i really enjoyed Saturday - a lovely day out and a great rehearsal. There was almost a bit of trauma at the start, because as we boarded the train at Piccadilly, the conductor announced that Birmingham New Street was currently closed due to a power failure, and the train would be unable to call there. We were considering all sorts of alternative plans, but luckily they managed to get some emergency power from somewhere, and the station reopened just in time. It was very eerie, though - only the emergency lighting was on, so it was very dark (most of the station is below street level), and there was no other power AT ALL, other than to the train tracks etc. So none of the departure boards were on, and all the shops were shut, and there was general chaos. I'm a bit baffled about why the staff didn't at least put up a flipchart or something that had the platform number for each train, because unsurprisingly that's what the majority of queries seemed to be about! The chaos was still going on when we went back to the station after the rehearsal, but we avoided the enquiry queue by looking up the platform number on my phone :-)
Birmingham city centre is very lovely, and I'm always surprised to realise how well I know it (well, bits of it, at least). I was disappointed, though, to find that my favourite feature - the Floozie in the Jacuzzi - was switched off. [EDIT: Purely by chance, a much better photo of her - with water flowing - just appeared on the front page of the BBC News website!] Apparently it's only switched on for special occasions these days - very sad! It's always been flowing when I've seen it before. And then I found that another favourite, the Statue of Industry, was covered up by building works. (I hope it's still there underneath!) But we popped into Symphony Hall and were relieved to see that Norman Perryman's wonderful Mahler Experience painting was still where I remembered it. (If you go in through the front door, from Centenary Square, turn immediately left and double back on yourself - the painting is just round the corner from the front door.)
The rehearsal was great fun, and our boss was on fine form, making several passing comments that showed his support for Manchester. It was all in fun, though, and the "Brummie choir" (as he delighted us by referring to them) are very good. I'm delighted it's them that's boosting the numbers for Mahler 8 - they're by far the best of all the other choirs we've sung with.
Talking of boosting the numbers... In case you missed it, have a listen to today's edition of Front Row from Radio 4. It features our boss, plus a player from each of the orchestras, talking about the Mahler 8 collaboration. (The relevant bit starts at 06:12 and goes on till 15:31.) At one point, they're asked whether there WILL actually be 1000 performers, and the answer is "no": 120 in the orchestra and 350 singers. I feel a bit cheated!
I want to give you a list of orchestral "WOW!" moments to watch out for in Mahler 8, in case you've never performed it before - I'd hate for you to miss my favourite things. But let's get the latest batch of links out of the way first.
Mahler 7 was on Saturday, and (like the rest of the Mahler in Manchester series) the reviews are great: Guardian, Times, Telegraph, MEN, Classical Source.
There's a rather less good review of Rufus Wainwright in the Telegraph. I'm not a fan of his - at all - but I do agree with Tom Service when he says that we shouldn't knock him for having a go.
I've never heard of the Hypnotic Brass Ensemble before, but after reading this review of their Band on the Wall gig, I really wish I'd been there. Doesn't it sound fun?
I mentioned this a while ago, but I saw it again on Saturday, and now Manchester Confidential has a feature on it: the exhibition of Manchester music venues on platform 12 of Piccadilly Station. If you have a few minutes while waiting for a train, go and have a look.
Alan McGee wonders, in the Guardian, why the Osmonds are never remembered as vocal harmony experts. It's a fair question - I saw them being interviewed on a programme a while back, and they demonstrated some close-harmony vocal exercises that they used to use as a warmup. I was VERY impressed - the tuning and blend was perfect, and it was not easy stuff.
Stephen Hough has some good advice about how to practise hard stuff: don't start at the beginning; don't feel that you have to practise the whole piece on any given day; and don't stop immediately if you make a mistake.
This isn't funny, really, but I have to admit it made me laugh quite a lot: foreign accent syndrome. "She just got fed up of people explaining to her how the buses worked" is my favourite bit :-)
I often get people sending me Facebook invites, but I still don't plan to accept any of them (nothing personal, I just don't like the way Facebook operates - I mean Facebook the company, not its users). However, if you DO use Facebook, you may find these articles useful - they suggest ways of reclaiming some of your privacy after the most recent changes (Facebook's attitude to privacy has always been my main objection to it). Tips are from Lifehacker and GigaOM.
The Big Picture has some breathtaking photos commemorating Earth Day.
Probably of no interest to anyone but football fans, but it amuses me: Liverpool's Dilemma. To explain for those who don't follow as avidly as me: Currently Chelsea are top of the Premier League, and Manchester United are second, one point behind them. There are only two games left, and no other team can catch up. If Chelsea win their last two games, nothing United can do will make any difference - Chelsea will win the league. However, on Sunday afternoon, Chelsea have to play Liverpool, in Liverpool. The dilemma? Liverpool do still have things to play for - they can't win the league, but they are in with a chance of finishing 4th, which is a big deal because it would mean they'd be in the Champions' League next season. But if they beat Chelsea, they've probably handed the league title to United (both of United's last two games are fairly easy, and they're expected to win both of them). This is something they REALLY don't want to do - not only are United their greatest rivals, so they'd hate it anyway, but this year it's an even bigger deal, because if United win the league, it will be the 19th time we've done so - and Liverpool have only ever won it 18 times. So it will mean that their right to brag that they're the most successful club ever (hah!) will be over.
Needless to say I've probably cursed everything by going on about it - I'm good at that! - and Chelsea will probably win 7-0 again, as they keep doing. But I heard on a podcast today that the Liverpool/Chelsea match is, unbelievably, not sold out, and the theory being put forward was that the Liverpool fans can't bear to watch :-)
Anyway, a few Mahler 8 non-choral highlights, to finish. I know some of you like to mark these in your scores. There are loads of highlights, of course, so these are just the ones I had the biggest rings round in my score after last time....
PART 1
One that happens quite a few times, but is always fabulous, is when the oboes, clarinets and horns (not always all at the same time) are instructed to hold the bells up their instruments high in the air (Schalltrichter auf!) The first time it happens is at figure 1, bar 3, just as choir 2 come in, but I'll point out a few others.
Figure 17: great horn & trombone chords
Figure 18: piccolo solo; 1st violins divided into four parts; bar 6 has horns Schalltrichter auf.
Figure 21: 1st violins play on the fingerboard (i.e. bow further away from bridge than usual) - makes the sound more ethereal
Figure 23: bar 2, horns are "stopped" - makes them more raucous
Figure 24: deep, loud bells
3 before figure 27: significant organ pedal note
4th of 27: low clarinets, trombones and cellos combine wonderfully
2 before figure 35: nothing particularly special, just a lovely couple of bars!
Figure 38: children's choir joins in for the first time (N.B. all the soloists sing this tune as well)
Figure 40: oboes and clarinets Schalltrichter auf
Figure 42: trombones going mad on the quavers! Bar 3: stopped ("gestopft") horns (and others) make an amazing sound accompanying "hostem".
Figure 43: all 8 horns (NOT stopped) play in unison, ff (they have this motif a few times in this section)
Figure 45: 8 horns again, but more noticeable as choir 2 aren't singing
Figure 51: a high trumpet plays in unison with the children's choir (and choir 1 sops), but the score sternly instructs that the trumpet must NOT obscure the boys
Figure 55: full organ, very prominent. Bars 4 and 5: trumpets "schmetternd" (blaring)
Figure 58: the longest dominant pedal in the world starts (we're in E flat major, so this means that the timps and basses play a very long B flat). It lasts for almost 40 bars. Interestingly, it does NOT resolve to the E flat at figure 64 as you might expect (because that's one of several recapitulations).
Figure 64: another recapitulation, as I just mentioned, and another Schalltrichter auf moment for the oboes and clarinets.
Figure 65, bar 3: good bit for horns
Figure 67, coinciding with choir 1: mega organ chord
Bar before 79: Schalltrichter auf for oboes/clarinets
Figure 84: ANOTHER recapitulation, and this time the orchestra stops playing for a short time (the organ is still there though)
Figure 91: offstage brass have their first big moment
PART 2
I love the bit from figure 3 to figure 5 - nothing fancy, just gorgeous music
Figure 12: horns "gestopft"
Figure 19: horns playing 8-part chords (previously they've always been doubled)
Bar before 20: yum.
Just after 20: 1st violins playing only on G string
3 before 21: horns gestopft AND Schalltrichter auf
29 to 30: all quiet and lovely.
Figure 89: tenor soloist is "suddenly prominent"; he's been singing for a while, but the score says "he should under no circumstances be conspicuous until now"
Figure 98: nice piccolo bit
Figure 106/107: this whole section is lovely. This is where the score says the Mater Gloriosa "appears in the sky" (which meant, last time we did it, the gallery, although she actually appeared a bit later) and the music is very ethereal to match this idea. It even includes a harmonium. (The Mater Gloriosa is the 3rd soprano soloist, and she's the only soloist who doesn't sing in part 1 - this is the first time she appears.)
2 before 112: harps ("as numerous as possible") instructed to play "thunderously"
3 before 122: good trombone chords below a low bit for the alto soloist
Figure 127: celesta, harps, woodwind, trills all over the place - nice effect
Figure 131: strings all playing "sul ponticello" (on the bridge)
Figure 148: mandolin solo!
Figure 159: children's choir goes into 2 parts
Figure 161: brass trills
Figure 171: gorgeous quiet section (celesta, percussion rolls etc.)
Figure 174: this is my favourite bar in the whole piece - pianissimo top B flat from the Mater Gloriosa.
Figure 186, bar 3: my score just says "trumpet WOW!" (there are trumpets in F as well as the usual B flat ones in Mahler 8 - trumpets in F are smaller and play much higher)
Figure 195 - 196: trumpet again
Figure 196: glockenspiel solo and timp roll
Figure 197: great harp/celesta bit
Figure 199: piccolo solo
Figure 210: trombones join tenors, and play the bits in between too
2 before 211: horns & trumpets join the trombones
Figure 218: as the singers sing their last note, the organ, gong and offstage brass come crashing in, marked fff. All the bass instruments start a long held E flat that continues until the end of the piece. Everything gets louder and louder.
Figure 220, bar 21: The end :-)
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Friday, April 23, 2010
Like a big boy!
(Instruction to the altos at figure 52 in part 1 of Mahler 8. I forgot to mention it last week but I was very amused to rediscover it this week!)
I had a really, really bad day yesterday. It was just one bad thing after another. I'd been looking forward to it for ages - we had a Pleiades rehearsal planned, arranged two months ago. One of the six singers cancelled a week ago, which was disappointing but not the end of the world, as we only have three songs that are in six parts - most of the rest are in five parts. But then another singer cancelled just as I was about to leave the house for the rehearsal, and that meant we had to cancel the rehearsal entirely (I find it's a huge waste of time to rehearse one-to-a-part things when one of the parts is missing).
After that, the day just got worse and worse. I had a cheque which needed to be paid into the bank yesterday, and I'd been planning to pop in on the way to the station, but by the time I'd contacted all the other singers to let them know the rehearsal was cancelled, the bank had shut. Since I was in a thoroughly bad mood by then anyway, I opened the post (it's NEVER anything good, so I only open it if I'm already fed up) to find: a bank statement, informing me that the next batch of bank charges (caused mainly by the DWP not paying me my benefit on time recently) will be £78. (Jobseeker's Allowance - my only current income - is £65.45 a week.) Also, a letter from Manchester City Council, informing me that they don't want me for a recent job I applied for - I was particularly hopeful about this job, because there were SEVEN POSITIONS available, and I thought I'd be perfect, but apparently not. Still, getting an actual rejection is a step up from no response at all - that's the first time in a year I've heard anything from an application.
I hoped I might be distracted by Twitter, but I had to turn it off because everyone was talking about the leaders' debate, and my interest in politics remains zero. Then I decided I'd better eat something, and realised, as I cooked fish fingers, that they were the last thing left in the house that had any protein in them (unless you count cat food...) and I don't know when I'll be able to get any more food. (I do still have a BIT of food in the house - a few days' worth - but nothing that would constitute a balanced diet.)
Never mind, I thought, I know what'll cheer me up - I'll watch High Noon! I'd recorded it a few days earlier and hadn't watched it yet. So I settled down to watch it... and discovered that it WASN'T THE 1952 VERSION. It was, in fact, a 2009 TV movie called High Noon. *boggle* (And no, it wasn't just me assuming it was the proper version - the Radio Times said it was (and even had it as a featured film of the day), and the Sky+ info button said it was the 1952 version. But it wasn't.)
The irony of it not being the proper version, after all the fuss I made about the SONG not being the proper version, is not lost on me. And today, when I'm in a slightly better mood, I'm actually quite amused by it. But last night I could have MURDERED ITV3. They didn't even apologise!
Anyway, today hasn't been too bad so far, and tomorrow will be exciting because we're all off to Birmingham to rehearse Mahler 8. Alison and I are going by train, because we like to have a chance to wander round places when we have a day out - and also it's much quicker, because the choir coaches never pick up anywhere near us. And we like travelling by train!
Actually, I have some info about our Mahler 8 gigs in Birmingham in September. I only found out a few weeks ago that the conductor will be Andris Nelsons, but I'd assumed that the rest of the personnel is the same. So I was very surprised to discover that the orchestra will be the CBSO rather than the combined might of Manchester's finest. Asking around, it seems that it wasn't just me who didn't know this! Anyway, the concerts are now on the Symphony Hall website, and tickets go on sale on either 3rd June or 7th June, depending on which page of their website is correct.
Talking of Mahler, you'll be aware by now that the rumours were correct and the 2010 Proms season does indeed start (on 16th July) with Mahler 8. The prom to watch out for, though, is on 6th August, a repeat of the programme they're playing in Manchester the day before. And there are of course comments all over the place about the Proms listings, notably from Intermezzo and Classical Iconoclast.
Oh, and this is interesting: Roger Wright's expenses as Proms boss. Includes £1,900 on hospitality "to thank members of the BBC Symphony Chorus for their dedication and hard work after a busy season". *boggle*
Two more cost-related things: Intermezzo brings us news that you now have to pay to audition for the LSO, and the Telegraph looks at the cost to orchestras of volcano-related travel disruption. (Although I must admit I'm getting very fed up of stories such as this one about Liverpool going to Madrid overland, which keep going on about what an uncomfortable journey it must be. As someone who went from Manchester to Valencia by train (which looks about the same distance to me), I want to shout at them "IT WASN'T UNCOMFORTABLE AT ALL!" And I wasn't even in first class. And they flew the last bit anyway! Wimps.)
More volcano photos from the Big Picture are up, by the way, and they're even better than last week's. And Manchester Confidential has some lovely photos of a clear blue vapour-trail-less Manchester sky, taken from the roof of the Shudehill Interchange car park, which it recommends as a great place for free views of the city.
The Guardian has a list of the top 50 arts-related Twitter feeds. Not sure I'd agree with all of these, but it's a good starting point if you're new to Twitter.
Have you seen this advert? Terry Venables singing If I Can Dream. Apparently he had singing lessons specially. What I want to know is whether the other various famous people in the choir were actually singing...
Oh, and while we're on the World Cup, the football fans among you may be interested in a free online World Cup Virtual Sticker Album. Let me know if you sign up - we could do swapsies :-)
Last mention of football for now.... in fact, you should watch this even if you're not a football fan. It's less than a minute long, and it's hilarious. This German goalie also happens to be his team's penalty taker, and in a match between Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke in 2004, he scored a penalty, and while he was celebrating.... well, watch.
This is quite the opposite - not funny at all, in fact one of the most awful stories I've ever heard. Local government officials in California separated an elderly gay couple and sold all their possessions.
The MEN has a feature about the lovely Professor Brian Cox.
It's St George's Day today, but the Guardian thinks we need a new national saint, and it has one in mind.
And, if you want to relax, here's a website that just plays the sound of rain.
I had a really, really bad day yesterday. It was just one bad thing after another. I'd been looking forward to it for ages - we had a Pleiades rehearsal planned, arranged two months ago. One of the six singers cancelled a week ago, which was disappointing but not the end of the world, as we only have three songs that are in six parts - most of the rest are in five parts. But then another singer cancelled just as I was about to leave the house for the rehearsal, and that meant we had to cancel the rehearsal entirely (I find it's a huge waste of time to rehearse one-to-a-part things when one of the parts is missing).
After that, the day just got worse and worse. I had a cheque which needed to be paid into the bank yesterday, and I'd been planning to pop in on the way to the station, but by the time I'd contacted all the other singers to let them know the rehearsal was cancelled, the bank had shut. Since I was in a thoroughly bad mood by then anyway, I opened the post (it's NEVER anything good, so I only open it if I'm already fed up) to find: a bank statement, informing me that the next batch of bank charges (caused mainly by the DWP not paying me my benefit on time recently) will be £78. (Jobseeker's Allowance - my only current income - is £65.45 a week.) Also, a letter from Manchester City Council, informing me that they don't want me for a recent job I applied for - I was particularly hopeful about this job, because there were SEVEN POSITIONS available, and I thought I'd be perfect, but apparently not. Still, getting an actual rejection is a step up from no response at all - that's the first time in a year I've heard anything from an application.
I hoped I might be distracted by Twitter, but I had to turn it off because everyone was talking about the leaders' debate, and my interest in politics remains zero. Then I decided I'd better eat something, and realised, as I cooked fish fingers, that they were the last thing left in the house that had any protein in them (unless you count cat food...) and I don't know when I'll be able to get any more food. (I do still have a BIT of food in the house - a few days' worth - but nothing that would constitute a balanced diet.)
Never mind, I thought, I know what'll cheer me up - I'll watch High Noon! I'd recorded it a few days earlier and hadn't watched it yet. So I settled down to watch it... and discovered that it WASN'T THE 1952 VERSION. It was, in fact, a 2009 TV movie called High Noon. *boggle* (And no, it wasn't just me assuming it was the proper version - the Radio Times said it was (and even had it as a featured film of the day), and the Sky+ info button said it was the 1952 version. But it wasn't.)
The irony of it not being the proper version, after all the fuss I made about the SONG not being the proper version, is not lost on me. And today, when I'm in a slightly better mood, I'm actually quite amused by it. But last night I could have MURDERED ITV3. They didn't even apologise!
Anyway, today hasn't been too bad so far, and tomorrow will be exciting because we're all off to Birmingham to rehearse Mahler 8. Alison and I are going by train, because we like to have a chance to wander round places when we have a day out - and also it's much quicker, because the choir coaches never pick up anywhere near us. And we like travelling by train!
Actually, I have some info about our Mahler 8 gigs in Birmingham in September. I only found out a few weeks ago that the conductor will be Andris Nelsons, but I'd assumed that the rest of the personnel is the same. So I was very surprised to discover that the orchestra will be the CBSO rather than the combined might of Manchester's finest. Asking around, it seems that it wasn't just me who didn't know this! Anyway, the concerts are now on the Symphony Hall website, and tickets go on sale on either 3rd June or 7th June, depending on which page of their website is correct.
Talking of Mahler, you'll be aware by now that the rumours were correct and the 2010 Proms season does indeed start (on 16th July) with Mahler 8. The prom to watch out for, though, is on 6th August, a repeat of the programme they're playing in Manchester the day before. And there are of course comments all over the place about the Proms listings, notably from Intermezzo and Classical Iconoclast.
Oh, and this is interesting: Roger Wright's expenses as Proms boss. Includes £1,900 on hospitality "to thank members of the BBC Symphony Chorus for their dedication and hard work after a busy season". *boggle*
Two more cost-related things: Intermezzo brings us news that you now have to pay to audition for the LSO, and the Telegraph looks at the cost to orchestras of volcano-related travel disruption. (Although I must admit I'm getting very fed up of stories such as this one about Liverpool going to Madrid overland, which keep going on about what an uncomfortable journey it must be. As someone who went from Manchester to Valencia by train (which looks about the same distance to me), I want to shout at them "IT WASN'T UNCOMFORTABLE AT ALL!" And I wasn't even in first class. And they flew the last bit anyway! Wimps.)
More volcano photos from the Big Picture are up, by the way, and they're even better than last week's. And Manchester Confidential has some lovely photos of a clear blue vapour-trail-less Manchester sky, taken from the roof of the Shudehill Interchange car park, which it recommends as a great place for free views of the city.
The Guardian has a list of the top 50 arts-related Twitter feeds. Not sure I'd agree with all of these, but it's a good starting point if you're new to Twitter.
Have you seen this advert? Terry Venables singing If I Can Dream. Apparently he had singing lessons specially. What I want to know is whether the other various famous people in the choir were actually singing...
Oh, and while we're on the World Cup, the football fans among you may be interested in a free online World Cup Virtual Sticker Album. Let me know if you sign up - we could do swapsies :-)
Last mention of football for now.... in fact, you should watch this even if you're not a football fan. It's less than a minute long, and it's hilarious. This German goalie also happens to be his team's penalty taker, and in a match between Bayer Leverkusen and Schalke in 2004, he scored a penalty, and while he was celebrating.... well, watch.
This is quite the opposite - not funny at all, in fact one of the most awful stories I've ever heard. Local government officials in California separated an elderly gay couple and sold all their possessions.
The MEN has a feature about the lovely Professor Brian Cox.
It's St George's Day today, but the Guardian thinks we need a new national saint, and it has one in mind.
And, if you want to relax, here's a website that just plays the sound of rain.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Do not forsake me, oh my darling
High Noon is on TV tomorrow (well, actually the early hours of Monday morning - 0045 on Monday 19th April, ITV3), and ever since I noticed this I've had the theme tune on the brain. It's always been one of my favourite songs, and I know it so well that I could write it out from memory - in fact, I just did (I was only going to write out the first line, in order to illustrate a point I'm about to make, but I got carried away!) I love the film as well, but not as much as I love the song.
However, it transpires that it's POSSIBLE I don't know the song as well as I thought I did, and this has been bugging me for days. I have the song in iTunes - I can't remember where I got it from - and when I listened to it, it was WRONG... i.e. not how I remember it. The version in my head starts like this:
but the recording I have starts like this:
If the print is too small, the main difference is that he puts gaps in the tune where I don't think there are any, and the intro has a different chord in it. There are other differences as well, later, but it's the fact that there are ANY differences that's a problem. Not to worry, I thought, I'm going to my mum's house tomorrow, and she has a Frankie Laine Greatest Hits CD. I'll just copy it from that.
But when we listened to mum's CD, we were both horrified to find that THAT was the wrong version too. (In fact, it seems likely that that's where I got it from in the first place, so I suppose it makes SOME sense.) My mum was able to sing the whole thing to me from memory, and her version matched the one in my head. And we wanted to hear Frankie Laine singing THAT version! Luckily at this point Mum remembered that she also had a Frankie Laine LP on vinyl. She found it, and after a bit of struggling, we got her record player working (it hadn't been used in years). Guess what - THAT was the wrong version as well! Argh!
I told mum at this point that I was sure I'd be able to find the PROPER version on YouTube. Well, I didn't - there were many versions, all of them wrong (they weren't even all wrong in the same way - some had EXTRA wrong bits!) - and at this point I found a new horrifying fact. It seems that, contrary to what I'd always thought, Frankie Laine didn't even sing the version that's actually in the film - it was Tex Ritter. Frankie Laine was just the one who had the most successful cover version!
Well, I didn't know WHAT to think. Maybe I am losing my mind. But I haven't given up yet. Here is where I'm up to in my quest to find a recording of the version in my head: I tried Spotify and iTunes when I got home, but all the versions on there are the wrong one. I searched through all my CDs and tapes to see if I had a recording (I knew I did, I just couldn't remember where). Finally I found it - on a 7" vinyl single. I am absolutely convinced that this is the correct version - as soon as I found it, I remembered playing it repeatedly - but I don't currently have any way to play vinyl! Argh!
Oh well. Eventually I will get a chance to play it (next time I go to my mum's house, if not before), and I'm hoping I will be vindicated. In the meantime, do watch the film. I'm hesitant to link you to one of the many wrong versions of the song, but if you want to hear one of them, here you are. And it goes without saying that if anyone has a recording which matches my first line (above), please send it!
Other than High Noon, this week I have been mostly singing Mahler 8. We had two rehearsals, and we got lots done - we've done every note of the piece at least twice this week, and many of them a lot more than that. Even better, we did a couple of nonstop runs of long sections, so that the people who didn't previously know the piece are hopefully starting to see how it all fits together. Actually my only complaint about either of the rehearsals is that at one point on Wednesday we rehearsed the bit on which the 2nd altos (well, all the ladies, but it's not quite as painful for the others) have a very long top G#. We can do this quite convincingly and confidently, but it HURTS. (It probably hurts the listeners even more, but I can't be the judge of that!) So it was NOT a good thing when we repeated those few bars SIX TIMES in fairly quick succession. I can't even remember what the issue was that necessitated the repetition, but I had a banging headache by the sixth time, and it lasted until early the next morning. Ouch. (I like to think that we did that note so confidently that no-one could tell it was hurting us - but it was, and it does, and it will!)
Next weekend we're off to Birmingham for the piano rehearsal, which will be fun - not just because it's a day out, but because it'll be the first chance to hear all the choirs together. Exciting! And the weekend after is the concert. I heard that the open rehearsal on 1st May, which has not (as far as I'm aware) been advertised publicly at all, is almost sold out, which is impressive... if you know anyone who's planning to turn up to that on the day, I'd recommend to them that they get a ticket!
Our Mahler 2 gig was of course on Radio 3 this week, and it's still on iPlayer until Monday night. But you can download it to keep as separate tracks from my mp3 page, and I'll leave it there for the foreseeable future. I'm glad to see that quite a few people have already downloaded it. I really enjoyed listening to it - I think I will delete my commercially-produced recording from iTunes, our live version is better! And I was surprised how much I enjoyed Crossing the Alps, too. It sounds really good. (Oh, and these commenters on the Radio 3 message board thought so too. Thanks to Graham and Martin for pointing that out to me.)
Classical Iconoclast has a nice post about the Mahler in Manchester series as a whole.
Talking of Radio 3, you'll remember that they recently announced that they'd be introducing a weekly chart; well, it's now up and running, and if you want to keep an eye on what's on it, here's a page for you to bookmark.
Hands up who else is amused that the last night of our proms isn't the last night, even though they're calling it that?
Tom Service talked to the "cultural gurus" of the three main UK political parties and got commitments from them regarding what music projects they will support if they win the election.
Also from the Guardian, news that ENO has invited some famous film directors to direct some of their operas next season. More details here - Terry Gilliam is doing Faust! Mindboggling.
Chris Rowbury wants to know whether you'd rather be over-rehearsed or under-prepared. I can't quite decide which way to lean, so I haven't commented on his post yet, but I think I'll probably end up agreeing with Chris that under-prepared is often better... but it depends so very much on the particular group of singers involved. Not every group is good enough to get away with being under-prepared, but if you have a group that IS good enough, it can be quite exciting, I think.
Via Intermezzo, here's a parrot singing the Queen of the Night aria. Well, bits of it. Who thinks this is real? I can't decide.
Manchester Central Library is in the process of moving all its books into underground salt mines. We knew this was going to happen, but it still seems very weird now that it actually is!
Manchester Cathedral is starting a new venture: gala dinners in the nave.
I was going to tell you about a free talk by Brian Cox at the university this Thursday, but the tickets were snapped up before I got the chance. However, he says there'll be another one in June - follow him on Twitter if you want to be sure to find out about it in time.
I'm fascinated by the whole volcanic ash thing. The Big Picture has some fabulous photos of the culprit, and it seems that people in Knutsford think the whole thing is great.
Currently, from sunset until about 9.30 pm every night, you can see Venus and Mercury low in the western sky, quite close together. Venus is on the left and much brighter than Mercury. If you're not sure what to look for, here's a photo of them taken from Paris a few days ago. Venus is very frequently visible, but it's rare to be able to see Mercury, so do try. (Venus actually doesn't set till about 10.30 pm, because it's a bit higher up than Mercury. You can also see both Mars and Saturn all night, but they're nowhere near as bright as Venus. And if you're up early, you may be able to see Jupiter very low (and VERY bright) in the east from about 5.15 am, but the sun rises not long after that so the sky may be too light.)
I can't quite believe this: a hotel in Bolton sent a fairly new employee out to prune a tree. He leaned the ladder against a branch, sawed that branch off the tree while on the ladder, fell and hurt himself, and SUED THE HOTEL. And, while I don't think he's actually won yet, the hotel has been fined! Unbelievable.
This really amused me: an alternative pain scale.
And finally - what a wonderful day for football today has been! United beat City. Rochdale got promoted. Leeds lost. Chelsea lost, AND John Terry got sent off. All wonderful things. But my favourite thing is this photo of Gary Neville kissing Paul Scholes. Aren't they lovely?
However, it transpires that it's POSSIBLE I don't know the song as well as I thought I did, and this has been bugging me for days. I have the song in iTunes - I can't remember where I got it from - and when I listened to it, it was WRONG... i.e. not how I remember it. The version in my head starts like this:
but the recording I have starts like this:
If the print is too small, the main difference is that he puts gaps in the tune where I don't think there are any, and the intro has a different chord in it. There are other differences as well, later, but it's the fact that there are ANY differences that's a problem. Not to worry, I thought, I'm going to my mum's house tomorrow, and she has a Frankie Laine Greatest Hits CD. I'll just copy it from that.
But when we listened to mum's CD, we were both horrified to find that THAT was the wrong version too. (In fact, it seems likely that that's where I got it from in the first place, so I suppose it makes SOME sense.) My mum was able to sing the whole thing to me from memory, and her version matched the one in my head. And we wanted to hear Frankie Laine singing THAT version! Luckily at this point Mum remembered that she also had a Frankie Laine LP on vinyl. She found it, and after a bit of struggling, we got her record player working (it hadn't been used in years). Guess what - THAT was the wrong version as well! Argh!
I told mum at this point that I was sure I'd be able to find the PROPER version on YouTube. Well, I didn't - there were many versions, all of them wrong (they weren't even all wrong in the same way - some had EXTRA wrong bits!) - and at this point I found a new horrifying fact. It seems that, contrary to what I'd always thought, Frankie Laine didn't even sing the version that's actually in the film - it was Tex Ritter. Frankie Laine was just the one who had the most successful cover version!
Well, I didn't know WHAT to think. Maybe I am losing my mind. But I haven't given up yet. Here is where I'm up to in my quest to find a recording of the version in my head: I tried Spotify and iTunes when I got home, but all the versions on there are the wrong one. I searched through all my CDs and tapes to see if I had a recording (I knew I did, I just couldn't remember where). Finally I found it - on a 7" vinyl single. I am absolutely convinced that this is the correct version - as soon as I found it, I remembered playing it repeatedly - but I don't currently have any way to play vinyl! Argh!
Oh well. Eventually I will get a chance to play it (next time I go to my mum's house, if not before), and I'm hoping I will be vindicated. In the meantime, do watch the film. I'm hesitant to link you to one of the many wrong versions of the song, but if you want to hear one of them, here you are. And it goes without saying that if anyone has a recording which matches my first line (above), please send it!
Other than High Noon, this week I have been mostly singing Mahler 8. We had two rehearsals, and we got lots done - we've done every note of the piece at least twice this week, and many of them a lot more than that. Even better, we did a couple of nonstop runs of long sections, so that the people who didn't previously know the piece are hopefully starting to see how it all fits together. Actually my only complaint about either of the rehearsals is that at one point on Wednesday we rehearsed the bit on which the 2nd altos (well, all the ladies, but it's not quite as painful for the others) have a very long top G#. We can do this quite convincingly and confidently, but it HURTS. (It probably hurts the listeners even more, but I can't be the judge of that!) So it was NOT a good thing when we repeated those few bars SIX TIMES in fairly quick succession. I can't even remember what the issue was that necessitated the repetition, but I had a banging headache by the sixth time, and it lasted until early the next morning. Ouch. (I like to think that we did that note so confidently that no-one could tell it was hurting us - but it was, and it does, and it will!)
Next weekend we're off to Birmingham for the piano rehearsal, which will be fun - not just because it's a day out, but because it'll be the first chance to hear all the choirs together. Exciting! And the weekend after is the concert. I heard that the open rehearsal on 1st May, which has not (as far as I'm aware) been advertised publicly at all, is almost sold out, which is impressive... if you know anyone who's planning to turn up to that on the day, I'd recommend to them that they get a ticket!
Our Mahler 2 gig was of course on Radio 3 this week, and it's still on iPlayer until Monday night. But you can download it to keep as separate tracks from my mp3 page, and I'll leave it there for the foreseeable future. I'm glad to see that quite a few people have already downloaded it. I really enjoyed listening to it - I think I will delete my commercially-produced recording from iTunes, our live version is better! And I was surprised how much I enjoyed Crossing the Alps, too. It sounds really good. (Oh, and these commenters on the Radio 3 message board thought so too. Thanks to Graham and Martin for pointing that out to me.)
Classical Iconoclast has a nice post about the Mahler in Manchester series as a whole.
Talking of Radio 3, you'll remember that they recently announced that they'd be introducing a weekly chart; well, it's now up and running, and if you want to keep an eye on what's on it, here's a page for you to bookmark.
Hands up who else is amused that the last night of our proms isn't the last night, even though they're calling it that?
Tom Service talked to the "cultural gurus" of the three main UK political parties and got commitments from them regarding what music projects they will support if they win the election.
Also from the Guardian, news that ENO has invited some famous film directors to direct some of their operas next season. More details here - Terry Gilliam is doing Faust! Mindboggling.
Chris Rowbury wants to know whether you'd rather be over-rehearsed or under-prepared. I can't quite decide which way to lean, so I haven't commented on his post yet, but I think I'll probably end up agreeing with Chris that under-prepared is often better... but it depends so very much on the particular group of singers involved. Not every group is good enough to get away with being under-prepared, but if you have a group that IS good enough, it can be quite exciting, I think.
Via Intermezzo, here's a parrot singing the Queen of the Night aria. Well, bits of it. Who thinks this is real? I can't decide.
Manchester Central Library is in the process of moving all its books into underground salt mines. We knew this was going to happen, but it still seems very weird now that it actually is!
Manchester Cathedral is starting a new venture: gala dinners in the nave.
I was going to tell you about a free talk by Brian Cox at the university this Thursday, but the tickets were snapped up before I got the chance. However, he says there'll be another one in June - follow him on Twitter if you want to be sure to find out about it in time.
I'm fascinated by the whole volcanic ash thing. The Big Picture has some fabulous photos of the culprit, and it seems that people in Knutsford think the whole thing is great.
Currently, from sunset until about 9.30 pm every night, you can see Venus and Mercury low in the western sky, quite close together. Venus is on the left and much brighter than Mercury. If you're not sure what to look for, here's a photo of them taken from Paris a few days ago. Venus is very frequently visible, but it's rare to be able to see Mercury, so do try. (Venus actually doesn't set till about 10.30 pm, because it's a bit higher up than Mercury. You can also see both Mars and Saturn all night, but they're nowhere near as bright as Venus. And if you're up early, you may be able to see Jupiter very low (and VERY bright) in the east from about 5.15 am, but the sun rises not long after that so the sky may be too light.)
I can't quite believe this: a hotel in Bolton sent a fairly new employee out to prune a tree. He leaned the ladder against a branch, sawed that branch off the tree while on the ladder, fell and hurt himself, and SUED THE HOTEL. And, while I don't think he's actually won yet, the hotel has been fined! Unbelievable.
This really amused me: an alternative pain scale.
And finally - what a wonderful day for football today has been! United beat City. Rochdale got promoted. Leeds lost. Chelsea lost, AND John Terry got sent off. All wonderful things. But my favourite thing is this photo of Gary Neville kissing Paul Scholes. Aren't they lovely?
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Mahler 2 broadcast mp3s
Proper post to follow, but I just wanted to pop by and tell you that there are now helpful, downloadable mp3s of Monday's Radio 3 broadcast on my mp3 page. Thanks to Mr Dr Liz for supplying the mega-huge two-and-a-quarter-hour file from which I created the separate tracks.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
I see you shiver with antici.............................pation
I listened to Mahler 8 all the way through yesterday, while on a six-bus journey. I was pleased to find how much of it I know from memory - always useful. Needless to say I got annoyed all over again about choir 1 getting all the good bits, but mainly I was very excited about the whole thing - I'd totally forgotten some of the amazing orchestral bits (e.g. what the brass are doing in the "hostem repellas" section - that's all about driving away the enemy, but I can't decide whether the brass are the enemy and we're trying to drive them away, or the enemy is elsewhere and the brass are helping us! No doubt it will become clear...)
I had an idea last night involving Mahler 8 Bingo. This idea amused me a lot, and I may have to put it into action, if only because I love the thought of someone trying to concentrate in a rehearsal while itching to jump up and shout "HOUSE!" Leave it with me :-)
Other than this, I haven't done anything music-related since my last post. We didn't rehearse this week, although we have two rehearsals next week to make up for this. I've spent most of the time distracting myself from being broke - I'm very good at that! (Just as well - it's been worse than usual recently due to the DWP not paying me, because they're currently my only source of income. So food has been a major issue. They've paid me now, but it's not been the most pleasant of weeks.)
Anyway, I have a load of links, so I thought I'd post them even though there was nothing else to say.
Via Intermezzo, a fascinating interview with Sir Colin Davis.
You probably heard about last week's disruption of a string quartet concert at the Wigmore Hall. The Jerusalem Quartet (whose concert it was) have something to say on the matter, as does Norman Lebrecht, with a lovely Telegraph article about how the concert hall is a sanctuary.
Talking of concert halls, have you seen the one they're building in Hamburg? It has OCEAN WAVES on its roof!
Tom Service writes sympathetically about Leonard Slatkin's recent much-publicised withdrawal from La Traviata at the New York Met.
Again, you'll have seen this, but since it's not often that a choir-related story makes the front page of the BBC News website, I figured it was worth repeating: the guy who's sung with the same choir for SEVENTY YEARS.
Our own orchestra is giving free tickets to people in deprived areas of Manchester - although, as one of the commenters points out, not the MOST deprived areas... I wonder why?
I hadn't realised there was a danger of this year's Whit Friday brass band contests not going ahead until 4 Bars Rest told me that Oldham Council has saved the day. (The contests this year are on 28th May - put it in your diary and keep the evening free, if you've never been before!)
Also from 4 Bars Rest, news that the Fairey Brass Band (one of the best in the world) will be performing after the Mahler 7 concert on 24th April. So if you're going to that concert, don't leave without hearing them.
This is fun: a music video set in an empty school, in which the composer (a 17-year-old boy) plays everything himself, using various things as instruments (e.g. piano, marimba, locker door).
Chris Rowbury writes about the process of learning songs by ear. Of course we can't usually do this in our choir due to the short time we have in which to learn complex stuff, but most of the points he makes are still valid for a choir that DOES use sheet music. (I'd love to be able to tell him he's wrong when he says that singers who have the music in front of them never look at the conductor, but sadly he's not ENTIRELY wrong! I think our choir probably has more counter-examples than most, though.)
I mentioned recently that I wasn't particularly impressed with The Sixteen, so I was only SLIGHTLY surprised to find that the Guardian only awarded them one star for a recent concert of theirs. The Telegraph hated it too.
This is very clever: via Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog, Wii-controlled percussion.
This year's Proms lineup is announced on 22nd April. Tom Service describes what he hopes will be in it, while Intermezzo has a lot more info, including quite a few rumours. Looks as if the opening concert might be Mahler 8 - but sadly not our version!
On An Overgrown Path has an intriguing post about why Latvia produces more than its fair share of outstanding musicians.
If you know anyone who attended the Oscars for Orchestra concert in Manchester a couple of weeks ago, see if their photo is on the Red Carpet page.
Tom Service brings news that Radio 3 is introducing classical chart hits to its programming. Rupert Christiansen, in the Telegraph, writes about why this is a very bad idea.
Here's a nice story from A Cappella News: a choir that was formed to help unemployed people in Leipzig. It mentions one guy who was on his way to jump under a train (literally) and changed his mind as a result of seeing a choir recruitment poster. *boggle*
Seth Godin's blog often has potentially life-changing insights, but I particularly like this one: how to be one in a million.
I absolutely hate politics and ignore it wherever possible (it bores me rigid), so it's entirely possible that everyone apart from me already knew this, but just in case it's news to you too: from BBC News, who actually runs the country while all the MPs are off campaigning? I hadn't realised that they actually stopped being MPs shortly after an election is called - I assumed they continued until the day of the election, and then either continued or left afterwards. The actual process, now that I know what it is, makes a lot more sense when I think about it!
Anyone who uses Twitter, however much they hate politics, will probably have seen all the stuff about the Digital Economy Bill. Until this hit the news, I didn't know there was a Minister for Digital Britain. Now that I *do* know that, I'm unimpressed to find that he doesn't even know the meaning of basic terms such as "IP address". (Even my Silver Surfers, who have only been using computers for a few weeks, know that it stands for "Internet Protocol".)
Manchester Confidential raves about the new Legoland Discovery Centre at the Trafford Centre. Sounds like fun!
From the category of "random trivia that will blow your mind", here's a fascinating fact about pie :-)
I had an idea last night involving Mahler 8 Bingo. This idea amused me a lot, and I may have to put it into action, if only because I love the thought of someone trying to concentrate in a rehearsal while itching to jump up and shout "HOUSE!" Leave it with me :-)
Other than this, I haven't done anything music-related since my last post. We didn't rehearse this week, although we have two rehearsals next week to make up for this. I've spent most of the time distracting myself from being broke - I'm very good at that! (Just as well - it's been worse than usual recently due to the DWP not paying me, because they're currently my only source of income. So food has been a major issue. They've paid me now, but it's not been the most pleasant of weeks.)
Anyway, I have a load of links, so I thought I'd post them even though there was nothing else to say.
Via Intermezzo, a fascinating interview with Sir Colin Davis.
You probably heard about last week's disruption of a string quartet concert at the Wigmore Hall. The Jerusalem Quartet (whose concert it was) have something to say on the matter, as does Norman Lebrecht, with a lovely Telegraph article about how the concert hall is a sanctuary.
Talking of concert halls, have you seen the one they're building in Hamburg? It has OCEAN WAVES on its roof!
Tom Service writes sympathetically about Leonard Slatkin's recent much-publicised withdrawal from La Traviata at the New York Met.
Again, you'll have seen this, but since it's not often that a choir-related story makes the front page of the BBC News website, I figured it was worth repeating: the guy who's sung with the same choir for SEVENTY YEARS.
Our own orchestra is giving free tickets to people in deprived areas of Manchester - although, as one of the commenters points out, not the MOST deprived areas... I wonder why?
I hadn't realised there was a danger of this year's Whit Friday brass band contests not going ahead until 4 Bars Rest told me that Oldham Council has saved the day. (The contests this year are on 28th May - put it in your diary and keep the evening free, if you've never been before!)
Also from 4 Bars Rest, news that the Fairey Brass Band (one of the best in the world) will be performing after the Mahler 7 concert on 24th April. So if you're going to that concert, don't leave without hearing them.
This is fun: a music video set in an empty school, in which the composer (a 17-year-old boy) plays everything himself, using various things as instruments (e.g. piano, marimba, locker door).
Chris Rowbury writes about the process of learning songs by ear. Of course we can't usually do this in our choir due to the short time we have in which to learn complex stuff, but most of the points he makes are still valid for a choir that DOES use sheet music. (I'd love to be able to tell him he's wrong when he says that singers who have the music in front of them never look at the conductor, but sadly he's not ENTIRELY wrong! I think our choir probably has more counter-examples than most, though.)
I mentioned recently that I wasn't particularly impressed with The Sixteen, so I was only SLIGHTLY surprised to find that the Guardian only awarded them one star for a recent concert of theirs. The Telegraph hated it too.
This is very clever: via Jason Heath's Double Bass Blog, Wii-controlled percussion.
This year's Proms lineup is announced on 22nd April. Tom Service describes what he hopes will be in it, while Intermezzo has a lot more info, including quite a few rumours. Looks as if the opening concert might be Mahler 8 - but sadly not our version!
On An Overgrown Path has an intriguing post about why Latvia produces more than its fair share of outstanding musicians.
If you know anyone who attended the Oscars for Orchestra concert in Manchester a couple of weeks ago, see if their photo is on the Red Carpet page.
Tom Service brings news that Radio 3 is introducing classical chart hits to its programming. Rupert Christiansen, in the Telegraph, writes about why this is a very bad idea.
Here's a nice story from A Cappella News: a choir that was formed to help unemployed people in Leipzig. It mentions one guy who was on his way to jump under a train (literally) and changed his mind as a result of seeing a choir recruitment poster. *boggle*
Seth Godin's blog often has potentially life-changing insights, but I particularly like this one: how to be one in a million.
I absolutely hate politics and ignore it wherever possible (it bores me rigid), so it's entirely possible that everyone apart from me already knew this, but just in case it's news to you too: from BBC News, who actually runs the country while all the MPs are off campaigning? I hadn't realised that they actually stopped being MPs shortly after an election is called - I assumed they continued until the day of the election, and then either continued or left afterwards. The actual process, now that I know what it is, makes a lot more sense when I think about it!
Anyone who uses Twitter, however much they hate politics, will probably have seen all the stuff about the Digital Economy Bill. Until this hit the news, I didn't know there was a Minister for Digital Britain. Now that I *do* know that, I'm unimpressed to find that he doesn't even know the meaning of basic terms such as "IP address". (Even my Silver Surfers, who have only been using computers for a few weeks, know that it stands for "Internet Protocol".)
Manchester Confidential raves about the new Legoland Discovery Centre at the Trafford Centre. Sounds like fun!
From the category of "random trivia that will blow your mind", here's a fascinating fact about pie :-)
Thursday, April 01, 2010
They can only do it once a night
There was a lot of giggling at last night's rehearsal, most of it during the attempt to get the men to sing "Komm" with a suitably seductive initial consonant. I have to admit that the idea of a long k is new to me, but that certainly seemed to be what our German coach was asking for a few weeks ago, so I will continue to try. I don't think I've managed it yet - I think the sound I'm coming out with is more of a gurgle - but there's still time to improve!
There's definitely room for improvement when it comes to the spatial awareness of the 1st altos. For Mahler 8 we're sitting in a formation which we've never used before (as far as I can recall) - the men are on the conductor's left (basses on the end and then tenors), followed by altos in the middle (2nds next to the tenors, then 1sts next to the sops) and sops on the right (2nds next to the altos and 1sts on the end). (The reason for this formation is that we're one of two choirs, and the other choir will mirror our formation so that all the men from both choirs will be together in the middle.) When I arrived last night, there were no 2nd altos there yet, but quite a few 1sts... and they were all sitting to the LEFT of the halfway point (as viewed from the conductor's position). They had obviously decided that the sopranos needed more chairs than all the rest of the choir combined. (There aren't THAT many sopranos - in fact, for quite some time now, 1st alto has been the most numerous section!) And as if that wasn't bad enough, they had only left ONE seat on the front row for the 2nd altos. (We've been insisting, this year, that we always have a wedge of 2nd altos, with several on the front row. Until we put our collective foot down, the 1st altos usually took up the whole front row of the alto section, leaving all the 2nds to sit at the back. And it's not that we object to sitting at the back in general - it's just that there are three times as many 1sts as 2nds (sometimes four times as many) and we just can't be heard unless there are at least some of us at the front.)
I'm amused, by the way, that two different conductors have recently realised - only after months of working with us - that there are far more 1st altos than 2nds, and when they've said "do we need to do something about this?" we all reacted with a resounding "NO!" I found it quite telling that they didn't notice from listening to us - it was only when they asked for a show of hands that the discrepancy in numbers was obvious :-)
I *am* jealous of the 1st altos for one thing, though, and I only noticed it last night. They have the best note in the whole of Mahler 8! Right at the end (figure 217) all the singers are on a fortissimo chord - with a crescendo - very high in the voice. In the third bar of figure 217, the chord continues, louder than ever... but one part MOVES. Admittedly the two alto soloists are singing in unison with the 1st altos, so they move too... but no-one else does. That's such a good - and IMPORTANT - note that if it were up to me, I would suggest that all the 2nd altos sing 1st, just for those three bars - the B flat in the 2nd alto part is well-covered by the basses and 2nd tenors, and the altos are likely to be drowned by everyone else (look at what STB and all the soloists are doing!) unless they use all the power they have available. (And yes, if you're being picky, the 1st basses and 2nd tenors do change notes when they go into the third bar of 217 - but they only change to a note which was already in the previous chord. It's the note that the 1st altos sing that makes it a whole different chord.)
I'd get the 2nd altos to switch back to their own part for the last two notes, though, because NO-ONE else has a B flat in the last chord. Although, once you realise what the orchestra - with full organ - is doing at that point, you'll see that it will make very little difference what note the 2nd altos are singing :-)
I had an interesting journey home after the rehearsal - it took almost three hours. (I live 17 miles from the rehearsal venue.) Usually I get a lift with Alison, who lives very near where I do, but she's on holiday this week, so I was on public transport. I really don't mind using public transport, because it gives me the chance to read and/or listen to podcasts etc. - it does take a bit longer at times, but I do have time to spare at the moment! Last night, the bus back into town was bang on time, so there was no problem there - as usual, a couple of choir members stopped to offer me a lift into town, but I always say no, because my train isn't till 2228, so if I got a lift I'd have to sit on a cold bench at Victoria Station for almost an hour, whereas if I get the bus I still get there with half an hour to spare, but I have a warm bus seat until then.
Last night, there was a platform change for the 2228, so I wandered across to platform 3. The train turned up at about quarter past, and I went to get on at the rearmost door as usual (because that's where the exit is when I get off). As I got on, the driver and guard got off (at the same door), deep in conversation. I sat down and got re-engrossed in my book. A while later, the train started to move... in the wrong direction. This was a little offputting, and it was only at this point that I realised that the carriage was totally empty apart from me, which is unheard of for any of the trains on my line. I realised that the train must have split, and the other carriages formed the 2228 to Leeds, whereas the carriage I was in was heading to the depot. Great. You'd think that the guard and driver (who saw me get on) might have mentioned that, wouldn't you? Or that the new driver would check there was no-one on his train before he drove it to the depot? *sigh*
Anyway, the depot turned out to be only a few minutes away, and the driver emerged from his carriage and looked at me in bemusement. He asked how I'd got on the train, and didn't seem to believe me when I said I'd entered through the door.... I asked how I could get back to Victoria, and he said that the only way was for him to reverse the train to there. And, after a brief phone call to his controller, that's what he did. Needless to say, the 2228 had gone by then, so I had to sit on a cold bench for ages ANYWAY, because the next (and last) train wasn't till 2320. By the time I got home I was frozen, but oddly cheerful - I never mind having a prolonged amount of time in which to read, and there is no-one who cares what time I get home (or even whether I do). (This depresses me if I let myself think about it, so I distract myself by reading!)
So, some links to entertain you after I've sent you all to sleep with my train trauma! The Mahler in Manchester series can still do no wrong - it was Mahler 6 the other night, with the BBC Phil, and the reviews are great: Telegraph, MEN, Times, FT, and Guardian. Oh, and the Radio 3 broadcasts start on Monday and continue weekly: Mahler 1 (BBC Phil) is on 5th April at 7pm, which suggests that our Mahler 2 will be on 12th, and Mahler 8 on 24th May. But you know what the BBC are like for interrupting series!
It turns out the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain were at the Lowry on Sunday. I would have loved to have seen them - they were great at the Proms, and this concert sounds as if it was great fun.
I love this story (on Stephen Hough's blog) of Steven Isserlis trying to get to a concert on time. Hilarious!
Intermezzo brings news that reading about music before listening to it is not always a good thing.
The Guardian has a long, detailed, interesting article about Renee Fleming singing non-classical stuff. You can even listen to the whole album there for free.
Yet more on the thorny question of when applause is appropriate, this time from Ivan Hewett in the Telegraph.
Great post from The Chorister called Am I a bad singer? I would add one thing - if you don't identify with anything in her post, I'm willing to bet you're not as good a singer as you think you are :-)
The all-conquering Gareth Malone has been awarded the Freedom of the City of London. Wouldn't it be great (and VERY convenient) if he felt like moving to Manchester? I think someone should ask him. (Seriously.)
The Guardian's music blog discusses the enduring legacy of Kate Bush.
I've mentioned Shazam a few times - here's an article from Mashable that compares Shazam to other methods of identifying the song in your head.
Chris Rowbury wants to discuss why men won't sing.
Mark Burstow (of the Bournemouth Male Voice Choir) has an interesting post about the difficulties of singing in English.
The Radio 3 blog has the first in a series of posts about life in the BBC Symphony Chorus.
And finally, the teachers among you will like this: a poem by Taylor Mali called What Teachers Make. Very true.
There's definitely room for improvement when it comes to the spatial awareness of the 1st altos. For Mahler 8 we're sitting in a formation which we've never used before (as far as I can recall) - the men are on the conductor's left (basses on the end and then tenors), followed by altos in the middle (2nds next to the tenors, then 1sts next to the sops) and sops on the right (2nds next to the altos and 1sts on the end). (The reason for this formation is that we're one of two choirs, and the other choir will mirror our formation so that all the men from both choirs will be together in the middle.) When I arrived last night, there were no 2nd altos there yet, but quite a few 1sts... and they were all sitting to the LEFT of the halfway point (as viewed from the conductor's position). They had obviously decided that the sopranos needed more chairs than all the rest of the choir combined. (There aren't THAT many sopranos - in fact, for quite some time now, 1st alto has been the most numerous section!) And as if that wasn't bad enough, they had only left ONE seat on the front row for the 2nd altos. (We've been insisting, this year, that we always have a wedge of 2nd altos, with several on the front row. Until we put our collective foot down, the 1st altos usually took up the whole front row of the alto section, leaving all the 2nds to sit at the back. And it's not that we object to sitting at the back in general - it's just that there are three times as many 1sts as 2nds (sometimes four times as many) and we just can't be heard unless there are at least some of us at the front.)
I'm amused, by the way, that two different conductors have recently realised - only after months of working with us - that there are far more 1st altos than 2nds, and when they've said "do we need to do something about this?" we all reacted with a resounding "NO!" I found it quite telling that they didn't notice from listening to us - it was only when they asked for a show of hands that the discrepancy in numbers was obvious :-)
I *am* jealous of the 1st altos for one thing, though, and I only noticed it last night. They have the best note in the whole of Mahler 8! Right at the end (figure 217) all the singers are on a fortissimo chord - with a crescendo - very high in the voice. In the third bar of figure 217, the chord continues, louder than ever... but one part MOVES. Admittedly the two alto soloists are singing in unison with the 1st altos, so they move too... but no-one else does. That's such a good - and IMPORTANT - note that if it were up to me, I would suggest that all the 2nd altos sing 1st, just for those three bars - the B flat in the 2nd alto part is well-covered by the basses and 2nd tenors, and the altos are likely to be drowned by everyone else (look at what STB and all the soloists are doing!) unless they use all the power they have available. (And yes, if you're being picky, the 1st basses and 2nd tenors do change notes when they go into the third bar of 217 - but they only change to a note which was already in the previous chord. It's the note that the 1st altos sing that makes it a whole different chord.)
I'd get the 2nd altos to switch back to their own part for the last two notes, though, because NO-ONE else has a B flat in the last chord. Although, once you realise what the orchestra - with full organ - is doing at that point, you'll see that it will make very little difference what note the 2nd altos are singing :-)
I had an interesting journey home after the rehearsal - it took almost three hours. (I live 17 miles from the rehearsal venue.) Usually I get a lift with Alison, who lives very near where I do, but she's on holiday this week, so I was on public transport. I really don't mind using public transport, because it gives me the chance to read and/or listen to podcasts etc. - it does take a bit longer at times, but I do have time to spare at the moment! Last night, the bus back into town was bang on time, so there was no problem there - as usual, a couple of choir members stopped to offer me a lift into town, but I always say no, because my train isn't till 2228, so if I got a lift I'd have to sit on a cold bench at Victoria Station for almost an hour, whereas if I get the bus I still get there with half an hour to spare, but I have a warm bus seat until then.
Last night, there was a platform change for the 2228, so I wandered across to platform 3. The train turned up at about quarter past, and I went to get on at the rearmost door as usual (because that's where the exit is when I get off). As I got on, the driver and guard got off (at the same door), deep in conversation. I sat down and got re-engrossed in my book. A while later, the train started to move... in the wrong direction. This was a little offputting, and it was only at this point that I realised that the carriage was totally empty apart from me, which is unheard of for any of the trains on my line. I realised that the train must have split, and the other carriages formed the 2228 to Leeds, whereas the carriage I was in was heading to the depot. Great. You'd think that the guard and driver (who saw me get on) might have mentioned that, wouldn't you? Or that the new driver would check there was no-one on his train before he drove it to the depot? *sigh*
Anyway, the depot turned out to be only a few minutes away, and the driver emerged from his carriage and looked at me in bemusement. He asked how I'd got on the train, and didn't seem to believe me when I said I'd entered through the door.... I asked how I could get back to Victoria, and he said that the only way was for him to reverse the train to there. And, after a brief phone call to his controller, that's what he did. Needless to say, the 2228 had gone by then, so I had to sit on a cold bench for ages ANYWAY, because the next (and last) train wasn't till 2320. By the time I got home I was frozen, but oddly cheerful - I never mind having a prolonged amount of time in which to read, and there is no-one who cares what time I get home (or even whether I do). (This depresses me if I let myself think about it, so I distract myself by reading!)
So, some links to entertain you after I've sent you all to sleep with my train trauma! The Mahler in Manchester series can still do no wrong - it was Mahler 6 the other night, with the BBC Phil, and the reviews are great: Telegraph, MEN, Times, FT, and Guardian. Oh, and the Radio 3 broadcasts start on Monday and continue weekly: Mahler 1 (BBC Phil) is on 5th April at 7pm, which suggests that our Mahler 2 will be on 12th, and Mahler 8 on 24th May. But you know what the BBC are like for interrupting series!
It turns out the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain were at the Lowry on Sunday. I would have loved to have seen them - they were great at the Proms, and this concert sounds as if it was great fun.
I love this story (on Stephen Hough's blog) of Steven Isserlis trying to get to a concert on time. Hilarious!
Intermezzo brings news that reading about music before listening to it is not always a good thing.
The Guardian has a long, detailed, interesting article about Renee Fleming singing non-classical stuff. You can even listen to the whole album there for free.
Yet more on the thorny question of when applause is appropriate, this time from Ivan Hewett in the Telegraph.
Great post from The Chorister called Am I a bad singer? I would add one thing - if you don't identify with anything in her post, I'm willing to bet you're not as good a singer as you think you are :-)
The all-conquering Gareth Malone has been awarded the Freedom of the City of London. Wouldn't it be great (and VERY convenient) if he felt like moving to Manchester? I think someone should ask him. (Seriously.)
The Guardian's music blog discusses the enduring legacy of Kate Bush.
I've mentioned Shazam a few times - here's an article from Mashable that compares Shazam to other methods of identifying the song in your head.
Chris Rowbury wants to discuss why men won't sing.
Mark Burstow (of the Bournemouth Male Voice Choir) has an interesting post about the difficulties of singing in English.
The Radio 3 blog has the first in a series of posts about life in the BBC Symphony Chorus.
And finally, the teachers among you will like this: a poem by Taylor Mali called What Teachers Make. Very true.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Polly put the kettle on
There's a bit in the Mahler 8 alto part that I've had on the brain for the past few hours. I think of it as "the Polly Put The Kettle On bit", and I don't think I've ever sung it correctly before tonight, but I practised it on the bus on the way to choir (in my head, in case you're wondering!) and I can do it now. It's just two bars, of which the first is "Polly put the kettle on", and the second is a kind of warped version of "Polly put the kettle on" in which Mahler deliberately changed every note just slightly, but in such a way as to make the resulting bar as difficult as possible. Evil man.
The only other thing I have to report this week (it's not been the most exciting of weeks!) is that I gave a one-off singing lesson to a soprano a few days ago. She was very late, and just when I was amusing myself thinking "typical soprano, they're ALWAYS late", she called to say she was lost. I nearly got the giggles at that point, because I couldn't help thinking that if she'd been flat as well, she'd have embodied all the main soprano characteristics in one go! (Sorry, sops, I couldn't resist that! I love you really!)
By way of a change, I'm going to start my links with a few videos. The first one was mentioned by Graham in the comments last week: a large barbershop chorus singing Seventy-Six Trombones. Do watch the whole thing - it's absolutely wonderful, especially the end.
Here's another one that will make you smile - several people have emailed this to me: Elderly Couple Plays Piano Duet.
The Bridgewater Hall website has a set of three fascinating chats between the two Manchester music directors, who discuss the whole Mahler series in detail. I discovered all sorts of interesting things from these videos.
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir has completed its second project, and if you were impressed by their version of "Sleep", you'll be blown away by Lux Aurumque. This is my favourite of his works anyway, but the quality of this performance is unbelievably high given how they did it. (Read Eric's description of the process - it's a lot more complicated (and musical!) than what they did for "Sleep".) Also, we get to see Eric himself in this one, and I think he's quite pretty :-)
That's all the videos. What else? Well, I'm sorry I couldn't witness this, but a trombonist was planning to play a duet with a RIVER the other day. I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else - I'm hoping to find a recording eventually though!
Guy Garvey (from Elbow) writes in the Guardian about how albums are still important in these days of single-track downloads.
Oliver Condy, in the BBC Music Magazine, wonders whether London needs quite as many orchestras as it currently has.
Chris Rowbury (From the Front of the Choir) analyses the factors that make live performance different from rehearsal.
As with many things, I found this while I was looking for something else: something called the Complete Vocal Institute, which describes the four vocal modes. I'm mainly fascinated by this because I thought I knew quite a bit about singing, but most of the information on this page is completely alien to me, and I don't know how much of it to believe! I plan to ask Maggie to explain it to me :-)
Sad but true: an American high school banned an INSTRUMENTAL version of "Ave Maria" from a graduation ceremony, because it's too religious. *boggle*
Via Intermezzo, the chief exec of the London Phil tells the Times how it was possible for his orchestra to be defrauded of millions of pounds.
Also from Intermezzo: Aretha Franklin is singing opera. And from the same source: news of a Chorus Festival on the South Bank at the start of May. Some interesting ideas there - I'll be interested to find out what reception they get!
I'm a huge fan of Shazam, which is great for identifying music on the radio or during TV programmes. That only works with recorded music, though, and it's much less reliable for classical music, because the main information it uses is the beat, and there isn't always a clear and/or regular beat in classical stuff. However, the other day I heard about SoundHound, which allegedly works even if you sing or hum stuff into the phone. I haven't tried it, though, because it's not free - can anyone with an iPhone who HAS tried it let me know whether or not it actually works as well as Shazam?
I was in the Central Library today, wandering round trying to memorise everything about it (most of it closes next week). I love that place so much - I'll be very sad if it loses its character during the renovations. The Manchizzle agrees with me, but I'm mainly mentioning their post because it has a photo of the Social Sciences room - my favourite bit of the library. And I'm ashamed to say that today is the first time I'd ever really paid attention to the details of that room, and noticed that there is a quotation round the edge of the ceiling. I looked it up and found that it's from the Book of Proverbs: "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee." I really hope that's still there when the library reopens! But in the meantime, the library has set up a Flickr page for people to put up photos of the library. I haven't looked through them all yet, but if they're all as good as the ones on the first page, I will be delighted. And I'm even more delighted that I realised (if somewhat belatedly) why they're calling this project "Get Wisdom" :-)
What will you be doing at 8.30pm this Saturday? Can you do it in the dark? If you can, you should, because it's Earth Hour.
I've seen a few people raving about this recently: FutureMe gives you the chance to send an email to your future self. I might try it if I can think of anything inspiring to say, but my mind's a bit blank at the moment!
Merlin Mann pleads with everyone to take computer backups seriously. The details in that article might be a bit too technical for some people, but the message is important enough that I wanted to mention it: if you've never backed up the important (i.e. irreplaceable) data on your computer, YOU SHOULD! And if you HAVE done it, but not for ages, go and do it again RIGHT NOW. Always assume that your computer could die at any time, and if (when!) it does, you will have lost all the work you've done (and photos you've taken, etc.) since the last time you backed up. If that's not a problem for you, you don't need to bother with backups. Otherwise... you really, really do.
A friend pointed this out to me today: the London Review of Books personal ads. There is no way I can describe them effectively - just go and look!
And finally, if you're a bit of a drama queen (or king), you may find this button useful....
The only other thing I have to report this week (it's not been the most exciting of weeks!) is that I gave a one-off singing lesson to a soprano a few days ago. She was very late, and just when I was amusing myself thinking "typical soprano, they're ALWAYS late", she called to say she was lost. I nearly got the giggles at that point, because I couldn't help thinking that if she'd been flat as well, she'd have embodied all the main soprano characteristics in one go! (Sorry, sops, I couldn't resist that! I love you really!)
By way of a change, I'm going to start my links with a few videos. The first one was mentioned by Graham in the comments last week: a large barbershop chorus singing Seventy-Six Trombones. Do watch the whole thing - it's absolutely wonderful, especially the end.
Here's another one that will make you smile - several people have emailed this to me: Elderly Couple Plays Piano Duet.
The Bridgewater Hall website has a set of three fascinating chats between the two Manchester music directors, who discuss the whole Mahler series in detail. I discovered all sorts of interesting things from these videos.
Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir has completed its second project, and if you were impressed by their version of "Sleep", you'll be blown away by Lux Aurumque. This is my favourite of his works anyway, but the quality of this performance is unbelievably high given how they did it. (Read Eric's description of the process - it's a lot more complicated (and musical!) than what they did for "Sleep".) Also, we get to see Eric himself in this one, and I think he's quite pretty :-)
That's all the videos. What else? Well, I'm sorry I couldn't witness this, but a trombonist was planning to play a duet with a RIVER the other day. I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else - I'm hoping to find a recording eventually though!
Guy Garvey (from Elbow) writes in the Guardian about how albums are still important in these days of single-track downloads.
Oliver Condy, in the BBC Music Magazine, wonders whether London needs quite as many orchestras as it currently has.
Chris Rowbury (From the Front of the Choir) analyses the factors that make live performance different from rehearsal.
As with many things, I found this while I was looking for something else: something called the Complete Vocal Institute, which describes the four vocal modes. I'm mainly fascinated by this because I thought I knew quite a bit about singing, but most of the information on this page is completely alien to me, and I don't know how much of it to believe! I plan to ask Maggie to explain it to me :-)
Sad but true: an American high school banned an INSTRUMENTAL version of "Ave Maria" from a graduation ceremony, because it's too religious. *boggle*
Via Intermezzo, the chief exec of the London Phil tells the Times how it was possible for his orchestra to be defrauded of millions of pounds.
Also from Intermezzo: Aretha Franklin is singing opera. And from the same source: news of a Chorus Festival on the South Bank at the start of May. Some interesting ideas there - I'll be interested to find out what reception they get!
I'm a huge fan of Shazam, which is great for identifying music on the radio or during TV programmes. That only works with recorded music, though, and it's much less reliable for classical music, because the main information it uses is the beat, and there isn't always a clear and/or regular beat in classical stuff. However, the other day I heard about SoundHound, which allegedly works even if you sing or hum stuff into the phone. I haven't tried it, though, because it's not free - can anyone with an iPhone who HAS tried it let me know whether or not it actually works as well as Shazam?
I was in the Central Library today, wandering round trying to memorise everything about it (most of it closes next week). I love that place so much - I'll be very sad if it loses its character during the renovations. The Manchizzle agrees with me, but I'm mainly mentioning their post because it has a photo of the Social Sciences room - my favourite bit of the library. And I'm ashamed to say that today is the first time I'd ever really paid attention to the details of that room, and noticed that there is a quotation round the edge of the ceiling. I looked it up and found that it's from the Book of Proverbs: "Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee." I really hope that's still there when the library reopens! But in the meantime, the library has set up a Flickr page for people to put up photos of the library. I haven't looked through them all yet, but if they're all as good as the ones on the first page, I will be delighted. And I'm even more delighted that I realised (if somewhat belatedly) why they're calling this project "Get Wisdom" :-)
What will you be doing at 8.30pm this Saturday? Can you do it in the dark? If you can, you should, because it's Earth Hour.
I've seen a few people raving about this recently: FutureMe gives you the chance to send an email to your future self. I might try it if I can think of anything inspiring to say, but my mind's a bit blank at the moment!
Merlin Mann pleads with everyone to take computer backups seriously. The details in that article might be a bit too technical for some people, but the message is important enough that I wanted to mention it: if you've never backed up the important (i.e. irreplaceable) data on your computer, YOU SHOULD! And if you HAVE done it, but not for ages, go and do it again RIGHT NOW. Always assume that your computer could die at any time, and if (when!) it does, you will have lost all the work you've done (and photos you've taken, etc.) since the last time you backed up. If that's not a problem for you, you don't need to bother with backups. Otherwise... you really, really do.
A friend pointed this out to me today: the London Review of Books personal ads. There is no way I can describe them effectively - just go and look!
And finally, if you're a bit of a drama queen (or king), you may find this button useful....
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Barbershop seventh
I sometimes feel a bit guilty that I spend so much time doing what can only be described as "faffing online". However, I justify it by the fact that I learn so many new things as a result! Most excitingly, this week I discovered a NEW CHORD, plus several other related interesting facts. Well, it's not really a new chord - it's just a standard seventh chord - but I didn't know that it was known as a barbershop seventh. I also didn't know that there are strict rules for barbershop arranging, including the fact that barbershop seventh chords should comprise at least a third of the duration of the music... and the 2nd tenor part should have the tune all the way through. (I'd noticed that barbershop arrangements always do seem to have the tune in the 2nd tenor, and contain lots of seventh chords, but I never knew these were RULES!)
I've done lots of singing in the last week, and there's lots more to come. We're off to Mold on Saturday to repeat our a cappella concert, but tonight it was all Mahler 8. We had our German coach with us (the lovely Norbert), which was great, but we're all getting a bit fed up with the bittiness of the music. We'll love it when we can sing through a whole movement, but the fact that none of us are singing any of the choir 1 bits makes it difficult to do that at the moment. Oh well.
I also performed twice last Thursday. The funeral went fine - and our songs were listed in the Order of Service, so there was no shock from the congregation! I was a bit worried that the crematorium staff might make a mess of playing our backing CD (the right track at the right time, and both at the right volume) but they did fine. Then, in the evening, I went to help out the boys' choir at Sue's school, which involved Ave Verum Corpus (which I've sung a million times) and Haydn's Insanae et Vanae Curae, which I'd never heard of. Always fun to discover a new piece!
I was sorry to hear that Craig Wild, a fabulous trumpeter (originally from Rochdale) who I used to teach, had all of his trumpets and equipment stolen from Leamington Spa on Sunday. (Thanks to the BBC Phil Twitter feed for this info.) If anyone who's reading this hears anything, please contact Craig.
I wrote a guest blog post for Chris Rowbury at From the Front of the Choir - my post was about what makes a good choral arrangement. Needless to say I was just as successful at driving away any commenters there as I am here! But do go and read it anyway. (Chris's most recent post (NOT written by me) is about why he believes it's a good thing for choirs to change their conductors every so often.)
Talking of choral directors, here's another thing I found while faffing: some great programme notes for The Dream of Gerontius, written by our own ex-choral director.
This Saturday is Dynamic Range Day - an online protest about CDs being too loud. I can't see it making much difference, sadly. Maybe we can do our bit by exaggerating the dynamics in our Mold gig :-)
I'm rather pleased to discover that this blog is now the top Google search result for "2nd altos". It's been ages since I looked to see what searches are bringing people here, but I did yesterday. One of them was "how good are choir seats at bridgewater hall"... so in case the answer wasn't obvious, I will say: great to sing from, but not quite so good to sit and listen from, because the seats aren't as deep (i.e. they're not as long from front to back) as the seats in the rest of the hall. I've always assumed this is to keep the choir awake...
The Bridgewater Hall, by the way, now has an archive of selected reviews: here's the page for the Mahler in Manchester series, and there's also one for some of the concerts from the 08/09 season.
Here's an interesting Guardian article about how someone became a Radio 3 listener.
Also in the Guardian, Tom Service is enthusiastic about the British Library sound archive.
I love this post by Stephen Hough, which explains why we remember music as more than just a tune.
Via Intermezzo and the Times: Scottish Opera is putting on an opera especially for babies.
I've been enjoying Sacred Music on BBC4, but I was a bit disappointed with the actual singing in the first episode - The Sixteen sounded a bit out of tune to me in several places. So I was a bit surprised to read this glowing review of a recent concert of theirs, which says that the choir were better than the soloists!
(Also, if you haven't been watching A Band For Britain, I recommend you do. There's only one episode left, but you can see the earlier ones on iPlayer.)
There's an exhibition at the Barbican featuring birds playing musical instruments. Tom Service has more to say about this, and tells us about some even better nature/music collaborations.
If you like pop songs but are a bit out of touch, the Telegraph has a helpful list (with YouTube links) of what it thinks are the top hundred songs of the last decade.
Via The Register: a bass (guitar) player was asked to leave a train near Portsmouth, because... well, you won't believe me if I tell you - read the story!
Hands up who knew that Manchester Cathedral is now hiring itself out as a non-classical gig venue? No, me neither.
It seems that Manchester City's stadium will be a glowing blue beacon from next season. I actually really like the way it looks at night already, although I'm still distraught that the B of the Bang was removed.
Talking of football and being distraught, I'm quite unreasonably upset about David Beckham's injury. I've been unable to stop thinking about it all week. If you haven't seen the moment when his world fell apart, here's a very sad (and very short) video. (DId you know that the Poet Laureate has now written a poem about this tragedy? More about this from the Guardian.)
The football fans among you will be amused by Dara O Briain's revelation of Fabio Capello's top-secret plan for the World Cup.
And here are some great photos (from the Big Picture) of the 2010 Winter Paralympics. What a pity none of these events were on TV!
If you ever deliver training sessions or presentations, you might like this: from Stepcase Lifehack, an exercise about changing your focus.
If you're having a bad day, there's always someone worse off: FMyLife may make you smile!
And if that doesn't, surely this will: from I Can Has Cheezburger, Kitteh Choir Director :-)
I've done lots of singing in the last week, and there's lots more to come. We're off to Mold on Saturday to repeat our a cappella concert, but tonight it was all Mahler 8. We had our German coach with us (the lovely Norbert), which was great, but we're all getting a bit fed up with the bittiness of the music. We'll love it when we can sing through a whole movement, but the fact that none of us are singing any of the choir 1 bits makes it difficult to do that at the moment. Oh well.
I also performed twice last Thursday. The funeral went fine - and our songs were listed in the Order of Service, so there was no shock from the congregation! I was a bit worried that the crematorium staff might make a mess of playing our backing CD (the right track at the right time, and both at the right volume) but they did fine. Then, in the evening, I went to help out the boys' choir at Sue's school, which involved Ave Verum Corpus (which I've sung a million times) and Haydn's Insanae et Vanae Curae, which I'd never heard of. Always fun to discover a new piece!
I was sorry to hear that Craig Wild, a fabulous trumpeter (originally from Rochdale) who I used to teach, had all of his trumpets and equipment stolen from Leamington Spa on Sunday. (Thanks to the BBC Phil Twitter feed for this info.) If anyone who's reading this hears anything, please contact Craig.
I wrote a guest blog post for Chris Rowbury at From the Front of the Choir - my post was about what makes a good choral arrangement. Needless to say I was just as successful at driving away any commenters there as I am here! But do go and read it anyway. (Chris's most recent post (NOT written by me) is about why he believes it's a good thing for choirs to change their conductors every so often.)
Talking of choral directors, here's another thing I found while faffing: some great programme notes for The Dream of Gerontius, written by our own ex-choral director.
This Saturday is Dynamic Range Day - an online protest about CDs being too loud. I can't see it making much difference, sadly. Maybe we can do our bit by exaggerating the dynamics in our Mold gig :-)
I'm rather pleased to discover that this blog is now the top Google search result for "2nd altos". It's been ages since I looked to see what searches are bringing people here, but I did yesterday. One of them was "how good are choir seats at bridgewater hall"... so in case the answer wasn't obvious, I will say: great to sing from, but not quite so good to sit and listen from, because the seats aren't as deep (i.e. they're not as long from front to back) as the seats in the rest of the hall. I've always assumed this is to keep the choir awake...
The Bridgewater Hall, by the way, now has an archive of selected reviews: here's the page for the Mahler in Manchester series, and there's also one for some of the concerts from the 08/09 season.
Here's an interesting Guardian article about how someone became a Radio 3 listener.
Also in the Guardian, Tom Service is enthusiastic about the British Library sound archive.
I love this post by Stephen Hough, which explains why we remember music as more than just a tune.
Via Intermezzo and the Times: Scottish Opera is putting on an opera especially for babies.
I've been enjoying Sacred Music on BBC4, but I was a bit disappointed with the actual singing in the first episode - The Sixteen sounded a bit out of tune to me in several places. So I was a bit surprised to read this glowing review of a recent concert of theirs, which says that the choir were better than the soloists!
(Also, if you haven't been watching A Band For Britain, I recommend you do. There's only one episode left, but you can see the earlier ones on iPlayer.)
There's an exhibition at the Barbican featuring birds playing musical instruments. Tom Service has more to say about this, and tells us about some even better nature/music collaborations.
If you like pop songs but are a bit out of touch, the Telegraph has a helpful list (with YouTube links) of what it thinks are the top hundred songs of the last decade.
Via The Register: a bass (guitar) player was asked to leave a train near Portsmouth, because... well, you won't believe me if I tell you - read the story!
Hands up who knew that Manchester Cathedral is now hiring itself out as a non-classical gig venue? No, me neither.
It seems that Manchester City's stadium will be a glowing blue beacon from next season. I actually really like the way it looks at night already, although I'm still distraught that the B of the Bang was removed.
Talking of football and being distraught, I'm quite unreasonably upset about David Beckham's injury. I've been unable to stop thinking about it all week. If you haven't seen the moment when his world fell apart, here's a very sad (and very short) video. (DId you know that the Poet Laureate has now written a poem about this tragedy? More about this from the Guardian.)
The football fans among you will be amused by Dara O Briain's revelation of Fabio Capello's top-secret plan for the World Cup.
And here are some great photos (from the Big Picture) of the 2010 Winter Paralympics. What a pity none of these events were on TV!
If you ever deliver training sessions or presentations, you might like this: from Stepcase Lifehack, an exercise about changing your focus.
If you're having a bad day, there's always someone worse off: FMyLife may make you smile!
And if that doesn't, surely this will: from I Can Has Cheezburger, Kitteh Choir Director :-)
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Take her wrap, fellas; find her an empty lap, fellas
Alison and I are singing at a funeral tomorrow morning (a relative of a friend of hers). We are doing two songs: I Passed By Your Window (which I'd never previously heard of) and, would you believe, Hello Dolly. I've created duet versions and backing tracks for both of them (it's in a crematorium, so there's no piano or organ, so the backing has to be on CD). I'm just hoping that it will be widely known that these two songs are what the family has requested - I've never sung to an audience that's gazing at me in horror, but I imagine it's rather offputting!
I thoroughly enjoyed the concert we did at St Patrick's Church on Saturday. And what a pity we're not doing "We'll Gather Lilacs" or "The Bare Necessities" at the second a cappella concert - I suspect it will be a similar type of audience, and the audience on Saturday LOVED those two songs. I suppose I can understand why they've been dropped, though. I'm a bit more baffled at the fact that Bruckner's Ave Maria has also gone, despite the fact that it sounds fabulous in a church acoustic... yet "The Lamb" (which I have grown to detest over the years) is still in! *boggle*
Actually, there were three things that will particularly stay in my mind from Saturday: the sight of half the audience mouthing the words to "We'll Gather Lilacs"; the lady on the balcony who was dancing during "The Bare Necessities"; and the audience member who told me afterwards that I was a "model chorister" during "The Bare Necessities" \o/ I'm very smug about that!
Now, I'm not entirely sure how I've managed to accumulate 100000000 relevant links in the last week, but I have (well, almost that many!) so I'd better get on with sharing them. (In case you're a recent arrival here, I should explain that the links I share are of three types, and I tend to list them in this order: (a) music-related stories that interested me; (b) Manchester-related stories that interested me; (c) stories that interested me but that aren't related to music OR Manchester, but I thought you might not have seen them mentioned anywhere else.)
The Mahler in Manchester series has reached its halfway point: Mahler 5 was last Thursday, and the reviews are good, although a bit inconsistent: five stars from the Guardian, four from the Times, only three from the Telegraph. EDIT: And, belatedly, four from the Independent. But four stars from the MEN, and The Classical Source don't rate performances, but they seemed to like it!
Talking of reviews, I learned from this one that the William Byrd Singers have a new conductor that people in my choir know well.
Oliver Condy writes about early morning practice.
Via ChoralNet, news of a choir that only performs new works, and restricts this even further to Connecticut composers!
VHK's Singing has some interesting points to make about the increasing tendency for anthems in cathedral services to be thought of as separate from the liturgy rather than part of it.
I found this site while I was searching for the sheet music and/or lyrics of "I Passed By Your Window": My Mother's Sheet Music. (I didn't find either - at least, not free - so I ended up writing them out myself anyway!)
Philip Langridge died the other day, and this inspired the Guardian to write an editorial about English tenors.
A fascinating post from Allen H Simon on ChoralNet about a concert he's doing this weekend featuring misattributed works. What I found most intriguing was his description of how the singers treated the music differently when they knew it wasn't really by Bach etc!
BBC 6 Music has been arguing about who the best (non-classical) guitarists are. They have a poll in which you can vote.
Nigel Kennedy is running a Polish festival on the South Bank at the end of May. (I hadn't realised he lives in Poland these days.) The most intriguing event (to me) is a screening of the 1973 England v Poland football match, accompanied by Kennedy and Polish jazz musicians, playing a semi-improvised score.
Great short piece from the Guardian about bands who sing in minority languages.
Lots of discussion this week about a lecture given by Alec Ross to the Royal Philharmonic Society on Monday night. The subject: whether or not it's OK to applaud in non-traditional places. Tom Service and Intermezzo and Classical Iconoclast like what he said. The Times asked several influential people to comment before the lecture took place, but the exact subject matter turned out to be more specific than they'd imagined.
I enjoyed the first episode of the new BBC series A Band for Britain, in which Sue Perkins tries to help Dinnington Colliery Brass Band get new players. If you missed it, you can see it on iPlayer via that link.
Chris Rowbury wonders what rehearsals are for, exactly.
A fascinating article in the Spectator which explores the job of orchestra leader, specifically in an opera orchestra.
Tom Service reminds us that Elgar will soon vanish from our £20 notes.
Some news that involves both music AND Manchester: I've been warning you for a while that Manchester Central Library (including the Henry Watson Music Library) will close soon while the whole building is renovated over the course of three years. Well, I was in there the other day - the first time since the new year - and bits of it have already closed. The Henry Watson is still open, but only for the next three weeks - it closes at 8pm on 1st April. So, if there's some music you desperately need from there, get it ASAP! Full details (including specific dates and FAQ) about the Central Library closure are here, and specific information for users of the Henry Watson are here. (And if you're one of the surprising number of people who have never been inside the Central Library, do go and visit before the end of March, because it won't be there - at least in its current form - after that. The Social Sciences library (on the first floor) is one of my favourite rooms in any building anywhere, and I'm praying they don't change the basic structure of it. If you've never seen it, I beg you to.)
Here's a great feature about female Mancunian role models. One of them sigs in our choir :-)
Manchester Confidential tells us that the Beetham Tower is still whistling, even though it was supposed to be fixed recently. I've still never heard it!
Mancubist tells us that there is currently an exhibition about Manchester's past and present music venues - on platform 12 at Piccadilly Station. I hadn't realised that was an exhibition space, but there you go!
I'm sure you'll have read that the Lowry wants 1000 volunteers to be photographed naked. Sadly the dates involved are 1st and 2nd May, which is our Mahler 8 weekend. Otherwise I have no doubt our whole choir would be there :p
More Metrolink chaos this summer, this time on the Bury line.
Doctor Who is travelling round the UK on a tourbus! He'll be in Salford on 31st March, and there'll be a big-screen event in Manchester after that. I'm hoping I'll eventually get over the fact that he's not David Tennant any more, but it'll take a while!
This intrigued me: via BoingBoing, an article about an international argument over exit signs.
There are millions of online personality quizzes, most of them extremely stupid, but if you like that sort of thing, this one is a bit better than the majority: the HTML colour personality test.
And finally, I was telling Caroline about both these sites recently and realised that I don't think I've mentioned them here: Failblog and Learn From My Fail. They may or may not amuse you :-)
I thoroughly enjoyed the concert we did at St Patrick's Church on Saturday. And what a pity we're not doing "We'll Gather Lilacs" or "The Bare Necessities" at the second a cappella concert - I suspect it will be a similar type of audience, and the audience on Saturday LOVED those two songs. I suppose I can understand why they've been dropped, though. I'm a bit more baffled at the fact that Bruckner's Ave Maria has also gone, despite the fact that it sounds fabulous in a church acoustic... yet "The Lamb" (which I have grown to detest over the years) is still in! *boggle*
Actually, there were three things that will particularly stay in my mind from Saturday: the sight of half the audience mouthing the words to "We'll Gather Lilacs"; the lady on the balcony who was dancing during "The Bare Necessities"; and the audience member who told me afterwards that I was a "model chorister" during "The Bare Necessities" \o/ I'm very smug about that!
Now, I'm not entirely sure how I've managed to accumulate 100000000 relevant links in the last week, but I have (well, almost that many!) so I'd better get on with sharing them. (In case you're a recent arrival here, I should explain that the links I share are of three types, and I tend to list them in this order: (a) music-related stories that interested me; (b) Manchester-related stories that interested me; (c) stories that interested me but that aren't related to music OR Manchester, but I thought you might not have seen them mentioned anywhere else.)
The Mahler in Manchester series has reached its halfway point: Mahler 5 was last Thursday, and the reviews are good, although a bit inconsistent: five stars from the Guardian, four from the Times, only three from the Telegraph. EDIT: And, belatedly, four from the Independent. But four stars from the MEN, and The Classical Source don't rate performances, but they seemed to like it!
Talking of reviews, I learned from this one that the William Byrd Singers have a new conductor that people in my choir know well.
Oliver Condy writes about early morning practice.
Via ChoralNet, news of a choir that only performs new works, and restricts this even further to Connecticut composers!
VHK's Singing has some interesting points to make about the increasing tendency for anthems in cathedral services to be thought of as separate from the liturgy rather than part of it.
I found this site while I was searching for the sheet music and/or lyrics of "I Passed By Your Window": My Mother's Sheet Music. (I didn't find either - at least, not free - so I ended up writing them out myself anyway!)
Philip Langridge died the other day, and this inspired the Guardian to write an editorial about English tenors.
A fascinating post from Allen H Simon on ChoralNet about a concert he's doing this weekend featuring misattributed works. What I found most intriguing was his description of how the singers treated the music differently when they knew it wasn't really by Bach etc!
BBC 6 Music has been arguing about who the best (non-classical) guitarists are. They have a poll in which you can vote.
Nigel Kennedy is running a Polish festival on the South Bank at the end of May. (I hadn't realised he lives in Poland these days.) The most intriguing event (to me) is a screening of the 1973 England v Poland football match, accompanied by Kennedy and Polish jazz musicians, playing a semi-improvised score.
Great short piece from the Guardian about bands who sing in minority languages.
Lots of discussion this week about a lecture given by Alec Ross to the Royal Philharmonic Society on Monday night. The subject: whether or not it's OK to applaud in non-traditional places. Tom Service and Intermezzo and Classical Iconoclast like what he said. The Times asked several influential people to comment before the lecture took place, but the exact subject matter turned out to be more specific than they'd imagined.
I enjoyed the first episode of the new BBC series A Band for Britain, in which Sue Perkins tries to help Dinnington Colliery Brass Band get new players. If you missed it, you can see it on iPlayer via that link.
Chris Rowbury wonders what rehearsals are for, exactly.
A fascinating article in the Spectator which explores the job of orchestra leader, specifically in an opera orchestra.
Tom Service reminds us that Elgar will soon vanish from our £20 notes.
Some news that involves both music AND Manchester: I've been warning you for a while that Manchester Central Library (including the Henry Watson Music Library) will close soon while the whole building is renovated over the course of three years. Well, I was in there the other day - the first time since the new year - and bits of it have already closed. The Henry Watson is still open, but only for the next three weeks - it closes at 8pm on 1st April. So, if there's some music you desperately need from there, get it ASAP! Full details (including specific dates and FAQ) about the Central Library closure are here, and specific information for users of the Henry Watson are here. (And if you're one of the surprising number of people who have never been inside the Central Library, do go and visit before the end of March, because it won't be there - at least in its current form - after that. The Social Sciences library (on the first floor) is one of my favourite rooms in any building anywhere, and I'm praying they don't change the basic structure of it. If you've never seen it, I beg you to.)
Here's a great feature about female Mancunian role models. One of them sigs in our choir :-)
Manchester Confidential tells us that the Beetham Tower is still whistling, even though it was supposed to be fixed recently. I've still never heard it!
Mancubist tells us that there is currently an exhibition about Manchester's past and present music venues - on platform 12 at Piccadilly Station. I hadn't realised that was an exhibition space, but there you go!
I'm sure you'll have read that the Lowry wants 1000 volunteers to be photographed naked. Sadly the dates involved are 1st and 2nd May, which is our Mahler 8 weekend. Otherwise I have no doubt our whole choir would be there :p
More Metrolink chaos this summer, this time on the Bury line.
Doctor Who is travelling round the UK on a tourbus! He'll be in Salford on 31st March, and there'll be a big-screen event in Manchester after that. I'm hoping I'll eventually get over the fact that he's not David Tennant any more, but it'll take a while!
This intrigued me: via BoingBoing, an article about an international argument over exit signs.
There are millions of online personality quizzes, most of them extremely stupid, but if you like that sort of thing, this one is a bit better than the majority: the HTML colour personality test.
And finally, I was telling Caroline about both these sites recently and realised that I don't think I've mentioned them here: Failblog and Learn From My Fail. They may or may not amuse you :-)
Thursday, March 04, 2010
The bees are buzzin' in the tree to make some honey just for me
Yes, I've still got The Bare Necessities on the brain, but I do now know it from memory. I could remember the notes almost immediately, but I kept stumbling over a few of the words. The line in the title caused me particular problems, but I have it now. I was thinking about the process of memorising stuff as a result of this, so I was delighted to see a post from the wonderful Chris Rowbury discussing the topic. (Chris works with choirs that always perform everything from memory, but the points he makes are equally valid for choirs that usually sing from music.) Oh, and don't forget my downloadable hints!
I went to see Ruddigore at the Lowry on Saturday, together with several other members of the choir (although we didn't all go together). I really enjoyed it, but I was intrigued to find that some of us found the words extremely difficult to understand (I reckon I could only distinguish about a quarter of them), whereas others thought that the diction was perfect and they could hear every word. In general the latter people were those who already knew the words extremely well, though, so maybe that's what makes the difference. I already linked to the Guardian review a while ago, but here's one from the Times (which says that the diction is crystal-clear) and one from the Spectator (which found lots of it inaudible, and - perhaps unsurprisingly - didn't enjoy it as much). I have to say that the fact that I couldn't make out many of the words wasn't as big a problem as I might have expected - I had no trouble following the plot.
The Telegraph wonders where all the contraltos have gone (thanks to Graham for pointing this out).
Via Intermezzo, Wagner's description of the perfect audience. This amused me a great deal :-)
Via ChoralNet, a great post from Helping You Harmonise about managing stage fright. I particularly like the point that "If your normal rehearsal warm-ups are about getting people up and going after work, you’ll find that using them just before a performance produces a completely over-hyped choir poised to sing sharp and rush tempi." Obvious when you think about it, but I don't think it ever occurred to me before!
Tom Service has a thought-provoking post about music education cuts. Short, but contains some useful facts and figures.
Similarly useful and thought-provoking, but rather longer, is this Guardian article about arts funding.
I'm not sure whether or not I want to hear the result of this, but I'm fascinated by the idea that they did it at all: classical music stars get together to record a charity single. (Note that it's the BBC that describes all those people as 'classical music stars', not me...)
Via Londonist, news of a Chopin exhibition at the British Library. It's on till mid-May, so if you're in London before then, go and have a look.
I suspect this news will be like Marmite, in that you'll either love it or hate it: Intermezzo tells us that there is an all-male production of The Pirates of Penzance, and it's on in London for a month or so from mid-April if you want to see it.
Via the Times: Simon Rattle is fed up with Britain. Most interesting facts from it: he's never done the St Matthew Passion before this year (he's doing it soon with the CBSO) and he's never done the B Minor Mass, and has no plans to because it's too hard!
Tom Service again, this time telling us why we need to build 22 new opera houses.
Intermezzo spends an afternoon with Andris Nelsons (who, I only recently realised, is conducting our Mahler 8 when we do it in Birmingham), and points out in passing that the way to get good audiences for concerts is to do them on Sunday afternoons.
Chet's has launched an appeal to raise money for their new building. I have all sorts of attachments to the old one, so I hate the idea that it's being demolished, but I suppose I have to accept that nothing lasts forever!
A couple of non-musical links to finish. Firstly, from the ever-wonderful Seth Godin (whose blog is linked in my sidebar - I recommend you all read it regularly), my current favourite word: Sprezzatura.
If your email inbox is plagued with a few friends and family members who continually forward jokes and other random stuff to you, here is a brilliant solution: StopForwarding.com. You can stop them anonymously and educate them at the same time!
For the geeks (or semi-geeks) among you: some fascinating facts and figures about Google.
And another brilliant idea: Let Me Google That For You. This will be useful to those of you who are always being asked questions which could be solved in seconds if the questioner could be bothered to use Google. You got to lmgtfy.com, which looks very like a normal Google page. You do the search yourself. LMGTFY then gives you a link to copy, and that's what you send to the person who asked. Watch this example of how it works (imagine you'd been asked "Who's Aaron Ramsey?")
I went to see Ruddigore at the Lowry on Saturday, together with several other members of the choir (although we didn't all go together). I really enjoyed it, but I was intrigued to find that some of us found the words extremely difficult to understand (I reckon I could only distinguish about a quarter of them), whereas others thought that the diction was perfect and they could hear every word. In general the latter people were those who already knew the words extremely well, though, so maybe that's what makes the difference. I already linked to the Guardian review a while ago, but here's one from the Times (which says that the diction is crystal-clear) and one from the Spectator (which found lots of it inaudible, and - perhaps unsurprisingly - didn't enjoy it as much). I have to say that the fact that I couldn't make out many of the words wasn't as big a problem as I might have expected - I had no trouble following the plot.
The Telegraph wonders where all the contraltos have gone (thanks to Graham for pointing this out).
Via Intermezzo, Wagner's description of the perfect audience. This amused me a great deal :-)
Via ChoralNet, a great post from Helping You Harmonise about managing stage fright. I particularly like the point that "If your normal rehearsal warm-ups are about getting people up and going after work, you’ll find that using them just before a performance produces a completely over-hyped choir poised to sing sharp and rush tempi." Obvious when you think about it, but I don't think it ever occurred to me before!
Tom Service has a thought-provoking post about music education cuts. Short, but contains some useful facts and figures.
Similarly useful and thought-provoking, but rather longer, is this Guardian article about arts funding.
I'm not sure whether or not I want to hear the result of this, but I'm fascinated by the idea that they did it at all: classical music stars get together to record a charity single. (Note that it's the BBC that describes all those people as 'classical music stars', not me...)
Via Londonist, news of a Chopin exhibition at the British Library. It's on till mid-May, so if you're in London before then, go and have a look.
I suspect this news will be like Marmite, in that you'll either love it or hate it: Intermezzo tells us that there is an all-male production of The Pirates of Penzance, and it's on in London for a month or so from mid-April if you want to see it.
Via the Times: Simon Rattle is fed up with Britain. Most interesting facts from it: he's never done the St Matthew Passion before this year (he's doing it soon with the CBSO) and he's never done the B Minor Mass, and has no plans to because it's too hard!
Tom Service again, this time telling us why we need to build 22 new opera houses.
Intermezzo spends an afternoon with Andris Nelsons (who, I only recently realised, is conducting our Mahler 8 when we do it in Birmingham), and points out in passing that the way to get good audiences for concerts is to do them on Sunday afternoons.
Chet's has launched an appeal to raise money for their new building. I have all sorts of attachments to the old one, so I hate the idea that it's being demolished, but I suppose I have to accept that nothing lasts forever!
A couple of non-musical links to finish. Firstly, from the ever-wonderful Seth Godin (whose blog is linked in my sidebar - I recommend you all read it regularly), my current favourite word: Sprezzatura.
If your email inbox is plagued with a few friends and family members who continually forward jokes and other random stuff to you, here is a brilliant solution: StopForwarding.com. You can stop them anonymously and educate them at the same time!
For the geeks (or semi-geeks) among you: some fascinating facts and figures about Google.
And another brilliant idea: Let Me Google That For You. This will be useful to those of you who are always being asked questions which could be solved in seconds if the questioner could be bothered to use Google. You got to lmgtfy.com, which looks very like a normal Google page. You do the search yourself. LMGTFY then gives you a link to copy, and that's what you send to the person who asked. Watch this example of how it works (imagine you'd been asked "Who's Aaron Ramsey?")
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Don’t spend your time just lookin’ around for something you want that can’t be found
I've got The Bare Necessities on the brain, which is probably just as well since I'm trying to memorise it. (If any other members of my choir are having trouble getting it to stick, there is an mp3 on my download page that might help. I recorded it at tonight's rehearsal.) We finished the last three rehearsals with it (and that's in quite a short time - there have been MANY rehearsals in the past week). I think that's one reason why I've come away feeling as if I've enjoyed these rehearsals a lot more than some of the previous ones, but actually almost all the music we're singing at the moment is fun to do.
The wedding on Saturday (at which six of us sang an a cappella "I Was Glad" and Bruckner's "Ave Maria") went very well, although the priest got a bit confused and actually forgot to do the wedding vows - he'd done the next bit of the mass before he realised, and had to go back! Although he might have decided to ignore the order of service - it had dozens of mistakes in it. Most of them were very minor, but among the more significant errors were: the fact that it said we were going to sing "Amazing Grace" in addition to our other three songs (this was a total invention on the part of the printer as far as I can tell!); the spelling of "hymn" as "hymm"; and (my favourite) "deliver us FOR evil" (instead of FROM evil) in the Lord's Prayer. Changes the message somewhat!
Popstar to Operastar finished on Friday, and Darius won, although only by a very narrow margin (the votes are here if you're interested). You can see all the performances from all six weeks on the official website, or download mp3s of them (in a handy zip file) from my my download page. I thoroughly enjoyed the series (although there were many things about it that annoyed me) and it actually inspired me to practise! I don't do that often enough!
I was telling Ralph on Sunday about Eric Whitacre's blog, which is always interesting. Specifically, you may be interested in the post where he had an idea about an internet performance of "Sleep", and the post where he shares the surprisingly successful results of this idea. (Read the posts in between to find out how he solved the logistical problems - it's all interesting.) He's currently in the middle of another similar project, this time involving my favourite work of his, "Lux Aurumque". (I would LOVE to sing that.)
The Mahler in Manchester series is almost halfway through. Mahler 4 was last Thursday, conducted by the lovely Markus Stenz. The Guardian and the Times both seemed to like it - I haven't seen any other reviews yet.
I've been keeping a mental checklist of which of my "12 days of musical terminology" terms have come up in rehearsals in 2010 so far. I think I've only heard four of them actually mentioned by name, but more than that have come up in the music, even if they weren't pointed out at the time! For those of you who missed the series, here are links to the posts, with notes to say where the current examples are:
1. Dominant pedal - there's a sort-of dominant pedal in the Rachmaninov, in the 2nd bass part on the last line (all the repeated Gs). It's only "sort of" because although it seems fairly clear to me that the music IS in C major at that point (so that the G is the dominant), the piece actually ends on a G major chord, so you could argue that it's in G major. (You'd be wrong, though!)
2. Hemiola - I was about to admit defeat on this one, until I remembered bars 60 and 61 of "Faire is the Heaven" \o/
3. Suspension - "Lay a garland" has a suspension in just about every bar.
4. Ornaments - the Schubert has a few ornaments in the soprano part, although most of them are turns, which I didn't specifically write about.
5. Diminished chords - if you ignore the 2nd bass note, there's a great diminished chord in bar 11 of the Bruckner, but there are several in the Mahler too.
6. Neapolitan chords - the sf in the fourth bar of figure 41 in the Mahler feels like a Neapolitan, and sounds like one too, until you realise that the basses of the orchestra are all playing a B. Close enough, though.
7. Melisma - all the music we're doing has lots of these, but the Bainton has some particularly good examples, e.g. soprano five bars from the end.
8. Antiphonal - I already mentioned "I was glad" in the original post.
9. False relation - "Hear My Prayer" has loads of these, e.g. 1st soprano in bar 4.
10. Whole tone scale - soprano part (choir 2) three bars before figure 88 in the Mahler.
11. Recapitulation - Mahler 8, figure 15 in Part 1 (and other places too, but that was the one that was mentioned in rehearsal).
12. Fugue - none of the a cappella pieces are long enough to have a proper recapitulation, and the same goes for fugues, so it's Mahler again. Although there isn't a fugue in the strictest sense, the second half of part 1 (from figure 38 to the end of the movement) is often described as a double fugue.
(Next time you hear any of these twelve terms mentioned by a conductor, you will realise why I have a slightly smug grin on my face!)
Talking of me feeling slightly smug, at tonight's rehearsal it was decided that the 1st sopranos were drowning out the 2nds, and some of them were asked to move across so that there were equal numbers. However, there were (as usual) more than three times as many 1st altos as 2nds, but none of THEM were asked to move \o/
Anyway, a few links. Gareth Malone's next TV project sees him being an opera chorus master for a youth opera at Glyndebourne, and the Spectator has a great article describing what's been going on.
Hakan Hardenberger was busking outside the Bridgewater Hall on Tuesday, as publicity for his concert with the BBC Phil this Saturday.
On an Overgrown Path has a nice article about the death of St Francis of Assisi, who apparently died singing. I never knew that! It's a lovely story - do go and read it.
Here's another lovely story - I have no idea whether or not it's true, but I'm choosing to believe it is. It's called The Night I Met Einstein, and describes how Einstein encouraged a stranger to listen to Bach.
BBC News has a feature about the current popularity of the ukulele, and Tom Service talks about bagpipes.
Via ChoralNet, Jeffrey Tucker describes five great things about polyphony. I like this post - all five things are obvious when you think about them, but I hadn't really thought about them! (Scroll down a bit - there are a load of links at the top of the page that make it look as if there's no story there, but there is.)
Londonist and the Guardian report that seven out of ten Brits "said they'd like a Nessun Dorma-style theme tune for London 2012, played by a British orchestra". They're asking for suggestions - anyone have any?
BBC News tells us that teaching stroke patients to sing "rewires" their brains, helping them recover their speech.
I missed any mention of this at the time, but I would have loved to have been at this concert: Ex Cathedra celebrated their 40th anniversary by performing not just Spem in Alium, but a concert FILLED with 40-part choral works!
Here's a short but intriguing Spectator article about how to pronounce "Wednesday", and related topics!
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that there was part of an episode of "Shameless" set in the foyer of William Hulme's Grammar School. Well, the most recent episode took place partly in the WHGS car park and on the roof of one of the buildings. It was on E4 on Tuesday, but won't be on Channel 4 till next Tuesday night, after which you'll be able to watch it online. (It's not there yet - it's episode 6.) The scene in question is again right at the end of the episode - in the last ten minutes.
More Manchester news: it seems that this year there will be a big Manchester Day Parade! Hands up who never knew there was a Manchester Day? Yeah, me too. But the parade is on Sunday 20th June, and the theme is "Out of this World". If you want to get involved, here's the official website.
The MEN has a fascinating article about tunnels under the city centre.
I enjoyed the recent BBC series of The Virtual Revolution (which I think you can still watch via iPlayer - you should, it's very good), so I took the test on their website (it's HARD!) to find out what sort of web animal I am. I was a bit put out at first to be told I was a web elephant, until I realised that it wasn't entirely bad - I like to think I'm fast at doing stuff online, but the test results suggest I'm slower than I thought, but that it's because I'm thorough. Have a look at the descriptions and see what you think you are, then try taking the test!
And finally, it's rare that a week goes by without me discovering a new clever thing that Google can do. This week: the Winter Olympics on Google Maps. Great fun to play with! (Oh, and by the way, I'd never heard of skeleton or ski cross before a week ago, but now I'm a huge fan of both, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm just sad that I managed to completely miss the luge!)
The wedding on Saturday (at which six of us sang an a cappella "I Was Glad" and Bruckner's "Ave Maria") went very well, although the priest got a bit confused and actually forgot to do the wedding vows - he'd done the next bit of the mass before he realised, and had to go back! Although he might have decided to ignore the order of service - it had dozens of mistakes in it. Most of them were very minor, but among the more significant errors were: the fact that it said we were going to sing "Amazing Grace" in addition to our other three songs (this was a total invention on the part of the printer as far as I can tell!); the spelling of "hymn" as "hymm"; and (my favourite) "deliver us FOR evil" (instead of FROM evil) in the Lord's Prayer. Changes the message somewhat!
Popstar to Operastar finished on Friday, and Darius won, although only by a very narrow margin (the votes are here if you're interested). You can see all the performances from all six weeks on the official website, or download mp3s of them (in a handy zip file) from my my download page. I thoroughly enjoyed the series (although there were many things about it that annoyed me) and it actually inspired me to practise! I don't do that often enough!
I was telling Ralph on Sunday about Eric Whitacre's blog, which is always interesting. Specifically, you may be interested in the post where he had an idea about an internet performance of "Sleep", and the post where he shares the surprisingly successful results of this idea. (Read the posts in between to find out how he solved the logistical problems - it's all interesting.) He's currently in the middle of another similar project, this time involving my favourite work of his, "Lux Aurumque". (I would LOVE to sing that.)
The Mahler in Manchester series is almost halfway through. Mahler 4 was last Thursday, conducted by the lovely Markus Stenz. The Guardian and the Times both seemed to like it - I haven't seen any other reviews yet.
I've been keeping a mental checklist of which of my "12 days of musical terminology" terms have come up in rehearsals in 2010 so far. I think I've only heard four of them actually mentioned by name, but more than that have come up in the music, even if they weren't pointed out at the time! For those of you who missed the series, here are links to the posts, with notes to say where the current examples are:
1. Dominant pedal - there's a sort-of dominant pedal in the Rachmaninov, in the 2nd bass part on the last line (all the repeated Gs). It's only "sort of" because although it seems fairly clear to me that the music IS in C major at that point (so that the G is the dominant), the piece actually ends on a G major chord, so you could argue that it's in G major. (You'd be wrong, though!)
2. Hemiola - I was about to admit defeat on this one, until I remembered bars 60 and 61 of "Faire is the Heaven" \o/
3. Suspension - "Lay a garland" has a suspension in just about every bar.
4. Ornaments - the Schubert has a few ornaments in the soprano part, although most of them are turns, which I didn't specifically write about.
5. Diminished chords - if you ignore the 2nd bass note, there's a great diminished chord in bar 11 of the Bruckner, but there are several in the Mahler too.
6. Neapolitan chords - the sf in the fourth bar of figure 41 in the Mahler feels like a Neapolitan, and sounds like one too, until you realise that the basses of the orchestra are all playing a B. Close enough, though.
7. Melisma - all the music we're doing has lots of these, but the Bainton has some particularly good examples, e.g. soprano five bars from the end.
8. Antiphonal - I already mentioned "I was glad" in the original post.
9. False relation - "Hear My Prayer" has loads of these, e.g. 1st soprano in bar 4.
10. Whole tone scale - soprano part (choir 2) three bars before figure 88 in the Mahler.
11. Recapitulation - Mahler 8, figure 15 in Part 1 (and other places too, but that was the one that was mentioned in rehearsal).
12. Fugue - none of the a cappella pieces are long enough to have a proper recapitulation, and the same goes for fugues, so it's Mahler again. Although there isn't a fugue in the strictest sense, the second half of part 1 (from figure 38 to the end of the movement) is often described as a double fugue.
(Next time you hear any of these twelve terms mentioned by a conductor, you will realise why I have a slightly smug grin on my face!)
Talking of me feeling slightly smug, at tonight's rehearsal it was decided that the 1st sopranos were drowning out the 2nds, and some of them were asked to move across so that there were equal numbers. However, there were (as usual) more than three times as many 1st altos as 2nds, but none of THEM were asked to move \o/
Anyway, a few links. Gareth Malone's next TV project sees him being an opera chorus master for a youth opera at Glyndebourne, and the Spectator has a great article describing what's been going on.
Hakan Hardenberger was busking outside the Bridgewater Hall on Tuesday, as publicity for his concert with the BBC Phil this Saturday.
On an Overgrown Path has a nice article about the death of St Francis of Assisi, who apparently died singing. I never knew that! It's a lovely story - do go and read it.
Here's another lovely story - I have no idea whether or not it's true, but I'm choosing to believe it is. It's called The Night I Met Einstein, and describes how Einstein encouraged a stranger to listen to Bach.
BBC News has a feature about the current popularity of the ukulele, and Tom Service talks about bagpipes.
Via ChoralNet, Jeffrey Tucker describes five great things about polyphony. I like this post - all five things are obvious when you think about them, but I hadn't really thought about them! (Scroll down a bit - there are a load of links at the top of the page that make it look as if there's no story there, but there is.)
Londonist and the Guardian report that seven out of ten Brits "said they'd like a Nessun Dorma-style theme tune for London 2012, played by a British orchestra". They're asking for suggestions - anyone have any?
BBC News tells us that teaching stroke patients to sing "rewires" their brains, helping them recover their speech.
I missed any mention of this at the time, but I would have loved to have been at this concert: Ex Cathedra celebrated their 40th anniversary by performing not just Spem in Alium, but a concert FILLED with 40-part choral works!
Here's a short but intriguing Spectator article about how to pronounce "Wednesday", and related topics!
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that there was part of an episode of "Shameless" set in the foyer of William Hulme's Grammar School. Well, the most recent episode took place partly in the WHGS car park and on the roof of one of the buildings. It was on E4 on Tuesday, but won't be on Channel 4 till next Tuesday night, after which you'll be able to watch it online. (It's not there yet - it's episode 6.) The scene in question is again right at the end of the episode - in the last ten minutes.
More Manchester news: it seems that this year there will be a big Manchester Day Parade! Hands up who never knew there was a Manchester Day? Yeah, me too. But the parade is on Sunday 20th June, and the theme is "Out of this World". If you want to get involved, here's the official website.
The MEN has a fascinating article about tunnels under the city centre.
I enjoyed the recent BBC series of The Virtual Revolution (which I think you can still watch via iPlayer - you should, it's very good), so I took the test on their website (it's HARD!) to find out what sort of web animal I am. I was a bit put out at first to be told I was a web elephant, until I realised that it wasn't entirely bad - I like to think I'm fast at doing stuff online, but the test results suggest I'm slower than I thought, but that it's because I'm thorough. Have a look at the descriptions and see what you think you are, then try taking the test!
And finally, it's rare that a week goes by without me discovering a new clever thing that Google can do. This week: the Winter Olympics on Google Maps. Great fun to play with! (Oh, and by the way, I'd never heard of skeleton or ski cross before a week ago, but now I'm a huge fan of both, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I'm just sad that I managed to completely miss the luge!)
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