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Midwinter In Mid-Autumn

Our Christmas repertoire is saccharine sweet. There is nothing wrong with that per se, and I am very fond of cheesiness, but by the time we get to the end of rehearsals I have toothache from the schmaltz. Case in point, the two songs we rehearsed yesterday. The first is Midwinter, but not the Holst version which everyone is better acquainted with. No, we are doing the modern Chilcott arrangement as suggessted by Ben L. It has lush harmonies and sounds wonderful - making me think of hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows. Even with the difficult mid-section for the tenors, all I want to do is wrap up in a warm fleece and pet a reindeer.

Nothing, however, can compare to the stilton-fest which is Merry Christmas, Darling. As Simon W noted, the phrase "Merry Christmas, Darling" doesn't actually come until the very end of the song, but that doesn't stop the song, in true Carpenters fashion, from laying on the emotional manipulation thickly right from the first note. Love it!

With just two or three more songs left to learn (I think they are the Christmas Medley and Rocking Around The Christmas Tree) Mladen has set us the task of memorizing the two songs we rehearsed this week for next week. Looks like it is nose to the grindstone/ sheet music then!

Take On Me - Literally!

This video seems to be doing the rounds. I'm about to head off for rehearsal but I'm humming "Talkin' away, I don't know what, I'm to say, I'll say it anyway, today isn't my day to find you." Er... yesssss... This version at least makes sense!

Mantyhose

The Pink Insider has been busy investigating alternative informal performance gear, and thinks he has struck gold with this one. After all, not everyone wants to wear feathers (or loin cloths). And how do you come up with an outfit which suits the very diverse shapes and sizes which make up the choir? My initial thought was pink body paint, a la the Tango man, but in cerise of course. But then I thought, why paint it on when you can just roll it on in the form of panty hose?

I hear you scoffing, but there is a campaign called e-MANcipate whose purpose is to promote the wearing of so-called "mantyhose" by the unfairer sex. After all, great men of the last two centuries wore doublets and hose, so why not today? That said, I am not entirely convinced of the patterns the site promotes, and the mantyhose would have to be opaque or the emergent rats nest of matted hairs will be enough to make audience members close enough to see us reach for their sickbags!

I also note that the e-MANcipate also asks the important question, "Is pink too femmy for men?". The correct answer of course being, "Of course NOT!"

Hats!

Last season my fetish was beards, this season, I think I am getting into hats. The main advantage of this is that (a) I don't need three months to grow a hat and (b) an accident with a razor is not likely to fell a hat with one swoop. in fact, I have always been somewhat into hats, but there is a certain affectation about them which I find annoying. Most hat blogs comment how fashionable it is to wear a trilby because Lindsay Lohan or Justin Timberlake are wearing them. Nothing is more off-putting! Instead, I think the style icons should be like this chap here, a guy snapped on the streets of New York by one of my favourite voyeuristic blogs Advanced Style. Now there is inspiration!

Of course being almost entirely ignorant of different styles of hats, I thought a bit of education is in order, so here is my idiots' guide to different brimmed hats:

The Fedora
The top of the hat, the crown, has deep creasing on the sides or the top. The brim is broad and often turned down in the front. A typical fedora is as seen on Indiana Jones, or if you are into the whole film noir genre then most any detective with a trench coat is also wearing a fedora.

The Trilby
Like the fedora, the trilby has a similar crown which is pinched. Unlike the fedora, however, the brim is much shorter and may be worn turned up at the back. Inspector Clouseau is your typical trilby hat wearer. A variant of the trilby is the stingy-brim tribly which has a brim much more like a pork pie hat (see below). The stylish gentleman at the top of this post is wearing a stingy-brim trilby, as indeed is the hat pictured here.

The Pork Pie
This hat looks like a pork pie, hence its name. The brim is thin, and the crown is short, rounded and flat-topped. The indentation goes all the way around the hat.

Have You Heard The Angel Voices?

This picture is not entirely gratuitous. We actually rehearsed Rutter's Angels' Carol yesterday, and there were indeed angel voices to be heard, all the way from our new-found butch basses and their low F rumbling, through the choir to the marvellous top sopranos who were delicately hitting the high G at the end. For a first run-through, and considering that we had the open meeting right in the middle of the rehearsal, I think we did a really creditable job of it. Certainly, we sounded much better than many of the recordings you see littered across YouTube. I'm scared to link to them because some of them are just so bad. The tenors still have problems getting the 'Glo-o-o-ri-a-a-a i-in ex ce-el-si-is!', but we are getting the hang, I think, of spreading three words or 7 syllables across 14 notes.

Part of the speedy take up this time round is due to the new Pinkies who are just wonderful, quick to learn and enthusiastic. This is the first week with confirmed members, and there are so many of them! I've still not had a chance to meet all the new basses yet, and as always I will probably only get a chance to speak to the new altos towards the end of the season. That said, they are all really friendly and haven't seemed to have had any problems at all fitting in. I know that to new Pinkies Mladen and Simon both look like they have fierce bites, but I also know what big softies they really are! Liang, the biggest softie of them all, keeps referring to the newbies as his 'babies' and to a certain extent they are. He certainly impressed me yesterday by going through all their names.

I won't talk much about the open meeting, apart from to say that it always amazes me how divergent people's opinions about certain topics in the choir are. The open meetings are a really great opportunity to talk about things, and I have to congratulate Mark, our fabulous chair, for keeping it moving along, making sure everyone who wanted to say something could, and coming up with action plans. The one I am really waiting on is Karin, Mel and Liang's proposals for our new informal outfit. Can't wait!

Glo-o-o-ri-a-a-a i-in ex ce-el-si-is!

Gay, Geeky, German

Okay, as I've mentioned before, I am quite geeky, and I really like my gadgets and my computers. My current phone, which I have had for a couple of months is an HTC Touch Diamond, and I totally love it, but with the pace of technology, you just knew it was going to be supplanted. Indeed, the bigger, better version of my phone is going to be out, allegedly in November, and is called the HTC Touch HD. I won't bore you with the specs apart from to say that it is bloody gorgeous.

What's this all leading to I hear you ask? Well, I was searching YouTube for footage of this new phone (yes, I know) and came aross this show above. It is in German and is some kind of technology news programme, and it does have a great video review of the Touch HD. But the surprise bonus is the host of the show who set even my defective gaydar off from the moment he appeared on screen, and the footage of him singing Super Trooper as well as his chanting "Madonna... Madonna... Madonna..." in the blooper reel at the end. It made me chuckle. You are not alone my friend.

Welcome To The Family!

Well, the first three weeks of term are out of the way, and the new members have now formally joined the Pinkies. As I mentioned previously, it has been a bit of an odd season already, particularly since the interest this year has been so strong that we couldn't really accomodate everyone who wanted to join. The final tally came to 35 people who expressed an interest, 29 people who actually came to the rehearsals and 2 people who decided that the choir was not for them (it is a huge commitment!) So of the 27 who were voice-checked we could offer places to 21, as that takes us to the full complement of 18 per section, or 72 in total.

On Sunday I just couldn't believe how large the choir looked. On that day alone the tenors occupied three rows, and the number of newbies nearly outnumbered the oldies in that section. And they were all incredibly talented as well. I sat next to a young bloke called Oliver who quite easily sang through Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day without problems, and some of the new tenors like Gareth, Simon and Tom have outstanding voices.

This does have significant implications for our voice checks of course. As Michael De says, our voice checks are just that - they check whether you can hit a note and what your range is. They also reveal whether you have insight into any errors you may make, and whether you can learn to correct them. These are the basics of being in a choir which are essential to all singing members. However, we are not a pro choir, and we do not have auditions where traits such as vocal quality are assessed. That said, even based on the simple criteria we do use it is possible to see who has a better range and who learns the music faster and is more self-aware, and in the situation facing us this season, with a limited number of places, these things do count.

I am very happy for the newbies who made it through to the singing group, and I am sure they are elated about it - I know I was. However, I think my heart really goes to those whose vocal range was just that little bit too narrow, or whose notes were just that tiny bit off, to join the choir. In no way does this reflect on them; it is just a result of the overall higher standards this season.

The other thing to reiterate as well is that while one would assume that the choir is just about singing it is not. We have a very active social scene which encompasses the non-singing members of our choir as well. This includes all those people who help with staging the concerts and organizing events, the 'choir camels', as Martin (Philip R's other half) refers to them. And who is to say that next season there won't be more opportunities for the non-singing members to join the singing group?

Welcome, singing and non-singing members to the Pink Singers family! We are very pleased to have you here.