Requiem

At 7.30pm on Friday 2nd November in New Kilpatrick Parish Church, Bearsden, Glasgow, and again at 7.30pm on Saturday 3rd November in Old Saint Paul's Episcopal Church in Edinburgh, Glasgow Chamber Choir directed by Michael Bawtree will give a concert of British Cathedral classic repertoire, including Requiem by Herbert Howells, Give unto the Lord by Edward Elgar, and a Sequence for All Saints by Kenneth Leighton.

Come along to one, you won't regret it!

My choirs

1975-1983
Holy Trinity Scottish Episcopal Church Choir, Motherwell


1976
RSCM Edinburgh Course
  
1977-1978
The Comyn Choir, East Kilbride


1977-1980
Dalziel High School Senior Choir, Motherwell
   
1978-1980
Decantus (Diocesan Choir of Glasgow & Galloway)

1983
Ayr Choral Union
 
1983-1989, 1993-1995, 2002-present
St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Glasgow
  
1991
RSCM Salisbury Course
 
1991-1996
The Marian Consort

• 1991 Wells Cathedral
• 1992 Wells Cathedral
• 1993 Lincoln Cathedral
• 1994 Norwich Cathedral
• 1995 St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh
• 1996 Winchester Cathedral

1992
Carlisle Choral Union
   
1992-1993
All Saints Church, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne
   
1992-1993
All Saints Chamber Choir, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne


1994-1997, 2001-2005, 2007-present
Glasgow Chamber Choir
 
1996-1997
Glasgow University Chapel Choir

• 1996 Dublin Tour
• 1997 Norfolk Tour

1999-2001
Glasgow Renaissance Singers (now called Cathures, for reasons not very convincingly explained on their Website)


2008-present
RSCM Scottish Voices


Timeline of choir membership

2nd Mar 1975

• Admitted as a Treble to the choir of Holy Trinity Scottish Episcopal Church, Motherwell.  It all started here folks!

Approx Jun 1976

• Around this time they dropped, so my voice broke, I sang Alto very briefly, then Tenor

Aug 1976

• Attended RSCM Edinburgh Course

1977

• Joined Comyn Choir, East Kilbride
• Joined Dalziel High School Senior Choir, Motherwell

1978

• Left Comyn Choir
• Joined Decantus (Former Diocesan Choir of Glasgow & Galloway)

1980

• Left Dalziel High School Senior Choir
• Left Decantus

1983

• Sang with Ayr Choral Union for one concert (Messiah)
• Left Holy Trinity, Motherwell
• Joined St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow

1987

• Sang in a choir of 600 in the Royal Albert Hall, London, in RSCM 60th Anniversary concert as the tenor representative of St Mary's Cathedral Choir

1989

• Left St Mary's Cathedral choir, Glasgow, moved to Newcastle upon Tyne

1990

• Took part in St Mary's Cathedral Round Scotland tour (full unaccompanied choral service in each of the 8 mainland Scottish Cathedrals in one day) to raise money for the Cathedral restoration

1991

• Joined St John the Baptist Church, Grainger St, Newcastle upon Tyne, but sang for one Sunday only
• Joined Musica Johannes (connected to St John the Baptist Church, Grainger St, Newcastle upon Tyne), left after one rehearsal
• Sang with the newly formed Marian Consort for a week at Wells Cathedral
• Attended RSCM Salisbury Course

1992

• Sang with the Marian Consort for a week at Wells Cathedral
• Sang with Carlisle Choral Union for one concert (Fauré Requiem)
• Joined All Saints Church, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne
• Became one of the founder members of All Saints Chamber Choir, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne

1993

• Left All Saints Church & Chamber Choirs - moved back to Glasgow
• Rejoined St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow
• Sang with the Marian Consort for a week at Lincoln Cathedral

1994

• Became one of the 11 founder members of Glasgow Chamber Choir
• Sang with the Marian Consort for a week at Norwich Cathedral

1995

• Left St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow for the second time
• Sang with the Marian Consort for a week at St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh

1996

• Joined Glasgow University Chapel Choir
• Took part in Glasgow University Chapel Choir tour of Dublin
• Sang with the Marian Consort for a week at Winchester Cathedral.  This was the final Marian Consort week, after which the choir disbanded.

1997

• Took part in Glasgow University Chapel Choir tour of Norfolk
• Left Glasgow University Chapel Choir
• Left Glasgow Chamber Choir

1999

• Became one of the founder members of Glasgow Renaissance Singers

2001

• Left Glasgow Renaissance Singers
• Rejoined Glasgow Chamber Choir

2002

• Rejoined St Mary's Cathedral choir, Glasgow (for the third time!)

2004

• Became Secretary of Glasgow Chamber Choir

2005

• Left Glasgow Chamber Choir again

2007

• Decided to take some time out from St Mary's Cathedral choir
• Rejoined Glasgow Chamber Choir (yet again)

2008

• Started back at St Mary's Cathedral as a part time choir member, only singing at Evensong
• Joined the newly formed RSCM Scottish Voices

2009

• Sang tenor solo in performance of Stainer's Crucifixion.  First time ever my name's been on a poster!
• Became administrator of RSCM Scottish Voices

British Classics concert

This weekend, i.e. today and tomorrow, Glasgow Chamber Choir is performing concerts in Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Today, at 7.30pm tonight, it's at St Mary's Cathedral, 300 Great Western Road, Glasgow G4 9JB, and tomorrow it's at the earlier time of 6pm in St Giles Cathedral, High St, Edinburgh EH1 1RE.

The music, as the title on the poster suggests, is all by British composers and includes

William Walton (1902-1983) - Coronation Te Deum; The Twelve
Jonathan Harvey (b. 1939) - Come, Holy Ghost; I love the Lord
Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625) - O clap your hands; Drop, drop slow tears; This is the record of John
Thomas Tomkins (1572-1656) - When David heard
Thomas Weelkes (d. 1623) - When David heard

I should have posted this earlier, but a variety of stuff has got in the way.  Last weekend I was laid very low by what I thought was food poisoning but upon my return to work on Monday realised that 6 out of 8 of us had it too and we hadn't all been eating the same thing.

On Friday morning (i.e. yesterday) at 0320hrs I was woken by a huge crash from the kitchen, and thinking that Elmo my cat had knocked something over I rushed through in a dazed just-awake state, to be confronted by the sight of the floor littered with glass and other debris, and disappearing out the back door was the housebreaker who'd caused it (in the rest of the UK, and probably the world, they're called burglars, in Scotland the crime of Burglary doesn't exist, instead it's called Housebreaking).  I'll probably describe that in more detail later, I don't have time right now as I need to head off to the rehearsal for today's concert, but suffice to say it has shaken me.  A lot.  An awful lot.

A Musical Whore

One of the joys of being a musical whore like me is that occasionally at short notice you get drafted in to sing in a concert without having to bother with rehearsals.  This is I think particularly true if like me you're a tenor, which for the uninitiated is the least common voice part and therefore if you are one you are often in great demand.

Yes this is actually leading somewhere.

Yesterday afternoon along with five other tenors I received a message via Facebook asking if any of us was available to sing in a performance of Handel's Messiah in the Usher Hall in Edinburgh with the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union at mid day on Saturday 2nd January (i.e. tomorrow).  Apparently the place is almost sold out and the audience will be in the region of 2000+ people.  So, musical tart here said yes.  It's been quite a few years since I sang that piece, but it's hopefully so ingrained into the consciousness that there won't be much sight reading required, if any, but there's a rehearsal at 10am anyway.  And it helps that Michael Bawtree is the conductor and he also conducts Glasgow Chamber Choir so I know he's easy to follow.

So my musical holiday is cut short slightly.  Oh well.  At least I'll get my money's worth out of the cheap "wear it a couple of times and throw it away" machine-washable DJ which I bought for the Raymond Gubbay concerts a few weeks ago.  Asda, £40 reduced to £30.  You can't go wrong!

Masses of the Masters

The poster is for Glasgow Chamber Choir's next concert weekend, in Glasgow and Troon.  Swiss composer Frank Martin's Mass for double choir is simply stunning, Olivier Messiaen's motet O Sacrum Convivium is a cracker, and what can one say about William Byrd except that he's brilliant.

Come along to one of the concerts if you can, you won't be disappointed.

I will apply myself diligently

I'm really looking forward to Choral Evensong next Sunday at the Cathedral. 

Not only is it good music: Thou visitest the earth, by Maurice Greene; Responses by Bernard Rose; Charles Villiers Stanford Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in B Flat; The Heavens are telling by Joseph Haydn, and there's a party afterwards, but the main reason is that my lovely niece JY is progressing from being a probationer to being a chorister in the trebles section of the choir and will be presented with her surplice.  It's a special day for her in the early part of her choral career, whatever form that eventually takes and however far she takes it, it'll doubtless be a special day for her mum and dad, and for her granpa, and her gran and her big sister who are looking down on her from a better place, and not least for me, as she takes the next step as a member of the choir which has been pretty much the biggest part of my life for over 25 years.  In fact, since December 1983 to be fairly specific.

It's great to have my brother and his family back in the UK.  They've been living abroad for about a dozen years, first in Dubai and then in San Diego California, and for some mad reason they decided to come back to the charming weather of Scotland a couple of months ago, but I'm really glad they did.  For sure it's a bit strange having them around, but strange in such a good way.  And having my niece join the cathedral choir pretty much as soon as they returned meant a lot to me.  I truly hope she gets as much fun and joy from singing in the place as I have over the years.

And the title of this post is from memory, a very distant memory, part of the "oath" I took when I was admitted as a treble chorister in the choir of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Motherwell way back in early 1975 when I made the promise to basically try my best.  The word diligently isn't the easiest to say at that age, and I don't remember many people in subsequent years managing to avoid the odd wee stumble over it!

I'm not given to public displays of prayerfulness or religion, although I have posted previously on the subject, but occasionally a prayer touches my heart and means a lot to me.  Whether it's for religious reasons or just for the poetry must remain for discussion over a pint or two (get in touch, I really mean that!), but one of my favourite prayers, which I hope will turn out to mean as much to JY, is kind of linked to the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) and is as follows:

The Chorister's Prayer

Bless, O Lord, us thy servants who minister in thy temple: grant that what we sing with our lips we may believe in our hearts, and what we believe in our hearts we may shew forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen

And the Latin motto of the RSCM is Psallam Spiritu et Mente which is from St Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth (1 Corinthians 14:15) as opposed to his first letter to the Fallopians which is another matter, and translates as I will sing with the Spirit and with understanding, but I think they've almost dropped it and have almost certainly dropped the wonderul coat of arms in the (misguided) rush to modernise and replace it with the one below.   Grrrrrrrrrrr.

Young person's guide to the choir

I'm obliged to RE for sending me the following, which is from this site although I suspect it originated elsewhere, since I've seen bits of it before:


The Young Person's Guide To The Choir

In any choir, there are four voice parts: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. Sometimes these are divided into first and second within each part, prompting endless jokes about first and second basses. There are also various other parts such as baritone, countertenor, contralto, mezzo-soprano, etc., but these are mostly used by people who are either soloists, or belong to some excessively hotshot classical a cappella group (this applies especially to countertenors), or are trying to make excuses for not really fitting into any of the regular voice parts, so we will ignore them for now.

Each voice part sings in a different range, and each one has a very different personality. You may ask, "Why should singing different notes make people act differently?" and indeed this is a mysterious question and has not been adequately studied, especially since scientists who study musicians tend to be musicians themselves and have all the peculiar complexes that go with being tenors, French horn players, timpanists, or whatever. However, this is beside the point; the fact remains that the four voice parts can be easily distinguished, and I will now explain how:

THE SOPRANOS are the ones who sing the highest, and because of this they think they rule the world. They have longer hair, fancier jewellery, and swishier skirts than anyone else, and they consider themselves insulted if they are not allowed to go at least to a high F in every movement of any given piece. When they reach the high notes, they hold them for at least half again as long as the composer and/or conductor requires, and then complain that their throats are killing them and that the composer and conductor are sadists. Sopranos have varied attitudes toward the other sections of the chorus, though they consider all of them inferior. Altos are to sopranos rather like second violins to first violins; nice to harmonize with, but not really necessary. All sopranos have a secret feeling that the altos could drop out and the piece would sound essentially the same, and they don't understand why anybody would sing in that range in the first place - it's so boring. Tenors, on the other hand, can be very nice to have around; besides their flirtation possibilities (it is a well-known fact that sopranos never flirt with basses), sopranos like to sing duets with tenors because all the tenors are doing is working very hard to sing in a low-to-medium soprano range, while the sopranos are up there in the stratosphere showing off. To sopranos, basses are the scum of the earth - they sing too darn loud, are useless to tune to because they're down in that low, low range, and there has to be something wrong with anyone who sings in the F clef, anyway.

THE ALTOS are the salt of the earth--in their opinion, at least. Altos are unassuming people, who would wear jeans to concerts if they were allowed to. Altos are in a unique position in the chorus in that they are unable to complain about having to sing either very high or very low, and they know that all the other sections think their parts are pitifully easy. But the altos know otherwise. They know that while the sopranos are screeching away on a high A, they are being forced to sing elaborate passages full of sharps and flats and tricks of rhythm, and nobody is noticing because the sopranos are singing too loud (and the basses usually are too). Altos get a deep, secret pleasure out of conspiring together to tune the sopranos flat. Altos have an innate distrust of tenors, because the tenors sing in almost the same range and think they sound better. They like the basses, and enjoy singing duets with them, because the basses just sound like a rumble anyway, and it's the only time the altos can really be heard. The altos' other complaint is that there are always too many of them and so they never get to sing really loud.

THE TENORS are spoiled. That's all there is to it. For one thing, there are never enough of them, and choir directors would rather sell their souls than let a halfway decent tenor quit, while they're always ready to unload a few altos at half price. And then, for some reason, the few tenors there are always really good--it's one of those annoying facts of life. So it's no wonder that tenors always get swollen heads; after all, who else can make sopranos swoon? The one thing that can make tenors insecure is the accusation (usually by the basses) that anyone singing that high couldn't possibly be a real man. In their usual perverse fashion, the tenors never acknowledge this, but just complain louder about the composer being a sadist and making them sing so darn high. Tenors have a love-hate relationship with the conductor, too, because the conductor is always telling them to sing louder because there are so few of them. No conductor in recorded history has ever asked for less tenor in a forte passage. Tenors feel threatened in some way by all the other sections: the sopranos because they can hit those incredibly high notes; the altos because they have no trouble singing the notes the tenors kill themselves for; and the basses because, although they can't sing anything above an E, they sing it loud enough to drown the tenors out. Of course, the tenors would rather die than admit any of this. It is a little-known fact that tenors move their eyebrows more than anyone else while singing.

THE BASSES sing the lowest of anybody. This basically explains everything. They are solid, dependable people, and have more facial hair than anybody else. The basses feel perpetually unappreciated, but they have a deep conviction that they are actually the most important part (a view endorsed by musicologists, but certainly not by sopranos or tenors), despite the fact that they have the most boring part of anybody and often sing the same note (or in endless fifths) for an entire page. They compensate for this by singing as loudly as they can get away with, and most basses are tuba players at heart. Basses are the only section that can regularly complain about how low their part is, and they make horrible faces when trying to hit very low notes. Basses are charitable people, but their charity does not extend so far as tenors -- Basses hate tuning to the tenors more than almost anything else. Basses like altos, except when they have duets and the altos get the good part. As for the sopranos, they are simply in an alternative universe that the basses don't understand at all. They can't imagine why anybody would ever want to sing that high and sound that bad when they make mistakes. When a bass makes a mistake, the other three parts will cover him, and he can continue on his merry way, knowing that sometime, somehow, he will end up at the root of the chord.


Top Ten Reasons for Being a Soprano

1. The rest of the choir exists just to make you look good.
2. You can entertain your friends by breaking their wineglasses.
3. Can you name an opera where an alto got the man?
4. When sopranos want to sing in the shower, they know the tune.
5. It's not like you are ever going to sing the alto part by accident.
6. Great costumes - like the hat with the horns on it.
7. How many world famous altos can you name?
8. When the fat lady sings, she's usually singing soprano.
9. When you get tired of singing the tune, you can sing the descant.
10. You can sing along with Michael Jackson.

Top Ten Reasons for Being an Alto

1. You get really good at singing E flat.
2. You get to sing the same note for 12 consecutive measures.
3. You don't really need to warm up to sing 12 consecutive bars of E-flat.
4. If the choir really stinks, it's unlikely the altos will be blamed.
5. You have lots of time to chat during soprano solos.
6. You get to pretend that you are better than the sopranos, because everybody knows that women only sing soprano so they don't have to learn to read music.
7. You can sometimes find part time work singing tenor.
8. Altos get all the great intervals.
9. When the sopranos are holding some outrageously high note at the end of a song, the altos always get the last words.
10. When the altos miss a note, nobody gets hurt.

Top Ten Reasons for Being a Tenor

1. Tenors get high - without drugs.
2. Name a musical where the bass got the girl.
3. You can show the sopranos how it SHOULD be sung.
4. Did you ever hear of anyone paying £1000 for a ticket to see 'The Three Basses?'
5. Who needs brains when you've got resonance?
6. Tenors never have to waste time looking through the self-improvement section of the bookstore.
7. You get to sing along with John Denver singing "Aye Calypso."
8. When you get really good at falsetto, you can make tons of money doing voice-overs for cartoon characters.
9. Gregorian chant was practically invented for tenors. Nobody invented a genre for basses.
10. You can entertain your friends by impersonating Julia Child.

Top Ten Reasons for Being a Bass

1. You don't have to tighten your shorts to reach your note.
2. You don't have to worry about a woman stealing your job.
3. Or a preadolescent boy stealing your job.
4. Action heroes are always basses. That is - if they ever sang, they would sing bass.
5. You get great memorable lyrics like bop, bop, bop, bop.
6. If the singing job doesn't work out, there's always broadcasting.
7. You never need to learn to read the treble clef.
8. If you get a cold, so what.
9. For fun, you can sing at the bottom of your range and fool people into thinking there's an earthquake.
10. If you belch while you're singing, the audience just thinks it is part of the score.

JUST FOR FUN: In order to measure your level of proficiency as a choir member, the following test has been carefully developed by experts. Read and reflect on each situation and then select the option that will enhance the quality of the experience.

1. You are entering the choir loft on Sunday morning and suddenly trip and fall down. You should:
a. Assume a kneeling position and break into fervent prayer.
b. Pretend that you've had a heart attack.
c. Crawl into the nearest chair.
d. Crawl quietly out of the church.

2. You are a soprano and count incorrectly. As a result you boom out a high "C" one measure too soon. You should:
a. Slide into an inspired "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing."
b. Look triumphant and hold on to the note.
c. Stop abruptly in mid squawk but keep your lips moving.
d. Sink to the floor in shame.

3. After all those long hard choir rehearsals, you show up twenty minutes late for the Christmas musical. You should:
a. Climb quietly into the back row of the choir.
b. Enter pretending to be a soundman checking cables and then suddenly slip yourself into the choir.
c. Turn the lights out in the church and slip into the choir during the blackout.
d. Read M. Stephen's pamphlet "Techniques for Tardy Appearances."

4. While singing, you discover you have only one page of a two page hymn. You should:
a. Hum for your life.
b. Sing "watermelon, watermelon, watermelon."
c. Try to get another hymnal out of the choir rack with your feet.
d. Sing the first page over again.

5. Inevitably that dreaded big sneeze occurs toward the end of the choir special. You should:
a. As you sneeze, come down hard on your neighbour's foot to create a diversion.
b. Try to make it harmonise.
c. Sneeze into the hair of the choir member in front of you to muffle the noise.
d. Sink to the floor in shame.

SCORING:
Count the number of A's, B's, C's, and D's you checked and find your proficiency rating below:

4 or more A's...there is nothing more you need to know to be a first rate choir member.
4 or more B's...your church choir reflexes are fully developed and you should do well in choir.
4 or more C's...your church choral experience is spotty but your team spirit is on target. You will be an asset to almost any choir.
4 or more D's...it is recommended you take soccer or group therapy counselling.

Orpheus Britannicus

You could do much worse than come along to Glasgow Chamber Choir's concerts this weekend in Perth and Glasgow.

Not only is the music by Henry Purcell and Benjamin Britten bloody good, but the concert is sponsored by First Drinks so we will be serving free, yes you read that right, free Hendrick's Gin at the interval!

Oh, and the Hendrick's Gin Website has annoyingly loud music on it that plays as soon as you load the page, sorry if you already followed the link!

So tonight, Saturday 6th June we will be singing in St Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral, North Methven St, Perth PH1 5PP at 7pm.

Tomorrow, Sunday 7th June we will be singing in St Bride's Episcopal Church, 69 Hyndland Rd, Hyndland, Glasgow G12 9UX, again at 7pm.

Tickets cost only £10, and that includes gin!

Go on, you know it makes sense.

Come and crucify Stainer

OK, I know t'InterWeb is global, but if anyone reading this is local to the west central belt of Scotland, sings, and fancies a go at the cheesy but strangely excellent Crucifixion by Sir John Stainer, then you could probably do worse than come along to Thomas Coats Memorial Church in the High Street in Paisley on Good Friday where there will be a Come and Sing The Crucifixion event happening as a fund raising exercise.

The choir rehearsal is from 3.30pm until 6pm, and tickets for that cost only £3 (or £5 including a copyright-free version of the score to use - not the Novello edition).

Or if you don't sing, but fancy listening, you could come along to hear the performance at 7pm that evening. Tickets for audience members are only £5 (£3 concession). And you probably still have to be fairly local to make it a realistic proposition!

Further information and a booking form for singers can be obtained from Matt Edwards, the conductor, who is the director of music at Thomas Coats Memorial church.

And I should mention that it's a particularly fine building, and well worth visiting for architectural reasons alone!

Why not give it a go? I'll certainly be there.

Choir Tour Tee Shirt

St Mary's Choir Tour 1990 - Tee Shirt Back Detail, originally uploaded by gordonrasmith.

I sincerely trust that gordonrasmith will not object that I've Blogged one of his photos from Flickr.

This is the detail from one of the tee-shirts from the 1990 St Mary's Cathedral Choir tour of Scotland which I wrote about recently. The printing on the tee shirts was exactly the same as on the red sweatshirts we were all wearing in the photo I posted. The black and white photo that is. So you'll just need to trust me that they were red!

In the post from a few days ago you can see one person, DW, centre row furthest left, wearing his sweatshirt back to front to show the map, which as you can see above contains times, locations and types of service in each cathedral.

Oh, and there's a cunning plan to do it all again in the 20th anniversary year. Next year that would be. A plan hatched in the pub after Evensong last Sunday.

So there's now a Facebook group as well as a Flickr group relating to the aforementioned cunning plan.

All we need to do now is organise it, so does anyone want to help ...............!

More history

St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow, circa 1994, originally uploaded by Lay Clerk.

Here's another historic one of the choir of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow, taken around 1994 by an elderly gentleman called Monty who was forever taking such photos around the cathedral on an ancient camera. Thanks to gordonrasmith for reminding me of his name, which I had forgotten.

There are some of the same people in this one as were in the one on my earlier post relating to the tour of Scotland of 1990, and some new people too. All friends though.

Happy days.

Choir tour 1990

St Mary's Cathedral, Glasgow, choir tour 1990, originally uploaded by Lay Clerk.

Just been doing some admin on Flickr, and came across this, one of my favourite photos. Favourite because this was a good time in my life. A very good time indeed!

In this choir tour of 1990, to aid the cathedral restoration fund, we visited all seven Scottish mainland Episcopal (Anglican) cathedrals in one day, and sang a full unaccompanied choral service in each with completely different music each time.

What a day!

And it all started from an idea mooted in the pub after Evensong. La Taverna it was, now called The Lansdowne, not that it matters!

It was the idea of Frkenny I seem to remember, or if it wasn't his direct idea then he was intrinsic to the whole plan. He's the one holding the teddy bear in the front row. I identify him only because in his own Blog he seems happy enough to have his photo published.

There are others in the photo who have an online presence these days, either by their Blogs, like ChickPea, or on Flickr, like gordonrasmith, or suchlike, but they, like me, choose relative anonymity so I shall not identify where they are in the photo, or indeed where I am. Several of them in the photo are also my friends on Facebook, which as an aside I have found to be a really good method of re-contacting old friends, and keeping up to date with what they're up to.

From memory, we started with Mattins in Oban at around 6am, having travelled there the night before, then an exciting (!) coach ride (with some nursing hangovers) up to Inverness for more Mattins, then Aberdeen for Eucharist, Dundee for Evensong, Perth for probably Evensong again, Edinburgh for more Evensong, and back to Glasgow for Compline at something like 10pm.

Now that I type that it doesn't seem right. The cathedrals and the order we visited them is right, but I'm not sure if the type of service I've quoted for each is correct, there seem like too many Evensongs! Perhaps someone can correct me, or reassure me that I'm right?

Update 1845hrs: Thanks to Pencefn for correcting me. Edinburgh was Compline, not Evensong.

According to AutoRoute, it's about 392 miles, and if you click the map you can see the route in a little more detail. We went clockwise.

The final Compline back at a packed St Mary's cathedral in Glasgow was very moving, and there were few of us who could actually sing the words of the hymn "The day Thou gavest, Lord, is ended" through the lumps in our throats and tears in our eyes. Or was that just me? No, I suspect not!

A recording still exists, I have one, but it was never meant for public distribution, since the quality is rather erratic, because due to the time scales involved we pretty much robed on the coach as we approached each cathedral, ran off and into the building where we processed straight into the service and sang it, processed out again and climbed straight back onto the coach. This left very little time for PH, and DW who are professional, no make that VERY professional, sound engineers to rush in and set up the recording equipment as we arrived and dismantle it afterwards before rushing back onto the coach. Oh, and they sang in the choir too! And I don't mean to suggest it's only the recording which was sometimes erratic, it was sometimes the singing too!

Many of the people in the photo above remain my closest friends, although for some we don't see each other terribly often. At the time though they seemed much more than friends, we were a family. Well, that's how it felt to me anyway.

Now that I look closer in fact, I can see that in the photo are my two best friends and three others who I consider amongst my very closest friends, one ex wife (still friends), one significant ex girlfriend (still friends), the man who generously and selflessly allowed me to live rent free in his flat (which he was rarely in) when my first marriage broke up and I was going through an extremely dark period in my life, the man who first introduced me to choral singing in the mid 1970's when he persuaded my brother and me to join the local church choir and who later persuaded me along to St Mary's cathedral choir, and the two men from whom I learned what little I do know about choral singing from 1983 when I joined the cathedral choir.

As well as that, if that weren't enough, there are people with whom I've shared some of the best days of my life (so far) with, some I've shared various levels of, shall we say, kisses and cuddles with (females, that is), and some who've supported me through the worst days of my life.

Occasionally the question is raised "in your mind, what age do you feel you are?" and there are various answers to that, usually round about the 18-21 mark. My answer is always "around 27-28" and I think that's because that's when I felt really happy, felt like I was starting to achieve something and thought things would remain exactly as they were. This photo was taken in 1990. I was 28.

This photo is a microcosm of a very significant part of my life.

And that's why it's a favourite.

Round 2, and furry things

My plan was to take advantage of being off work to get the gym attendance well kick-started. Oh, didn't I mention? I have 10 days annual leave left from my 2008 allowance which must be taken by the end of January, so I'm off for the first two weeks in January. Aren't you? Shame!

Anyway, back to the point. I had thought that maybe I'd go to the gym and/or swimming pool every day after my good start on Monday. But then for no particular reason I decided to take Tuesday off, and that afternoon I started to get a bit sore in the left leg. The one the achilles tendon got broke on. And yesterday, Wednesday, was pretty much a write off since I was limping around with the feeling of a dead leg in my left thigh. Although yesterday I did get the bus into Glasgow city centre and walked (ie limped) around for an hour or so, meeting RE for lunch when we went to Wagamama. The first time I've been there, but I suspect not the last.

But this morning my leg feels much better, and so at 0930hrs I got to the gym for round 2 of the fight to fitness. Hey, that's not a bad slogan! I didn't do so much this time, but I think I should probably realistically not keep going beyond the time when I initially think "that's enough" otherwise I run the risk of starting to not enjoy it. In all I was there for about 50 minutes.

This time I stayed away from the cross trainer and rowing machine, and spent 15 minutes on an exercise bike, 10 minutes on a hand bike (no idea if that's what it's really called, but it describes it reasonably well), and 20 minutes walking fast on a treadmill. On the treadmill I covered just over 2km at a maximum speed of 6km/h.

I suspect these might become my default machines, at first anyway, until I get a bit fitter and feel able and willing to spread my wings so to speak.

The other difference this time was that I took my MP3 player (note, not iPod, it's an iRiver which when I bought it I considered superior to the iPod albeit it's now a bit, well a lot, dated). This meant that I could ignore the semi-ubiquitous MTV, and instead I exercised to choral music including parts of a William Byrd Mass, the one for four voices, and some Tallis. Turned up REALLY loud!

On an unrelated matter, when I first moved from my hometown of Motherwell into Glasgow in about 1985, I lodged with JC, one of the other members of St Mary's Cathedral Choir in his flat in Hyndland in the fashionable west end. He moved away a while later, including a spell as a doctor in the Antarctic, and over the years I've lost touch, but thanks to Facebook I've just been in contact with him again, which is great. The benefits of modern technology!

On an equally unrelated matter, when I was in the city centre yesterday I decided to buy some new jeans, so went to Slater's Menswear. As I walked in I saw a sign intimating they were selling off ex-hire kilts, so I went for a look and, to cut a long story short, I walked out with a Prince Charlie Jacket, full dress sporran (furry, see right which is pretty much identical to the one I bought!), and dress sgian dhub.

And no jeans.

A total of £158 onto my Slater's account, and perhaps the strangest impulse purchase I've made for a long time! But at least now I have the full dress regalia and can decide whether to wear the kilt with big boots and a tee-shirt, semi formal with the Argyll jacket I bought (and Blogged about) in March last year, or fully formal with the Prince Charlie jacket and waistcoat.

Now, I must get back and buy some jeans!

Psalm 151

Psalm 151, as swiped from Sir Monocle, who in turn got it from Scelata, who got it from The Intrepid Soprano, who credits Sinden.org with it.

What goes around comes around!

I have to confess I think the pointing isn't very good and I'd definitely have done it differently, but the words are interesting!

I look forward to it being included in a forthcoming Evensong at the cathedral!

I should have said, click on the image to see a readable sized version. But you knew that already, you smarty-pants, didn't you!

Review of 2008

It's that time of year again when the TV, Radio and newspapers are full of their reviews of the activity and stories of the previous 12 months. Well I'm not going to be outdone! For your delectation (well, OK, it's actually totally for me as a cathartic exercise) here is how 2008 went for me. Not everything I'm going to mention has already been Blogged about, but some has.

Looking back at the review of 2007 I posted a year ago, I can see there have been some changes to my life in the past year. Almost exclusively these have been changes for the better.

The year 2007 ended with me having rejoined Glasgow Chamber Choir, and continuing to enjoy the experience. This coincided with me coming to the end of a difficult and sometimes turbulent relationship which had been going on for a bit over a year. I pride myself on being easy going and hopefully pretty calm much of the time, but my stress levels were through the roof for a significant chunk of the latter part of 2007. I didn't really Blog about this much at the time, it wouldn't have been right, but I can say now with the clarity of hindsight that this was a relationship I shouldn't have been in, and having been in it, it shouldn't have dragged on as long as it did. It did neither of us any good. And in fact it affected my friendship with other, better, friends too. Another pride I take is that I am still on good speaking terms with everyone (there are not all that many!) with whom I have had a significant relationship, whatever form that took, but this particular relationship having finished part way through the year and changed into a tentative, or possibly even tenuous, friendship, in January something happened which caused the other person to cut off all contact with me, despite my efforts to try to remain friends. I gave it a few weeks though, and after all calls had gone unanswered, including calls being rejected, I gave up and haven't thought about contacting her again. So another dark chapter passes!

The thing that happened in January was that I started a new relationship with RE, a member of Glasgow Chamber Choir. She had joined in September 2007 on the same evening I had rejoined, and over the next weeks and months we seemed to hit it off and seemed to enjoy one another's company, albeit always in a larger group, and so we eventually started dating. And we are still doing so, I'm very glad to say! It wouldn't be right for me to describe RE, or our relationship, or how I felt, or anything like that. So I won't. But she knows, I hope, and that's what matters.

In January, sadly, my gran died after a short illness but a long life. Needless to say I miss her. It was largely for her that I started tracing my family tree a few years ago (I currently have it traced back to the late 17th century in one of the strands) and since her death I haven't put any real effort into researching anything further. I fully intend getting back into it in the new year though.

Also in January I sat and passed my Institute of Advanced Motorists Advanced Driving test, adding that qualification to the Advanced Motorcycling one I passed the previous month. Since then I haven't felt the urge to become a Qualified Car Observer, but I persevered with the motorcycling training and in September 2008 I successfully passed the written and practical tests which make me a Qualified Motorcycle Observer, able to accompany and assist associates who are undertaking training to pass their own Advanced test. The season's finished just now of course, but I'm looking forward to carrying on with helping associates next year.

In March I spent a tremendously enjoyable long weekend in Marseilles with Glasgow Chamber Choir, where we sang in a couple of concerts (pretty stress free) and ate, drank and socialised a lot. I think part of the reason I enjoyed it was that it was my first trip abroad for ages, apart from the trip to Belgium in 2007 when I was in a plaster cast, and the first time away with RE. In fact up to that point our relationship was known only to a very small handful of people, but we had to come out the closet, so to speak, for the trip away so it was nice not to have to hide it from our friends any longer!

I've made my personal peace with St Mary's Cathedral. For a while I had no intention of ever going back, but I have and I'm very happy to have done so. My absence from the choir, and from the building generally, started with my achilles tendon injury when I couldn't walk or even stand without crutches, but it then developed into a wider problem connected with the relationship I was in. I should never have let that happen, but I did, but I'm glad to say that I'm back. I'm not singing in the choir full time at the moment, because they rehearse on the same evening as Glasgow Chamber Choir does, but I am for the moment one of the "occasional extra" singers drafted in when they need tenors. The other side of that coin is that if I see anything coming up on the music list which I'd like to sing, then I just contact FW, the director of music, and he's happy for me to come and join in, even if that means the choir has a boatload of tenors that evening! And in fact the choir is well blessed for tenors at the moment, there are I think about five of them, so I'm not really needed just now. But RE and I do attend Evensong most weeks, which is very enjoyable only not quite so enjoyable as actually singing in it!

This year, and I actually can't remember when it was apart from early summer or before, St Mary's Cathedral played host to a big Evensong service for the organist emeritus, Bernard Porter, who was celebrating a significant birthday. Lots of former choir members, including me, joined the current choir and made a spectacular sound. Some travelled from as far afield as the south of England, the north of Scotland, and New York to join the singing! And the socialising, funnily enough, was great!

In the summer, together with various friends including RE, I joined the newly formed Royal School of Church Music Scottish Voices choir. The initial meeting was a residential weekend at Strathallan School in Perthshire, which seemed to go well, not least because FW, from St Mary's Cathedral, is also the conductor of RSCM Scottish Voices. I should explain that the RSCM choir is not to be confused with Scottish Voices, which is a different choir. Apparently RSCM Scottish Voices is the equivalent of the RSCM Cathedral Singers in England, but they decided not to use that name in Scotland lest it offended Presbyterians and others who have no cathedrals! Political correctness strikes again! So they chose the name RSCM Scottish Voices instead, and presumably either didn't realise there is already a choir called Scottish Voices, or didn't care. Superb!

Anyway, next year's dates have recently been circulated, and it looks like it'll be a busy and enjoyable year.

In September my little cat Ernie fell ill, and after a short illness sadly died. I Blogged about that extensively at the time and have no intentions of reliving it here, since it was an intensely painful experience. I miss him greatly, as does Elmo, his wee pal.

One of the high spots of the year undoubtedly was my visit to San Diego, Califonia to visit my brother and his family. Made even better by RE joining me for the last few days when she was enroute back to Glasgow from New Zealand and made a stopover. I've Blogged a fair bit about the holiday, but I'm conscious that I still haven't told the full story yet and I owe this Blog the final installment, so I'll try to get to that as soon as possible!

I discovered in 2008, or it might have been late 2007, that my blood pressure had climbed alarmingly. It's now down to a better level, and I'm trying to get my act together to get to my local gym regularly in an effort to keep it down, lose a bit of weight, and get fit enough to do the things I want to do, which are many and varied! I've decided against taking up badminton again though, as I don't relish the idea of fucking up my achilles tendon again! Watch this space for details of my progress, if indeed I make any progress!

As ever, I make it my rule not to Blog about work. Suffice to say I'm still enjoying being in the particular department I'm in, doing the things I do, and tempting as it is to go looking for more money elsewhere, and it IS available, I'd rather stay where I am. For the moment anyway!

So, to sum up, 2008 has been a good year for me, not only on the relationship front but also as regards St Mary's Cathedral and trips abroad to sunny places. On the extreme down side, I lost both my gran and my faithful companion Ernie, but such is the way of life.

I've just re-read all of the above and realised it's a bit more of a random stream of consciousness than usual, so apologies for that. If I could be arsed I'd edit it into some better chronological, or at least logical, order, but I can't!

Anyway, Happy Christmas and a successful 2009 to you all, and I refuse to go down the political correctness route and use weasel words detracting from Christmas. If you are offended by my wishing you a Happy Christmas rather than Happy Holidays or similar, then perhaps you're reading the wrong Blog and I invite you never to darken my URL again!

Stuff your friend

Stuff your friend, originally uploaded by Lay Clerk.

I realise that it's been a while now since I was in San Diego, and it seems almost like a distant memory, but I haven't forgotten that I still have a few days of travel log to catch up with (or should that be "up with which to catch"?). I have the bare bones of it saved as a draft post and I'll get to it as soon as I can.

In the meantime, the image above is of a small billboard in San Diego Zoo. I think it's connected with a teddy bear manufacturing retail outlet.

Or is it?

You decide!

On a slightly related note, but only slightly, earlier in the year I was in Marseilles for a very enjoyable long weekend of socialising and singing with Glasgow Chamber Choir, while we were visiting our twin choir La Maîtrise Gabriel Fauré and during the early part of the weekend we were treated to a reception by the French choir.

During the socialising I noticed a poster advertising some sort of ice lolly, for licking, obviously, which I couldn't resist photographing, and which is reproduced on the right.

I make no further comment apart from the observation that it might sell well if it were available in the UK!

The message

Interesting version of Gabriel's Message, sung by the Edinburgh Singers, with some great oboe playing.

Jumping around and singing on the phone

A while ago I posted about the incompetence of my local council-run gym when they failed twice to give me an induction session despite me having booked it both times. The jury was out as to whether they were going to get a third go at it, but I'm afraid the much-cheapness of their deal has won against local privately-run gyms, and I've now booked, for the third time, an induction session for tomorrow evening. I've even paid in advance for it this time, so it'd bloody better take place!

On a related topic, I had a blood pressure check this morning at my GP, and I'm glad to report that it's now down to a much less deadly level! A few months ago it was something like 140/115 and it's now about 105/81. Put in an over simplified way, it's the bottom reading, the diastolic one, which is important because that's the pressure when the heart's at rest, rather than the higher, or systolic, figure, which relates to the heart pumping the blood.

The weekend just past was a busy one musically for Glasgow Chamber Choir, as we had concerts in both Glasgow and Edinburgh. They both went well, on the whole, although there was one bowel-loosening moment in the Edinburgh concert on Sunday when I came in on a completely exposed (i.e. the only part singing) top G tenor entry without the company normally offered by my two fellow first tenors! It all happened in a flash, as I sang the German word "Ein" very briefly, then stopped dead and my neighbour then sang the same word and note in the next beat after which the other first tenor and I joined in and we carried on as if nothing had happened. Except I was thinking something like "bollocks bollocks bollocks bollocks bollocks" for the next few minutes. How could I have ruined the piece, I was thinking. Oh well, that's life.

Only, in the pub afterwards, our music director told me that the other two first tenors clearly owed me a pint as I had been right and they were wrong, although in my own mind I now think I should have had the courage of my convictions to keep going instead of stopping, but it all happened so quickly that my subconscious took over and I didn't have time to rationalise what was happening, and that can't be helped. The knowledge that my original entry was correct helps my conscience though!

After the Glasgow concert we had some wine and nibbles in the church hall, which was OK as far as it went, but as a party venue it rather lacked atmosphere. Not helped of course by my one glass of wine, since I had decided to drive there.

After the Edinburgh one though, we adjourned to the pub next door. I can't remember the name off hand, although I should try as it's another one to add to the my pubs page of my Website, which is an ongoing effort to list every pub in which I've ever had a drink. It's a long page! After two or three pints of Deuchars IPA, a very fine pint and well worth trying if you get the chance, and an exceptionally ordinary cheese and onion toastie, the world seemed at peace. The train journey back the 50 miles to Glasgow, then the bus journey home, didn't seem so bad either. It was a good crowd of friends, so that helps.

I forgot to mention my new boys' toy. After a year and a bit of using a Palm Treo mobile smartphone, it was time to speak to Vodafone about an upgrade again, so after taking advice in the shop, and having a look around and a read at some specifications, I chose a Nokia E66, and at the same time upgraded my monthly tariff from £25 a month including 125 free call minutes, to £35 a month including 500 free minutes, 100 free SMS messages, and unlimited mobile Internet access.

My average monthly bill recently has been £38, so in fact I'm paying roughly the same as I have been, but with more free minutes, and Internet access thrown in. And in fact, having been given a couple of months of free insurance for my Palm Treo last July, I found out at the weekend that it seems like I forgot to cancel it after the free period was over, so I've been paying just under £7 extra every month over and above my tariff, making an average spend of about £45 per month recently! So that's cancelled now!

I'm still playing with it, sorry, finding my way round the functionality of it, but I'm very impressed so far. I like the solid feel of the slider, it's the first slide phone I've had, and the functions are good. Like GPS navigation, which I can use at no extra cost since I have Internet access, and the FM radio, which I haven't had on a phone for a few years now.

Blatant concert advert

Glasgow Chamber Choir is performing in Glasgow and Edinburgh next weekend, 22^nd and 23^rd November 2008, and I hope you don’t mind me reminding you of it.

In fact, since 22^nd November is St Cecilia’s day, and she is the patron saint of musicians and church music, it seems right that you should come to the concert on that day!

As you can see from the image of the poster it’s a progamme of Germanic choral music, and includes a combination of UK and Scottish premieres of some works by Hans Gál, who fled Vienna to settle in Edinburgh when Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, living and working there until his death in 1987. Other pieces are by Schütz and Brahms.

I’m not sure about the Edinburgh concert, but I believe there will be wine available at the Glasgow one, and as ever it’d be great to see you there for a small refreshment after the concert. Of course, you’ll be able to have a refreshment at the interval too, but I won’t!

The Glasgow concert, on Saturday, is in the rather lovely St Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Newlands at 7.30pm. St Margaret’s is at the corner of Kilmarnock Road and Newlands Road, just south of the main shopping at Shawlands, and 375 yards south of Pollokshaws east railway station. (map)

The Edinburgh concert, on Sunday, is at the earlier time of 4pm and is in the historic Canongate Kirk, which is at 153 Canongate, near the bottom of the Royal Mile and not too far from Holyrood Palace. (map)

You can buy tickets at the door for each concert, beforehand from any choir member or, thanks to modern technology, you can buy them online for the Glasgow concert by following this link. If it works.

Hope to see you at one or both.

Good and bad

The cartoon on the right is great.

In almost every choir of which I've been a member, every one of the characters depicted has been a member. I'm sure I've probably been some of them at various times too! And in fact, I proudly admit to being The Traditionalist.

Thanks to Sir Monocle, from whose Blog I shamelessly stole it!



Two things mark today out as different from the norm.

One year ago today, I became divorced. This was not a good thing. Not at all a good thing.

And this evening I went back to the IAM Glasgow North Group for the first time in almost exactly two months, and was asked, given the long break I'd had, whether I wanted to sit the Qualified Observer Practical Test which they'd been waiting to offer me. Which I did want. And did do. And passed. This was a good thing. A very good thing.

So, the divorce. Amicable, yet these things are never ever painless. In retrospect, and with the clarity of 20/20 hindsight, it was the right thing to do to separate. Yet one never truly gets completely over such a thing, and by that I don't want to suggest that I wish we were together again. We have both moved on and, I think and hope I'm right in saying, we are both happy. I know I am. Every now and then though, in the privacy of my own head .......... well, you know, it hurts.

The motorcycling then. I haven't been back to the IAM for a while. There have been reasons for this, which I haven't Blogged about, but I will now. In fact I can copy and paste part of a posting I placed on the IAM Scottish Motorcycle Forum a while back. The rest of the post is of no relevance here, but the following bit might be:

"........ As an aside, right now I'm not sure whether I'll continue along the route to being a qualified observer, but that's because on one of my last runs I had a bad time of it over the Duke's Pass, and now, if the truth be told, I have a confidence crisis as far as my riding is concerned. I know the object isn't to go as fast as you can, I've never been of that opinion (I ride an R1100RT for God's sake!) but my associate on that run left me standing and I really didn't enjoy that evening, ending up feeling like I'd no right to be observing. The senior observer helped that evening, pointing out that in his opinion the associate had been riding too fast, and being of the opinion that I shouldn't have tried to keep up with him (that's where I went wrong), but the mental damage was done by then! I'll hopefully get over it at some point, but I don't feel like going back for the moment.

.........."

The Duke's Pass, for those outwith these shores, is a VERY twisty country road north of Glasgow, and during that run I was so far outside my comfort (and probably safety) zone that I felt sick. I have never previously ridden, and will never ride again, any motorcycle let alone a 44 stone tourer at that sort of speed over that sort of public road. And for the avoidance of doubt, at no time did we come close to breaking the speed limit.

So what prompted me to return? Frankly, it was the list of names of others who had recently passed as Qualified Observers which was in the quarterly newsletter I received a few days ago. I thought, if they can do it, then so can I. One of them in fact started out on the observer training the same evening I did.

I still, in the dark recesses of my warped mind, think I am pretty new to biking, since I didn't take it up until I was well into adulthood, so I tend to think that every other biker I meet has more experience than me. But then I consider the facts.

• I passed my motorcycle test in 1996, 12 years ago. Almost all the IAM associates to whom I've spoken, and a hell of a lot of the full members, have been riding for less time than that.
  
  
• Most motorcyclists ride maybe up to about 5000 miles a year. I worked as a bike courier for a year, riding about 1000 miles a week in all weathers. That was a steep learning curve. Last year I rode about 8500 miles.
  
  
• Until my present bike, all previous ones have been my only form of personal transport so I rode them all year round. If I could dig it out the snow I'd ride it. No fair weather biker, me.
  
  
• I passed my advanced riding test after only 4 observed runs. In other words, I was already pretty much at the advanced standard and just needed polishing up on some points.
  

And suddenly my confidence crisis disappears. And the weight lifts.

It's a bit like singing. Years ago, a LOT of years ago, I was occasionally asked to sing a solo in the cathedral choir. I would manage it OK, but would tremble and shake so hard while performing it that I could hardly focus on the music in my hands! For no good reason, out the blue, I had an internal conversation with myself, which went along the lines of "Fuck it! If anyone listening to this could do it better than me, then they'd be up here singing it, so I have nothing to fear." The shaking then stopped. I'm not for a moment suggesting that I am a brilliant singer, that's not the point, it's just that one needs self confidence to do certain things, even if that self confidence doesn't necessarily stand up to close scrutiny!

But that's enough Blogging for tonight I think. I am halfway through a large glass of whisky, partly to drown my sorrows on this anniversary, partly to celebrate having passed another milestone in my journey towards being the best rider I can be, and partly because I am happy having spoken to RE earlier, who always cheers me up, makes me laugh, and makes me feel wanted. Thank you.