Choral Mass

At 5.45pm on Saturday 5th November 2011 RSCM Scottish Voices will be taking part in Choral Mass in St Aloysius' RC Church, 25 Rose Street, Glasgow G3 6RE.

The Mass setting will be Missa Brevis by Giovanni Perluigi da Palestrina (c1526-1594), and the communion Motet will be Ave Verum Corpus by William Byrd (c1539-1623).

St Aloysius' is a genuinely stunning building, full of marble and fine decoration, and this service promises to be the wonderful culmination of the 2011 season for the choir, performing beautiful music in the type of building for which it was written.

Hallelujah!

Quality!

One down, two to go

The first of three Glasgow Chamber Choir concerts over successive nights took place last night in Canongate Kirk on Edinburgh's Royal Mile.

A slightly lopsided concert at first glance, the first half consisting of two motets by William Byrd (c1540-1633), Ne irascaris Domine and Civitas sancti tui, sandwiching the magnificent Take him, earth, for cherishing by Herbert Howells (1892-1983) written for the memorial service of President John F Kennedy, interspersed with the piano pieces Prelude from Suite for pianoforte duet by York Bowen (1884-1961) and Nocturne from the same suite, all of which lasted about half an hour.  It seemed like no sooner were we walking on we were walking back off again, but it all made sense because the second half consisted solely of the comparatively lengthy Ein Deutsches Requeim (German Requiem) by Johannes Brahms (1833-1897), in the piano duet version arranged by Brahms himself soon after he composed the piece.

Having heard Bearsden Choir performing Brahms' full orchestral version of the Requiem just a couple of weeks ago in Thomas Coats Memorial Baptist Church in Paisley (coincidentally where the next performance of RSCM Scottish Voices is due to take place when we sing Choral Evensong there on 4th December) I definitely prefer the more intimate piano version.  That's not to criticise Bearsden choir, it's personal preference for an alternative arrangement of the music.

I have to confess I think we just about nailed last night.  I don't think a better performance of the Howells piece was possible (and in fact afterwards a musically knowledgeable member of the audience commented that he'd never heard a better sung recording of it) and in particular the first Byrd motet, which we sang spread out round the sides of the audience, was magical.  The Brahms itself was powerful when needed, and beautifully quiet when appropriate.  And the soloists, Emma Harper (soprano) and Anders Östberg (baritone) sang magnificently, accompanied by Ed Cohen and Jennifer Redmond on piano.

After the concert last night we went next door to the Tolbooth Tavern, where refreshments were consumed before the 2300hrs train back to Glasgow, some chips, and a bus trip back home.  So it was about 2am before I manasged to get to bed, tired yet happy.

Unfortunately the performance last night was marred a bit for me by the fact that in the afternoon I pulled a muscle in my back when stupidly trying to lift a speaker stand while I was twisted round.  It was a mild tweak, and if I hadn't thereafter been standing in one position holding a folder of music for hours I would have been fine by bedtime, but unfortunately that wasn't an option and it made the pain almost unbearable at times, taking my mind away from the singing.  It's a bit better right now though, and hopefully fully dosed up with painkillers I'll be fine for tonight when we do it all again in St Margaret's Episcopal Church in Newlands, Glasgow at 7.30pm.  And then again tomorrow evening at the earlier time of 7pm in The West Kirk in Helensburgh.  All with appropriate alcoholic refreshment afterwards, naturally!

Tickets are available on the door, costing £10 for tonight's performance and £8 for the Helensburgh one.  And there'll be a bar available at the Glasgow performance.

Bach and Handel

Glasgow Chamber Choir's next concert is on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th June in Glasgow and Greenock respectively.

The music includes Bach's Singet Dem Herrn, Handel's Dixit Dominus and Handel's Ode on St Cecilia's day.

The Dixit Dominus is fairly long and reasonably well known, so I haven't bothered with that one, but the other two are below.  The Bach is a recording by the very excellent Hilliard Ensemble, and the Handel, which is split into five parts, seems to be a recording of a rehearsal, with French subtitles!

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.

The Muppets: Bohemian Rhapsody

It's Queen and the Muppets, what's not to like!



Thanks to Andy for bringing this to my attention a while back.

On a slightly related topic, I'm off to see the musical We Will Rock You in the Edinburgh Playhouse tomorrow.  I've never been to any musical before, unless you count Riverdance in the same theatre several years ago, but I love Queen and I'm going with good friends so I'm really looking forward to it.  Doubtless a report on the experience will follow!  Oh, and it's the final day of the tour at the Playhouse before they go to Dublin, so hopefully it'll be a party atmosphere.  Or alternatively the cast won't give a shit and it'll be crap!

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!

Review of 2009

Well the choir of King's College, Cambridge are on the radio performing Nine Lessons and Carols right now as I sit here starting to type this, so it must be time for my third annual review.  How was Lay Clerk's 2009?

A bit mixed, to be honest, but then again such is life.  Much of what occupied my mind throughout the whole year concerns another person and according to the unwritten rules of Blogging which are solely in my head, I choose to keep that topic to myself.

Another unwritten rule is that I won't Blog about work, so apart from saying that I'm still enjoying it and we continue to be as busy as ever, I'll leave it there.

On the subject of work, a close friend was unfortunately made redundant at the start of the year, a victim of the worldwide economic situation, and for a few months went through a difficult time during which I hope I was there to offer what little support or help I could, and thankfully a new, better job was secured after a while.  Onwards and upwards.

I still sing with Glasgow Chamber Choir, mostly enjoying it but sometimes having to fight against my inner dislike of certain types of choral music.  On the whole it continues to be good fun, good musically, and a good bunch of people.

In 2009 my presence in the choirstalls at the Cathedral occurred more frequently and more regularly, and more or less every week I sing Choral Evensong on the Sunday, which I am thoroughly enjoying.

In about May the administrator of RSCM Scottish Voices, which was started the previous summer, resigned, and I was subsequently asked to take over that role.  It's been an interesting 6 months, most but not quite all of it interesting in a nice way.  I've registered a Domain name for the choir, but haven't yet got round to uploading the website which is sitting on my laptop.  In truth, this is mostly because I've forgotten how to go about having multiple websites hosted together but kept separate, since it's been such a long time since I did anything with any of my sites.  At some point I'll get the finger out and do it.  And if anyone familiar with creating and uploading websites to 1&1 using Microsoft Frontpage is reading this and wants to remind me how easy it is, I'd be obliged!  In the meantime I've also started a Blog for the choir, which is linked from the sidebar on the left.  If any RSCM Scottish Voices members are reading this for some reason, and they fancy having a go at sometimes adding choir-related content to our Blog, email me.

In May I sang with The Biggar Singers in an enjoyable performance of Morten Lauridsen's piece, Lux Aeterna, which involved about a hundred mile round trip every week to rehearse.  The choir's conducted and accompanied respectively by two members of Glasgow Chamber Choir who live down that way, and my few weeks of excessive travel pale into insignificance when set against them doing it every week coming to Glasgow.  And indeed two other GCC members travel from Dumfriesshire every week to rehearse!

A personal high point of the year was when I was asked to sing the tenor solo in a performance of Stainer's Crucifixion on Good Friday in Paisley.  My initial reaction upon being asked was "no thanks, I'm a chorister, not a soloist" but when I thought about it, knowing that I can actually sing the notes if not necessarily perform them as a "proper" soloist would, I thought why the hell not.  And so I did.  And it went well.  First time I've ever had my name on a poster! I have no ambitions to be a soloist, and while I'd possibly say yes if asked again, equally I am not at all bothered.

I paid another visit to Paisley later in April, but this time to the Paisley Beer Festival, which was most enjoyable and having been there two years ago is likely to become an annual pilgrimage, albeit I missed last year as I was in Calfornia.  I only went on one evening, but a fellow Cathedral chorister, Neil, took holiday from work and went every day.  Now that's dedication!

In July four of us from Glasgow Chamber Choir, having coincidentally and enjoyably sung solo parts together during a recent concert, decided to get together and sing together some more.  We've met twice so far, it's as much a social event as a musical one, and despite some (hopefully tongue in cheek) remarks from another couple of friends about "the elite group" it's just a bunch of friends singing, drinking and eating together.  We've performed together under the name The New Quartet in public once, a few days ago in a branch of a bank for charity, but who knows whether we'll do it again or whether it'll stay purely as a social event. 

After a break of 29 years, I met up with former schoolfriends at a wee reunion in Motherwell in April.  It was as though we'd only had a break of 6 months and we all got on great again.  An unexpectedly tremendous evening.  Another one, on a bigger scale, is planned for next year when it'll be 30 years since we left school.  And I foolishly offered to co-ordinate it.  It shouldn't involve much more than a few emails though, so should be OK.

On the subject of school, there is a sobering time in one's life when one's schoolfriends start dying.  In August Kenny Stewart was the first of us to go. Admittedly the lovely, intelligent, caring person Catherine Fellowes died in a tragic diving accident soon after we left school, leaving her massive potential unfulfilled, but Kenny is the first to die without having an accident.  He was one of my closest friends at school, and despite us having some differences in later years, you can't take away the fact that we grew up together.


In July RE and I made a weekend trip to the north east of Scotland to see friends, Stephanie and Martin, and to have a wee tour about.  It's an area of the country I happen to really like, and it was good not only to show RE round it, but to catch up with old friends at their barbecue. I've known Stephanie since the mid 1980's when she was a student at Glasgow University and joined the Cathedral Choir, so she's probably one of my oldest friends and although we don't see each other terribly often, it's good to catch up when we can.


In August my brother, his wife and daughter moved back to Scotland. They've been living abroad for about a dozen years, first in Dubai and then in San Diego, California.  For some reason they decided to come back to the Scottish climate, and it's great to have them here.  My niece, Jess, has joined the Cathedral Choir trebles, and seems to enjoy it I'm glad to say.  I was immensely proud to be asked to present her with her surplice at Evensong when she passed from being a probationer to being a chorister.  They hosted a Halloween party in October (on the 30th, funnily enough!) and the fact that they live in a castle (yes, really) made it all the more spooky!  Great fun.

August also saw a return visit to the World Pipe Band Championship at Glasgow Green, with RE, her cousin and his German girlfriend who were visiting Scotland.  It rained.  But it was a very enjoyable day despite the weather.

In September RE hosted one of her sisters, visiting from New Zealand, and I joined them for a trip to Linlithgow, their ancestral town.  It was the first time I've been there, and I can now recommend the Four Mary's pub in the main street.

In a much previous life I was a roadie and mixed the sound for a local band.  All very enjoyable, but in an amateur way.  A friend, Ian, does it for a living though, well, the sound engineer bit anyway, and ages ago I mentioned to him that if he was ever needing some semi-skilled labour (i.e. really unskilled!) then I'd happily come and lift and carry stuff around for him.  In September he called my bluff, and I found myself for two days being a roadie working on the sound crew at the Merchant City Festival in Glasgow.  With three outdoor stages and an indoor venue to be covered, it was hard work, a bit physical sometimes, and a lot to take in, but it was great.  I even ended up twiddling the knobs for one act, while Ian was called away to deal with a change of venue for another group.  All very basic stuff of course, but I'm glad to say Ian trusted me enough to leave me on my own, and I'm even gladder to say I managed to avoid fucking it up!  I'm looking forward to the next time, although I don't expect a change of career is due anytime soon!

The Institute of Advanced Motorists has taken more of a back seat this year, pardon the pun, although I did complete the necessary number of observed runs to continue as a Qualified Motorcycle Observer.  It remains to be seen however whether I'll continue next year.

I've started to get the flat a bit more sorted.  With the benefit of hindsight I realise that when I moved in I wasn't really in the right emotional frame of mind to do the decorating necessary, and as time went on I stopped seeing the faults.  I have now got as far as getting a quote from a decorator, and getting the hallway replastered.  Soon after Christmas I'll contact the decorator again and get him to come and do the business in the living room and hallway.


My general level of fitness continues to improve as I take advantage of the gym a few hundred yards from my house.  I even made it onto a running track with RE a couple of times, but that was very hard going at that time!  In the past few weeks I've slipped a bit, but my main New Year's resolution is to redouble my efforts.  And I WILL do it.

On a fitness topic, in 2009 I did something I never thought I'd do. I climbed a hill.  Not only a hill, but it was in fact a Munro. I've never ever ever been interested in hillwalking, and have been vocal about that opinion all through my life.  But RE persuaded me to try it.  Well I say persuaded me, but not proactively.  I just mean that her influence, unbeknownst to her, made me want to do it.  So she kindly agreed to "babysit me" up a hill.  I'd be lying if I said there weren't bits I didn't enjoy.  I slipped and fell up to my knees in a very cold stream; I slithered and slid my way down what was allegedly a "path"; I fell and staved my finger, but I bloody enjoyed it!  And I know that thousands of people do it every weekend and think nothing of it.  But this was me doing it.  Me who about a year ago looked as though he was about to expire after a very short climb up a set of steps to a scenic viewpoint in the Scottish Borders.  Me who a year ago hadn't taken any form of exercise for God knows how long, apart from when I tried badminton and spectacularly ruptured my achilles tendon.  Me who is a city boy who has always said he didn't mind walking as long as it was on a pavement.  This was me who walked up that Munro.  And it is still me who is immensely proud of having done it, and proud of his friend RE for having the patience, skill and perseverance to help me all the way.  Others may do it more often and with less effort, but we all have different abilities and different goals, and this particular achievement ranks highly for me.

So that's a potted history of Lay Clerk's 2009.  A mixed year, but generally a good one and ending better than it started.  Much of the above was Blogged about in depth at the time so if you've read this post in isolation it must seem pretty sparse of detail, and of course I've missed things out.  Not just deliberately missed things to protect other people's privacy, but simply because things will have slipped my mind.  Something which will hopefully never slip my mind though is to mention the love, friendship, and support of my closest friends, some of whom have been such for the thick end of 25 years, some for only a couple of years, but I value them all and thank them for their continuing friendship and support.  I won't name them, but you know who you are.  Thank you one and all.

Happy Christmas folks!

Corroboration

Well, what did I tell you.  Pop over to Kelvin's Blog and read about how he cried at Elizabeth Poston's Jesus Christ the Apple Tree during Choral Evensong yesterday.  Just like I said in my previous post, a fantastic piece and obviously beautifully performed on the night.

And I note with interest and some pleasure that he has praise for Choral Evensong in the Cathedral.  I couldn't agree more.  It's the best of services and has been sung relatively unchanged since the 17th century.

Oh, and the carol service with Glasgow Chamber Choir at Hyndland Parish Church went well, and all beautifully directed by our stand-in conductor Noel, a choir member and all round fantastic musician.  We are lucky to have his skills on tap, both vocally and while waving his arms on occasions.

A Festive Public Information Announcement

How very remiss of me, I've just realised I haven't publicised any of the Christmassy type stuff in which I'm involved this year.  So here goes.

Sunday 13th December

Tonight at 6.30pm in Hyndland Parish Church at 79-81 Hyndland Road in Glasgow, there will be a carol service in which Glasgow Chamber Choir is taking part.  In addition to GCC, there'll also be around 70 primary school children whose teacher is a member of GCC and they'll be singing some stuff on their own.

Also tonight St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow has their regular Choral Evensong at 6.30pm.  This isn't specifically a Christmas event, obviously, but is well worth mentioning because the introit they'll be singing is Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, an outstandingly lovely piece by Elizabeth Poston.  Last year's performance of it in the Cathedral caused shivers in the spine when the sopranos sang their "solo" start and ending incredibly beautifully and tenderly, and I would expect tonight to be the same.  Not that they don't normally sing beautifully, lest I get pelters from any of them for mentioning it as though it was out of the ordinary!  The other music is by Orlando Gibbons, Thomas Ebdon, Tomas Luis da Victoria, and JS Bach.  Anyway, I won't be singing Evensong tonight as I'll be in Hyndland with GCC.

Sunday 20th December

Next Sunday Glasgow Chamber Choir will be singing in the Usher Hall in Edinburgh at 3pm in the annual Christmas Classics - A Grand Christmas Gala extravaganza put on by the music entrepreneur Raymond Gubbay.  It's not our own concert, which is good because we have no organising or selling of tickets for it, and we are effectively the main "chorus" along with the NYCoS Edinburgh Area Choir, the Scottish Concert Orchestra, and the tenor Iain Paton and trumpeter Mark O'Keefe, all conducted by Robert Howarth.  Oh and we get paid for doing it, obviously.  Not as individuals (lest a representative from Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs is reading this) but into choir funds.  Tickets range from £13.50 to £30.

That night the Christmas Carol Concert at St Mary's Cathedral will take place at 6.30pm, and music includes The Lamb (John Tavener), Where riches is everlastingly (Bob Chilcott), Hail, happy morn (F. Walker), Cantemos a Maria (Dominican Republic traditional), Eg vil lofa eina þá (Bára Grímsdóttir), In the bleak mid-winter (Darke), and God to Adam came in Eden (John Barnard).  Quite an eclectic selection and I'm sorry to be missing singing in it at least partially because having learned the Bára Grímsdóttir piece a couple of years ago it gives me a sense of smug satisfaction to sing in Icelandic even if I have no clue what the words mean!

Monday 21st December

Glasgow Chamber Choir will be doing it all again in the Raymond Gubbay Carols and Classics concert in the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow at 7.30pm, this time with the NYCoS Falkirk Area Choir instead of the Edinburgh one, but everything else is the same. Tickets range from £17 to £29.50 for this one.

Much more importantly though, before the Monday evening concert, that afternoon between 1pm - 2pm you can hear a much less grand but no less worthy rendition of traditional carols in aid of Save the Children.  This will take place inside the Royal Bank of Scotland branch at 10 Gordon St, Glasgow G1 3PL.  Taking part will be a modest number of singers (four to be exact) including yours truly, and this will be the inaugural (and possibly only) public performance by The New Quartet which was "founded" earlier this year with the twin purposes of singing and socialising!  So if you're in Glasgow city centre on Monday 21st December at lunchtime, please pop in to the bank (it's next to the TGI Friday which is on the corner of Buchanan Street and Gordon Street) and show your support for this worthy charity and for the four members of The New Quartet.  And on the subject of the RBoS, they have received a hell of a lot of largely deserved bad press recently, but they actually offer an awful lot of support to charities, almost all behind the scenes and almost all unreported and unrecognised.  So all credit to them for that.

Thursday 24th December

On Christmas Eve Choral Eucharist (aka the Midnight Service) will take place in St Mary's Cathedral at 11.15pm and the setting is the Festival Missa Brevis by Frikki Walker, who is the Director of Music at St Mary's Cathedral and also of RSCM Scottish Voices amongst others.  The anthem is the hauntingly good O Magnum Mysterium by Morten Lauridsen who is one of the increasingly famous and popular group of American contemporary composers which also includes Eric Whitacre.  I've sung O Magnum Mysterium a few times before, and also his larger scale piece Lux Aeterna, and if you haven't heard his style of music before you should make an effort to, because it's worth it. As is Whitacre's.  And that's high praise from someone who generally dismisses much of what has been written since the 17th century!

Friday 25th December

Finally, well as far as Christmas stuff goes, Sung Eucharist will take place at 10.30am on Christmas Day in St Mary's Cathedral, and the setting is by Proulx & MacMillan, with other music being Cantemos a Maria (Dominican Republic traditional), and Hail, happy morn (F. Walker).

And then ....

And then begins a short break from singing.  Well, a week anyway! The Cathedral choir gets back in harness on Sunday 3rd January 2010, and Glasgow Chamber Choir starts rehearsing on Thursday 14th January for our next concert of British Classics which is on Saturday 20th March 2010 in St Mary's Cathedral in Glasgow (small world!) and Sunday 21st March 2010 in St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, and music 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

No doubt further adverts will appear before that though!

Other music things?  Well RSCM Scottish Voices will next meet on Saturday 16th January to sing a service in St Mary's Parish Church in Haddington, just east of Edinburgh.  Keep an eye on our Blog for more details of all our services, and of what to do if you feel you'd like to audition for the choir.

HSE guidance for singing festive songs

Thanks to Phil for the following guidance issued by the Health & Safety Executive in relation to the singing of festive music:

The Rocking Song

Little Jesus, sweetly sleep, do not stir;
We will lend a coat of fur,
We will rock you, rock you, rock you,
We will rock you, rock you, rock you:

Fur is no longer appropriate wear for small infants, both due to risk of allergy to animal fur, and for ethical reasons. Therefore faux fur, a nice cellular blanket or perhaps micro-fleece material should be considered a suitable alternative.

Please note, only persons who have been subject to a Criminal Records Bureau check and have enhanced clearance will be permitted to rock baby Jesus. Persons must carry their CRB disclosure with them at all times and be prepared to provide three forms of identification before rocking commences.


Jingle Bells

Dashing through the snow
In a one horse open sleigh
O'er the fields we go
Laughing all the way

A risk assessment must be submitted before an open sleigh is considered safe for members of the public to travel on. The risk assessment must also consider whether it is appropriate to use only one horse for such a venture, particularly if passengers are of larger proportions. Please note, permission must be gained from landowners before entering their fields. To avoid offending those not participating in celebrations, we would request that laughter is moderate only and not loud enough to be considered a noise nuisance.


While Shepherds Watched

While shepherds watched their flocks by night
All seated on the ground
The angel of the Lord came down
And glory shone around

The union of Shepherds has complained that it breaches health and safety regulations to insist that shepherds watch their flocks without appropriate seating arrangements being provided, therefore benches, stools and orthopaedic chairs are now available. Shepherds have also requested that due to the inclement weather conditions at this time of year that they should watch their flocks via cctv cameras from centrally heated shepherd observation huts. Please note, the angel of the lord is reminded that before shining his / her glory all around she / he must ascertain that all shepherds have been issued with glasses capable of filtering out the harmful effects of UVA, UVB and Glory.


Little Donkey

Little donkey, little donkey on the dusty road
Got to keep on plodding onwards with your precious load

The RSPCA have issued strict guidelines with regard to how heavy a load that a donkey of small stature is permitted to carry, also included in the guidelines is guidance regarding how often to feed the donkey and how many rest breaks are required over a four hour plodding period. Please note that due to the increased risk of pollution from the dusty road, Mary and Joseph are required to wear face masks to prevent inhalation of any airborne particles. The donkey has expressed his discomfort at being labelled 'little' and would prefer just to be simply referred to as Mr. Donkey. To comment upon his height or lack thereof may be considered an infringement of his equine rights.


We Three Kings

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

Whilst the gift of gold is still considered acceptable - as it may be redeemed at a later date through such organisations as 'cash for gold' etc, gifts of frankincense and myrrh are not appropriate due to the potential risk of oils and fragrances causing allergic reactions. A suggested gift alternative would be to make a donation to a worthy cause in the recipients name or perhaps give a gift voucher. We would not advise that the traversing kings rely on navigation by stars in order to reach their destinations and suggest the use of RAC routefinder or satellite navigation, which will provide the quickest route and advice regarding fuel consumption. Please note as per the guidelines from the RSPCA for Mr Donkey, the camels carrying the three kings of Orient will require regular food and rest breaks. Facemasks for the three kings are also advisable due to the likelihood of dust from the camels hooves.


Rudolph the red nosed reindeer

Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
had a very shiny nose.
And if you ever saw him,
you would even say it glows.

You are advised that under the Equal Opportunities For All policy, it is inappropriate for persons to make comment with regard to the redness of any part of Mr. R. Reindeer. Further to this, exclusion of Mr R Reindeer from the Reindeer Games will be considered discriminatory and disciplinary action will be taken against those found guilty of this offence. A full investigation will be implemented and sanctions - including suspension on full pay - will be considered whilst this investigation takes place.

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.

Hymn 3

Ever wondered why we never sing the WHOLE hymn?
(You might recognise the last six verses, but read it from the start and see if you can guess what's coming..!)

THE BREWING OF SOMA by John Greenleaf Whittier (American Quaker poet and editor, 1807-92)

"These libations mixed with milk have been prepared for Indra: offer Soma to the drinker of Soma."
(Vashista, translated by Max Muller.)

The fagots blazed, the caldron's smoke
Up through the green wood curled;
"Bring honey from the hollow oak,
Brink milky sap," the brewers spoke,
In the childhood of the world.

And brewed they well or brewed they ill,
The priests thrust in their rods,
First tasted, and then drank their fill,
And shouted, with one voice and will,
"Behold, the drink of the gods!"

They drank, and lo! in heart and brain
A new, glad life began;
They grew of hair grew young again,
The sick man laughed away his pain,
The cripple leaped and ran.

"Drink, mortals, what the gods have sent,
Forget you long annoy."
So sang the priests, From tent to tent
The Soma's sacred madness went,
A storm of drunken joy.

Then knew each rapt inebriate
A winged and glorious birth,
Soared upward, with strange joy elate,
Beat, with dazed head, Varuna's gate,
And sobered, sank to earth.

The land with Soma's praises rang;
On Gihon's banks of shade
Its hymns the dusky maidens sang;
In joy of life or mortal pang
All men to Soma prayed.

The morning twilight of the race
Sends down these matin psalms;
And still with wondering eyes we trace
The simple prayers to Soma's grace,
That verdic verse embalms.

As in the child-world's early year,
Each after age has striven
By music, incense, vigils drear,
And trance, to bring the skies more near,
Or lift men up to heaven!

Some fever of the blood and brain,
Some self-exalting spell,
The scourger's keen delight of pain,
the Dervish dance, the Orphic strain,
The wild-haired Bacchant's yell, -

The desert's hair-grown hermit sunk
The saner brute below;
The naked Santon, haschish-drunk,
The cloister madness of the monk,
The fakir's torture show!

And yet the past comes round again,
And new doth old fulfill;
In sensual transports wild as vain
We brew in many a Christian fane
The heathen Soma still!

Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
Forgive our foolish ways!
Reclothe us in our rightful mind,
In purer lives Thy service find,
In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard
Beside the Syrian sea
The gracious calling of the Lord,
Let us, like them, without a word
Rise up and follow Thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
Where Jesus knelt to share with Thee
The silence of eternity
Interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all
Our words and works that drown
The tender whisper of Thy call,
And noiseless let Thy blessing fall
As fell Thy manna down.

Drop thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
Thy beauty of Thy peace.

Breathe through the hearts of our desire
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let sense be numb, let flesh retire;
Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm!

The Hymn

The hymn comprises six verses from the poem (although most hymn books omit verse 4).  Soma is an hallucinogenic drink probably made from the fungus Amanita muscaria, or fly agaric, and used in Vedic rituals by Hindus in India in order to have union with the Deity.  In the poem Whittier sees the drinking of soma, like the use of incense and music in church, as distracting the mind from its proper purpose of worship.

    In sensual transports - wild as vain
    We brew in many a Christian fane
    The heathen Soma still!

After this catalogue of feverish distractions Whittier suddenly, with great effect, introduces the note of quiet: 'Dear Lord and Father of mankind', and the rest of the hymn in which is expressed the Quaker conviction that God is to be found in silence and stillness, through the inward peace of the worshipper rather than through outward stimulation and sensual excitement.  Biblical references include, verse 2; Mark 1:16-20, Matthew 4:18-22, verse 3; Luke 6:1-12, and verse 5; 1 Kings 19:11-12.

So, it's a hymn about why hymns are wrong and silence is right!  No wonder my bloody brain hurts.

The Music

This hymn is generally sung to the tune Repton, by Sir Hubert Parry (1848-1918).  Parry's tune was originally written in 1888 for the contralto aria 'Long since in Egypt's pleasant land' in his oratorio Judith.  In 1924 Dr George Gilbert Stocks, director of music at Repton School, set it to 'Dear Lord and Father of mankind' in a supplement of tunes for use in the school chapel.  Despite the need to repeat the last line of words, the tune Repton provides an inspired matching of words and music.  And it's one of my personal favourites.

Hymn 2

To the tune: Repton

Dear Lord and Father of mankind
forgive our foolish ways;
For most of us, when asked our mind,
admit we still most pleasure find
in hymns of ancient days,
in hymns of ancient days.

The simple lyrics, for a start,
of many a modern song
are far too trite to touch the heart;
enshrine no poetry, no art;
and go on much too long,
and go on much too long.

O, for a rest from jollity
and syncopated praise!
What happened to tranquillity?
The silence of eternity
is hard to hear these days,
is hard to hear these days.

Send Thy deep hush, subduing all
those happy claps that drown
the tender whisper of Thy call;
triumphalism is not all,
for sometimes we feel down,
for sometimes we feel down.

Drop Thy still dews of quietness
till all our strummings cease;
Take from our souls the strain and stress
of always having to be blessed;
Give us a bit of peace,
give us a bit of peace.

Breathe through the beats of praise-guitar
Thy coolness and Thy balm;
Let drum be dumb, bring back the lyre,
enough of earthquake, wind and fire,
let’s hear it for some calm,
let’s hear it for some calm.

Update 17th October: I forgot to make it clear that I'm not the author of this, and I don't know who is but if he/she wants credited then I'll happily do so.

Hymn 1

To the tune: Aurelia

Our church is mighty spiky with smells and bells and chants,
And Palestrina masses that vex the Protestants.
O happy ones and holy who fall upon their knees
for solemn Benediction and mid-week Rosaries.

Though with a scornful wonder men see our clergy, dressed
in rich brocaded vestments as slowly they process;
Yet saints their watch are keeping lest souls be set alight
not by the Holy Ghost, but by incense taking flight.

Now we on earth have union with Lambeth, not with Rome,
although the wags and cynics may question our true home;
But folk masses and bingo can't possibly depose
the works of Byrd and Tallis, or Cranmer's stately prose.

(Here shall the organist modulate)

So let the organ thunder, sound fanfares "en chamade;"
Rejoice! For we are treading where many saints have trod;
Let peals ring from the spire, sing descants to high C,
just don't let your elation disrupt the liturgy.

[author unknown]

Jump

Young Dudley Moore performs Jump.

This, for the uninitiated, is Anglican Chant, like what we do every Sunday at Evensong in the Cathedral when singing Psalms. Well, to different words, obviously!

I have a whole DVD of Dudley Moore and Peter Cook recording their iconic Derek & Clive stuff, and although it's been a while since I watched it I think this is a clip from it.

Please be aware - sound required, and Parental Discretion is well advised. Don't look at it at work.

Thanks to MDB for this.

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.

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!