an 18th century poster

Bath Baroque advertises its concerts with posters in a pastiche 18th century style and I shall be singing in their next concert on Saturday, currently promoted here. The billing for the Mexican carols is particularly entertaining.

Meanwhile, our conductor’s daughter was christened on Sunday and we performed much of Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, some in the original SSA version, some in the SATB arrangement. I have been familiar with the first half of this for a long time, since it was an O-level set work for me. The only previous time I performed it I sang 1st soprano and this must have imprinted strongly on my memory, as adjusting to singing 2nd in the closely written canons in a couple of the the carols proved quite tricky.

We won a bottle of champagne in a Christmas quiz set by the Bristol Bach Choir. I was about to say that I’d no connexion with this choir, but I sang alongside them in the Brahms Requiem in which they joined forces with the Chantry Singers. I was also once on their waiting list for auditions for a year or so with no result! The quiz was largely general knowledge/crossword-type clues but there was a musical theme to much of it.