Plainchant...impressive stuff in the hands of a Rudsambee expert!

Well in my mind tonight was dominated by Jen's musical pyrotechnics. Our new (although it better hadn't be too new as we are performing it in a week and a half) Tallis piece asks for a bit of plainchant. Actually a lot of plainchant. In fact there is time for the rest of the choir to go for a mince pie and some punch. However, Jen has stepped up to the plate (Ooo is that a wee nod to our American friends there) and is doing it as a solo which is a great relief to her fellow Rudsambee-lets. It is surprisingly difficult for a choir to sing the same tune at the same time. Generally it sounds like a Brownie singsong. Anyways, Jen took a deep breath and sang almost the entire sequence without taking another breath. 'Blimey' we all said! Lungs of steel!

So... it was a long rehearsal proceeded by our shortest warmup. Ol asked us to shake our right foot and then we were straight in though I must admit, I number of us shook our left foot too just for synchronicity. Christmas song after festive ditty was the way of the evening. In fact so much singing that we were all whacked out by the end of the night. Hence the brevity of this blog this evening...which you might, of course, count as a blessing.

My second highlight of the week was new Oliver's face as we bashed through Immanúel os i nátt, our dangerous Icelandic piece (remember this from last year? It was the one we looked scared throughout) and 'O Morganstern' with its two keys in one song madness. It reminded me how terrifying Rudsambee is when you first join! Suffice to say our new guys are showing us up largely and are obviously well capable of dealing with any dumb tuning adventure or ridiculous Gaelic word we through at them. Good job boys!

Can I remind all readers to get their tickets for the Christmas concerts. They are going to be great events and we'd love to see you there. Come along to Canongate and you'll even get a mince pie, though if it is a sell-out we might have to cut them into slices-a quarter piece anyone?

Anyways, I am off to Bedfordshire for forty winks. Enjoy the week ladies and gents. I am off to 'Mary Poppins' on Monday night and I'm very excited. Musical joys just dominate my life.

CSW