goodall and is called How Music Works. Not that I'm suggesting that any choir members will need that level of basic music education, but these things are often good for shedding new light on a subject. In particular, his Big Bangs series was excellent - and if you haven't read the accompanying book, I thoroughly recommend it.

And finally - remember the Manchester Passion? Well, it seems that for Christmas 2007 it will get a sequel - the Liverpool Nativity! Get your predictions in now for which songs they'll use...

"Gentlemen, you were rampant!"

This was Jamie telling the men what he thought of their Schoenberg gig. (Here's the Times review and the MEN review - sounds as if they were pretty good, although the MEN, typically, doesn't actually mention them!)

While I'm (almost) on the subject, there's a new Guardian review of our CD (which doesn't really say anything about our bit other than to mention that it is unexpected), and of course last night our Ravel gig (the one with the grunting where we didn't stand up... that sounds quite wrong if you don't know what I'm talking about!) was on Radio 3. I couldn't hear any grunts - see if you can, it's on Listen Again for the next week.

Not much else to say. I'm having one of those weeks, although I think today is the worst day (at least I hope so!) I was up at 4 a.m. today in order to try to do the work I should have done last night but was too tired. (Even so, I didn't finish before I had to leave for work at 7.) Then I had a meeting after school (the second of three this week). I got home, sat down for an hour then had to go out again for a singing lesson. And on getting home after that, I sat down for half an hour before I had to go out to a quiz (I'm in a league, and it started up again tonight). And during the course of the quiz, Man Utd lost (I blame myself). Got home at 10.30 p.m. Still have work to do but am too tired to concentrate - so why am I blogging? Because (a) I felt guilty for not doing so since last week, and (b) I'm waiting for one of my cats to come in :-)

I was almost as tired as this last week - I wasn't going to go to choir, I decided I couldn't make it to Thursday if I didn't go to bed REALLY early on Wednesday. But then I remembered I had to go, because the previous week Alison had volunteered to take home 3 boxes of carol books and only realised days later that she couldn't go the week after. So I'd agreed to take them back. And of course by the time I got there, I'd got my second wind so I thought I may as well stay!

We did a fair bit of Messiah - mainly the middle section (resulting in me having He Trusted In God on the brain for the rest of the week), although I think we had another bash at the runs in For Unto Us, because on page 61 I have a new Jamieism...

Jamie, after several minutes of practising a tiny technical point: "Shall we just do that in situ?"
Choir: *shows no signs of enthusiasm for this plan*
Jamie: "Good, I'm glad you want to!"

We also whizzed through The Wassail Song and Sir Christemas, and this week's new carol (well, in a manner of speaking) was In Dulci Jubilo, which we are doing with the Youth Choir. I seem to have written on one page of it "Like dodgy-looking people at a bus shelter" ... only I can't remember why!