Now, for those who know the Rudsambee setup it will not have escaped your notice that the group would not function without two people. The first of these is of course our valiant conductor Ollie who chooses music, sets the rhythm (sometimes!) and teaches us the words with show-and-tell cards (this btw is how we learnt 'Dindirin' There were even pictures!). The second leader figure is our resident organiser Anne who basically ensures that life functions effectively. My guess is that if ever she were to take umbrage and leave, the whole place would fall apart... if not the world at large.
However, recent publications would suggest that (shock horror) there is someone more organised than Anne. We are, as hopefully you are all well aware, going global in a couple of weeks and heading off to the Czech Republic. Anne has ably sorted out the whole shebang. Yet she sent me a jolly interesting attachment this week called the 'Susice Brochure' which was created by the 'Anne-equivalent' at Shrewsbury Cantata Choir, a group who are going to be performing with the Svatobor Sušice Choir imminently. The brochure (which even has colour pictures!) has detailed descriptions of the whole visit down to the amount of liquid you can take on the plane. Apparently, and I quote, "freight or cargo items cannot be accepted as passenger baggage." Act on this information folks! We didn't think it could be done but there is someone in the musical sphere more organised than Anne.
Shrewsbury Cantata Choir, we salute you!
Svatobor Sušice Choir in the Canongate Kirk during their visit to Edinburgh in 2007
Welcome again one and all to our second week of Relative Pitch. Hopefully I'll be able to write a couple of posts this week for your enjoyment. Well, last night was a Wednesday so it must have been rehearsal night. Rather than crowd into the Wexler's front room (hope you are having a jolly holiday John and Susan) we instead found our way to the other side of Edinburgh to St Peter's Lutton Place. It is a pretty chilly old place and even Chris was cold (which let me tell you must mean it is Baltic in there; just as a side issue, A-L and I were wondering why it is that although a place can be really cold you can end up sweating by the end of a rehearsal... amazing!) but we kept our scarves on and braved the nippy atmosphere.
For those who are interested, we are currently spending a lot of time on a great Eric Whitacre piece called Five Hebrew Love Songs. Hence the reason for the title of this post... ok, that requires a little more explanation. In the second song the three lower parts (chorally I mean) have to sing the word 'tum' (this piece is in Hebrew - hmmm clue is in the name huh? - though I'm not sure what 'tum' means... perhaps the same as in English? noun: informal: a person's stomach or abdomen... maybe not) which should not sound like 'tomb' which is where dead people live but rhyme with 'bum', though I guess this wholly depends on whether you say 'bum' in a posh way. Go on give it a try...y ou know you want to!
I digress... the piece sounded really wonderful. We are breaking away from our acapella roots and are singing with... wait for it... a piano and a violin. Goodness me! Well in the church's great acoustic, it sounded really fabulous. Very haunting and exciting. If you'd like to find out a wee bit more about Whitacre take a look at YouTube where you can even hear him and his lovely wife (surely candidates for the most glamourous musical couple) explain the text. You can also check out his website at www.ericwhitacre.com which has a very spangly homepage.
This is the Piano/Violin/Choir version of the Five Hebrew Love Songs, this week's visual entertainment.
Incidentally we began the night with a bracing version of 'Head, Shoulders,Knees and Toes' led by (yes you've guessed it) Jenny. Cue much laughter and the lady in charge of the church reconsidering her decision to give us a key. I must admit to breathing a sigh of relief as our new temporary bass Robert came in after the madness had subsided (let's hope he's more than temporary! - chris). He would have been well within his rights to run for the hills if he had caught us trying to sing a nursery rhyme while jiggling about and trying not to say the word 'shoulders'. Fortunately he stayed...
Although I won't always mention birthdays on this blog we couldn't let Natalie's Big 3-0 go by without acknowledgement. Congrats lady!
That's all for now. I've just realised I have broken my promise re punctuation. I just can't help myself- I need to set up a self-help group...'Apostrophe Anonymous' anyone? CSW
P.S. Hi there, Chris here; I like to interfere with things, add links etc. I thought The People might like a quick glimpse of last night's rehearsal, and the most appropriate photo has to be of our first lady of Blog. Seeya!
On Wednesday night Chris and I (Claire 1) had a concordant brain waves. Now solo moments of inspiration are pretty rare so when two great brains (!?) realise that their over-active imaginations have been clearly focused on a singular objective... well... something should be done...right? And here it is... a new blog to keep our friends, relations, car companies (come on Honda) and pop stars in need of a wee choir (we don't do cassocks but swaying from side to side and clicking is a possibility... on second thoughts) up to date with everything that is happening in Rudsambee. It won't be very serious and will hopefully encourage laughter and jolly smiles. It is for members and friends but, as John so eloquently put it at last night's AGM, and I quote "we don't just want our friends to come to concerts".
Well no indeed, enemies are always welcome but I must remind all attendees that the throwing of fruit, fresh or otherwise, will be frowned upon. This will be a place of democracy (a rare thing in today's mixed up world) so if you would like to post anything of a profound or superficial nature then just let us know. For now, can I encourage you all to brighten your day with the wonderful Harry Hill: http://www.harry-hill.tv/archives/26july07/p3.html. Ah, donkeys really do have complex lives. So long for now CSW
p.s I promise not to use so many unnecessary grammatical devices in my next post. I can't think what came over me!
At this year's AGM there was a bit of a shakeup as Alison, who has been in charge of Marketing for some time, stepped down. The choir foolishly decided, mostly to save more talking we suspect, to allow Chris to have more power and responsibility than ever before. As John is in charge of the website, it seems likely that Chris will make a move on the rest of the Internet.
So, watch out Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, lastFM, YouTube... who knows, perhaps we'll get the new CD onto iTunes!
In the meantime, Claire1 has agreed to make some attempt to blog for us, a kind of Friends of Rudsambee setup. We will hopefully hear all about Kay and Rachael when they go into labour, maybe find out how Ollie's exams go, and of course we'll try to have a blow by blow account of the Czech visit.
