Twinkle twinkle little star / We started 'Cloudburst', we got quite far...

So that is as poetic as I get on a Thursday evening and you may well be thinking, 'what does said children's nursery rhyme have to do with Eric Whitacre's epic little number?' Well, good question. Much of Cloudburst is in fifths and Twinkle twinkle is perhaps the easiest way to find this interval in a hurry. All that to say, we began 'Cloudburst' in earnest (or rather in humour as always with Rudsambee) last night and were blown away by Whitacre's piece. We've adapted to piano, violin and even clarsach over the past year but now, fans (wait for it), we have reached the giddy heights of handbells. I, for one, was looking forward to seeing us attempt to sing complex music, in Spanish (sorry, to be precise, Mexican Spanish), and play the bells. Sadly we will be doing only two of the three as we have managed to find some professional handbell players (professional in the sense that they are really good rather than make a load of money from it - I'm not sure that such musical skills earn much in today's credit crunch world... although the legends of the rock world liked a good cowbell) to play for us. We are very excited to be singing this fantastic work. Look out for a live performance later in the year.



Actually it was modern music all the way (I was beginning to have pangs for some Carver. Actually, on second thoughts...) with a bit of Tormis too. We are becoming extremely proficient in our Estonian/Vespian but nevertheless to improve our linguistic prowess we have a real Estonian person coming to teach us in the next few weeks. You can hear some Tormis on our CD (that is a shameless plug by the way but if you haven't heard about it by now, where have you been hiding, a cockerel's boot? That is a Boosh reference, BTW, for those who suspect I have lost it entirely. And how come this page is already in that set of search results? Scary.) and it is pretty, erm, interesting stuff. Each piece is a different challenge and we are enjoying them a lot. We spent a good half hour getting one completely right. We are particularly working on coming in together and confidently.

Anyways, that's all for now folks. Hope you have a very jolly week one and all.

CSW

p.s. I do hope the editor-in-chief gives this a read and puts in some links. Last week was link crazy, n'est pas? I mean who in today's multicultural, multiculinary (Ooo that is good) world doesn't comprehend the tasty deliciousness of a tortilla chip? Keep it up Christopher, your wiki-links make me laugh out loud!