from now on - tim reader's blog

As part of the assessment for my choral conducting diploma with ABCD I was tasked with arranging, typsetting and recording a folksong of my choice.
I chose the Royal Blackbird (sometimes just known as The Blackbird) which is Irish in origin. The first stanza, which I set, is below and the full poem, with *a* version [...]

I’ve just watched the BBC’s new choir-soap All the Small Things on iPlayer. Fortunately I was sort of working at the same time so can’t claim that it’s an hour I’ll never get back… but goodness me.
Predicated on an accurate-enough observation — that choirs are a breeding ground for temptation, hormones, infidelity and betrayal (though [...]

In an otherwise solid and ticket-worthy performance, David Shannon as Valjean in Les Mis marred a couple of his solo numbers with very insipid high notes, many of them falsetto when they are traditionally sung in full chest voice.
I know it’s hard, night after night, 8 performances a week popping out top As and Bs [...]

One of the things that struck me about Evensong on Saturday was the slick, no-nonsense approach of the liturgy. The prayers were about 3 minutes long which, heathen as it sounds, I think is ample. But even that aside, everything just generally flowed — no pregnant ‘reflective’ pauses (which have the effect of appearing that [...]

What a strange feeling waking up on a choir trip with no hangover! I feel a bit like I’m cheating.
Another glorious day; those of us of an optimistic disposition are thankful (smug?) we packed shorts and sandals. The coach takes us direct to the cathedral bright and early, in time to start rehearsing at 10. [...]

My first off-shore trip with Exultate Singers and it’s bound to be a cracker.
The theme of the airport wait and flight was the tight-fistedness and no-frills-ness of Ryanair. Having not flown with them before I was somewhat in the dark but only too happy to join in the banter (”you mean you’d like to breathe [...]

“He wants to speak to me at 7 o’clock on the morning. What is he a giant lark?”
That was Toby’s Easter morning greeting, rousing me from my slumber — not unrepresentative of our exchanges of the past two weeks which have been almost exclusively in Blackadder or Fry and Laurie quotations.
The early rise was in [...]

Well it should have been good. It should have been a highlight.

Exquisite feast of Lenten polyphony – Allegri miserere, Tallis Lamentations, Sheppard Media Vita.
Excellent choir, a mix of pros and gifted amateurs and a talented new director of music.
Beautiful building and an honour to participate in Holy Week worship in a foreign land.

But.
I sang like [...]

One of my lifetime ambitions is to sing in each of the Anglican cathedrals in England and Wales.
This last week I’ve managed to tick off a further two from the 40-something which I’m currently half-way through. And what titans they are.
Durham was my first destination, singing with the Dionysus Singers the weekend before New Year.
Due [...]

2007 has been a year of glorious highs and one or two stomach-churning lows. Nevertheless, this is a blog about optimism so please indulge me while I look back solely over the highs and if you know me personally, forgive me for glossing over the lows.
I grow more convinced that the only way to achieve [...]

Having always sung in choirs myself (see – there’s a picture of me, right, in Exeter Cathedral. Doesn’t everyone look enthralled?), I’ve rarely stopped to analyse it. So I find it all the more interesting when others do.
In an article entitled Why take prozac when you can sing Prokofiev?, Mary Ann Sieghart of The [...]

As this evening’s Choral Evensong broadcast drew to a close, listeners were directed to video of the Pilgrim Consort, singing Pablo Casals’ Salve Montserratina.
bbc.co.uk/religion/programmes/sunday_worship/montserrat.shtml
Having spent all afternoon working on video files for the web, this seemed somewhat providential so I promptly logged on for a listen.
And it’s really cool! A great performance – a [...]