Guest post

Ahem. Where is the blogstress? Having a good skive off in Germany, methinks. So whilst I'm in the mood I, Jenny, will comment on tonight's rehearsal.

We all had a jolly good skive last week. Ollie was ill. I was ill (though admittedly on Thursday not Wednesday). Kay had a funny throat (probably all the dust with moving house). And I don't know who else was ill, but I don't think many people turned up in spite of John's very kind offer to supply us with wine and revelry in the director's absence.

Everyone was better this evening. Oh, much better, judging how focused and jolly we were rehearsing our Cloudburst racket er, music. Unless it was a result of all the haircuts - quite a few ladies turned up with trims. Personally, a good haircut makes me feel very sprightly and is guaranteed to put me in a good mood. Another reason could be that we're very much looking forward to performing Cloudburst again, and especially in St Giles (29th August, hint hint).

Watch out for our new Bass's extraordinary finger clicking talents in this piece! Luke can do all four fingers very loud and fast which not only gives a kind of washboard impression, but would have Eric Whitacre reeling and drooling that it's EXACTLY what he requires for rainy sound effects. This led to a demonstration of weird talents. Arno, for instance, is able to flap his fingers against the palms of his hands which produces a kind of clapping noise (causing Sebastian to ask if that was in fact the sound of one hand clapping); it looked as if he was playing invisible castanets very manically. No one was interested in me being able to wiggle my big toes, choosing to focus on other, more womanly, assets. I can only take it as a compliment... thanks, Elaine, for drawing attention in that direction!

Concentrating solely on Cloudburst, we were rather impressed with Luke's and Natalie's (our new Alto - just for the extra confusion of two Natalies in the Alto section) sight reading and their ability to keep up with what was going on.
Luke, the main feature in this blog it seems(!), gets second prize for comment of the evening: when Ollie mentioned we will be singing the Hebrew Love Songs, Luke boldly asked "Er, what did you say I haven't sung yet?" It gave Robin hysterics. He was rather giggly anyway after Ollie's priceless request that he wanted to, "... hear a noise coming out from the bottom section". He might have been feeling very happy anyway, due to the fact he passed his driving theory test today!

John tried to hand over his narrations in Cloudburst to Anna-Lauren saying she speaks better Spanish. Which is probably true, but as Anna-Lauren says he has a way of putting it across. We decided to attempt stereo. John will do the first narrated bit, and A-L the second one.

So, we all go home with sore thighs from all the slapping. Don't get excited, it's very boring really. Even though Helen promised she'd slap me... I'm sure Eric wasn't thinking of anything except how to emulate the sound of rain when he wrote the instruction to slap the thighs. I await an email link from Arno who, typically, seemed to have a theory about where slapping yourself hurts least or makes the most noise... will report back if any experiments get to rehearsal.

I'm off to bed now. But first I will indulge in a cream cracker and a glass of milk, and finish a bit of knitting. Singing makes me hungry. I'm not going to eat the knitting.

Rain, rain, go away...

Lord Loveaduck! (and so he must as this is the weather for them) what is going on? Silly question. This is Scotland and summer and we’re gearing up for the Festival – why wouldn’t it be bucketing? Who doesn’t appreciate a bit of fog (or shall we call it a haar for poetry’s sake)? Who needs to be able to see the castle? What type of boring personage does not enjoy puddle-dodging?

We had some extremely bedraggled arrivals at choir last night – Kay had to borrow trousers from Susan so thoroughly soaked was she about the legs – but that’s what you get for cycling in a downpour without your waterproofs. I discovered my shoes had holes in them. Not large ones for it took a while to register the damp toesies and really quite a reasonable length of time for them to become truly waterlogged – but holes there are and wet my feet were and I was going to complain very loudly indeed until I saw the state of the cyclists and that put sodden trotters into perspective and shut me up good an’ proper.

So – we had a rather late-in-the-day email from Chris yesterday suggesting that we might like to bring along copies of Cloudburst (our man Eric (Whitacre (yum))) to the rehearsal. As we are going to be singing this in a matter of weeks and as it is rather complicated and as Luke and new Natalie have never set eyes on it before (and as now, as it turns out, you’d think none of the rest of us has, either) – this seemed like a very good idea. Oh, but it’s a tricky little number. Involves waving around of arms and clicking of fingers and slapping of legs and clapping of hands as well as breathing – yes, breathing too, can you believe it? And the Boy Wonder not only expects us to keep filling our lungs while waving and clicking and slapping and clapping and, oh, yes of course, how could I forget? – singing, but he seems to think we can take in such deep breaths and support them so well that we can keep on yodelling for minutes at a time without a refill. Well – he can think what he likes but I fear he’s bound to be disappointed. I can barely get two words out in this one before I start going blue around the edges. I suppose I shall have to practice and hope someone is around to resuscitate me if I take things too far.

We only worked on the first page to begin with and it was largely remembered, if raggedy, but we had to keep stopping so Ollie could explain things to Luke (Natalie 2 wasn’t there which is a bit of a worry as she’s supposed to sing with me) because there’s a lot of explaining to do for anyone who hasn’t seen the music before. I remember perusing it for the first time and thinking I must be in the middle of a very bad dream. And still one line gave me serious trouble yesterday – so much so that Anne had to sing with me to help me out, Jenny having been transferred to the Tenor department and me being the only Alto 2 present. I think Jen and I never actually sang this bit right to begin with. I reckon we re-wrote it to suit ourselves and that is why I was struggling with it last night - it was most distressingly unfamiliar! Anyway, Ollie has given me Jenny back to help out here and there in the difficult passages so she will have to hop about between parts and I feel this is bound to result in a bit more... re-working. (I’m sure Mr Whitacre (yum) would be delighted with our version of his music if he ever heard it). I’m afraid I have to admit to a squeaky protest of "I don’t need help, I’ll get it eventually" etc. etc. (and at a pitch to make a Soprano green with envy) but I’ll be glad to have my old partner in composition-crime back again for the re-writes. I mean the tricky bits.

After this the Sopranos were sent away to work on... something, while the Altos, Tenors and Basses had a wee go at a new/old Spanish piece which goes very fast and is very wordy at times and just a little bit of a tongue-twister. The Ts and Bs started to learn it last week or the one before and we Altos were in danger of tying our tongues in knots as we tried to keep up with their linguistic acrobatics, however the BW took pity on us and we were able to s...l...o...w... down quite considerably for a while in order to get untangled and begin to make sense of what we were singing. It’s a jolly little piece in a simple sort of way and will be fun to sing, I think.

There was a confused swapping around of people and places as the boys went off with Anne to look at more Cloudburst while the sops came back to join the alts for a little work on our Abbie Betinis caravan song (unfortunately without loudness from Jenny as she is already very good at that and there is more to be done on the rest of it than on her BIG moment). There will be quite a few solos in this (I won’t get one, I know, and I think I’m quite glad about that though no doubt I’ll miss the second or two of limelight when it comes to performance – I’ll pull faces or something instead to get myself noticed).

Eventually we all got back together again to have a go at the end of Cloudburst which is where all the extra physical activity comes into play and, well, disaster or what? I, for one, need to do some serious homework. I’m sure it will all come back to me and a fair few people seemed to remember their parts very well indeed (of course, the boys had had a chance to re-familiarise themselves with it by then so they don’t count) so all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well – hooray!

At the end of the evening Susan distributed a worryingly large number of boxes of herbal tea. Where it came from I’ve no idea but I’m with Robin on the back-of-a-lorry theory. And she looks so respectable, too. These Morningside types are not to be trusted. Sneaky. Shifty. If you hear of a herbal tea heist any time soon you’ll know where to point the finger. You got it from me. Make sure to share your reward.

The rain was still raining and the wind gusting so Robin and I engaged in all sorts of unnecessary (but, as he pointed out with consummate charm) very enjoyable conversation and story-telling while trying to look as if we weren’t waiting for Jenny to finish her discussion (looked mighty serious) – (NB the words ‘Jenny’ and ‘serious’ have probably never appeared together in a sentence before) - with Sebastian so that we could look surprised when she offered us a lift home. She wasn’t fooled for a second but she offered anyway. Sorted.

Now, next week I am off down south on Thursday morning and may well have no time for blogstuff so I hope someone else will fill you in on our doings and sayings but I hope they don’t do it too successfully because I am beginning to enjoy this job and wish to keep it, useless as I often am. I’ll be away for two weeks. I shall miss you. Be good.

Kisses.

Good God – it is 2 o’clock in the morning!!

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A quiet evening in Morningside

Hello, mes amies, how’s things avec vous, ce soir? Je suis very well, merci for asking.

So, yes, a very quiet evening. Quite a crowd of people but not much nonsense (no Jenny who is on holiday and causing havoc elsewhere) and it was all over very quickly indeed though I think we managed to do a fair amount of work. We learned a new piece by Debussy – very Debussy, too. Liked it. Though if I had remembered to take my file (ie my music) I might have managed better because then I would have had some control over the pages. Instead I found myself turning over all wonky and trilling from page 5 when everyone else was on page 7 and page 9 when they were on 11 and so on and so forth and SO bad for one’s sight-reading. Kay, having spent an amusing half hour or so listening to my squeaks and sighs of frustration, laughed at me and my noises and told me not to make feeble excuses for my lack of basic music skills. Cruel. Fair, but cruel all the same.

Then we went over one we learned last week all about praying in a river, which seems a strange place to choose but chacun à son (rather soggy) goût. Very gospel. Like this too, especially after tonight when the basses and tenors were exhorted to sing with appropriate expression and expressions: eyes closed, pained look of rapture (as demonstrated by Ollie looking rather as if he had an extremely nasty internal upset) which resulted in a star turn from Robin who appeared quite carried away with religious ecstasy (I presume it was religious but I’ve spoken of dubious moral standards before...) The song asks "who shall wear the robe and crown?" and I decided we should award the robe, at least, to Robin and dress him up for performances in some large, cassocky type garment in which guise he can stand at the front and emote for all of us. Probably he’ll insist on the crown as well. Or a tiara at least. Lovely. Do come see.

While most of this was going on Sebastian snuck away to watch Germany losing their fussball match (which I believe was of some importance). Bit of a shame as I feel sure he’d have given Robin a run for his money in the competition for the cassock of emotion. Now, unless the Boy Wonder makes them do it all over again next week, we’ll never know which one of them is more deserving. And I wouldn’t care to guess.

Well, me darlin’s, I b’lieve that’s all as I has to say. An’ it’s late an’ I is weary. Lord A’mighty, how I is weary!

And I have to get up and play tennis tomorrow morning. Hmmmm.

A bientôt xx

Another missing week, another rushing blogetteer….

Hey there, folksies.

Sorry.

Someone should keep a word count because I’m sure my blogs contain that particular adjective more than most.

I decided against an update last week as we were due to have a very exciting and exacting day on Saturday which I though would make far better news than the goings-on on Wednesday evening. However – life then took over and I couldn’t find time to follow through with my plans. And now I am here and in a rush AGAIN – (off to Germany in a while and not prepared, naturally). Aaaagh!

Yes, yes, I know – it’s all my own fault. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.

So to Saturday. What a day we had. Met at the Reid Concert Hall at 9.45ish and then worked very hard indeed – with a short break for tea/coffee and birthday cake (more of that later*) and a short break for lunch – until about 4.15. We rehearsed and recorded and rehearsed and recorded and we got through everything we had to do in a pretty disciplined manner, let me tell you. Ollie only had to look pained a couple of times and raise his voice about once. We were so good. And that is a rare and beautiful thing. It has paid off, apparently, as Ollie announced last night that the recordings sound amazing. Yey! Can’t wait to hear them.

We now have Dormi Jesu – Abbie Betinis; three almost-impossible-to-get-hold-of-a-recording-of Armenian folk songs by Komitas; Une Puce – Le Jeune; Dieu! Qu’il la fait bon regarder – Debussy; Bogoroditsye Dyevo (probably spelt wrongly but I know it off-by-heart and lost my copy long ago and usually just call it ‘Bog Off’ anyway) – Arvo Part (with an umlaut) and one of our swing songs (done as an extra for fun and because we are cleverer than the men) down for posterity and I, for one, will proudly distribute copies to friends and family whether they want them or not.

(Red-squiggle Central after that).

*Anne’s birthday. She had to bring her own cake (delicious it was) and demand to be sung to. After all she does for us, too. Shameful behaviour. We devoured the cake and yelled a duly tuneless ‘Happy Birthday’ – eventually.

Having had a wee bit longer break we hurried (ran, in my case – I never used to be late for anything…blame all my friends who have kept me waiting over the years and worn me down) back to the hall for our evening concert. A short warm-up (or cool-down for me) and then downstairs to await our huge and avid audience…

…..of 20.

Yes, that’s right. 20. Only a few more of them than us – and usually we’d have been about on a par but there were a couple of absentees in our ranks.

What happened? Well – it was a beautiful evening, Andy Murray was playing tennis, people were selfishly busy graduating and there were several marches all jostling for a bit of Edinburgh road space so no wonder we were overlooked, eh? And, oh! such a quiet audience they were too until Anne bravely pointed out that they should feel free to applaud – which they then did as loudly as 20 slightly awkward-feeling people can. They looked happy enough – honest. And considering what a day we’d had we didn’t do too badly either – though we’ve been better. Anna Lauren forgot to come in at one point (too busy counting the audience though really that’s a poor excuse as it should have taken only about a milli-second), Helen saved the day but then dropped her music all over the floor (luckily at a point when she didn’t really need it any more), Jenny didn’t appear to have any music judging by the way she had to keep nudging closer to me and looking over my shoulder and there was a long silence in the middle of ‘She Moved Through the Fair’ when the small group members forgot to keep singing between verses. Ah well! Some things the audience wouldn’t have noticed and others they seemed to forgive us for so all’s well that ends with us vaguely in tune.

Last night we started some new pieces and got on really well – they will be fun to sing. And Jenny gets a chance to holler really loudly (so much so that Susan was concerned for her glass-wear and her neighbours’ comfort – but, hey, the notes weren’t high enough to threaten the glasses and the neighbours can put up with a thundering Jenny if they can put up with the rest of us at full throttle) and she will sound quite extraordinary in St Giles acoustic so you’d better be there to witness it. (29th August, 6pm).

Other excitement – the appearance of a new alto – Natalie by name, so maintaining the Rudsambee tradition of including at least two people with the same moniker at any one time as a mode of spreading confusion amongst members and fans. Natalie 2 is lovely. Used to be an actress like yours’ truly and may be again one day for all we know but is working for a charity at the moment – a much worthier job, I have to say! She seemed to enjoy herself and promised to be back next week. So there’s one vacancy filled. More newbies to come before too long, we hope.

Jen enjoyed herself hugely by telling John he had a leak under his car. I thought she was looking expectant and mischievous. When John returned wielding a rather phallic vegetable I understood. She then tried to get the leek back. What cheek. Finders keepers as someone (Susan, I think, who stood to gain from the acquisition of said veg) quite rightly pointed out.

Much hilarity. Jen purple.

Must dash. xx

ps This just in: pictures from last week's concert courtesy of Ally: