Blogetteer in a bad mood (But not any more)

Thursday.

What a day.  How confusing it all was.  I lay awake in the early hours listening to the wind howling and the rain making like Miss Earnshaw at the window, thinking how unlikely it was that I’d be trotting into town later, only to find, on getting up, that the sun was shining in a clear blue sky.  I trundled off, delighted, to make my breakfast and lo! the kitchen went dark, Cathy came home again and the wind raged once more.  By the time I’d finished eating, sunshine.  After my shower, rain.  And so on and so on and so... I spent the day dodging precipitation and puddles. 

Well, was I out of sorts, or what, last night????  Don’t ask me why... a few people did (so I wasn’t hiding it then?) and I had no proper answer.  Feeling under the weather for a day or two; a bit tired... so what?  Hardly the first time I’ve felt like that and I’m rarely quite so grumpy.  Thank God for Rudsambee, then – it didn’t take long for my mood to lighten (yes, really.  You might not believe me, my dear choir cohort, but my mood did, indeed, lighten quite considerably, thank you) and I even ended up laughing.  Imagine!

The BW was very late – getting some music sorted was his excuse – so we started without him.  How keen is that?  We began with something I’d never seen before though several people seemed to know it off by heart.  Or to think they know it off by heart.  It’s a little ditty called El Grillo [Josquin des Prez] – The Cricket (Jimini, leg-scratchy type not bat-and-ball and silly-mid-off).  Easy.  Really.  Nothing to worry about except that I couldn’t sing it – even though most of it is on one note.  Such was my mood – and not in any way improved by the struggle to get a hand(le) on the jumpy one.

Saturday.

Our new music was Christmassy stuff – not carols but things suitable.  We began with a third version of that old Rudsambee favourite O Magnum Mysterium.  This one by Poulenc.  Gorgeous but definitely fiddly.  We had a go at a Tavener piece called O, Do Not Move – best to put the consonants in properly, as Jenny pointed out – O, Do Not Moo does not have the same... well, no – wait a minute... cows in the stable and all that.  Moo would be fine, after all.  It is very short and only the Bass 1s and Sop 2s have anything much to do but it is lovely.  We will probably sing this as a companion piece to Rocking which we sang last year.  We sang something called Ballet’s Lullaby – by whom???  Any offers?  And who, may I enquire, is Ballet?  Or is it a case of what?  In which circumstance I know the answer having been a ballerina for many years.  Yeh, right.  You should have seen my sturdy little legs in pink ballet tights – but I always had lovely arms and a good ‘line’.  Kay has gone back to ballet lessons which makes me quite jealous so I suggested that she and I might do a little exhibition dance during the singing of this number.  Jenny got very excited.  Yes, Jen – just as if.  Well, I cannot speak for Kay, who wasn’t there, but I can safely say for myself, again – just as if. 

This song caused a little controversy.  Jenny Fardell had very decided views as to how it should be sung, in direct opposition to my own ideas, I may say – there were a few un-tied quavers which looked as if they should have been tied and certainly the words suggested that tying them would be best but, oh no – Mrs F was quite sure they should be separate thus making important words like ‘Jesus’ take second place to ‘hath’.  I don’t know – it’s beyond me.  Ollie agreed with HER, unfortunately.  Bloody typical.  (!!)  And even more confusing than the weather.  Final new piece: As Dew in April by David Wulstan.   All went well to begin with and there seemed to be a fair consensus that this was a song worth singing but suddenly all changed and I wasn’t sure why exact... we got to the end and Ollie said “Yes, well, we’ll see about that one” and it took me rather by surprise.  Yes, well, I suppose we’ll see...

New pieces over we had a sing through some of the songs for the Poetry Library.  Yes.  The G_A_E_L_I_C songs.   You can imagine what that did for my mood.  We started one of them and sang it through and then repeated it, as directed and then repeated it AGAIN at which point I found myself hitting my head on the table.  There were people who thought I was doing it because I couldn’t sing it properly.  The truth is that I was doing it because I couldn’t  face the third repetition.   Three times through?  Really?

Aaaaagh!

As you can see this has taken a day or two.  I’ve been hitting the tennis court (and the high street) instead of the keyboard so, enough now and off to Mr Scott, the Post-man.

Am going to Sussex again next Thursday so you may or may not hear from me next weekend.  Oh, let’s be optimistic, shall we?

See you next week, then.

Or the one after.