OMG!

What the…?  I arrived in good time last night and, what did I see?  I’ll tell you what I saw.  Through the dining-room window I espied a group of men….several basses and a smattering of tenors.   In full voice.  It seems they had all arrived

EARLY?

And were practising – I say it again because it is almost beyond belief and the more I say it the more I might believe it – 

EARLY.

By arrangement, as it turned out.  I find this a little scary.  Why?  Not sure, exactly.  Men of the super-keen variety are not unheard of within our ranks but to get nearly all of them there

EARLY

is, I think, unprecedented and, yes, a little scary.  Hypnotism?  Bribery?  Threats?  Something fishy’s going on and I’m not sure I like it!

We women arrived in dribs and drabs, as is usually the case with everyone and all of us looked slightly nonplussed.  More than one person asked “What is going on?”  Susan offered the explanation that the men’s…um…previousness (?!) was by mutual agreement.  This did nothing to dispel the confusion.

Once we had all gathered and been joined by the ‘men’-who-have-been-swapped-by-aliens we began with a warm-up orchestrated by Jenny who did a much better job of it than I did in Week One.  I think people actually felt warmed-up by the time she’d finished with us.  Ollie then told us what we’d be doing for the rest of the evening and, indeed, we did do most of it but, unfortunately, there was no time to have a second look at Nikos’s piece and I was looking forward (with only a teensy amount of dread) to that.

We went over the two French pieces which we began last week – the Lully  Entrées de Ballet.  I had my glasses with me this week and a clear head so these went much better for me.  They are not difficult, or not in the alto line, anyway.  We have had to change the rhythm in a few bars as the notation was different from the original and Ol wants it the same, we worked on tuning and expression.  The basses have ten bars or so to sing at the beginning of the 3^rd Entrée (why has my computer added an accent on this word for me and not on the first ‘Entrées’ above (and again)?  Is it the ‘s’ that confuses?  No, look, I added an ‘s’ and it’s still there.  I think it’s the Lully; how odd [here, have an accent]) and they tried, bless them.  Perhaps they should arrive early next week to practise this.  They sang it (?) and it wasn’t good.  In fact, “That was shit,” said Kay, never one to mince her words.  It was.  But it was better when we came back to it later.  And when we came back to these later and still hadn’t got the chordage quite precise enough Ollie told us he wanted no wet tea-bags, no splatting.  “Perhaps a cafettiere instead,” suggested Robin; though it’s hard to see how that would work.

We spent some time on the beautiful Abendlied, which is not yet beautiful, I’m afraid, but has potential.  I felt some triumph in finding a couple of bars quite straightforward which our Jen was finding tricky.  HA!  I practised on my own at home before leaving for rehearsal.  It is a few bars later where the Eb that was causing Mrs Fardell a problem reverts to an E natural that was tripping me up (in spite of personal practise) but I managed to find the pesky note every time after some trilling around and about it and it will come naturally (tee hee) soon enough.

We separated into two groups for the men to practise (again) their new piece and for we women to try and make some progress with the Bulgarian song we started last week.  Make progress we did, especially after throwing the men out of the piano-holding room but then we discovered that our two sheets of music, coming along rather nicely by this time, should have been considerably more in number, the first page ending with bar 12 and the second starting with bar 61.  Oops.  Quite a lot missing, then.  “Perhaps we won’t practise linking them up just yet,” says the puzzled BW, “Someone emailed me this and told me there were only 2 pages.”  Someone was mistaken, were they not?  I don’t suppose anyone but a Bulgarian or two would notice if we were only singing a third of the words; it seems from the translation we have that those few we are singing would make some sort of sense alone but the men’s piece is much longer than ours so I think an effort should be made to find the missing section as quickly as possible.  Can’t have them hogging the limelight (even if they are prepared to turn up 

EARLY).

We female types were treated to a performance of Zikr (think that’s correct – Christopher?? [yep]) and what fun it was.  The basses were in full flow and the tenors looking terrified and confused by turns but they did OK.  Very OK.  It is a great piece and will sound fantastic once they all know what they’re doing (one can dream…)

Heather has come up with a good plan – she thinks maybe we should consider making a new CD before Ollie leaves us; either instead of or as well as a concert in May.  I like this idea, though we have no Helen to do the recording.  I’m sure someone could be found to help out. There’re bound to be a few things we want to set down from Ollie’s tenure and I think we’ll kick ourselves if we don’t do it.  May is looking a bit dodgy for me in terms of being around at weekends so I hope a decision is made soon about dates and doings so that I can order my life accordingly and not miss out on any Rudsambee-related excitement.

There you are.  Up-to-date if not enthralled.

xxx

Vagueness

Bad head space this week so I am sorry but I haven’t got much to say for myself having been even less switched on than this week than I usually am.  I’m not even sure if I’ll be able to write a comprehensible sentence... let’s see what I can do.

There was a new face in the alto section but, having arrived a little late, I missed introductions – I presume there were introductions? – I really apologise.  I believe our new face belongs to a young lady of German nationality.  In this I could be mistaken; there are other countries where German is spoken.  I know Christopher will supply you with the necessary information [actually, he missed the intro as well!].  Soon he is going to show me how to post my own blogs and then you will never learn the truth about anything.   Oh, lord!  Anyway, said young lady seemed to be coping extremely well with copious amounts of sight-reading and so, if she stays, she will be a most welcome addition and I will still be by far the worst sight-reader in the choir. 

So – new stuff again.  Ollie’s idea is that we should spend a few weeks looking at new pieces and then select the ones we really like to work on alongside brushing up some older pieces for the Portrait Gallery concert.

We looked at two songs by Lully – from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme: entrée de ballets 2 and 3.  These are supposed to be fast and funny, if I remember rightly... I wasn’t feeling fast or funny but I got some of the notes right – eventually!  We will have Nikos on guitar and Sebastian on cello when we sing these so will have to work on the balance but for now we were just note-bashing.

After this we split up into two groups, male and female.  The women stayed in the sitting-room while the men went through to where the piano resides.  As the BW stayed with us (most of the time) I have no idea who led the boys and I have no clue what they were working on [Arno mostly controlled the men through the first four pages of Zikr, which is another arrangement by Ethan Sperry whose Desh caused such amusement previously] but we female types were having a look at a piece called Dilmano Dilbero... a Bulgarian song with very tricky rhythms.  A while ago we used this piece as a warm-up and Ollie had called me earlier in the day to ask if I still had a copy of the music.  I couldn’t find it and as I searched I started to think that we’d never had the music but had been taught a bit of it off by heart and sung that bit over and over until warm... Ollie was, apparently, thinking the same thing but he managed to find the music before the rehearsal so we were able to start work on it.  We got the hang of the first two bars without too much difficulty but after that everything went to hell and, in all the time we spent, we didn’t get beyond bar 5.  However, we enjoyed ourselves getting nowhere.  The men sounded very dramatic.  I think they got further than we did with whatever they were working on but perhaps they were just singing bars 1 and 2 and giving it laldy to sound impressive.

When we got back together we had a look at a piece called Abendlied [after a few weeks of frantic email discussion to figure out where it had gone].  Sebastian has chosen this and it is lovely.  Asked for a translation he manfully obliged until John offered, “It’s ‘Abide With Me’ in German, almost word for word.”  Which it is.  But the tune’s really pretty.

Chris fed me chocolate and gluten-free bickies to calm my shattered nerves (they began to mend) and that was it for the evening.  Jenny drove me home.

BIG love to Rudsambee.  Full of shiny, twinkly stars shining and twinkling.

New year, new songs, same old blogetteer…

Yep, no hope, me buddies.  ‘Ere I am again, sans resolutions and already so far behind in the blogging business that it will take me until 2013 to catch up.  Well, no – that’s a ridiculous exaggeration, isn’t it?  Interesting we are but there’s no way that much has happened in the Rudsambee ranks since last I communicated.  However, I missed out on detailing the Christmas party and also our first meeting of the year last week, at which we discussed the future instead of singing, (and at which we had the amusement and excitement of Ollie-by-SKYPE) and so I will have to say something about these two events before I get going on tonight’s rehearsal.  Won’t I?  Yes I will.  There are, after all, things to be said.

But I’ll say them tomorrow.  Or Friday.  Or over the weekend.  I just wanted to get started this evening because once I’ve started it’s so much easier to carry on. 

Eventually. 

You know how it is.

A demain, (vendredi, le weekend, un jour…), mes amies – oh, we did go all French tonight but more of that plus tard.  Adieu.

I was right, of course.  I have spent the last day or so making something 1950s-ish to wear for my elder sprog’s 1950s night tonight so have had no time for this.  I apologise.  But I’m here now so on we go.

Or back we go, rather, back to December 15^th 2011, of distant memory.  The Christmas party.  Lovely evening in all particulars except one.  Great food as ever, good chat, good wine.  Not as many people as usual… quite a few missing choir members (not sure some of the newer Rudsambeeites are quite up to speed with our love of socialising – they’d better catch up and cotton on quick sharp) and the Myrtles were off somewhere singing to people and, as a result, we were missing several former members who can usually be relied upon to partay well into the small hours.  So, it was an earlyish night really but no less enjoyable for that.  The one particular mentioned above was that Anna Lauren popped along to say hello (which was nice) and to announce that she will not be returning to sing with us (which was not).  Devastating news, this but we wish her all the best and blessings galore as she moves forward into the future.  We will have to encourage her to join us for an evening at some point soon so that we can Irish Blessing her. 

First meeting of the year was on the 4^th.  There were only about 10 of us present but we got a lot done.  We have a recruitment plan and a recruitment committee and will, therefore, be recruiting very soon.  We need to find someone to take over from the BW when he decides to go.  He was unable to be with us in person as he was ‘stuck’ in London… it just happened to be Helen Miles’ birthday that day – in London - and I feel that this was the glue rather than any problems with travel, but I may be wrong.  Anyway, we could hardly complain as he had abandoned whatever birthday celebrations were taking place in order to join us by means of that miraculous invention which is SKYPE (have I spelled that correctly?  Luddite mind in evidence.  Again [Corrected. Luddite.]).  It was very amusing to see his little face grinning away at us on the very small screen.  Even more amusing to see it when he had no idea what was going on in Morningside and was looking blank (and bored) to say the least!  At one point Chris turned the laptop round so that Ollie could see Kay, who was addressing him directly.  Several minutes later – long after Kay had finished – a pathetic wee voice could be heard asking, “Can someone turn me round, please?”  Cue great hilarity as Christopher did as bid and our L&M was able, once more, to join us.

So, we are going to have Ollie’s company until April or May, it seems, but we will try to find someone who would be able and willing to join us before Ol goes and to work alongside him preparing us for a (possible) concert in May.  We have a concert in February at the Portrait Gallery and the usual St Giles in August and some Christmas dates but it was felt that a huge un-concerted gap between Feb and Aug might lead to enervation which would be a disaster for a new director and for us.

Ollie is on the search for some new choristers – a couple each of sopranos, altos and tenors – so if you know of anyone who might be interested tell them to get in touch pronto.  We are remarkably well off for basses.  And they’re good ones, too.

To Wednesday evening and our first sing of the year.  We have re-introduced the warm-up and note-taking routine so I was on warm-up duty and Jen on notes.  Can’t wait to see them.  She could hardly write for laughing at various moments but at least she was writing (some)things down so her chances of remembering what was going on are a deal better than mine.  Perhaps I should wait to read the notes before I publish this so I can pinch her ideas and pretend that I was paying attention this week???  My warm-up was a bit sketchy… had lots of thoughts about it beforehand but did I employ a pencil to record those thoughts?  Did I b*****y.  Anyway, better than nothing.  Susan seemed quite disappointed that I didn’t get people touching each other as I have been known to do in the past.  Not as exciting or rude as it sounds, unfortunately.  A little reciprocal shoulder massage is all.  Next time, Susan, next time…

We started by singing Une Puce.  Ollie was very particular about this.  Read Jenny’s notes for further info.  Then on to new material.  Exciting stuff.  Sight-reading and such.  An arrangement of Linden Lea came first.  “Does anyone know this?” asks Ollie.  “Yes, my mother used to sing it,” replies Jen.  Now, maybe it was her Yorkshire accent (slight but still evident) that did it but I glanced at the top of my copy and was quite convinced that it said:  Arrangement by Arthur Skargill. “ ??????,” I thought, “Didn’t know he was musical”.  Well, musical or not (what’s your guess?) he didn’t, in fact, arrange this piece but the chap who did has a name with the same initials and other vaguely corresponding letters and I didn’t have my glasses with me.  No, really.  I didn’t. 

Now – we have run into a petit problem.  I seem to have mislaid my file.  My file and therefore my music.  Could I have left it chez Wexler?  I think this is highly probable.  So I am not going to be able to tell you much more because of old brain.  You will have to wait until next week to discover what other pieces (French) we had a go at.  Or read Jenny’s notes.  However, one thing I can tell you is that Nikos has written a piece for us to sing and we had a go at that and my oh my, it is going to be fun.  That is to say, bloody tricky.  But fun too.  Oh yes.  Can’t remember quite what it’s called but I can find out (maybe) if you give me two ticks... Brodmann area 47 (I Googled).  Forty-something anyway.  Brodmann 47 (or whatever) is an area of the brain and is associated with something-or-other to do with music but there’s a big musical terminology shaped hole in my head at the moment where that word should be so I am not going to be able to tell you what I am talking about. The hole may well fill up with the appropriate wordage (not before I’ve despatched this blog Chris-wards, of course) but I fear I may be missing Brodmann fortywhoosit completely.  Anyway, Nikos has us doing all sorts of exciting things and making/singing noises instead of words.  This led to some amusement when he was attempting to explain what sound certain letters (some Greek) denoted.  “This is a ‘h’ as in hotel,” says he throatily.  “There is no ‘h’ in hotel,” says Susan, oh so correctly.  “ ’h’ as in how a Greek person would say hotel,” say I.  That’s clear then.  What he actually wants is the sort of ‘ch’ in loch.  That is what he will get.  Next cause of levity (Fardell hysteria) was when we were asked to speak our parents’ names for a bar or two.  Nikos has parents with lovely names: Maria and Yiannis.  My aged Ps are Tom and Peggy.  Rhythmic but hardly romantic.  Jenny’s dad was called Percy.  Still, Jenny’s not shy and Percy made a great showing (only he must have been a bit of a nuisance when he was alive because every time his name came up Jenny turned into her mother and he was being told off, poor man).   Ratchetting up the hysteria level, one of Nikos’s instructions had to do with orgasms – or lack of them, (if I may write such a word in the blog... my apologies to those of a nervous disposition).  Jenny apoplectic.

I’ll give you more info next week when I will have my folder to hand.  Promise.

Enough for now.  Quite an epistle, this blog.