Don’t know what you started
A little singy doodle that popped out of my head this evening:
Don’t know what you started (MP3, 35 seconds ish, 912KB)
A little singy doodle that popped out of my head this evening:
Don’t know what you started (MP3, 35 seconds ish, 912KB)
That’s me, that is, with three of my singing buddies, performing at the 10th anniversary of Singing in the Round earlier this year. We sang this a little too fast, and I fluffed it in the third verse where I ran out of breath and had to miss out a word. Ooops.
I wrote this song about 18 years ago. Now, thanks to Garageband, I can foist it on you:
Short song (mp3, 256KB, about 15 seconds long)
A traditional Jewish folk song (so I’m told), as arranged by [Eileen](http://www.eileenjohanna.com) and sung by her, Jane Harris, Martin Sandbrook and myself. We shall be performing it on stage next week.
Sometimes, silly songs appear in my head – ping! – like that. Here’s this morning’s one, which arrived as I made a cup of tea:
And there’s another one (MP3, 512KB, about 20 seconds)
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Saturday was spent enjoying a day-long singing workshop – “Forgotten Carols”, lead by the inspiring and hugely talented Ali Burns. Many of my fellow singers were there, but it was quite different to our usual Thursday evening sessions.
Ali worked us very hard. We were learning our parts by ear, with Ali singing them briefly before getting us started with a barked: “Go!” By the time we’d learned one song, we’d mostly forgotten the previous one.
We peaked early, before lunch. We were still full-voiced and able to absorb new information. After a break and some sandwiches and endless gallons of tea, we all started to under-perform; the basses lost their way with one particularly complicated song, and our final sing-through felt laboured compared to the gusto we’d managed in the morning.
None of that made it a bad thing. We had a fabulous time, and Ali is a genuine person, someone who loves the music more than anything. You can tell; when she’s leading the singers, and we’re doing well (as we were in the morning session), her eyes close and she dances on the spot, joyfully smiling.
Saturday was spent enjoying a day-long singing workshop – “Forgotten Carols”, lead by the inspiring and hugely talented Ali Burns. Many of my fellow singers were there, but it was quite different to our usual Thursday evening sessions.
Ali worked us very hard. We were learning our parts by ear, with Ali singing them briefly before getting us started with a barked: “Go!” By the time we’d learned one song, we’d mostly forgotten the previous one.
We peaked early, before lunch. We were still full-voiced and able to absorb new information. After a break and some sandwiches and endless gallons of tea, we all started to under-perform; the basses lost their way with one particularly complicated song, and our final sing-through felt laboured compared to the gusto we’d managed in the morning.
None of that made it a bad thing. We had a fabulous time, and Ali is a genuine person, someone who loves the music more than anything. You can tell; when she’s leading the singers, and we’re doing well (as we were in the morning session), her eyes close and she dances on the spot, joyfully smiling.
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The Boyan Ensemble of Kiev came to sing in our town last night, and Kate and I went along to listen to them.
The programme started with the most spine-tingling moment I’ve witnessed on stage for some time; a falsetto soloist’s voice pierced the semi-darkness (at this point the stage was lit by little more than a few candles) while the ear-poppingly deep basses boomed and haroomed in the background. I’ve never heard a true falsetto live on stage before, quite an experience.
The rest of the first half was sombre, classical pieces, full of atmosphere. The audience was almost too hypnotised to applaud; no-one wanted to disturb the mood.
After a break, the choir returned to the stage in Ukrainian national costume and zipped through a series of folk songs. This was much more jaunty, more informal and relaxed. The conductors and singers were really getting into it and having fun. One highlight was the short instrumental piece played entirely by hitting three sword-shaped percussion things with metal sticks. One moment it was tribal rhythm; then next it was not far off from hip-hop beats. Astounding.
The Ensemble is touring the UK for most of November. Go see them if you have the chance.
The Boyan Ensemble of Kiev came to sing in our town last night, and Kate and I went along to listen to them.
The programme started with the most spine-tingling moment I’ve witnessed on stage for some time; a falsetto soloist’s voice pierced the semi-darkness (at this point the stage was lit by little more than a few candles) while the ear-poppingly deep basses boomed and haroomed in the background. I’ve never heard a true falsetto live on stage before, quite an experience.
The rest of the first half was sombre, classical pieces, full of atmosphere. The audience was almost too hypnotised to applaud; no-one wanted to disturb the mood.
After a break, the choir returned to the stage in Ukrainian national costume and zipped through a series of folk songs. This was much more jaunty, more informal and relaxed. The conductors and singers were really getting into it and having fun. One highlight was the short instrumental piece played entirely by hitting three sword-shaped percussion things with metal sticks. One moment it was tribal rhythm; then next it was not far off from hip-hop beats. Astounding.
The Ensemble is touring the UK for most of November. Go see them if you have the chance.
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Land of the silver birch (Odeo browser stream thing, or MP3 download)
His nursery class did a project about North America, and they were taught this song.
