two concerts for Holy Week

Posted on April 15, 2006 by vhk10

I’d been meaning to go to an Exultate Singers concert for a while, and missed a couple including one with a new cantata to commemorate Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s anniversary. I hope that this contained lots of suspensions, especially as it was performed in Clifton!

But what I got to hear in the end was a programme of music for Holy Week and Easter in St. James Barton church. Much was familiar to me, indeed I’d sung some of it with the choir, but there were pieces I didn’t know including a motet by Roxana Panufnik.

On Friday I was performing in Wells Cathedral with an expanded Bath Camerata. I’ve already written about the languages I had to sing in. I was also expected to sing more quietly than I’ve had to do for some time! These skills get rusty if you don’t use them. I also sang in Tavener’s Svyati and Messiaen’s O Sacrum Convivium and the concert also included music by Pärt and Howells. Svyati was new to me, but very characteristic of Tavener – perhaps he is writing what seems like the same piece lots of times, in order to perfect it.

Socially it was better than last time, though I suspect few in the current choir could name me. When I sing at these events I realise just how many ex-Camerata singers there are around in the Bath area who for one reason or another don’t sing regularly with a choir at the moment.

Both concerts were well attended and there must have been some overlap in the audience. It would be interesting to hear in particular from anyone who heard the Good Friday concert (since I don’t attempt to evaluate here performances I took part in).

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a plug for St. John’s

Posted on April 13, 2006 by vhk10

In past years, there has been a broadcast of a Passiontide service from St. John’s College, Cambridge on Radio 3. I was delighted to find that the College has made this year’s service available as an audiocast:
http://www.sjcchoir.co.uk/

I was even happier to find two of my favourite anthems (Gesualdo’s O vos omnes and Purcell’s Jehova, quam multi), about which I’ve raved elsewhere in this blog, are included, along with music by Howells, Stainer, Harvey, Gibbons, Poulenc and Anerio.

The audiocast is in MP3 format, and further audiocasts are promised over the next few months. I shall certainly be listening to them.

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MIDI manœuvres

Posted on April 12, 2006 by vhk10

I bought a new mobile phone and wanted to write my own MIDI file to use as a ringtone. (My old phone would allow you to compose ringtones on it, but you were restricted to a single melody, in a pre-determined synthetic sound, in notes of a constant length, so it was pretty limiting.)

I soon worked out how to upload and install MIDI files downloaded from the Web (for some reason though they only showed up on my phone after the connecting USB cable had been pulled out). I started with the hymn-tune ‘Tallis’ Ordinal’, downloaded from Cyber Hymnal.

For writing a ringtone from scratch, I was recommended the lilypond software for music typesetting (http://lilypond.org/web/). I hadn’t found this by my own efforts because it wasn’t picked up by searching for ‘MIDI’. It’s open source software, and it’s clear that its native platform is Linux. It does not have a graphical interface; you notate the music in a text file using lilypond’s notation scheme and lilypond will then convert it to PDF, PostScript and if you ask it nicely MIDI. Some simple examples are provided to get you going.

Now came the really puzzling bit. I found that my phone would play the downloaded MIDI file, but not use it as a ringtone. To save missing ringtone misery, here’s what you do: get hold of software such as the free version of Anvil Studio (http://www.anvilstudio.com/) open the MIDI file and then save it as is and download it to your phone. You don’t need to know anything more about what Anvil Studio does. I found this tip in a discussion on a bulletin board; I hate to think how long it might have taken me to try it otherwise.

(Disclaimer: I have no financial or other relationship with lilypond or Anvil Studio)

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walking away

Posted on April 9, 2006 by vhk10

I can be pretty tenacious but I’ve recently been thinking about two situations I’ve been in with regard to singing when I would have done better to back out, admit to myself that I’d made a mistake and do something else. Both were a considerable time ago and not where I live now.

At one time I studied with a singing teacher whose approach to interpretation involved relating what you were singing directly to specific personal experiences of yours. Now I don’t deny there can be some benefit in this, though it’s not the only way: if you find the mood of a particular song difficult to enter into, why not imagine yourself as a character in a play or novel who might feel that way? There might be good reasons to keep personal experiences and singing separate; for example, someone might be singing in order to put bad experiences out of their mind.

My teacher came to know rather more than was really desirable about my life outside singing and made several comments about it which were not only wrong (in hindsight) but potentially damaging. I don’t think any of this was helping me to sing well, and I realise now that rather than allowing myself to be intruded on to this extent I should have found someone else to study with.

The other situation concerned a singer in a choir I was once in who took it on themselves to do the conductor’s job; they repeatedly commented behind his back on how the soprano section was too loud and I suspect the comments were aimed in part at me. There was indeed a problem with balance, but it was the common one that the soprano section was stronger than the others; there were more singers who were trained or in training, some to a high level. As a result we projected our sound more strongly even when singing quietly. I affected not to care about this, but I did feel I was under pressure to sing with poor technique and I didn’t totally withstand it. When I left the choir I had lost the habit of singing with proper bodily support; I should instead have left much earlier.

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two new languages

Posted on March 29, 2006 by vhk10

Rehearsals have now started for the Bath Camerata Good Friday concert in Wells Cathedral. The two main pieces I am singing in are Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Otce Nas by Janacek. From my point of view, these have a certain amount in common; first, both have a harp accompaniment. Secondly, I haven’t sung either before, and thirdly, I haven’t in fact performed anything in the language of either (Hebrew and Czech, respectively) before!

I can’t say that Czech trips that easily off my tongue but on a first rehearsal I coped rather better with it than with the Hebrew. (I studied the music beforehand but without the words, so that I wouldn’t get pronunciations that were way off fixed in my head). Perhaps because I can relate the words to the meaning rather more easily. I spend odd moments in rehearsal trying to work out which words of the Hebrew text mean what, as much as I can. And I’ve heard more performances of the Janacek and have a recording, so I don’t have to concentrate quite so hard on unfamiliar notes. Also, Bernstein sets a longer text and there’s less repetition of it.

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the back of the conductor’s head

Posted on March 24, 2006 by vhk10

I went to the final performance of the revival of Wozzeck at the Royal Opera House. I shan’t attempt to review the performance here, but reviews are available online: e.g. the Guardian‘s or the Observer‘s.

As I saw the opera only last year I hesitated about going but in the end the pull of the music was just too strong. I didn’t experience diminishing returns, and each performance brings out different details – I can’t take them all in in any one hearing. There isn’t after all necessarily anything unusual or undesirable in hearing the same string quartet (for example) in two different concerts close together, and since the greater part of Berg’s music is contained in his two operas, you can’t really get to know it properly at first hand without going to them.

Fortunately a Berg habit need not be expensive and as I settled into row C of the stalls I reflected that it would have cost me several times as much to see an opera by Wagner from the same seat, thanks in part to an online offer which I discovered when I came to buy my ticket. Row C is a little further forward than ideal and I found a couple of heads between me and parts of the stage. On the other hand, another head I had a good view of the back of was that of the conductor, Daniel Harding. I’m not among those who have no interest in seeing conductor or orchestra during an opera, or who feel that to do so breaks the theatrical illusion. Particularly in a work where the orchestra carries so much of the drama.

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a reunion in Gloucester

Posted on March 3, 2006 by vhk10

I went to an old girls’ event held at Gloucester Cathedral by my old school (which actually wasn’t in Gloucester, or even Gloucestershire). After a guided tour and tea, we heard the choir sing evensong, for which they laid on the Bathwick favourite Stainer in B flat and Parry’s I was glad. Top B flats all round! I learnt something from meeting people; I may forget names and not have a memory for faces, but I do remember what instrument people played!

I had thought about going to hear the Exultate Singers perform Handel’s Dixit Dominus on Saturday and write a review, but I didn’t get there in the end. So I’ll write about Dixit anyway. This was a popular piece in my Cambridge days, and I performed it with three different choirs, once doing one half of the Dominus a dextris tuis duet. I always enjoyed singing it, although it was hard work and I always felt the last movement went on a bit too long, particularly when you suddenly went into B flat minor just as you felt the piece ought to be winding up. I also recall that the Bärenreiter score contained in the first movement one of the all time classic page-turns, at least if you were singing first soprano. But it’s a great piece. One conductor commented in rehearsal that it wasn’t that hard to write good four-part counterpoint, but good five-part counterpoint was an order of magnitude more difficult.

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the Coronation Mass in Worcester

Posted on February 23, 2006 by vhk10

Same Mass, but a different Cathedral and a different choir (Priory Voices). Of course this meant that the Mass was very easy after last weekend, the main problem for me now being resisting the impulse to come in at the solo entries.

This weekend brought a couple of new pieces for me to sing: at last, Casals’ O vos omnes, which I have heard broadcast many times but never performed myself. We also performed O Praise God, a setting of Psalm 150 written for this choir where the main difficulties were rhythmical. Fortunately many of these difficulties are passed on to the conductor or the organist, who in this case was Andrew Burr, the composer! Another Priory Voices standard was the evening canticles in G by Jack Hawes, written for St-Mary-le-Tower, Ipswich – I wonder if they are still in the repertoire there? [Oct 2013: I’m told it’s not in the rep there at the moment, but they would like to revive it!]

The main problem when singing at Worcester Cathedral is still balancing voices and organ – it is easy for the choir to be overpowered. I was pleased though to see that the Georgian house at the north-west corner of the Cathedral, semi-derelict when I last visited, is now apparently occupied and cared for.

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the Coronation Mass in Peterborough

Posted on February 13, 2006 by vhk10

This weekend I went with the Cathedral Chamber Choir to Peterborough, a Cathedral I have not sung in for a long time (I sang evensong there a couple of times with my Cambridge college choir, there being a College connexion with Bishop Feaver). One welcome change since then is the front choir stalls now have a thick cushion on them, at least for visiting choirs with adult sopranos, so that there is room for our legs!

It was quite a strenuous weekend, with new music to learn, a lot of rehearsal time and the Peterborough organ (which, like Salisbury’s and Lichfield’s, is tuned sharp). I made a belated entry into the Mozart anniversary celebrations (having missed singing in a performance of a Missa Brevis last weekend because of a heavy cold). We sang the Gloria/Sanctus/Agnus Dei of the Coronation Mass and I was one of the soloists. I have long used the Agnus as a solo item but in an arrangement which omits Mozart’s rather dramatic link to the ‘Dona nobis pacem’, which I now got to do.

There were three pieces new to me. I’d never heard of Tomkins’ Above the skies my Saviour dwells, a verse anthem with counter-tenor solo. Perhaps it doesn’t get done much because of the non-biblical devotional text. On Sunday morning the motet was Ego flos campi by Clemens non papa, the first sacred piece I’d ever sung by him. It’s a seven-part motet and had been edited by our conductor. There is a fair amount of dissonance in it but the individual lines are strictly diatonic. I’m afraid I found myself suffering accidental withdrawal symptoms after I’d rehearsed it a bit! On Sunday afternoon we sang O sing unto the Lord by James MacMillan, a very characteristic piece in its rhythms and ornamentation, and long organ postlude. I liked it as much as anything I’ve sung by MacMillan. (For the record, our responses were Tomkins and Rose and our canticle settings Caustun ‘Short’ and Stanford in A).

We weren’t able to rehearse in the song room (we used a part of the ambulatory instead) or anywhere in the Cathedral after the (early) evensong on Saturday. At this point we were able to use the handsome St. John’s parish church in the market square. But I found Peterborough much easier to deal with than some other Cathedrals when arranging the weekend, perhaps because not so many visiting choirs are interesting in coming there. I spent a fair amount of time in the city centre and was disheartened to see only one shop that was not part of a chain – apart from the Cathedral shop!

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minus 20 for Louise

Posted on February 3, 2006 by vhk10

Ever since the Metropolitan Opera began relaying its matinee broadcasts to us via the BBC, we’ve been keen listeners to the Opera Quiz in the interval. In fact, most years I send in a question, though to date they’ve never used one of mine. I was particularly proud of one from a couple of years back about casting (of metal objects, not matching singers to roles), using extracts from several of that season’s operas.

We noticed however, that the canon of operas familiar to the panellists was rather different both from ours and from the repertoire put on at the Met. Until a couple of years ago I would keep a running tally during each quiz based one which operas were mentioned, and see at the end whether the scores were positive or negative. A high negative score (over 100 was not unknown) meant that the panellists were drawing (I assume) on the Met’s former repertoire rather than what you might hear now there or at other major opera houses.

It was rather ad hoc but ran roughly as follows:
+10 or +15 points for any opera composed after 1945 (except The Ghosts of Versailles, see below)
+15 points for operas by Berg or Schoenberg
+10 points for any opera earlier than Mozart
+10 points for certain other operas at my discretion (e.g. Cherubini’s Médée)

-10 points for anything by Saint-Saëns, Gounoud (except Faust) or Massenet
-15 points for Andrea Chénier or Adriana Lecouvreur
-20 points for the following: La Gioconda, Louise or The Ghosts of Versailles (which was premiered at the Met – we got tired of hearing about it)

This wasn’t so much a value judgement on all these operas (I actually enjoy the last hour or so of Andrea Chénier) as a way of quantifying how out of touch some of the panellists seemed to be! However, I’ve given up on doing this now, as a new generation of panellists has appeared and even the old guard now only mention La Gioconda in an ironic postmodern sort of way, rather than as something assumed to be well-known to everyone.

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a dozen a day

Posted on January 27, 2006 by vhk10

A couple of weeks ago my daughter started having piano lessons. I don’t intend to document her progress regularly here, but the experience of watching someone starting out is proving fascinating. It’s all so far in the past now that I didn’t appreciate just how many bits and pieces there are to take on board for the first time, before you reach even a very simple level: learning where the notes are, playing with both hands at once, playing two notes together with the same hand, and triple time are some of the recent ones we’ve dealt with. We are using John Thompson’s Easiest Piano Course (which wasn’t around in my time) and A Dozen a Day (which definitely was).

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evensong broadcast from Bath

Posted on January 16, 2006 by vhk10

This Wednesday’s Choral Evensong broadcast comes from Bath Abbey. Someone from the Abbey told me that there had been broadcasts from there before, but the last one was in 1984. Certainly I cannot remember ever hearing one. A number of venues disappeared from the evensong broadcast circuit when the second weekly broadcast was dropped; these included St. Clement Danes church, Paisley Abbey and various Roman Catholic foundations. Perhaps Bath Abbey was also a victim of this.

I see that the programme includes Ascribe Unto the Lord by S. S. Wesley. At one time this piece used to be hashed up on a more or less annual basis in broadcasts, sometimes by choirs which were usually very good (the treble/alto verse section especially used to defeat them). In particular, it was the anthem on what I think was the worst evensong broadcast I can remember. However, I heard Bath Abbey girls and men perform it towards the end of last year and feel confident they’ll do it well. I shall be listening in and hope it may lead to further broadcasts.

One thing on the Bath Abbey website rather disappointed me. There is now a page for visiting choirs which invites them to sing on a Sunday or a weekend, but the possibility of doing an isolated Saturday Evensong isn’t raised. I do hope they aren’t being phased out.

(Sun 22 Jan) I think I second Jenny’s comment below. In fact there was a visiting choir at the Abbey yesterday which I went to hear, conducted by the conductor of the Exultate Singers! It was an RSCM regional ‘Cathedral Singers’ choir. I was pleased to see that they’ve now found a use for former girl choristers in some of these choirs, as women and girls were singing sop/alto. When I asked a few years ago about joining one, the organist at the church I then went to said ‘It’s all male!’ and that was that.

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