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 15th 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 4th. 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.
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