"Folks, there are people TOUCHING each other!"

This was Jamie's delighted comment during the warmup tonight, when he had us singing Maggie's "Laudamus te" exercise to each other in pairs to see if we were supporting properly. There was indeed a certain amount of groping :p

I hope you'll forgive me for just listing stuff tonight rather than giving long explanations (although I bet there are some people who prefer it this way!). I'm really tired, but I tried to sleep and have too many things whizzing round my head, so this is an effort to offload some of them.

I went to see United last night - great game, made all the more entertaining by my nephew singing the Gary Neville song all the way through despite Gary Neville not actually playing. (It's the only one he knows all the words to.) (My nephew, that is, not Gary...) Dr Liz very kindly wrote a blog post about last night's rehearsal for me to just copy and paste, but sadly I turned out to be useless and didn't read it till tonight, by which time it didn't quite make sense to just paste it. So here is a slightly edited version:

"Sounds better now you're all kissing"

Rehearsal started with Maggie's warm up, as normal. There was quite a lot of stomach holding to feel muscles moving, yet another reason why having a six pack would be great! (but I'd never managed to do enough sit ups to develop it, and then to maintain it).

The first half was spent on the Holst. The quote from the top was Jamie making us pull faces to improve the sound and as normal it worked! Hopefully we can all recreate this for the gig itself. Jamie was on form tonight: "you need more space in your voice or you'll sound like Axl Rose - OK, so that's a blank for most of you." He then did a short Axl Rose impression, classic! (Axl Rose is the lead singer of Guns'n'Roses, for those of you who aren't a child of the 80s like I am!). He was also heard to utter "it's so great when you all get physical together" which raised a few titters.

It was announced in the break that the advert for choral administrator was going to be in the Guardian on Monday and on their website.

Most of the second half we sang the impressive 'God is Gone up'. I like it! And it'll sound great with the organ. It's got ace words, including 'methinks' and 'flakes of glory'. Jamie made us all put our thumbs in our mouths to try and push our molars up (hope everyone had washed their hands recently), and after making us make a certain noise (can't remember what it was) he decided that it was quite scary and "I'd not want to meet all you in a dark choral alley".

Then we sang, rather badly I have to admit, the Vaughan Williams. I think Jamie was rightly disappointed as we've put in a lot of work and none of it was there tonight. But it was the end of the rehearsal, so maybe people were tired, I know I was.

Thanks Liz. (I saw Guns'n'Roses live at Maine Road, back in the day. I loved them (and still do). So here's an mp3 of their most famous song, Sweet Child O' Mine. Air guitars at the ready!)

Anyway, tonight there was another rehearsal, at which we got a lot done. We did work on: O nata lux, Salvator mundi, Mihi autem nimis, Loquebantur variis linguis and Laudibus in sanctis. A few Jamieisms:

"Altos, there was one note I hated."

"Who is it who's not being interesting enough? .... Sopranos!"

"Like a sort of Renaissance rapper..." (this was after demonstrating the Alleluia weird underlay in Loquebantur)

"I might look at you! And if I do, you'll feel better about the world!"

The best physical Jamieism was his Darth Vader impression (when demonstrating how not to do a silent breath!) (apparently the trick to doing a silent one is to look surprised... I must practise that, I'm terrible for breathing noisily). There was also much amusement at the 1st sops repeatedly not coming in because they weren't watching, thus giving him lots of opportunities to insult them - always entertaining!

The 2nd altos, on the other hand, got a "Lovely harmonic!" comment at some point, and the choir as a whole got "I didn't think it was possible to do this that well!" - which was nice :-)

Unusually, there was a Jamieism that was just plain wrong.... "Keep the tiller in the water!" he said. Jamie, take it from one who sails regularly and has all too often ended up with the tiller in the water, it is a BAD THING when this happens, as it means you've capsized :p What you actually want is the RUDDER in the water. The tiller is the bit that guides the rudder, and should very definitely be above the water level! (I'm going sailing for the first time this year on Saturday morning, wind permitting. I'll let you know how wet my tiller gets :p )

Anyway, nearly there. A quiz question for you all: why do I have "SPIKE!" written on page 4 of Loquebantur? A packet of Smarties to the first person to guess. (I will be extremely impressed if anyone does know the answer, so I should probably make it easier by saying that I might just as well have written it on any page of any piece... it's on that one mainly because I've practised that page more than all the rest put together, it being the semi-chorus audition piece.)

And 5 more quick things.

1. I see that the official choir web page currently states "Unfortunately due to technical difficulties the choir schedule is currently unavailable." My unofficial one is fine, however, and has just been updated with the news that the rehearsal on 7th April is at 6.45 after all :-)

2. I just glanced through the newly-issued Hallé Proms leaflet, and was horrified to see that they spelled Princess Leia's name wrong! (I'm such a geek!) You'd think they might have checked. Sheesh. Pleased to see we're apparently doing the Humming Chorus in our gig, although I will be far less pleased if Jamie makes us sing it as written (i.e. only sops and tenors)... I'm sure a few altos could help the tenors out...

3. There was an article in the Guardian today saying that the Hallé have cancelled their USA tour. Remember Mark telling us about his experience at the American Embassy? (see this post if you've forgotten) It turns out to have been for nothing!

4. Those of you who are singing in the Manchester Passion on Good Friday, I now have sheet music and instructions (including when to shout "Crucify him!") I know about Alison and Liz L - if there's anyone else who's signed up, let me know and I'll give you the stuff. (It's not too late to get in touch! Give them a call.)

5. Finally, I know Liz L will appreciate this. I'm being a brother in Joseph next week, and I am delighted to be able to report that "Any dream will do" will NOT be performed at the start \o/

The apostles spoke in many tongues, alleluia

I'm off work - have had a really bad headache for nearly 5 days now, am about to go out to doctor's to find out why - so I thought I'd do a quick update.

Firstly, for those who don't come here via my choir website, you might like to know that I have updated my online choir schedule (choir members, email me for the link if you don't already have it). Please note that the schedule on the official site was significantly out of date as of early this morning. Please note, in particular, that the rehearsal on Friday 7th April is from 6pm to 9.30. I wasn't aware of this, although I'm assured we have been told and I'd just missed it, so I thought I'd better point it out in case anyone else has been daydreaming like I obviously have!

Secondly, we've had a huge increase in the number of blog visitors looking for the Honda choir ad to download (so I feel useful for keeping it available!) I'm intrigued as to the reason for the sudden increase, though - have they started showing it again? I haven't seen it since January, but I don't watch that much TV that has ads in it.

And finally, someone was searching for translations of the Byrd and Tallis music we're doing in the a cappella gig, and since I've just been investigating that myself as a favour to Cathy, I thought I may as well share my findings. Enjoy :-)

"They look like kind of crazed clowns!"

This referred to the tenors, who were this week's stars. The facial expression in question was the one they were apparently doing when attempting to keep the rest of the choir in tune. (I was fascinated, btw, to get a chance to watch the 1st altos sing their first line of Salvator Mundi. I'd noticed immediately that most of them were flat on their 2nd note - this was very noticeable because it's supposed to be the same A as the first note of the piece, 3 notes earlier - and when I watched them, I could guess why. A few of them (I could name names, but I won't) were doing the oft-demonstrated 'correct facial expression' (i.e. high cheekbones) but most weren't, and the difference was striking.)

Not many new Jamieisms tonight (although "Use me! Abuse me!" came up a few times - I think he's decided it's a good catchphrase) but I thought I'd do a post while Blogger is actually working. (Plus, I have some work I must do before I can go to bed, and I need to work up some energy for it...) For those who don't know, this blog costs me nothing, because I use the services of Blogger (owned by Google, FYI). Usually it all works fine, but if there is a problem with the Blogger servers - as there has been in the last week or so - then there's nothing I can do about it, sorry.

There was "Folks, the words are reh-deh-mee-hee-hee... stee-hee-hee...", but that one was a bit visual... There was also some discussion of Cylons (in connection with resonating wavebands - don't ask...)

Anyway, we did a lot of stuff. For those who weren't there: Salvator Mundi, Nunc Dimittis, Lord, Thou hast been our refuge (with the semi-chorus for the first time), A Hymn to the Virgin, Psalm 67 and the last bit of Laudibus in Sanctis. I'm still bitter about the whole semi-chorus thing, but they did sound quite good by the end (although not at first - there were a few voices that stuck out quite prominently, plus they seemed unable to follow the beat). I must admit that the fact they are also singing Choir 2 in A Hymn to the Virgin made things a lot worse for me personally. I sang this piece at school and loved it, but we did it as two equal choirs, so of course I sang choir 2 as I always have, and that's the part I have always loved. I was delighted when we did it in the carol concerts a few years ago, until I found that we were doing it as main choir and semi-chorus and I wasn't picked (I'm not talking about the last time, when we did it with the Youth Choir - I thought that worked really well). So tonight, I assumed it was going to be the semi-chorus doing Choir 2, but Jamie never actually said so before we started singing, so I got all hopeful that we were singing it antiphonally (i.e. as two equal choirs on opposite sides). But it turned out that my initial assumption was correct. Oh well :-(

Right. Must do some work. (I'm not at choir for the next two Wednesdays, btw - although I can do the extra Thu and Fri rehearsals - so if anyone wants to jot down any Jamieisms that'd be appreciated. Next Wednesday I'm off to see United play West Ham - originally the tickets were for a Saturday, but the match was changed due to the Carling Cup Final. I'd try to give the ticket away, but I'm taking my 9-year-old nephew. And the following Wednesday I'm being one of Joseph's brothers, singing in a school show!)

Before I go, though...

FOR EASY REFERENCE - links to mp3s of all the a cappella gig stuff, in running order (except 2 items, one of which is extremely easy... All are in the correct key except the two indicated.)

God is gone up - Finzi
Salvator Mundi - Tallis
Mihi autem nimis - Tallis (G minor - major 3rd lower than our version)
O Nata lux - Tallis
A Hymn to the Virgin - Britten
Nunc Dimittis - Holst
The Lamb - Tavener
Christe, qui lux es et dies - Byrd
Laudibus in Sanctis - Byrd
God be Merciful (Psalm 67) - Burton
Loquebantur variis linguis - Tallis (G minor - minor 3rd lower than our version)
Lord, Thou hast been our refuge - Vaughan Williams (with baritone soloist singing some of the semi-chorus bits)

EDIT: Please note that if you are reading this after April, most of these links will no longer work.

"So when we sing, in a very different musical style from grabbing a giraffe..."

Not for the first time, the most time-consuming part of writing a choir blog entry is deciding which of the Jamieisms should be the title :-) The one above is probably my second favourite of last night's rehearsal, but my favourite is a bit too visual to work here. (It was "Sopranos, you've got to go ^^^^. Basses, you've got to go >>>>. And tenors, you've got a G natural." And the ^^^^ and >>>> are fizzy gestures. ... You probably had to be there!)

Another great rehearsal, made even better by the return of both Liz L (with comfy cushion) and Dr Liz (who brought me a fabulous pink T shirt from Egypt!). The only negative part was that a couple of altos were upset by the behaviour of some other altos - and when they told me why, I was horrified; I didn't know stuff like this was still going on, I thought all the unfriendly people had left years ago. Been racking my brains since, trying to think of a solution, but I have already started discussions with other committee members about it, and I won't let it just drop, I promise.

But, let's talk about something nice. We started with Mihi autem nimis, which I don't think we'd tried till last night. It's not too difficult, but as ever it's difficult to do it really well. The 2nd altos were on a bit of a roll, though - Jamie got very excited by the harmonics we were apparently producing on the last note, and held us up as a shining example to the rest of the choir. (Which is as it should be, of course!) He didn't just like the last note... we got "By the way, the Alto 2s are winning for the best E vowel at the beginning." And "This is talent!" somewhere in the middle. I don't know about anyone else, but it had the effect of making me concentrate extra hard on how I was singing, so that I could do it the same way again in the future. And it put me in a really good mood too! Self-esteem is a wonderful thing :-)

Other Jamieisms during this part of the rehearsal: "You don't need to look like some possessed advertisement for chocolate!" (I forget what that was referring to), and "60 million Smarties are awarded immediately." (to the bass who spotted a misprint)

Then we did the first half of Laudibus in sanctis. It's getting pretty good. Bit more meaningful now, as well, because Jamie pointed out the meanings of the words. This produced "If you are imaginative and talented in this respect, draw a trumpet." - and "These people are happy! So was Byrd! He just didn't have a tambourine!"

We finished by doing some work on Lord, Thou hast been our refuge, followed by a quick sight-read through Holst's Nunc Dimittis, which was handed out at the start of the rehearsal. Never heard it before, but it's really lovely. Just managed to find an mp3 on the iTMS:

Nunc Dimittis (Holst) (3.8 MB)

Other stuff: Most people know about Ed Gardner's new job, but here's a link for those who missed it. (He was the Hallé's Assistant Conductor a couple of years ago and is very lovely.) There's a related story about ENO here.

Bit more news about the Manchester Passion: we now know a few of the people who are going to be involved. They include Keith Allen, Darren Morfitt, Tim Booth, Nicholas Bailey and Bez.

An interesting story about conductors and performers who sing along - we've had a few of those over the years!

And finally a couple of recent searches: someone searched for "the dissonance at the end of Tallis O nata lux" (I couldn't remember which one, but I just looked, and I presume they mean the false relation in bar 80, when the tenors have an F natural while the sops have an F sharp). And there was also a search for "how to seat choir members according to part they sing". I felt unreasonably guilty to realise that none of the results on the search page (including my blog) told this person the answer to this, so here it is:

Every choir I have ever sung in, including the Hallé, has had the men in the middle, with sopranos (S1 and S2) on the left (from the conductor/audience's point of view) and altos (A1 and A2) on the right. (I know there are choirs that arrange themselves differently, but I have never encountered one.) Usually the tenors (T1 and T2) are on the left of the centre line (next to the sopranos) and the basses (B1 and B2) on the right (next to the altos), but if there are particularly few tenors they may well be put across the front, with all the basses behind them.

We usually stay in this arrangement when the parts divide, and in the Hallé the order (from left to right) is: S1, S2, T2, T1, B1, B2, A2, A1. Sometimes this is varied to have, say, A2 at the front and A1 behind them, and similarly for other parts, if the 2nd parts have much smaller numbers.

Currently we are sitting "in two choirs", and this always means S1/A1/T1/B1 on the left and S2/A2/T2/B2 on the right. The arrangement within the two choirs varies, but for this concert we have A1, T1, T2, A2 at the front and S1, B1, B2, S2 at the back.

Hope that helps :-)

"Use me! Abuse me!"

Well, I was up till half past five this morning finishing the oft-mentioned Joseph backing tracks - long story why, but they're finally all done! Very much looking forward to going to sleep in a minute, but I thought I may as well offload tonight's choir thoughts while I'm eating. (I was talking to a tenor called Simon whose name I didn't know till tonight, and he told me he reads my blog and finds it useful for finding out what he missed when he was absent. When people say things like that to me, it always inspires me to write stuff when I'm extra-tired!)

Again, we got a lot done. Jamie got very excited several times (yes, even more so than usual!) This prompted Judy to mutter "Somebody hose him down!", which was going to be the title of my post until Jamie came out with the instruction above :p (In case you're wondering, the "use me" refers to the fact that not enough people are watching. The "abuse me"... well, I'm not sure I want to know!)

We started with Christe qui lux es et dies, which we hadn't tried before, and I can't say I like it. It seems extremely boring. Maybe Jamie has some plan in mind to make it exciting, but I can't imagine what. Oh well. We spent a lot of time on it, but this time did include two amusing impressions from Jamie - one of Bart Simpson (this was illustrating how to sing "Domine" with an American vowel sound, but not TOO American) and one of him "reining in a horse that's just woken up, but you really would like to leave quite soon, so you need to get him to move" (this was to assist with breathing control).

We then had a quick run through Laudibus in Sanctis. Not bad, although it was frustrating that it was nowhere near as good as in the sectional. This was mainly because all the people who (presumably) missed the sectional, and therefore didn't know the music very well, were dragging behind the whole time. Argh! The most amusing part of this bit of the rehearsal, though, was related to this. Jamie conducted the second half of the piece with no score, and the deal was that he would only bring people in if they waved to him just beforehand to alert him to the fact they were about to sing. I'd love to have seen it - he said it was hilarious to see how eager people looked when waving!

A new piece next, Psalm 67, composed by Jamie himself. He spent quite a while explaining why the piece had been written the way it had, which was interesting (I love to get background info!). It has some lovely harmonies already; I look forward to hearing it when everyone is singing the right notes :p

Oh, and there was a long-awaited acknowledgement of 2nd alto greatness from Jamie! There was giggling, you see, when he asked us to pronounce "us" with an "ar" at the start...

Jamie: "It's always the altos!"
2nd altos: *glare*
Jamie: "It's always the 1st altos! 2nd altos - YES!"

Then followed a page of Lord, Thou hast been our refuge, which was similar in many ways to Jamie's piece. This was what produced the "Use me! Abuse me!" plea... There was also a bit of a thing about descending minor 3rds (hint to sopranos: if Jamie asks "what interval is that?" you are usually safe to guess "descending minor 3rd"....) in which he suggested that a member of the committee might go through all the repertoire and produce a guide to where this interval appears... I hope he was joking - you can never be too sure!

We finished with God is gone up, which was fun as ever, but slightly annoying because now I'll have it on the brain for the 2nd week running! In the car on the way home we heard most of The Music Makers on Classic FM. We spent the whole journey trying to decide whether or not it was our recording that they were playing. We decided eventually that it wasn't - but it turned out it was! Which reminds me, there's a brief review of that CD here that I hadn't seen before (thanks Graham).

Oh, and finally, just wanted to mention that on Saturday I sang tenor in a gig in Doncaster for Ken's Nightingale Singers. It was fun, but the highlight for me was a semi-improvised version of Czardas by a fabulous violinist called Daniel Axworthy. I was sitting next to him for most of the gig - he was singing tenor as well as playing a couple of violin bits - and he seemed like a great guy. But when I got home I googled him and found that he was the violinist in the arm-wrestling story, which I vaguely remember reading at the time. But if you ever get a chance to hear him play, do :-)

"Suddenly there's a section singing. As opposed to a horse."

... No, I have no idea what that meant. But I can tell you that it referred to the 2nd sopranos... maybe one of them can enlighten me? (Well, I know what he meant by the first bit. It's the horse that baffled me!)

Ladies' sectional tonight. And it was a typical ladies' sectional in two ways: 1. We got a lot done. 2. Jamie appeared to be having such a good time that he was even more entertaining as usual, and this resulted in much amusement :-)

We spent most of the time learning Laudibus in Sanctis, but we also did a bit of work on Lord, thou hast been our refuge and God is gone up. There were so many Jamieisms I didn't attempt to write them all down, but some that I did were:

"It needs some kind of archival evidence that this bar was rehearsed."

"Can we make sure it sounds like an Italian singing the song from Mary Poppins?" (this related to 'chee' at the start of 'cymbala'...)

The one that had everyone almost crying with laughter was a bit visual, but it involved taking ownership of a B flat, and Jamie doing an impression of aitting on a park bench repeatedly. You probably had to be there!

Anyway, one other thing before I tell you about Mack and Mabel. You might not have seen this review in the Independent, which is of the whole Shostakovich festival, and ACTUALLY MENTIONS THE CHOIR! (Oh, and that reminds me - sorry to anyone who's emailed me this week, I've been snowed under with work, but I'll try to get caught up at the weekend.)

So, Mack and Mabel! There's an M.E.N. review here. And I'm a bit surprised to see that the comments at the end of that review suggest that not everyone liked it as much as I did. But hey, it takes all sorts :-)

You see, whenever I go to see a show, I always look at the programme to see if there's anyone I know in the band. (It does sometimes happen...) And when I did this for Mack and Mabel, I was surprised to see there was no band listed. Then I noticed that the pit of the theatre was empty, and no musicians were warming up. Odd, I thought - surely they're not performing to a backing track? Then I noticed that in the cast list, next to each actor's name was not only a character name but also an instrument - several, in some cases. I wondered out loud what this might mean, and my 10-year-old niece said that the actors must be playing the instruments as well. I explained that this never happens... and felt quite stupid when it turned out she was absolutely correct!

There were 10 actors in the cast, I think. David Soul was the lead, but I'd never heard of any of the others. But they were fabulous. Each of them not only acted and sang (solo and in harmony), they also tap-danced, and they all (except David Soul) carried a musical instrument throughout. And played it. And I don't just mean they played a few random notes - they supplied the actual backing parts for the show. From memory, too! There was a musical director who played a keyboard, but he was up on a balcony on the side of the stage, and he didn't conduct, so the fact that they played as an ensemble was even more impressive. And they switched modes all the time. For example, there was one guy who had a trumpet. During one song, here is what I think he did:

• Played trumpet in the intro
• Sang the first verse as a solo
• Played the trumpet again
• Sang the second verse as one of the harmony parts
• Played the trumpet again
• Removed the mute from his trumpet and used it as a prop (he mimed offering a drink to someone)
• Grabbed a followspot (you know, a spotlight used to follow a single actor) and lit up the lead actress as she danced around the stage (Mack and Mabel mainly takes place on a film set, so spotlights were part of the props - but these were ACTUAL spotlights, and the actors operated them!)
• Did a tap dance

And while the trumpeter was doing all these things, the other actors were doing similar stuff - singing a bit, playing a bit, acting a bit, constantly switching. Now I might've got the songs muddled and he might not've done ALL those things in one song, but he certainly did all those things at various points. It was all so CLEVER! Oh, and at one point the lead actress had a big romantic scene that took place on a train. And the whole cast swayed from side to side to portray the movement of the train. But it was the lead actress who supplied the sound effects that made the train seem real... while delivering this big emotional speech, she kept up a train rhythm on a cabasa. I don't think I could've done it as rhythmically as she did!

Anyway, maybe not everyone will be impressed with it. The acting, singing and playing was all "good" rather than "fabulous". And there was hardly any set, which might bother some. But the cleverness of the production delighted me so much that it more than made up for any tiny quibbles such as these. Go and see it!

P.S. Just after posting this, I got an email from Rachel P (1st alto), who says "On Saturday the Manchester University Symphony Orchestra have a concert in the Cosmo Rodewald concert hall in the music department (sorry, Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama) and are in need of an audience. The concert starts at 7.30, I believe it costs students £3 and non-students £10, and the programme is Henze Symphony No.1, Tomasi Trumpet Concerto and Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 (in which i'm playing piccolo...)"

"Don't let the mouse turn into a small otter just yet."

Right, I have 25 minutes to write all the things I wanted to write last night and the night before (but was too tired), while eating my tea before going out to ANOTHER rehearsal...

I'm in a much better mood now. I applied for two jobs recently and found I hadn't even got an interview for the first one (still waiting to hear from the second). Then I got to choir last night and found that I hadn't been picked for the semi-chorus. THEN I heard that the guy from the BBC Manchester Passion thing had contacted someone that *I* told about it... but hadn't contacted me!

Well, the triple rejection kind of got to me a bit, and I sent a second (aggrieved) email to the BBC guy, which I felt a bit embarrassed about today, when I'd calmed down. But at least the triple rejection is now only a double one, because I've just spoken to him and he's put me on the list :-) He wants more people, though, and says no-one will be turned down, so if you're free on Good Friday, please contact him (details in my previous post). He also wants people to join in the carrying of the huge cross through the city centre, so if you have non-singing friends or relatives who'd like to come with you, get them to contact him too!

I must admit to being devastated about the semi-chorus thing, though. I actually thought I might've had a slightly better chance than usual because (a) I've been practising and having proper lessons, and (b) several altos who I'd normally regard as automatic picks didn't audition. Oh well. Well done to those who DID pass :-)

(There is one thing that people might like to remember, though, when it comes to vocal assessments. Those of you who panic about sight-reading can take heart from how little importance it plays in auditions and assessments, compared to singing beautifully. Because I'm pretty sure I got that sight-reading PERFECT (well, apart from running out of breath at the end), and as usual it did me no good at all!)

Anyway, last night was really good, other than the semi-chorus list. It was the second of our open rehearsals, to which anyone interested in seeing what a Hallé Choir rehearsal is like could come along. There seemed to be quite a lot of extra people - maybe 30? A colleague of mine from school came with me, and she had a fabulous time, although she said she can't work out (a) where Jamie gets all his energy from; (b) where WE get all our energy from, to concentrate so hard for so long. I don't know the answer to either of those, but I wish I did, because my energy ran out several days ago!

Graham E was back, too - great to see him, although I didn't get a chance to talk to him. No Liz L, who presumably still can't sit down - how are you, Liz?

We sang right through the Fauré, which was very lovely. The title of the post is a Jamieism from the first page, on which Jamie wanted the first sound to be like "a perfectly formed mouse..." The other one that amused me was when he didn't like the way the sopranos sang something, and they pointed out that they were only following what it said in the score.

"Oh, you're so MUSICAL!" he said, accusingly.

Argh, running out of time, and I haven't told you about Mack and Mabel. Full explanation when I get back from tonight's rehearsal, but here's a short version:

1. It's on at the Palace all this week, till Saturday, then continues its tour until stopping in the West End in April.

2. I went to see it on Tuesday night and was blown away by how AMAZINGLY clever the production is.

3. If there's any way you can get to see it, please do so!

Do you have the Passion?

Just noticed that the BBC are now asking for volunteer singers for the Good Friday thing. Let's all sign up! See here for details :-)

Semi-chorus panic

This is what resulted when Chris announced, right after the warmup, that those who'd put their names down to do the semi-chorus auditions after the rehearsal tonight should instead go immediately. We weren't told the reason for this change, but when we got down there everyone was in a panic, mainly because we'd all specifically chosen the after-the-rehearsal slot so we'd be properly warmed up! Oh well.

There were no men, oddly enough. I presume they all bit the bullet and did it earlier. But there were maybe 10-15 ladies waiting to put themselves through torture... Amusingly, the room Jamie was in was almost impossible to get into - it had a cupboard and a piano blocking the door, and we had to squeeze through a gap to get in! This meant, when it was my turn, that I was totally out of breath when I went in - I'd walked very quickly down the corridor, because I knew time was tight, and squeezing through a too-small gap didn't help! The audition itself was OK other than my lack of breath - some people were a bit taken aback to have to sing both the Tallis and the sight-reading with no accompaniment, but I'm pretty sure Jamie had said that was the plan. Anyway, we'll see.

Got back to the rehearsal to find David note-bashing the Byrd funky motet, which sounded pretty good by the time we finished. It was one of those occasions, though, when he said something that could be interpreted as being slightly rude (I forget what) and after that people were sniggering at every other instruction :p The only thing I wrote down was "Laude doesn't mean 'loud', by the way!"

(Oh, and two new pieces were given out tonight, although we didn't sing either of them - Byrd's "Christe qui lux es et dies" and Finzi's "God is gone up". I've done the Finzi once before - a long time ago - and I love it. I haven't yet got a recording of the Byrd - it's not on iTunes - but will post it if I get one. But I already had the Finzi on CD.)

God is gone up (Finzi) (6.1 MB)

Anyway, Jamie managed to make it to the second half of the rehearsal. And it turned out to be quite different! Apologies to those who were there, but I need to describe what happened for those who missed it (e.g. Dr Liz, who had to go to work at half time, and Liz L, who has fractured her coccyx, poor thing). First, Jamie asked for 4 volunteers. They stood in a line at the front and held their right hand up (as if taking a pledge of allegiance). The choir then chanted "1, 2, 3, 4", and after a few times, the four volunteers were instructed to raise and lower their hands at will, and the choir had to just chant the beats indicated. (The aim was to look ahead and not get faster, see.) After a few goes at this (and several new lots of volunteers) the next lot of volunteers had to hold both hands up, indicating quavers... and the chant became "1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and" ... and, later, "... and ... and ... and ... and" (when all 4 volunteers happened to have only their left hand up). A few goes later, there were 8 volunteers, 4 for each side of the choir, so there were two lots of chanting going on at the same time. I'm sure there were probably people muttering "I'd rather just sing" (there usually are!) but there weren't any near me - everyone seemed to be having a great time!

We went on to sing the Tallis "Loquebantur" (the semi-chorus audition piece). Unsurprisingly, with half the choir having spent a good bit of time practising it, it sounded really good (a clever plan, that!). We did a bit of work on breath management (one of these days I'll get better at that, but I'm nowhere near there yet) and this produced the only Jamieism I wrote down tonight: "Folks, you should feel desperate a lot more often!" By the end, though, he was so delighted he just made gibbering noises. Nice to make people happy :-)

The only other thing we sang was the Vaughan Williams, and even then it was only the last section. Before we did this, we spent a while practising singing notes in the scale of D major, using the Kodaly hand signals. Now, every class had a lesson each week on this when I was at school, with a guy called Peter Hatfield who was a Kodaly expert. (It was called "aural" on the timetable, but it was mainly Kodaly stuff.) I don't think we appreciated at the time how useful it was, but I'm pretty sure that's how I learned to sight-sing. So it reminded me that I'd promised to do a post explaining how I do it... and I will, eventually, but the short version is "like that!"

Anyway, World of Warcraft beckons. But one final thing - some more info about the Good Friday passion play in Manchester, that Sheena Barbara alerted us to a while ago. Looks fun!

Semi-chorus angst

Well, like many, many other members of the choir (including 15 altos - I counted) I signed up for a semi-chorus audition, and I'm getting more and more anxious about it. Now I can guess that several of you are probably thinking that's silly, but, you see, Jamie's never yet picked me for a semi-chorus (I did sing in the semi-chorus in the first gig he prepared, which was Gerontius in St Paul's, but that was because I'd been in it the previous time and, not knowing the choir at that point, he just had the same people). And his vocal assessment comments about me have always been "great sight reading, but try to make a nicer sound". (Which is fair enough.) Now, I think I've improved a bit, but this Wednesday's audition will be the test - and if I fail it, it won't do much for my confidence!

Anyway, in case anyone wants to practise with the harmony but can't play it and doesn't have a recording, I've put one online, together with all the other bits of music we've been given so far. All the tracks are on iTunes (79p a track - bargain!) so you can buy your own copy if you like (I won't be keeping these up forever). PLEASE NOTE that not all of these are in the same key as our music - the first one, in particular, is a tone lower (i.e. the 1st alto part on page 4 starts on an A flat not a B flat). But I hope they'll be useful anyway.

Loquebantur variis linguis (Tallis) (4.9 MB) - pages 4 and 5 of this are the semi-chorus audition piece, and here is just that bit (1.4 MB)

Laudibus in sanctis (Byrd) (6.8 MB)

Salvator mundi (Tallis) (2.6 MB)

O nata lux de lumine (Tallis) (2.1 MB)

Mihi autem nimis (Tallis) (2.5 MB)

The Lamb (Tavener) (3.9 MB)

Lord, thou hast been our refuge (Vaughan Williams) (9.1 MB)

Oh, and I almost forgot - anyone who received last week's choir info email and didn't read it very closely, do so - you may have missed our chairman's new name :p

"I might look stupid, but at least I'm in tune!"

Firstly, before I forget, someone mentioned the ladies' choir a cappella version of I Predict a Riot to me earlier, so I thought I'd repeat the link to it, since the Kaiser Chiefs won the top prize at the Brit Awards tonight. (I first mentioned this mp3 on 13th January...)

Anyway, SUCH a fun rehearsal tonight! We sight-read through lots of new stuff for the a cappella concert, and it was all very wonderful. Also, we sat in 2 choirs (i.e. 1st altos on the opposit side of the room to 2nd altos) and I love it when we sit like that, especially when there's antiphonal stuff like in Belshazzar. There wasn't any antiphonal stuff tonight, but it was still good. Also the talking was practically nil, at least near me...

New stuff we sang tonight: Tallis - Salvator mundi; Tallis - O nata lux de lumine; Byrd - Laudibus in Sanctis; Vaughan Williams - Lord Thou hast been our refuge. The Byrd is, I presume, the fast funky motet previously referred to. The Vaughan Williams is the piece with the semi-chorus (for which it appears just about the whole choir is voluntarily auditioning.... I guess that's a positive sign!). All the pieces have really nice low alto parts (the first Tallis one had the 1st altos significantly lower than the 2nds in many places, which is a bit odd) but none of them was all that hard, except the Byrd, which was interestingly tricky! Lots of people were having a proper go at the sight reading, which is great - a few years ago, most of the choir would not even have attempted to sight-read something that hard, but tonight only a few sat there listening rather than give it a go.

Maggie started the evening off (well, after the 2nd alto vocal coaching session, which was very useful) by saying "I'm going to open your vowels over the next few weeks!" Some of the tenors misheard her and were a bit alarmed... Then, "Good evening", said Jamie, and promptly broke his music stand :p He was on good form after that though. Some samples:

"Elgar, with a Salvador Dali twist!" (this referred to an imaginary moustache)

"OK, I'll conduct like this now..." (at which he crossed his arms and conducted with them the wrong way round)

"Imagine a baby's bib... what's on yours? spaghetti? mine too! ... now throw the pizza across the restaurant..."

Bit of a visual one - his impressions of the faces of the tenors, when he was illustrating how he can tell from their facial expressions whether or not they're resonating...

"I don't know what sort of horses you hang out with!" (to the 2nd altos, after some instruction involving ambling to the starting box rather than racing to the finishing line... i.e. relax...)

"I can hear all your voices individually!" he said, after listening to the 1st altos. He then (somewhat offputtingly, given that comment) came to stand in front of the 2nd altos to listen. "You sound completely different! In 7 weeks, you'll all sound the same." We weren't at all sure whether he meant "different" in a good or a bad way, but a few minutes later he told the 1sts they sounded much better that time, and he didn't say anything to us. I'm inferring from that that we were great the first time :-)

Grovel, grovel, cringe, bow, stoop, crawl

I've been writing Joseph music out for hours, and I decided I couldn't stay awake any longer and abandoned it for the night, but I lay there wide awake for an hour - with the tunes going round in my head - before admitting defeat and getting up again to finish it. Argh.

Anyway, just wanted to point out the Times review of Shost 3. This one does at least mention the choir. He didn't like Shost 3 though! "When a symphony by a famous composer is never played there is usually a good reason." "I won’t be petitioning the gods of concert programming for more performance." Heh. (He doesn't actually say what he thought of the choir, although the implication is that we were "vigorous"...)

Oh, and Graham E discovered this page while faffing online. It's quite interesting. Graham's not at all well, btw - do send him your best wishes.

EDIT: Graham sent this scan of the M.E.N. review of the Shost 3 gig, which hasn't made it online yet. Yet again, nothing about the choir. Sheesh.

Have you ever seen a giraffe who's NOT content?

Well, the guy from The Guardian doesn't mention the choir again, but he seems to have liked the concert. You could infer from his review that he thought we sang ecstatically and gloriously, but only if you read it very carefully (and desperately!) I see it's a different guy from last week, so it's not even as if it's just one of them who's blind...

Sorry to not blog till now, after Thursday night. I had house guests who arrived later that night. (I cursed them all day, because the last thing I wanted to do when I got back from the concert was to tidy and clean the house and make up 4 beds, but by the time I'd done it I realised that the bonus was that my house was tidy for the first time in weeks, so that automatically put me in a better mood, plus it was lovely to see Ruth, who's one of my oldest friends.) Then I had to go straight from work yesterday to a hotel in Gisburn, for our school's annual staff residential training and team-building course. Got home just in time to see United beat Portsmouth, and I'm going to bed in a minute. First chance to catch up on sleep in about 3 weeks \o/

Shostakovich 3 went well. Liz L says that Petroc mentioned the sashes! He did come over and speak to Dr Liz and me, but that was just to ask whether the RNCM chorus was present. (I'd like to think that he asked us because we were clearly the most knowledgeable people there, but in fact it was probably be we were sitting closest to him :p ) The fabulous trumpet bit at the end was as fabulous as ever, but the early part of the symphony (which we hadn't heard till the performance) had some good bits too. Our bit was the best though. Including the page which I belatedly realised reminded me of Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi. No, NOT the bit where she's in the gold bikini. Before that, the first time she appears in the film, she's disguised as a bounty hunter and talks in some strange language. Well, the Russian on one particular page in the middle of Shost 3 sounds exactly like that speech.

No, I don't know which page, I've handed my music in.

Yes, I do realise how sad it is that I noticed the similarity :p

Some good Jamieisms during the warmup. The title of this post comes from the end of one of them, a real classic, which he called out while we were doing a repeated exercise: "Imagine you're a rhinoceros, with a really big horn... An elephant, with a trunk!... A duck-billed platypus, with a, erm, double bill!... An angry gorilla!... A cheeky monkey!... A content giraffe!... What am I saying?!? Have you ever seen a giraffe who's NOT content?"

Also we got "Sopranos, you could really help here by not being asleep." But my favourite moment was when we were doing the quiet "laughing arpeggio" exercise. Jamie's piano accompaniment to this became more and more funky and impressive, in a Jools Holland-ish way. I became convinced that he was prolonging the exercise mainly so he could show off his boogie-woogie skillz :p

*grumble*

Am in oh so very bad a mood. Grr. Tonight's orchestral rehearsal finished just after 8 pm, and I only got home 10 minutes ago. (It would've been 20 minutes ago, to be fair, but I stopped at the chippy because I couldn't be bothered to cook.) There was a committee meeting after the rehearsal, which I decided I'd really better not stay till the end of, as I have hours of work that must be done before tomorrow. So I said I was leaving at 8.55. At 8.54 a perfect opportunity arose to say something I'd wanted to say all meeting, so I did, and this resulted in me not leaving till 9.00 and hence missing the 9.19 train by 30 seconds and having to wait an hour for the next one. Again!!!

I've been in a bad mood all day, though, mainly because of something life-changing that happened to me on 8th February 1996, which was very much on my mind today. (My mind is annoying like that - it remembers all sorts of anniversaries it would be better to forget.) And then I got to the Bridgewater Hall and saw something on the notice board that really offended me (I might've laughed it off if I was in a good mood, but not tonight), so then I was annoyed with myself for getting so annoyed about such a tiny thing. At least the rehearsal was pretty good (nothing noteworthy to report), and there was far less talking than usual (well, the two girls behind me chatted nonstop, but they were from the RNCM).

Oh well. Tomorrow is another day, as they say :-)

A gruesome choral text

Finally - a review! in The Times. It says Shost 2 is "a crazily avant-garde curio, climaxing in a gruesome choral text marking the October Revolution’s 10th anniversary. The Hallé chorus, doomed to sing lines such as “October is happiness in the field and at the work bench” (it sounds better in Russian), were brave and robust."

I suppose it could be worse....

EDIT: And a 5-star review from The Guardian. Which is a fabulous review other than, as has been pointed out below, not mentioning the choir AT ALL. Sheesh. This is a great line, though: "I don't believe that I have ever been so comprehensively bullied by a symphony orchestra before."

Mark's on the radio tonight!

He's on Classic FM on The Guest List. "The conductor Mark Elder tells us why taking charge of the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester was a chance not to be missed." 10pm till midnight, but I don't know what stage of the programme he'll be on. Thanks to Sheena for pointing this out.

EDIT: He was on right at the start, for half an hour including music, but Graham E has sent a recording that helpfully has just the chat (about 10 minutes - 9MB). Mark didn't mention the choir! We will have to have words >.<

She also alerted me to a concert by the Alteri chamber choir (conducted by David Jones, the Hallé accompanist, and featuring several Hallé singers). It's at Manchester Cathedral on Saturday 18th February and features the music of Jeffrey Lewis. Details are here and a flyer here.

No reviews yet for Thursday's gig, at least not that I can find. The commodore of my sailing club was there, though, and said it was fabulous and the choir was the highlight. He didn't hear the siren, though... Graham E sent me an email saying "here's the men's entry" and after my initial shock that he thought I might want to see such a thing, I noticed (with some relief) that he'd attached an mp3 rather than a picture, and guess what - no siren! In my defence, Libby says she didn't notice it was missing either :-)

Graham's email reminded me of another one he sent me a while ago, alerting me to the fact that our Music Makers CD was picked as one of the best classical albums of 2005 by the Manchester Evening News.

While searching for Shostakovich 2 reviews, I did find two interesting things. Firstly, this Times review says that our concert is not to be missed, which is nice... but I noticed an odd thing. It doesn't say anywhere what Shostakovich was actually played in the concert under review! Pity, because he obviously really liked it... This Independent review is better though. Listen to this bit, when it moves from reviewing the BBC Phil concert to the Hallé concert: "Though the gap between Manchester's symphony orchestras has closed of late, the following night's performance was of a far higher quality. Where the BBC Phil use Bridgewater Hall's flattering acoustics like a therapeutic bath, the Hallé have found a way to cut through the gloss without losing any glow or shimmer." Go team!

"Stand! ... And BE!"

This was Jamie's instruction for the end of Shostakovich 2 (i.e. don't move, stare at the audience till the piece ends) and I must admit I was totally in the moment when it got to that bit. For a second I worshipped Lenin :-)

Gig went pretty well. Not much to say, which is just as well as I have a million things I still have to do before I can sleep, and I was already nodding off hours ago in the concert (not because it was in any way boring, I was just so tired). The ladies' new red sashes made their debut... here are Delphine and Claire modelling them:



I thought they looked pretty good, although there was quite a wide variety in how they looked. A surprising number of people had actually managed to find time to sew them, but there were also loads (including me, naturally) who couldn't have done it if we'd had a week off work. Pat said it would only take a couple of minutes, and I do own a needle - but not a sewing machine, and I'm not entirely sure where the needle is, so it may as well be in a haystack... So I looked at the instructions yesterday with the intention of having a go. But when I saw that step one was "remove the velcro from the shoulders of your choir top" I abandoned the plan there and then, as I knew that step alone would take easily an hour, and there were quite a few more steps! But it was fine, because Pat, in addition to sewing all the sashes in the first place, found the time - and patience! - to help everyone pin theirs on if they hadn't been able to sew them. Thanks Pat :-)

(I must admit I kept expecting someone to accuse me of laziness, saying that if I had time to write a load of waffle on my blog, I must've had time to sew my scarf. But please believe me - writing a load of waffle takes me 10 minutes. It'd take me longer than that to find the needle!)

Claire pointed out that the audience might think the reason we'd got new sashes for this gig was that we were playing the part of revolutionaries, so red was more fitting. I never thought of that! Wonder if Petroc Trelawney mentioned them? He was sitting with the altos, you know. I did a double-take when I realised it was him. He was sitting all on his own with a pair of headphones and a huge furry mic, which he talked quietly into between pieces. It was really weird to have the total silence in the hall broken by this man muttering "Now, Mahler..." etc. The Mahler was the Rückert Lieder, sung by Sarah Connolly, who was fabulous. (I must admit I preferred the Bach, though, which was the first item on the programme - some bits from The Art of Fugue.) And when I left the hall she was sitting in the artists' entrance and admired my hat! It is a great hat, though. I bought it yesterday and it has occasioned much comment since.

"Sustain the guy's name - whatever we think of him!"

That's L(y)enin, in case you were wondering... I think possibly the most most amusing moment of tonight was when Jamie said he couldn't remember what the very last word of Shostakovich 2 was. He was somewhat embarrassed when we told him it was L(y)enin :-)

Orchestral rehearsal for Shostakovich 2 tonight. Went quite well. It's much easier with the orchestra - and the siren! Lots of siren-related fun, including it being too loud and often coming in at the wrong place. The highlight, though, was when Rory Macdonald, the Hallé's new Assistant Conductor, who was controlling the siren from a laptop at the back of the hall, managed to broadcast an extremely loud Windows error alert tone through the loudspeakers :p Mark turned round very slowly to glare at him!

We did a new thing tonight, which was that instead of the people sitting on the outside edges of the choir shuffling inwards to join the others when they stood up to sing, we all moved outwards until the whole choir was spread out sufficiently for no-one to be touching each other. This felt pretty good! Made us look - and hence feel - more numerous and confident. Which was the stated aim, so it's just as well :-)

Mark seemed - by the end, at least - fairly happy with our singing. (Although he kept calling the altos "mezzos". Grrr.) The rehearsal finished with the orchestra playing the whole symphony so we could see where we came in. It's not a tuneful piece - we knew that - but I enjoyed it more than I'd expected to. (I don't see myself playing it as relaxing background music any time soon, though!) The highlight for me was the trumpets (this is often the case). There was one bit in particular where there were four totally independent - but equally impressive - trumpet parts. Later on they got to do a fabulous fanfare, but it wasn't as good as the first bit. Oh, and just before we sang, there was a lengthy section which can only be described as the whole orchestra going mad at once. I don't mind a bit of dissonance when there's so much to watch :-)

(We're live on Radio 3 tomorrow night, btw. However, the BBC don't even mention there's a choir in the concert, and neither does the Radio Times. Tsk.)

Incidentally, I am trying to decide which is the most ridiculous Russian word. From symphonies 2 and 3 my personal shortlist is:

• khrabr
• vzmyit
• fploshadee (I was so disappointed when it turned out not to be "sploshadee", as printed... how good a word is that?!?)

Oddly enough, the one word I think we can all say is "ryevalyootseeya". Probably because we can all remember what it's supposed to sound like :-) My favourite Russian word ever, though, remains one from that Prokofiev thing we did (Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, was it called?). It was one of the first words in the piece and was something like "leeshrazhleechnim". I forget what it meant, but I just loved the feeling of saying it :-)

Anyway, enough of the Russian. After the break we'd done all that we needed to do on Shostakovich, so we went elsewhere in the Bridgewater Hall to start work on stuff for the a cappella concert (hint to those who can never remember how to spell that: two words, two Ps, two Ls). It's to be mainly stuff by Vaughan Williams and Tallis (one of which Jamie says is a "fast funky motet which is a bit like a madrigal"), but tonight we just got two of the pieces - Tavener's The Lamb (which many of us had done before) and Tallis's Loquebantur variis linguis ("The apostles spoke in many tongues of the great works of God") (which we hadn't). The latter was very lovely, even at first sight-read. (Jamie was stressing sight-reading methods, and people were doing pretty well tonight. It occurred to me, though, that sometime I must try writing down an explanation of how I sight read, because it's the one thing I'm unnaturally good at - that sounds really arrogant, sorry, but hey - and people often ask me how I do it! I'll try to do that in the next few weeks.)

The tenors were a big focus of the Tallis. There was much amusement at Jamie referring to them as the putty that holds the piece together, but I think it was one of those "you had to be there" moments... There was also Jamie's "Show us your lifebuoy - not show us your life, boys" (referring to them using their stomach muscles). Oh, and today's bits of random music-related trivia:

• where there's a C flat in one part and a C natural in another part in the same bar, that's called a false relation

• tunes like the one in the tenor part of the Tallis are called cantus firmus

• such tunes are usually in the tenor part rather than any of the others, and this is actually the reason why the part got its name - it comes from the Latin for "to hold", because it holds the tune while the other parts add decoration.

There you are, now you blog-readers can impress the people next to you next time we sing the Tallis, by mentioning these things before Jamie does (he hasn't yet...) :-)

A couple of final things. Firstly, I forgot to say yesterday, but Martin brought his son's drawing for us to see. It's extremely impressive. I passed it round the choir - hope it got back to Martin, because I never saw it again!

Secondly, I just noticed tonight that the Hallé official website has some new bits - their archives are now online, including orchestra and choir lists going back a very long time. Go and look!

And finally - if you haven't been in the Green Room at the Bridgewater Hall, or you've been in but weren't paying attention to the walls, go in there the next chance you get. There are loads of signed photos on the wall from visiting performers. I was very amused by the Eddie Izzard one, but the Simon Rattle one is good too :-)

EDIT: Can't sleep - again - so am faffing online. Just saw this article in the Guardian, featuring interviews with stressed-out orchestra players, including Morris Stemp (ex-Hallé). Food for thought. And I'm alarmed to realise that today is Groundhog Day. Imagine if the film came true and we had to sing Shostakovich 2 every day for the foreseeable future :p

"Their Russian's wonderful! What's all the fuss about?"

So, piano rehearsal for both Shostakovich symphonies tonight. I am so totally exhausted as a result of that (not helped by trauma at work, associated lack of sleep, and singing very loudly in a different rehearsal a couple of hours previously) that I wanted to sleep as soon as I got home, but annoyingly I still have lots of stuff whirling round in my head and can't sleep, so I thought I'd write this to offload at least a few thoughts (kind of like an online Pensieve...)

Mark (Elder) seemed impressed with the Russian (the title is a quote from him). He was less impressed at the singing behind the beat, but I was expecting that. Maybe one day everyone will watch all the time, but we're sadly not at that stage yet. Annoyingly, we're also not at the stage where everyone can be professional in rehearsals - I found it particularly difficult to concentrate tonight, as there was a LOT of chatter. Jamie pointed out at one stage: "If you don't talk, your voices will recover sooner..." which is of course true, but unfortunately some people were just determined to be rude. And it was infuriating when a few people started to mutter about the break being later than promised, seemingly oblivious to the fact that if they hadn't talked nonstop throughout the first half of the rehearsal, we would have got through everything on time! Oh well.

We also got our new folders and sashes tonight (the sashes are what's being referred to in the wind socks sign above....) As a public service, here is a photo of a sash pinned correctly:



There was a bit of alarm at the idea that we need to sew stuff before Thursday's concert despite having no time in which to do it, but when I went to investigate, I was told that it's not a problem, they can easily be pinned on, and Pat will bring pins on Thursday for this very purpose. Just as well, because I don't even have any pins, so I was planning to fix mine on with gaffer tape!

Mark was on good form tonight. He told us to watch the violinists' faces when they play the fast, high pizzicato stuff in the triple fugue of the 2nd symphony. (Apparently the violinists at the first performance said this was impossible to play, and begged the 21-year-old Shostakovich to change it to arco!) Mark was also quite taken with the English translation of a couple of lines: "Terrible was the name of our snares" and "Freedom out of oil-covered hands". But the highpoint was his story about having to go and present himself at the American Embassy in order to get permission to work there (apparently everyone has to do that now, and if we ever went on tour there with the choir and orchestra, every member of the choir and orchestra would have to visit the American Embassy first!) I can't tell the story as well as he did, so I will just summarise it as a memento for the people who heard it. 7.25 a.m., freezing cold, 2 other musicians in the queue (who recognised Mark), Mark eventually being interviewed by a 24-and-a half-year-old preppy type guy who found Shostakovich problematic and dissonant and preferred chamber music - Boccherini and Locatelli. "Geminiani's good," said Mark. "You're free to go now," was the response.

Trust me, it was a lot funnier when Mark told it :-)

Anyway, I'm going to try to sleep again now, but I must finish with the night's only significant Jamieism - he got very excited when lots of people sang a G instead of an F on the penultimate page of the 2nd symphony. "Brilliant! Wrong and committed! Thank you!"

Happy birthday Mozart :-)

But first some news that has no connection with Mozart. Barbara points out this Guardian article. For those who aren't registered and can't be bothered, an excerpt:

The BBC plans to mark the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ this Easter with an hour-long live procession through the streets of Manchester featuring pop stars from The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays and featuring songs by The Smiths and New Order. In the programme, called Manchester Passion, a character representing Jesus will sing the legendary Joy Division anthem Love Will Tear Us Apart before dueting his arch-betrayer Judas on the New Order hit Blue Monday, according to senior church sources involved in the production.

Mary Magdelene, the penitent whore of the New Testament, is also getting in on the act: she is being lined up to sing the Buzzcocks hit Ever Fallen in Love (with Someone You Shouldn't have) accompanied by a string band. Former Happy Monday and Celebrity Big Brother winner Bez will play a disciple. The climax of the event sees Jesus sing the Smiths classic song Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now as he is being flayed by Roman soldiers. He will then come face-to-face with his Roman prosecutor Pontius Pilate with the two of them singing a duet of the Oasis hit Wonderwall.

The BBC, which plans to show the event live on BBC3 on Good Friday, insisted the event was inspired by "the way Bach and other composers fused music and the Passion story". The "contemporary retelling" of Jesus' last hours will begin with the messiah - who is yet to be cast - singing the Robbie Williams hit Angels, which will mark his procession into Jerusalem. In this case, Jerusalem will be represented by Manchester's gay and red light area near Canal Street and the Passion scene will pass via Chinatown and St Peter's Square to culminate in Albert Square. The march will be followed by members of the public who will be encouraged to join in the singing of relevant anthems, which include the M People hit Search for a Hero Inside Yourself. ... The event will end with the resurrected Jesus singing an as yet undisclosed song from the top of Manchester's town hall.

Sounds like fun, doesn't it? As Barbara says, "they might even want a world class choir to take part".... EDIT: The BBC dispute some of the details, and I suppose they ought to know...

Anyway, in honour of Mozart's 250th birthday, a couple of mp3s for you: Ronda Alla Turca and the first movement of Symphony no. 25 (aka the Amadeus theme). Not the only Mozart there is, of course, but you've all probably got it all on CD anyway - I've just put these up in case there's someone who has no Mozart CDs and wants to celebrate the anniversary :-)

Sorry for the delay in posting, anyway. I did mean to post last night but Blogger was down. Not a huge amount to say about the rehearsal though. We sang every note of both symphonies, and did a bit on the Russian. I don't think Natalia was too impressed (particularly by the dirty E vowel, which made her sigh and shake her head rather a lot) but unfortunately there wasn't time to do any more work on the linguistic side of the project. Jamie, as usual when time is against us and things aren't going too well, kept amazingly calm and patient. I think everything will be much better with the orchestra, anyway - the trainee accompanists are probably great pianists, but they're nowhere near as good as David at following the beat, with the result that they were frequently several beats behind Jamie. This really didn't help!

I don't seem to have written down many Jamieisms. There was:

"Let those 4 bars be an oasis of vocal good health."

"You're like a mighty beast. Be the beast more often!"

... and that was it! Lots of opportunities for more next week though.

Oh, and Pat showed us the new ladies' sashes, which may even be ready for the first Shostakovich gig. Very exciting - we got the current ones in 1996! There was some concern that they look orange rather than red, but I trust that was just due to the lights. (And to those people who are assuming they're red "to fit in with the Youth Choir", which several people said last night - that's not true. The colour is to fit in with the Hallé brand colours (black, grey, white, red - remember?) and that's why the Youth Choir red was chosen. The Hallé has wanted to replace the turquoise sashes ever since the new branding came in. The colour was a no-brainer - I believe the delay is due to them being unable to agree on the fabric...) Also some concern that it sounds as if we have to sew them ourselves, but maybe Pat saw the looks of horror on the faces of large numbers of the altos (and, I assume, the sopranos too) because she finished her speech with the promise that she would try to make as many as possible herself. She's a star :-)

Oh, and finally - a mystery solved! Remember when I wrote about the last carol concert, I said there was an artist sitting in the side circle and I wondered who it was? I now know the answer! Martin Yule, one of our 1st tenors (and someone who I knew very well by sight but never knew his name until tonight) came over to tell me that it was his son who was the artist, and the painting (I think he said painting, although it might be drawing) is in their living room and he will try to bring it to show us next week! It wasn't a commission or anything, he just loves to draw :-)

Welcome, Honda ad seekers :-)

EDIT (30-04-06): The video files are now back online at a different location. Please let me know if the links don't work; I think I've amended them correctly but it's entirely possible I've made a mistake!

I know I go on a lot (probably too much, but it fascinates me) about searches that have led people here. But the recent mentions of the Honda choir ad have doubled the number of visitors! (Note to self: stop whingeing, or they'll all go away again.)

We're still getting loads of people who've found us by searching for "Hogwarts March for brass band" (and there are now 2 brass bands who have started to rehearse my arrangement, although I haven't heard either of them - both conductors have promised to let me know when they perform it though). Other searches from the past couple of days: "amusing quotes about tenors and basses", and, slightly more oddly, "tenors sounding like sopranos"... But in the past week we've had, in addition to dozens looking for "honda choir advert",

• honda choir rehearsal
• honda noisy choir advert
• honda advert choir
• honda orchestra advert civic (a confused person there, I think!)
• honda advert beatbox
• honda ad singing choir
• civic choir
• civic choir advert
• honda civic choir tv ad download
and last but not least
• toyota advert 60 voice choir (I approve wholeheartly of someone who knows how many are in the choir but not what they're advertising!)

Anyway, if you've seen the ad but not the three "making of" videos, I've put them online too. Well worth a watch. And it struck me that probably most people seeing them would be surprised at what singers can do with their voices. I suspect the composer witnessed one of our warmups and stole all the ideas from there!

Anyway. Download:

Honda choir ad: QuickTime .mov (9.4 MB) or Windows Media video (8.9 MB)

Making of, 1: QuickTime .mov (19.1 MB) or Windows Media video (8.2 MB)

Making of, 2: QuickTime .mov (16.0 MB) or Windows Media video (7.9 MB)

Making of, 3: QuickTime .mov (27.7 MB) or Windows Media video (12.6 MB)

"We can't do the exercise where you bounce on your balls."

... said Maggie, with regret, followed by remorse when she realised what she'd said :p (Balls OF OUR FEET, in case you were wondering. And we couldn't do it because we were at the BBC, on the tiered seating of Studio 7, and bouncing tends to make it seem as if it might collapse.) (The tiered seating, not the BBC....)

More Russian tonight, surprise surprise. Much repetition of the "dirty e vowel", which needless to say I still can't do. (Apparently you have to have the back of your tongue low in the mouth. I think I have an abnormal tongue, because I can't seem to manouevre the back of it at all! Can anyone else?) We did the whole of the 2nd symphony, with the new vocal scores. I was kind of surprised that people were handing in their old scores as they picked up the new ones. I kept mine - I'll hand it in next week - because I had markings in the old score, and I wanted to transfer them. I can only assume that either most other people didn't write anything down last week (or last night), or that they don't mind making the same mistakes twice. (Good grief, I'm insufferably condescending, aren't I? Sorry about that.)

Jamieisms: "Sopranos, can you look gormless for a minute? Some of you look like you're trying to grow beards."

"There is NO y. But Jamie, there's a Y! I know there's a Y...."

And then it was the EGM. And, thank goodness, the subs motion was passed. But I spent the second half of the rehearsal wondering why on earth I bother being on the committee. I tried to answer some questions from some of the altos during the break, but I was totally unsuccessful at this, as whatever I said just seemed to get them even more angry. Afterwards, I was pretty upset, and while mulling over my incompetence I kept thinking back to last Tuesday night, when there was yet another long committee meeting, to discuss the subs proposal (yet again). Yet again I waited right till the end in order to raise a non-subs-related issue that members of the alto section had begged me to raise on their behalf. Yet again this caused me to arrive at the station just after my train left, with the next one an hour later. (We meet once a month as a committee, and I can't remember the last time I didn't just miss the train.) On this occasion I was less than a minute late, and I saw my train's lights in the distance as it sped away. And the next train had an engine failure and was half an hour late. So I spent an hour and a half on Victoria station on one of the coldest nights of the year, and (unsurprisingly) caught a cold which is only just receding. I had to get up an hour early the next morning in order to do my lesson preparations that I'd been too tired to do the night before. And the benefits of me doing all this? Somehow I can't see that there are any.

Anyway, to finish on a more positive note: a couple of people have told me they've had trouble viewing the Honda choir ad on the Honda website, so you can download it here (QuickTime file, 9.4 MB) or here (Windows Media Player file, 8.9 MB but lower quality - try only if the QuickTime file won't play). (I told Jamie about the ad yesterday, by the way - he hadn't seen it, or heard about it. His response, when I described it to him: "I can't believe they didn't ask me to get involved!")

"In the past, we've called this the Dirty E Vowel."

The Dirty E vowel will come to haunt us all over the next few weeks, I fear. It's that "y with an umlaut" Russian vowel that so many of us can't say (well, I can't, at least). We've had loads of Russian coaching over the past few years, but none of it seems to have explained clearly enough (IMHO) exactly how to do this vowel. Oh well. Maybe there'll be an epiphany at some point soon :-)

On my way out in a minute, but was so tired when I got home last night that I thought I'd better post last night's thoughts before I go to tonight's rehearsal - less to do tonight, when I'll be tireder! (Yes, I know that's not actually a word...)

Last night was the first ladies' sectional of the year, when we also met both the RNCM singers (who are augmentintg the choir for this project) and Natalia, the Russian coach. We got a lot done, mainly on the 3rd symphony (which we almost reached the end of) because the 2nd symphony is in the process of having a new score produced, which we will get tonight, and the transliteration is different. I got told off by some of the other 2nd altos for singing all the high notes (including the optional ones)... I don't like singing high, and it's not pleasant for anyone nearby, but if I've got to sing some really high notes, I find it much easier to do so if I stay up there rather than swooping around all over the place. That's my excuse, at least!

Not many Jamieisms. There was something in the warmup about creating mini-pizzas the size of dolls' houses, and keeping them all spinning at different points in mid-air, but I wasn't able to write this down at the time (as I was busy creating said mini-pizzas!) so I don't recall the exact words! There was also "your strength is THERE" (i.e. around your waist) "and you just drop it all"... but that was a bit more visual :p

Actually I think the exchange that amused me most was this one:

JAMIE: We'll go from figure 9.
CHOIR: You mean 99.
JAMIE: What did I say?
CHOIR: 9.
JAMIE: Brilliant.

Not sure why that amused me so - you had to be there!

Anyway. Must leave the house in 4 minutes' time. EGM tonight - I'm hoping the subs thing will be passed without too much fuss, because you really wouldn't believe how much time we've spent working on this, and I honestly believe it's the only way forward. Most of the comments I've had from people have been favourable, but I did just get an email from someone who is very definitely NOT in favour. But then she only found out about it today. I'm not at all sure that it was made clear to people that the EGM was tonight, which concerns me, but maybe it was and I was daydreaming. Anyway, we'll see.

Oh, finally: couple of recent searches I like. Apparently this blog is now 2nd in the worldwide Google rankings if you search for "bottom of shoe images", and (somewhat more surprisingly) "skinny dipping nova scotia"! Google them yourself to see why :p

Text of article about choir ad (from Monday's Guardian)

Singing the praises of the new Honda
What on earth to do next? First Honda UK garnered worldwide acclaim three years ago with Cog, the TV ad in which car parts formed a complex time-and-motion machine. Last year, it followed up with a psychedelic animated diesel engine, Grrr, which landed the car company and its advertising agency Wieden + Kennedy London the industry's highest honour, the film grand prix at the Cannes International Advertising Festival.

On Friday Honda will unveil its follow-up: Choir, the advert launching the new Honda Civic. And if it receives the reaction the company predicts, the race for 2006's most creative advert for will be over before it has begun.

Genuinely different, Choir features a massed group of 60 vocalists "singing" the sounds of a Honda Civic journeying through city streets and the wide open road. The singers thump their chests as wheels bounce over cobbles. Basses growl the deeper rumble of the engine while sopranos sing out its higher whine. At one point a pleasant-looking middle-aged woman opens her mouth to emit the soft squeal of a tyre turning sharply in a concrete car park.

"The hardest sound problem was nothing to do with the Honda," says Steve Sidwell, the composer and arranger who turned the mechanical and electronic cadences of the Civic into a written score. "A pen rolls across the dashboard at one point. That was hard. One of the singers managed to tap the underside of his teeth with his fingers and change the shape of his mouth."

The choir was filmed performing the score in a London car park in late November, after production company Partisan had lovingly shot the car.

"We just have to be a bit different," says Matthew Coombe, Honda UK marketing and communications manager. Honda competes with its rivals Volkswagen and Toyota with about one third of their marketing budgets. It will spend £3.2m on screening Choir and £250,000 on print advertising. The Honda website will be crucial, as many car buyers now browse the internet before they set foot in a showroom.

But then why the heavy investment in a two-minute TV ad? Jonathan Campbell, group account director at Wieden + Kennedy London, says the advert is so long because Honda seeks high-impact and high-involvement advertising and TV is the most efficient way to change people's brand perceptions. But the advert will not be shown that often.

"We do try to do things differently, rather than carpet bombing people with our brand," he says. "We want people talking about our work."
Stephen Brook

EDIT: If you haven't seen the ad yet, you can see it on the Honda website.

“But why Manchester?” asked a predictable London voice.

“But why Manchester?” asked a predictable London voice. Because Manchester got its act together and drew on its resources: two symphony orchestras, a conservatoire, a music school for brilliant kids. That’s why Manchester.

My favourite quote from this Guardian article which I just saw, reporting on the start of the Shostakovich festival. EDIT: Just found another Guardian article published today, this one by Gerard McBurney.

And just as I fired up Blogger to tell you about it, the Honda Civic "Choir" advert (as mentioned by Sheena) appeared on TV! Great fun. (It was on Sky Sports 1 just after United lost to City, but I was cheered up slightly by the ad...)

"But I'm loving it! It's SO WRONG!"

Hellooooo! Sorry to be absent for so long - over Christmas there was nothing urgent to say, and this week has been a bit traumatic. Thanks to the people who emailed to ask if everything was OK when I didn't blog after Wednesday's rehearsal :-)

Anyway, we're back! \o/ And it's Shostakovich all the way. The Shostakovich festival has already started, and our first bit is in less than 3 weeks' time. I was delighted that the first rehearsal was a sitting-next-to-a-different-part one - I love those! Partly because it does seem to reduce the talking, since it splits up the altos (although there was a row of 4 of them that I assume couldn't bear to be parted from each other, since they ignored the instruction to sit separately). But mainly because it's such a good way to make people sight read. And it did work, for the most part, although there were of course a few people who were heard to mutter that they'd never be able to learn the music quickly enough with no-one to follow... THAT'S EXACTLY WHY YOU FIND IT HARD TO LEARN, PEOPLE! I do dream of the day when everyone in the choir will just go for "loud and wrong" and sing on the beat. Maybe it will happen in my lifetime :p

Anyway, there were a few great Jamieisms on Wednesday. (I actually dithered for far longer than I care to admit, before deciding which one should be the title!) Some others:

"I want your musical dirty linen to be displayed in public. NOW."

"If there were Smarties, Meg would get them." (I'd also noticed the mistake Meg pointed out. But since she and Tom have just got engaged, I am more than happy for her to get all the virtual Smarties!)

"Commit to the music. Make it matter. Pretend the lights of someone on the other side of the world are going to go out if you don't sing, or something."

"No-one died in Kent!" (This was after he asked that the stakes be raised from the 'lights out' thing, and then the whole choir managed to count a couple of bars correctly... )

"When you go for the top note, I want you to drop your knees and be at one with the earth."

Oh, and I forgot to say - there is no piano accompaniment for either Shostakovich 2 or 3, so David set some of his accompaniment students (from the RNCM) the task of creating one from the full score, and they did it as a piano duet so as not to have to miss any notes out. Don't think we've ever been accompanied by a piano duet before!

Talking of talented young people (good grief, I feel so old...) I talked to Sam and Andrew (two of the basses who are members of both the HC and the HYC) and Alison tells me that Sam really impressed her with his sight reading. (She wasn't near Andrew, but I'm sure he was just as good.) And there was a new soprano sitting right behind me - I didn't catch her name, but she was doing amazingly well. I was most impressed.

And finally, a few links I've been meaning to post. Firstly, here's a recording of Shostakovich 2 (21.9 MB) that Barbara gave me a while ago. It's a live recording by the BBCSO & C, conducted by Mark Elder. It's only 19 minutes long, and the first choral entry (after the siren!) is at 12 minutes something. If you want just the choral bit at the end, here it is (7.8 MB). (I'll post the 3rd symphony when I get a recording of it.) EDIT: Here's the 3rd symphony (4.0 MB), helpfully supplied by Graham E (thanks, Graham). It's just the choir bit, and starts exactly where our music does.

This (4.0 MB) may interest you if you like the Kaiser Chiefs. If you don't know who the Kaiser Chiefs are, it's quite likely you won't be interested in the recording :p

Here's an interesting thing about hand signs used in jazz. And a Guardian feature which includes bits by both Mark Elder and Ed Gardner. And a weird singing thing that Barbara discovered (you type in some words and it sings them to you!) And a thing that claims it can tell what song you're playing if you just tap out the rhythm on your space bar (it didn't guess the one I tried, so I lost patience, but you may have more luck). Oh, and best of all - an article discovered by Sheena that tells us about an extremely interesting-sounding advert!

Oh, and I've updated the online choir schedule. (Those who don't know the address, please leave a comment or email me.) In particular, anyone who wasn't aware that there are football matches on ALL THREE OF THE NEXT THREE WEDNESDAYS may like to make a mental note...

And, finally finally, I know you've been wondering about my favourite recent searches-that-led-people-here. Well, "Hogwarts March for Brass Band" is still a very popular one (which has resulted in me sending my arrangement to a couple of people, even), but my favourites are "becoming russian" and "orcish translator" :p

Well done Joe :-)

Joe is the Youth Choir guy who was at the centre of the front row in the carol concerts, and he was given the job of sitting everyone down. Which he did perfectly, and it's remiss of me not to have mentioned him before. (Particularly as he had tinsel wrapped round his glasses by the end of the last concert - didn't notice it any earlier...)

Not actually very much to say about the last gig, when I think about it. It was very good - everything stayed in tune, in particular, making both choirs 4 for 4 on that front :-) The orchestra hats were probably at their most numerous - the leader didn't have his tinsel antlers, sadly, though. (He did have some less sparkly antlers in the second half, but they weren't as funny somehow.) The much-anticipated horn section silliness didn't really live up to expectations - they did finally don Santa hats, but only for about 5 seconds (literally) when they stood up and played a line of "Rudolph" in the middle of "Sleigh Ride". And that was it! They probably decided it was pointless trying to compete with the trombone section. Sadly I couldn't see the trombones from where I was sitting, apart from Andy's top half when he stood up, but they got the biggest round of applause when they walked onstage (beating only the cellist dressed as Santa). Andy Berryman, the principal trombonist, wore a black and purple long-haired wig, a cowboy-hat-style Santa hat, a bright yellow suit (like a Hi-De-Hi uniform, for those who remember such things) and a HUGE cleavage. I dread to think what he had on his bottom half... I couldn't see that...

There was an artist in the side circle, though, who was in a perfect position to see. Don't know who he was or what/why he was drawing, but he had a large sketching board in front of him throughout. Hopefully we'll see the results at some point!

Anyway, nothing else to say right now, so I'll wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy new year. I'll post if anything prompts me to, otherwise see you at the next rehearsal - 11th January! My throat (and those of the basses - see comment on last-but-one post) might just have recovered from the descants by then :p

Shoe photos!

I meant to post when I got in from the gig, but got distracted by World of Warcraft again (my druid just got to level 60! This is a big deal. Trust me.) So yet again I'm just going to sleep, and will post when I wake. But I just wanted to let you know that I did get as far as uploading the photos I took tonight. They're all on the choir photos page. They're not *all* of alto silly shoes... I rather like the one of James the alto as Rudolph :-)

No, I'm not up early...

... I'm up late :-)

Going to sleep in a minute. Gig tonight. Very much looking forward to it, particularly after news from the horn section (see Gen's comment on my last post). Plus there's the ALTO DESCANT again - that is, unless Jamie decides enough is enough and bans it! Oh, and there is a plan for all the altos to wear silly shoes. Not entirely sure I own any, but I will look!

I've tried really hard to persuade people I know to come to one of the carol concerts, but have been unable to get any of my friends to come and see me. Maybe one of them will surprise me tonight, but it's looking unlikely. Oh well.

Anyway, my actual reason for posting is that I discovered another fabulous Christmas song. It's a cover version of the Coventry Carol (by a band called The Smashup) and it amuses me greatly. Note: beware of turning the volume up at the start, it gets louder in the verse.... If you like this, you may also be amused by the Christmas edition of Never Mind The Buzzcocks, which was on the other day but is repeated sometime soon - in the next line round, they had a death metal band playing Christmas songs. I was extremely amused by the performance of Deck the Halls :-)

"The altos are great, everyone else is feeble."

That's more like it, isn't it? And it was of course *us* that Jamie was referring to this time :-)

Loads of stuff to write, which is why I didn't write it last night - I did stay up for quite a while when I got home, though, because I spent a couple of hours online doing all my Christmas shopping. None of this pushing my way through crowds in shops rubbish! All I have to do now is do some sums to work out how to compensate for the huge amount of money I spent last night...

Before I forget, a couple of non-carol-concert-related things... Graham E has found another review of The Music Makers, and Barbara sent me a copy of the page of jokes she was passing round yesterday. Thanks to both of you.

Anyway, the concerts. The overriding theme was of course silly headgear, as always. The silliest hat was possibly Gill and Liz's turkey hat (they both wore it, at different times), but there were lots that made me giggle even more. (More photos here, although sadly not of any of the ones listed below...) Some highlights, hatwise:

• The antlers, with purple and silver streamers, worn by the leader of the orchestra when he came onstage on Sunday night. Well, not so much the antlers themselves as the look on his face... when everyone laughed, he looked serenely around as if to say "What?!?" It was even funnier when he bent his head down to tune his violin and the streamers covered the strings! And then in the middle of one of the pieces, it fell forward and Jamie had to remove it for him (while conducting) :-)

• The Santa hat worn by the leader of the 2nd violins. It moved from side to side! Jerkily! Not sure if it just does that randomly when switched on, or whether she was controlling it, but it fascinated us!

• The Santa hat with bells on the end, worn by one of the cellists. In the middle of one of the pieces, Sharon (the cellist who shares a desk with him) started poking the bell with her bow :-)

• Jamie's Santa hat. He didn't wear one on Saturday. On Sunday afternoon Heather Stott (the presenter) brought one on for him to wear, but we were quite surprised that she did so right in the middle of a tricky bit of Jingle Bells. On Sunday night she brought it on during Sleigh Ride, which made more sense. But I just got an email from Sheena: "Heather told me she had agreed with Jamie that she would go on during the Sleigh Ride and give him the Santa hat to wear - Jamie had instructed her to come in when she heard the sleigh bells and people jangling their keys. However, there were also sleigh bells in Jingle Bells, and when Heather heard them she thought that was her cue and duly went on, unfortunately just when Jamie had a few particularly tricky bars to conduct. Jamie's remark from the podium was 'Is that for me? I'm a bit busy right now.'" Hee!

Something that's normally a hat highlight but wasn't this year - the horns! What's happened? (Gen, can you answer this?) The horns have usually been at the forefront of hat silliness, but none of them wore even a bit of tinsel this year. And they didn't play Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (in the wrong key) in the middle of Sleigh Ride as they usually do. The theory most people are going with is that they got told off for going too far (possibly as a result of the false breasts, a la Gazza, that they had last year...) and have decided to withdraw their Christmas spirit in protest. I hope this turns out not to be true and they're actually saving all their Christmasness for Friday :-)

Some other random things... no Jamieisms (well, except the one in the title, which is clearly the BEST ONE EVER), but a quote I liked from Dr Liz, after Jamie appeared to be enjoying himself far too much in the warmup: "We're just a toy now, aren't we?" I think it was only a minute later, and for the same reason, that Barbara said "He'd make a great Widow Twankey, wouldn't he?"

In the Sunday afternoon concert there was a kid (at least I PRESUME it was a kid) in the audience with a TAMBOURINE. There were also maracas and sleighbells in the same section of the audience, but it was the tambourine that was continually audible (in every piece, not just the audience participication ones!). I'm kind of surprised that someone would allow their kid to bring a tambourine to a classical concert, but I suppose that it's possible that either they didn't know the kid had it, or they hadn't been before and thought it'd be OK. But when they got there and realised that no-one ELSE was playing a tambourine, I'm very surprised the tambourine wasn't stopped and/or confiscated - if not by the parents then by the stewards! I personally found it incredibly distracting, so I don't know how Jamie put up with it.

Better news, though - that note in A Merry Christmas seems to be right! For the first time ever! Well, at least, it may not be correct throughout the alto section - I can't hear that many people, I'm on the back row - but all the people I can hear are certainly singing it correctly. It's kind of sad how pleased this makes me :-) (And in case you were wondering, the Youth Choir altos got that bit right again both times, AND the Youth Choir as a whole stayed in tune throughout both concerts. Yay!)

There *is* a bar in White Christmas that's bugging me, though. It's a bar where the tune goes F# G, yet the alto part goes Eb F. It's just a mess so far - some people are singing F# G, most have realised that they're supposed to be lower than that and are singing a mixture of D, Eb, E, F and F#, hardly anyone is singing Eb F... The mess continues on the next page, because the next note is an F (i.e. the same note we're supposed to have just sung) and it's quite an easy one to get, so it throws people when they realise they've gone wrong but they don't know where. (Overanalyse things? ME?!? OK, I'll stop now...) The *good* news about White Christmas is that the "up north" thing, which we all thought was a bad idea because it just wasn't funny, has actually gone down very well with the audience! Go figure :-)

I was in the group that sang in the foyer after Sunday night's concert, and Jamie was pleased that we actually got the words right (i.e. ringing/singing). Apparently the Saturday night group didn't. The Saturday night altos were blaming the sopranos, unsurprisingly!

And finally... we got a standing ovation for our descants! We sang three of them in the end (Once in Royal, While Shepherds Watched, and of course O Come All Ye Faithful). It was very exhilarating. Jamie didn't appear to notice we were singing... or, more likely, he was thinking "Oh my God! I can't believe they took me seriously! I'd better not look at them, it'll only encourage them!" But we did get a standing ovation :-) There may of course be those who claim that the standing ovation was NOT in fact for the alto descant. But the facts are clear: did the altos sing the descant at the first two concerts? No. Did we get a standing ovation at the first two concerts? No. Q.E.D. :-)