Talent in Shed Loads

From Blogger Pictures

What a great day ! I began my workshops at 10 am this morning with a lively and very musically highly qualified mix of nuns and monks from throughout the British Isles form Northern Ireland to Grange over Sands, and all places inbetween.

A number of them were trained singers, from music college or university, but generally as a second study with an instrument as their first study, at a gathering this evening a Carmelite sister from Norwich played a superb oboe concerto accompanied by a father from Downside Abbey who simply sat down and sight read the piano part. A young Abbot from Southern Ireland sang a Cole Porter song as a party piece, and I had a session with a Trappist monk from Northern Ireland who was a beautiful lyric tenor who trained at the Dublin Academy as a Violinist and Singer. He had a powerful and ringing tone quality, superb abdominal wall support and sensitivity.

From Blogger Pictures

He asked me, rather modestly when we had finished if I thought he should ask for some singing lessons on his return to the Monestary. I was so glad to be able to confirm for him that his voice was still totally intact and that I felt he should do exactly that, for him - which is a difficult question to answer for an Religious, when life is community and not self. He will never be able to use the full extent of his beautiful voice singing the Office as a high tenor range is as far away from the normal chant range as from Paradise to China, but if he does not use it, he will lose it! Top A's are not a requirement of a Postulant !

I was working with them, not in a personal voice training way, but giving help as to how they might pass on to their own communities some fundamental singing technique for the underconfident, elderly and 'tricky' brothers and sisters. When fine musicians, however talented are not used to teaching basics, it can be difficult for them to find the words and ways to impart these simple things, and perhaps my knowledge of teaching was more what they were after!

They were real sports, throwing themselves into the exercizes with gusto, and being such willing victims for all the tongue twisters and breathing ideas. A Father from Ealing Abbey told me over coffee that he had been a repetituer with the Melbourne Opera, and a film score writer before he entered - and he was scathingly funny about the trauma of teaching Dame Joan Sutherland, who in fairness, had a superb voice and a world beating talent, but was known as quite a slow learner when being taught roles !

AND, more importantly, we had a Christmas Dinner for lunch ! Turkey, stuffing and all the trimmings - what a treat, and on the last day of September. You are so well fed in Abbeys, homemade cakes, hot puddings and custard, tea, coffee and biscuits on tap 24/7 and even wine with dinner tonight!

We did work hard today however, so we needed the sustenance ! It is a great priviledge to work with such modest, humble and truly talented people, and if it is possible for my job to be easy - this is as easy as it gets !

Nobody argues, or answers back, ( are you listening Inner Sound!) even when I am sure that sometimes they must want too! I need to devise a Rule of Obedience for all my pupils ! 'The Rule of Ann'- I won't presume to say Saint Ann !

Which would last about 9 minutes at the outside!!!!!!!

Not the Life for Me

It's a funny old world out there. I forget how alien it all is in cities, how noisy it is, when I am used to almost complete silence outside my house, and most of all how bright it is with constant flourescent lighting, that flashes and twitches on and off, so there is never any dark. I left a deep dark night time Inverness at 7am, and arrived at a bright and frenzied Manchester at 8.20am.

It serves as a salutory reminder why I stopped doing it! I can see the 'glaze' in travellers eyes, and I hear the constant sound of piped music, so badly out of tune that it must be fifth rate session musicians - and believe me, top rate session players and singers are stellar and do a fantastic job, for which they are not paid enough! I visibly winced at the half scream/half warble of the Titanic theme tune, definitely not sung by Celine Dion, but by a woman who needs not only her tonsils but her veritable vocal chords removed with no anaesthetic. Soooooooo flat!

Having a coffee in a Ritazza at the airport whilst waiting for my train, I sat next to two businessmen, one doing a sterling job of selling some kind of extremely expensive software to the other, who was clearly a successful and well off chap who was either the owner or the Senior Something in his business in the city.

It is moments like that when I thank the Lord for my job ! My lovely, person oriented, artistic, and generally happy job. I began to feel shell shocked by the conversation (not, you understand that I was ear wigging!) when we moved from

...'strategic business logistics which rely on your core business assets, which give value added personell opportunities...' via ...'the exponential rise in your worker responsibility ratio, combined with a zoo diversity....'

At that point I felt a hot flush coming on, and almost ran for the hills. Can you believe that anyone understands this 'gobble a chook'? (delicious word, care of Baldrick in Blackadder Goes Forth !)

And I think singing teaching has a complicated jargon - it is a positive nursery rhyme by comparison with the managerial clever speak which was spouting forth from the smart, bespoke shirted guy with the iPad.

Roll on Llandudno and a bit of sanity.

Flights of Fancy

Up and away - at 4am tomorrow morning...groan......

So many folk ill! Colds, throats and tummies....it must be the change of the season from late summer to almost winter ! Lots of pupils have cancelled in the 2 days I have been teaching, which is not great for the bank balance, but I would rather not catch their germs ! Like all music teachers I work a system of 'less than 24 hours notice and the time must be paid for', but I found out that one of my adjudicating colleagues, and friend uses the Incorporated Society of Musicians contract, and they require 3 weeks notice for missing a lesson and 48 hours for illness - I find that rather over the top really, and not quite 'human' ! Still, I assume they are just trying to protect teachers' incomes'.

It is still quite a heavy teaching day today, what with putting in some of my exam candidates who would miss their lesson tomorrow when I will be winging my way to Manchester / Llandudno.

I feel in need of a holiday now, and have started to think seriously about the luggage logistics for my sojourn away from Oct 13th - it is akin to packing for war - thankfully I don't have any experience of that however, but so many different needs for working prior to leaving, then holiday wear, then CLEAN working gear for the return journey. I will have to plan washing like a campaign ! I have never been one for lots of clothes, and after leaving the stage bit of my profession, I find that I don't want the hassle of many clothes and lots of make up. I did that with much gusto for so many years, now I cannot be bothered to worry about it! Try to teach looking smart, relax feeling comfortable! So, for the first time in years, even being a seasoned traveller, I may have to write a considered list of 'what to pack' and 'things to do' !

I have been pondering my workshops, and yesterday whilst teaching, took more of a sharp interest in scales and exercises. I use some lengthy breathing exercises with my adults, and it is startling how well lots of folk breathe when they are 50 upwards! My youngsters find breath the most difficult of techniques to master, so I think I am going to work on that and have one workshop entirely focused on breath control. We do 'flip ups', which is a descending scale then back up and down again as many times as possible. I have a couple of ladies who can do that 5 times !!! My most talented and capable under 21 can only manage it twice ! It is not just a meaningless statistic exercise, but one to show how much better use we can make of the finite amount of breath we can intake.

How we use the breath is what matters, not how much we can take in. Applying that scale technique in a song is another thing - but at least they know it should be possible !

The Christmas music is in full flow now, and I have asked my young tenor who took HMS Pinafore music rehearsals with such success, if he will do the honours whilst I am away, and he seems pleasingly up for it. I am, of course, secretly and rather cunningly, training him up for teaching/choral greatness - so I can eventually hand on the Paradise torch, well, for as long as he is around!



A heart warming Edwardian 'Lantern Light Traditional Christmas Evening' is what we plan, with soft lighting, seamless carols and songs, fake snow, mince pies and mulled wine and the odd shiny top hat! A little sentimental perhaps, but altogether comforting and with the 'feel good ' factor.

Yum!

On a Plane to Llandudno

Loreto Centre where the Workshops are held. Very nice!


I am frantically trying to get everything done today as I have to fly to Manchester on Wednesday and then train to Llandudno, where I am giving workshops to the Panel of Monastic Musicians Annual Conference. That means I have to cram in as many pupils as I can on Monday and Tuesday, especially those taking exams. I will be away for 4 weeks later in October, both working and holidaying, so it is vital that the lessons are put in!

I thought I had lost my train tickets, but 36 minutes and a demented search eventually turned up trumps, and they were, cleverly, filed in the folder which says 'All Travel Documents Sept 2010' ! Duh!

My brief for the workshop days is -

Encouraging the Community to Sing !

A good title, with lots of room for manoeuvre, but I am still hoping that I can wangle it around to hands on work, rather than 'blether' as my local friends say!



Nuns and Monks sing approximately 5 services each day and start at around 6am, give or take a few dawn choruses, and they are as much professional singers as any of we secular folk, infact I think on the whole they sing more than Equity performing rules allow! They definitely start earlier! Equity says singers don't start rehearsal until 10am!

I find, when I am working with religious that I am often talking about voice damage limitation, lightening the vocal load, and taking stress away from the voice as much as possible. I try to give real practical tips such as, in a 3 hour singing period, a voice therapist recommends 8 cups of water, or liquid one can see through - excluding gin and vodka I assume! Saying that, aging voices simply do drop, it is natural and we must accommodate that hormonal happening, just reducing a chant by 1 tone for singers over 55 can work miracles - well not the sort of miracle they canonise people for however ! Encouraging non singers to have a little confidence is a very tricky one - they need TLC, the patience of Job, and maybe acceptance that it will always be something of a trial. In accepting that they do not set too high expectations of themselves, and learn to accept that their best will do.

Anyhow, I will scribble a few notes down when I am in the air early Wednesday morning in the hopes that being nearer to Heaven I might come up with some startling new ideas for voice transformation! I will take a sheet of simple exercises for each person to take home, and explain that singing is not magic, if one has a few tools to fall back on it WILL work more successfully.

The group are, of course, all the Choir Directors, Organists and Liturgy experts of their own order, so I will at least be talking the language of music.

Mind you, I think I might get a few organists up as voice guinea pigs.
They'll hate me!!

On with all I need to do...................

The Iona Boat Song

I used to do a great deal of arranging for my small choral groups, and over the years I suppose I must have around 30 or 35 arrangements for all combinations of voices. I always wrote for the forces that I had in any particular year. Sometimes the intake at the JRAM would be all girls and no boys, sometimes 6 sopranos and 3 tenors, and other years it might be satisfactorily even, and I might have a spread of each voice in even numbers - that was as rare as snowdrops in August !

Thus, when I look at, or think back to my arrangements they are a wonderful mix and match. At one point I had no male voices at all, so all the songs are SSA or SSAA etc, and I remember one particular all girl number which was an arrangements of a Russian folk song for two solos, and SSAA - I realise now, what a great group of voices they must have been to sing in so many parts - bearing in mind that I don't think the Ensemble ever had more than 15 singers, and mostly it was around 12. I have smilingly fond memories of the SATB pieces, each year we came to Paradise Island to give charity concerts, and to have a holiday, I would arrange a new Scottish folksong - albeit in a rather Romantic and luscious style, they were much appreciated by our audiences.

The best I ever wrote was an SATB arrangement of 'The Iona Boat Song', simple and scrunchy, soft and disciplined, and very lovely, even if I say it myself, who should'nt. I had a crop of singers during the year I wrote that one who have now almost all gone on to sing or teach at a very high standard, it was a bumper year for talent!

I am still in touch with the vast majority of them, and the most pleasing part of the story, is that those who now teach, in Conservetoire and privately, still use those arrangements with their own vocal ensembles - what finer compliment could there be.

When I moved to Paradise, I truly thought I would never have that sound again, but life has a peculiar way of swinging around again, and during our concerts in Vienna, when I took my Paradise ensemble on tour, I heard once more that certain purity and discipline again, and it was such a joy !

This Smilebox slideshow is one I made for my holiday cottage website, but the singers are singing The Iona Boat Song, in Gaelic in the Basilica St Peterskirche in Vienna in 2006. I hope you enjoy it. There were 8 young singers, 2 sopranos, 2 mezzos a baritone and a tenor, ranging in age from 17 to 26. Boys just out of Music College, and girls either just on their scholarship way, or keen young aspirants. A Paradise special vintage I think.

Enjoy.

This photo album created with Smilebox

A Personal Day

It has been a beautiful day. Sun, breeze, gentle autumn warmth without the harsh heat of summer. My favourite weather really, you can do everything you want to with ease and a sense of brisk cheerfulness, but the fire is still an evening requirement! I have central heating, but I prefer the live heat of a real wood fire. In the depths of winter both the open fire in the living room and the wood burner in the kitchen will be on, but keeping them both stoked and running is a hefty job when I am teaching for longish stretches of time. I think I need what in Victorian parlance was called a 'tweenie', a young apprentice parlour maid who worked between the 'upstairs' and the 'downstairs' keeping the fires sizzling and happy, and thus the inhabitants equally so!

When I am at home, Friday is my complete day off from any teaching, unless there is a very serious and pressing reason why someone needs a lesson, and even then I feel a little reluctance. It is my ear rest day, my 'counselling free' day and when I like to do something for me!

It exactly my equivalent of the 'me time' lessons which are so high on the priority list of some of my lady pupils - a quid pro quo if you like!

Today I enjoyed a leisurely lunch at a local, and fine I might add, restaurant, with a good friend, and mother of one of my pupils. If you have visited this part of the world you may have sampled Cullen Skink, a divinely thick soup made, as far as I can tell, from smoked fish, potatoes, onions and thick cream. It is like eating savoury silk, the creaminess is to die for, and I don't think I will ever become bored of it.

A warming bowl of said Skink and a couple of mansized slices of their own homemade bread is manna from Heaven, and follow that with a Peach Melba and you could leave me to die on the roadside a full time resident in a blissed out moment of culinary happiness. My friend is more of a chocolate freak, so after her Skink, she had Baked Chocolate Mousse. Now forgive me all you choccie obsessives, but chocolate does not do it for me at all, yet even I felt the danger of a small moment of surrender when I sampled a tiny teaspoonful.

I followed that by having a Deluxe Pedicure at a local Beauty Parlour. An hour of pampering, warmth, heavenly smells, creams and potions to allegedly, make my tootsies soft and alluring ( Ha Ha Ha ), and I came home a new woman, and ready to face anything!


I am so sorry, but not a crotchet has passed through security to my brain today, neither has a song lyric assaulted my outer or inner ear, so today's blog is entirely a 'song free zone'.

Still it shows that basically, I am just a normal person and not a 'voice first' kind of musician.

Person first. Always.

I read this and liked it.....

“We buy things we don’t need, with money we don’t have, to impress people we don’t like.” – Mary Ellen Edmunds

A Child's Prayer to pack her suitcase

In 3 minutes time it will be exactly one month until we fly to New York for our cruise holiday up the coast of New England and into Canada. I know my grandchildren are now counting the days, and starting to ask if they can pack their suitcases! I will be more than ready for a holiday then, as, to pay for the spending money fund I am working twice on the way South, and once on the way back up North!

So before the departure date I will be masterclassing my old duet partner's choral group for a big competition, and then moving another 250 miles South to the Poor Clare nuns in Arundel for two days workshops and individual lessons.....then I can finally relax and go on holiday! On my way home I drive to Yorkshire again and give two days to the Benedictine nuns at Stanbrook Abbey, before crawling my way back to Paradise.

When I return it will be exactly 18 days until the singing examinations take place. Mind you, if this week was anything to go by, all my candidates are doing me proud. I gave a deadline of Oct 13th by which time all exam music must be memorised - then I can travel, happy in the knowledge that they at least know all their pieces. The final couple of lessons will be the polishing and tweaking which buys us the extra marks, and the added bit of sophistication, which, if done too early means that the performances 'go over' and become stale.

There is an optimum moment when those colours need adding to the earlier monochrome performances, so that suddenly, everything comes to life and sparkles just at the very minute it is required.

Some of my younger entrants already know their songs 'all bar the shouting' so to speak, so next week I will load them up with lots of juicy Christmas music for our next extravaganza, and they can absorb those by osmosis - which is the way most singers under 18 learn songs, as far as I can tell !

Osmosis is great! Not too much thought, but just enough, not too much heartache, but maybe enough, and not too much finishing, a wonderful canvas upon which to paint the myriad hues of the music.

Blimey, I sound as though I am really waxing lyrical tonight - well all my youngsters today were so well on, and so confident about it they were a breeze to teach, which makes my day one of the proverbial 'milk and honey' !

One song set for Grade 1 is 'A Child's Prayer' by W.H. Anderson, and although I never sang it myself, I heard it many times as a teenager, sung by younger pupils of my teacher Middy. It is a divine little song, simple and tricky at one and the same time, only 2 pages in length, but full of delicious long phrases and sweet, yet never sickly words. It needs such a light and tender touch, and fantastically clear words and the ability in an 8/9/10 year old to sing the long phrases with intelligence and understanding.

I think of Middy, because even all those years ago, when I heard it sung I knew she only gave it to the children with brains, who could achieve the level of clarity and diction, and no matter how small their voice they had the magical ability to hold the audience. I do the same, consequently over the last 25 years I can count on the fingers of 2 hands how many times I have used it with Grade 1 candidate.

Click on the link below. I am slightly ashamed to say that I knew nothing about Mr Anderson except that he was Edwardianish - I googled him and found a most interesting article.

Well done all of you lot to whom it was given ! Take it as a real compliment - Middy would have been proud !

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._H._Anderson

Tension Troubles

An open and tension free moment!



We stand, we lock, and then we try to sing! The hardest thing in the world is to be able to free up one's body to sing standing relatively still, and on the same spot.

I have searched all my teaching career for the trick, or the key to unlocking the body so that it can use it's natural processes to allow a voice ease, flow and a relaxed delivery. I think, after all these years it has finally dawned on me that the ability to unlock one's physical movement and allow said ease and flow starts in the brain. Tension in the mind's twin brother, is tension in the body, and music only 'soothes the savage breast' that wants to be soothed. That is why one of my teaching maxims is ;
Breathe - Think - Sing

Note the 'Sing' is the final bit of the equation. The other two vital parts, are the 'person' bit. The 'Sing' only happens when the 'person bit' is contented and settled.

Many of my singers suffer from wound up tension which is like a deadly toxin in the singing system, and this tension stems from many roots, psychological, emotional and neurological - meaning, I suppose, how we are hard-wired as a personality.

The 'obsessive' singer is driven by a blind, or at the very least, blinkered need to succeed at any cost - result - Tension. The 'worried' singer suffers from such fears of failure they attack everything they sing with all the aggression of an ill disciplined tiger cub - result - Tension, and the overly 'competitive' singer is so afraid of not winning they work physically much too hard - result - Tension.

How we live and play out our life spills over into our singing, and either enhances or detracts from our performance. The wonderful thing is, that if we learn to control some of these excessive personality traits for the sake of our vocal health, that also spills over into daily life, and very much for the good.

So, without performing a lobotomy, for which you will be greatly relieved to hear, I am as yet underqualified, how can I as a teacher help to reduce this tension, and let the pure and unadulterated voice appear ?

The tactics are different for every individual, sometimes it can be as simple as laughter, moving around the room is useful, touch is very settling for some singers, and lying on the ground is another, so the body is completely supported.

What I cannot tackle in the same way, or so easily, is the psychological stuff. If the singer is determined to believe that negative thoughts, or emotional blockages are not causing the paralysing tension problems, and thus address those things, then I am at the end of the proverbial road.

As you can imagine, I have a few students who suffer from some of these tension problems. They are challenging, both for me, and more importantly for themselves.

If I could wave a magic wand I would disconnect the brain, and reconnect the body......

It will never happen, these things are sent to try a 'doing her best' singing teacher, who is, after all, only human!

Now Reeeelaaaaxxxx........breathe out Ooooooooooo

Plodding Onwards

Towards the Holiday/Exam/Christmas.......the travelling part of the term.

It was a funny old day today, lots of pupils feeling tired. I think it must be getting near half term ! It seems like only yesterday when they all went back to school, but actually it is around 5 weeks for the youngsters in Scotland, and the holiday is only about 2 weeks away. Most look ready for a week or so off, and have that look of langour and pallor brought on by too many French lessons and too much heart pumping PE !

They will get no holiday from me however - slave driver that I am - I am away for just under 4 weeks from Oct 13th and many have exams, so time off for good behaviour will not be offered - parole for good singers is not an option! They will miss 4 lessons whilst I am away so time is of the essence !

Fortunately the exam date is late November, so there will be at least 2 weeks when I get back for hard and punishing slave driving right up to the edge of the examination state border !

I teach a very quiet girl on Mondays who is not a natural and easy singer but my does she work hard. I have often been astonished in my teaching career how hard work and regular 'plodding' often does the job really well. This youngster is 12 and is so shy it is often quite tricky to have a conversation. Actually, I think it is not so much shyness but more that she is a girl of few words. When she has something to say, it is said, but she seems not one for small talk! She is taking her Grade 2 this term, and today was on the last leg of the learning. She is one of life's hard workers, and I relish her quiet progress, and her serious approach to her lessons, she is a little oasis of quiet and unruffled calm, in an otherwise busy and noisy day!

It was warmish again today, so the stove stayed off, but it is cleared out and laid with paper and wood for the next moment of autumn chill. I cooked - yes - I cooked and made a simple curry, which was amazingly edible, and started to feel somewhat sleepy around 9pm, much earlier than I normally do. I must be sickening for something!

Oh well, cracking on thinking about, and working on repertoire for Christmas ............ and watching a bit of trashy TV.

Lovely.

Let's Dance

I was at a concert last night which was whole evening of local folk of all ages 4 ish to middle aged, dancing for all they were worth. The sheer enjoyment was so plain to see, and the standard was very high. I teach a young woman who is the dynamo behind the show, and the manager of the island project.

It covered every style from Ballet, via Highland Dance through Indian Dance and Modern Jazz Dance, and was therefore, wonderfully culture inclusive. We travelled a few 'foot miles' in the course of 2 hours. The audience cheered and applauded and a ripple of Indian waving hands even went around the auditorium !





As a seasoned pro myself, I love it when one can see just how much hard work goes into these events. A general audience only sees, and rightly so, the finished product, and watches with pleasure and excitement the magical stage end product. I watch and marvel at the 'other' side of the production, knowing how much energy, effort and talent is behind the glossy finished production.



The concert was definitely the 'baby' of a dynamic personality, a clear thinker, and an innovative mind who could create a professional and clever whole using dancers at every level of competence.

THEREIN lies the magic.

I believe so firmly that the arts are for absolutely everyone, and that when ever humanly possible, all levels should perform together, each giving something special to a performance. This is often what is so tiring about the whole process. When you work with professionals they are all expected to be at and beyond a certain level, so what you might ask of them is achievable in as little time as possible, with only a small amount of imput from the producer/director. When working with a Heinz 57 variety of folk, levels, and abilities it is all up to the producer's ability to accommodate everyone at their own level, giving each something to do or sing which is possible, and will allow them to achieve and succeed.



Bringing this whole together is a job the size of Africa ! The young lady concerned had done just that, and with all of the actual choroegraphy with which she was concerned, every person on the stage was so beautifully managed. It was so carefully and kindly thought out, and it worked like a well oiled wheel.

The youngsters were vibrant, enthused and so full of life, and the older folk were having a ball, and dancing with enjoyment and energy. The costumes were fantastic, again well thought out, suitable, and innovative, and the whole was cohesive and slick.

We are very blessed to have young L with us in Paradise, giving so much to the kids, teenagers and adults, and having so much energy !

What an island Paradise.

But don't tell everyone, or they will all want to come and live here!!!

My Favourite Inspiration

Just quickie tonight, I have lots of 'office work' and accounts to do.....aaagh!
My daughter sent me this alternative version of My Favourite Things ! It is funny if you sing it yourself!

It will appeal to any lady over the age of 50!

Interestingly, it was hearing Julie Andrews sing on the radio when I was 9 which gave me the inspiration to sing! That is absolutely true. I remember as if it were yesterday sitting on the floor in front of the Radiogram - blimey that ages me - and listening to The Lonely Goatherd, with all the vocal gymnastics, and feeling as if I had been hit by a hammer. I loved it so much, and then when subsequently buying the LP of the show I would play the said Austrian yodelling ditty over and over and over, and knowing in the far recesses of my heart and mind that I wanted that wonderful feeling for ever.

How lucky was I ?

I got my wish!

(Sing It!) If you sing it, its especially hysterical!!!

Botox and nose drops and needles for knitting,
Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,
Bundles of magazines tied up in string,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Cadillacs and cataracts, hearing aids and glasses,
Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,
Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings,
These are a few of my favorite things.

When the pipes leak, When the bones creak,
When the knees go bad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad.

Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions,
No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions,
Bathrobes and heating pads and hot meals they bring,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Back pain, confused brains and no need for sinnin',
Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin',
And we won't mention our short shrunken frames,
When we remember our favorite things.

When the joints ache, When the hips break,
When the eyes grow dim,
Then I remember the great life I've had,
And then I don't feel so bad.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>

Stews, Crumbles and Lunacy

I received two beautiful gifts from two pupils today. The quiet, gentle lady who has her lesson on Wednesdays, and sings sacred song with such affection and accomplishment, dropped off the most delicious steak and kidney casserole this morning in return for another batch of my damsons into which I feel sure she will make some delectable fruit crumble.

My youngest pupil with the large and fulsome voice came for her lesson, and told me with a self possessed and restrained excitement that 'a surprise was coming, after her lesson' ! A mouth watering bowl of damson and apple crumble was duly presented to me wearing a homemade tag in the shape of a heart with her name written in important and sizable lettering, and it was still warm............

I could not wait to finish teaching and eat my wonderful supper of home made casserole with home grown potatoes and carrots, followed by home grown damson crumble, and it did not disappoint!

Today was my make up day for not being here on Monday, so it elongates the week somewhat, but has to be done. It was, however, hugely worth it today, what with all the culinary gifts from all that home grown food!

I also taught a young woman who recently had a beautiful baby boy, and now feels able to return and have a bit of 'me time'. She has a superb talent, and a fierce brain (well when the baby mushed brain has recovered!) and in many ways could have pursued singing to a much higher level. She is innately musical, and comes from a very musical family. She is one of those refreshing students in one's career, who plainly could 'do it' so to speak, but has opted for a normal life, whatever that is, and is more than happy to be a fine amateur.

She most often hides her light under a bushel, but every so often her passion, talent and ability burst through in an unstoppable way. She played a feisty and individualistic Tessa when we did The Gondoliers, and really gave her poor Giuseppe the run around.

I have an abiding memory of her performing ability, when she sang in a concert some years ago, her ability to instantly flick into lunacy, and all it's nuances when singing 'The Black Swan' aria from The Medium by Menotti, was brilliant and at the same time slightly disturbing ! The character she played, Monica, is around 18/19 years old, and in fairness, had been driven completely barmy by a mother who behaved in a deranged manner.



The way M suddenly opened her eyes with madness, flicked her head around and eyeballed the unsuspecting audience, and generally sang in a way that was redolent of the inmates of a high security psychiatric ward, was truly chilling ! When the aria ended with a sudden wide eyed 'Shhhh', I think half the audience expected, and probably hoped that men in white coats would appear and rapidly remove her in a straight jacket. It was spell binding and terrifying and many of the company talked about it for a good few weeks afterwards.

The most normal, easy going and amiable girl in the group, without warning turned into Mad Bess of Bedlam, then as the applause started snapped back in a nano second into the warm and smiley M.

How worrying was that ! Still, at least her partner knows to watch out !

When I was a younger and less experienced teacher young M is exactly the type of student I would have felt duty bound to push along the Music College route, and subsequently thought, when she refused to be pushed, what a sinful waste of talent it was - what a loss to the world etc etc....... Now as a long in the tooth, far too experienced teacher, I finally understand that talent is never wasted, it only takes a side step to allow life happiness to take over.

And happiness is what matters, all else is meaningless. Miserable fame is a dark world, and MC has got it right, lucky woman !

German Lieder

Robert Schumann - Romantic or what !


I was teaching a Schubert song today. It was the evergreen and ever beautiful 'An Die Musik'. The short two page song with the glorious melody and text thanking a higher power for the joy of music, which the poet calls the 'holy art'.

Schubert was such a master at melody, and that fantastic art of making the piano accompaniment just as important. So the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I only wish I was pianist enough to play his miraculous accompaniments so my more advanced pupils could experience the wonder of the sense of duet.

I do love German Lieder, and sang so much as a young singer, but it is a tricky and sometimes acquired art. In one or two pages of intimate music a truly great lieder writer can say as much as a symphony, in terms of emotion. They are so descriptive and so full of word painting. Just think about the fantastic wheel turning accompaniment underneath Schubert's 'Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel' or the harp like patterns in the piano of his 'Ave Maria'. This is, obviously, just the tip of the lieder iceberg !

I suppose, if I had to choose a complete favourite, and I somehow cannot believe I have set myself up to choose one - you now know I really do write as I think - I would have to decide upon 2 of the songs from Schumann's 'Frauenliebe und Leben', or Women's Life and Love. This song cycle is just divine, and the way Schumann takes us through the teenage life via marriage and on to the sudden death of her husband in 7 songs, all in a volume as thin as an old fashioned school register, is nothing short of a miracle.

Here in Paradise, I teach lieder all the time for all sorts of reasons. I am pleased to say that they figure on all exam lists from Grade 3 onwards, and because for other pupils it is an unknown and unexplored genre, and I like opening hypothetical doors !

The Gaelic language is spoken by many of my young pupils, they are more or less bi lingual, and it has been quite a revelation to me that I can get them to sing the smaller lieder like a native speaker. Many of the tricky German sounds are similar to sounds and vowels in Gaelic, and so they seem to have no problems with it at all! I have largely struggled with teaching German song in my career as it has not the flow of Italian, or the familiarity of school French, and many of those sounds give problems..............not here however, they sing it like little Bavarian natives, and I can even teach them the difference in pronunciation between 'German' German and Viennese German - WOW !

A strange, but useful bi product of them learning the Highland language, and much welcomed by yours truly!

Night Owl

It is a bit of a tired day today, although I am teaching still. I arrived home around 10pm last night and by the time I have unpacked and dealt with an Everest of washing I did not get to bed until midnight.

Normally I am a nightbird, and do all my best writing, thinking and planning in the dark watches of the night. I'm not sure if I was like it as a child, but I put it down in later life to the fact that as a performer you spring into action at 70 mph around 7pm in the evening and then have to wind down after a performance. Of course one can't burn the candle at both ends, so that meant for most of my 20's and 30's I was not a morning person at all - infact I knew no life before about 10am !

Winding down after performing is so important. If you have been 'up and at it' for 3 hours with all guns firing and brain working more overtime than usual it is impossible to sleep. My mind whirred like a well oiled machine for a couple of hours, until fatigue eventually put the breaks on. I can't say what my excuse is now though! I seem to have got to the point where my life candle only has so many burning hours in the day, like cheap tea lights!

So today, will be well paced teaching, so I can spread myself over the whole time, and not short change the end of the day pupils !

My lovely young lady J who usually bursts into my room with all the exuberance of an excited puppy was also very tired today, so we had an unusually staid lesson ! She told me she has been looking after some dogs for the last 3 mornings and has been up at 6am ! No wonder she was too bleary eyed to reach her usual top F sharp! She is singing 'O What a Beautiful Morning' for her Grade 3, which we will take when she is fully ready, and can cope with all the horrid aural and sight reading stuff. Even that song, which she loves, could not lift her to her usual joyful heights!

She is my only pupil who needs another person in the exam room with her - a 'competent adult' is the odd phrase used for this, so I always stay throughout her exam to explain what the examiner wants her to do, if necessary. She has taken, and done so well in her Grades 1 and 2, and I have never needed to speak at all - she is one of my finest achievements as a teacher, she has my complete admiration, and even on tired days I love teaching her.

She promised me not to get up so early next Tuesday!

Equity rules are we start at 10 am, and I am with 'em all the way.

Singers are special, and anyone who scoffs should give it a try!!!

Yawn.....................

Hero Worship

It was a lovely concert this afternoon, and my two youngsters acquitted themselves beautifully. Many of my past and present pupils have had their moments of glory at 'Prize Winners Concerts', and it is such a good experience to be part of that next exciting stage on from that of the initial taking part. I like to think that it moves them on into the catagory of 'I've done it!' confidence. They have proved themselves in the big world - even if in reality it is quite a little world still!

One of the great joys and value of this kind of event is the 'hero worship'. Strange thing to say, I hear you think!

Firstly being among other winners in itself is affirming, but being with much older winners who are far further along the line from ones self is just magical. I so remember being the smallest squib in the concert with my idol as the top of the bill, and sitting listening thinking, 'One day that will be me'. All children and young people need someone to worship, and in this field most often the 'worshipped' hero/heroine is hard working, very talented and generally an influence and force for the good.

Sometimes, just being spoken too by those 'idols', and if one is very lucky, being praised by one's idol, is earth shatteringly life changing when one is a gawky, awkward and gauche young thing who is just at the very beginning of the journey.

Today, there were performers from about 10 ish up to 20 ish. For the 'top of the heap' young 20 ish soprano who took all before her in awards at the festival, it was a small and relatively unimportant bit of performing - her venues are far more lofty these days ! But what she did to encourage the other aspirant younglings was priceless and precious. She gave hope, direction and the possibility of future excitement to a dozen babes and teens. We teachers simply cannot buy that sort of imput.

My idol, when I was about 16 was Dame Janet Baker. I was reminded by my curly haired soprano friend about the time we went to a recital given by her sometime around 1970. I was utterly enthralled, and watching her was like feeling everything I wanted in my own life encapsulated into a brief life changing moment. I don't think I moved, or breathed for the entire evening, such was the magnitude of the effect it had on me.

We went back stage to wait for her autograph, but were told to go away by an officious and 'jobsworth' stage door manager. At that moment Dame Janet's husband walked through the door and heard what was said to us, a group of wide eyed and impassioned singers desperate for just a glance at our 'Goddess of Song'. He spoke quite sharply to the guy and said his wife would be horrified to think he had shunned her fans, especially young ones. We trooped, in a mildly ebullient and triumphant way into her dressing room, and one by one we asked for her autograph and breathlessly asked her, what in retrospect seem trivial questions, about her singing. When it came to my turn to see her I put out my hand to shake hers and was struck deadly and consummately dumb. I stood in utter awe, mouth open to speak but unable to make a sound. I worshipped in trapped silence.

It was a momumental moment in my life and career, and thank God for it. She spoke to me, smiled and probably found it endearingly sweet. Much later in my life when I knew her a little better I told her of that moment, and how much it had meant to me. She is a quiet and supremely kind woman, and if she remembered the moment at all, was quick to say how important her admirers had been to her all her career, especially the raw youngsters. That they were the tomorrow, and tomorrow was more important than today.

We must never ever become too big, too good, too self important and full of ourselves to give a little time to, and most important of all, a little kindness to those younger and less experienced. A small word, or a simple smile can do more for them that a term of lessons.

Mostly, as we move on, we must never forget that we carry a wonderfully satisfying responsibility. The extraordinary power to kill dead or give marvelous life too an innocent and trusting youngster.

I have watched many of my past pupils deal with their younger vocal siblings over the years, and it has told me as much about their persona and generosity of spirit, as it has of their talent and gift for performance.

Remember - you are always important to someone, so spare them some time and kindness!

Be what the great Dame Janet was to me.

The Journey Begins

I was idly browsing yesterday in one of those '£1' shops and was astonished to see a whole shelf given over to fantastically sparkly Christmas ornaments, vibrating Father Christmas's and lights to set the whole of Paradise on fire. As far as I am aware it is only Sept 11th, and the days still have a warm and sunny feel of late summer.

Of course this premature sighting of festive accoutrement's set me panicking ever so slightly, about music for the Christmas Concerts ! Whilst I try to keep the content seasonally oriented, solos and duets etc are normally standard repertoire, and therefore useful as all purpose concert fodder. The choral pieces are mainly along the Christmas theme though, and I was flung headlong into a frenzy of brainwaves dangling with baubles and tinsel!

I had already given a small amount of thought to the matter, then put those thoughts firmly away for a month or so - but here I am once again at 11pm ish wracking my brains for some show stopping songs on the theme of Holidays, Snow, Robins and the Baby Jesus !

I have given some of the small people a song from a Michael Hurd cantata about the Nativity. It is a delightful little piece called 'Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh', and has lovely words all about the symbolism of each gift to the Child, but all wrapped up in a waltzy and accessible melody which they will sing simply and beautifully. I had toyed with the Berlioz 'Shepherd's Farewell' for the ladies group, the tune of which we all know, but which takes care and delicacy to really bring off, but that is the extent of my thoughts.

My wonderful young baritone who played Captain Corcoran, and is really of professional standard, will be singing in his final Christmas extravaganza with us, as his young wife will be auditioning for music college and they will both be far away from us this time next year. I think I will take the musical plunge and go for the gorgeous 'Three Kings from Persian Lands afar' arranged with the Bach Chorale underneath the baritone solo, by Peter Cornelius. It is challenging and tricky, but I have loved it all my singing life, and I know my singers will fall in love with it at first 'sound'.

The 'funny ' item is always the most difficult to root out, and over the years one exhausts those old 'pot boilers' and I need to do some digging for a fine and rousing finale to the concerts.......watch this space.

Christmas is such a highlight of the musical year, and we manage to make our concerts in December, but not so far in the month that the stresses of the season have piled in and wiped us out! Last year the weather was so bad we had to cancel them, and, as you can imagine in this part of the world, it becomes impossible to drive even a few miles in ice and snow. It was magical to look at, but after about 4 or 5 weeks it began to pall. I hope this year the concerts will go ahead with no weather problems!

Oh well, I will try to give over a small amount of thought to the C word and it's music in the next few weeks, whilst trying to enjoy our glorious autumn, and Halloween and then Guy Fawkes night!

Loadsa time !..... she said knowing that it will be upon me before I can say Mistletoe!

Anyone got any ideas out there? All contributions gratefully received.
Honest!

Rolling Cupcakes

Well, what a disaster! My preferred Costa Coffee, free WiFi, all singing all dancing hostelry has had the audacity to close for 2 whole weeks, pending a refurbishment! Did anyone consult me, did the 'powers that be' forget that I use it regularly, and I would be travelling South today, and returning on monday ?

No they flippin' did'nt. Heads, and cupcakes will roll !

I have been forced to stop at another, where the Wi Fi 'does not work today madam', so my trusty old dongle has to be used for a slower Vodafone Mobile signal. This is SO out of order, my life and journey have collapsed.......................

How sad am I?

There is a sad looking businessman sitting two tables away, bereft, with a dark laptop poised on the brink of use, only to be foiled by the dismally disappointing signal problem. I feel rather smug that I have one, and he keeps sneaking a look at me in desperation. I feel like sending him a sympathy ecard, except, of course, he can't pick it up !



The weather has been amaxing today. When I opened my curtains this morning there was a glorious rainbow over the Bay, then as I travelled further South the heavens opened and the traffic came almost to a stop around Stirling, then the sun came back with a vengeance just prior to black clouds and hurricane winds halfway down the M74.

Now, in this strange and alien Costa (though is it really a Costa, or some other dimension universe, and am I caught in a gravametric timewarp? )

OK, I have now lost the plot. A strong coffee is healing the failing parts of my brain, and in a moment my journey towards Yorkshire will 'resume normal service' !

There are 2 singers in the concert on Sunday, L I heard on Tuesday in his lesson, but N has been ill, and I have not heard her sing since HMS Pinafore ! Fortunately we have Saturday to rehearse, and she is so deliciously normal, and quite without the hang ups and worries of a singer, I am certain she will sing beautifully and do herself justice.

The time has come to move.

My poor co - coffee drinker is darkly inconsolable, but will, undoubtedly survive until he reaches the next Costa Coffee and finds the WiFi quite recovered.

Maybe it is aversion therapy ?

Daily Diary

It is going to be a long wednesday. Two pupils cancelled yesterday and asked to come today! That means in my 'retirement teaching schedule', Ha Ha, I shall have 8 pupils today! Now 10 years ago, I might have had 14 in one day, so 8 is about 5 hours less work, but it still feels like a veritable posse of energy sapping lessons.

My daughter says I have 'got soft' ! I tell her to tell me that in 20 years when she is my age! I have a day with students from 8 to 70 which does on the whole keep it always changing and therefore always interesting, but it is, nevertheless a big day!

I start with a lovely lady who sings with calm and joy for all her repertoire, and has made such progress in the years I have taught her. Her songs of the moment are, some Novello, My Heart Ever Faithful by Bach, which is tricky, but she much enjoys, and Tell me Lovely Shepherd by William Boyce. One of those truly Baroque/Early Classical pastoral songs, and suits her pastoral and easy personality. E starts my day with peace and calm.

I move on to a retired Botanist, a super lady who is cultured and erudite and used to teaching. I think it must be so weird to be on the other end, and become a pupil after years of being the teacher - she is braver than me! She is embarking on Grade 5, and trying very hard to memorise Star Vicino by Rosa. keep up the good work A !

I move on to a lady who was a Head Teacher and then a specialist in a Centre for Special Need in Paradise. She worked with folk with profound difficulties. Her job was so demanding, the singing was a small oasis in her week, and as a Gaelic speaker, she was covering all bases by learning with me, and enjoying being a stalwart in the Gaelic choir on the island. She is much enjoying 'Bless this House' by Mary Brahe.

After a short break and a cup of tea and a lump of cheese - my preferred energy tipple - well it is better than heroin ! I move on to the youngsters.

A delightful little blond 10 year old who has a huge voice, a big personality and scriggles like a musical snake when she sings, not like my small boy - although he is blond too, so maybe the blond hormones cause excessive dancing ! She is such fun to teach, and about to embark on the intricacies of Grade 2 ! Her favourite song from the list is a lovely folk song arranged for voice and piano called the 'Dalmation Cradle Song'.

I move onto two sisters, of 12 and 8. They are the daughters of the lovely vet who was so understanding with Ellie. The oldest is an energetic little firework of a girl. Very bright and really likes funny songs. She brought the house down in a concert singing 'Orrible Little Blue Eyes' by Betty Roe, a fab composer for children's songs, in a concert, and proved that from an early age, the humour genes are already there and firing !

Her sister is much quieter and very sweet. I have taught her for a number of years now, and she has gone from a tiny whisperer with a voice the size of a malnourished sparrow, to a confident little person whose voice has grown beyond all recognition. She is tackling Grade 1 and learning the very delightful ' A Child's Prayer' by W H Anderson.

Then my aspirant mezzo who played Buttercup, she has changed her lesson time so we must work fast in the 30 minutes I have available, rather than the 45 she normally has. She is still revelling in Lucretia, lucky girl!

My Panis Angelicus brings up the rear, and I am so looking forward to hearing her 'born again' voice, which took our combined breaths away last week.

Then I must eat, make a picnic for tomorrow's drive to Yorkshire, and finally check the blog to see if anyone has bothered to read, and be interested in my nowadays rather more staid life than 10 years ago !

Having said that, 10 years ago I would not have had time to write the word 'blog' never mind chronicle my doings!

On my marks........get set..........

The Wild Mountain Thyme and other beautiful folksongs

....and the wild mountain thyme blows around the blooming heather


What exactly is a 'folk song' ? I teach them all the time, and have a folder bursting at the seams with single copies, hand written copies and compilation volumes of them. I was once told by Middy, my first teacher, that if I/we did not teach them, and keep them going, they would die and be lost to the world of song for ever. I have never forgotten that, and so I always make sure that they figure in every pupil's repertoire at some point in their lessons.

However, I have not yet tried to answer the question. In my A Level teacher mode, a folksong is a song of the people, or of a job of work, usually passed down orally through the generations . Rarely written down, and unfettered by instruments or fancy arrangements.......

In actuality, folk songs come in all shapes, sizes and styles. Some of the most beautiful are memorable and haunting because of the simplicity of the melody, and some are just as memorable and haunting by virtue of what a composer has added, because he/she loved the melody and felt impelled to use it in other ways.

When I first started to bring my students to Paradise in the summer holidays, we gave 2 or 3 concerts of mixed choral pieces, solos, duets and trios etc, and because I had young voices much of the SATB repertoire was outwith the range of a 15 year old tenor, or 17 year old Bass, so what did I do ? I took some of the most beautiful folksongs from this neck of the woods and arranged them myself in a bespoke way for what voices I had at my fingertips. It became something of a tradition in the end, I would arrange a new one for each visit we made, and they were greatly liked by the singers and the audiences.

I loved the melodies, and wanted to try to make them even more beautiful - I was not trying to take away from the simple uncluttered and authentic melody line - I could never have managed that anyway! Just a touch of 'Ann' was thrown in for a moment in time.

The melodies will live on long after I'm gone, so for a brief moment I had the pleasure of making them part of me.

Today I taught a young man who is singing 'The Wild Mountain Thyme' at the prizewinners concert on Sunday. He is singing it in the natural and unaccompanied way it has originally come down to us, yet he sings it with a trained sound, good and clear words, and beautifully in tune. It works very well. Just as it would work by an untrained and ultra natural folk singer with not an atom of vocal technique, and just as well as it works with the Tenor/Baritone duet version which I arranged and the girl's SSA version which once again I arranged at a time in my career when boys voices were as rare as hens teeth!

'I will build my love a bower,
by yon clear crystal fountain'



It is 'The Wild Mountain Thyme' that works, not any particular version, and therein lies what a folk song really is - a Song for all Seasons.

In the Singing Together book, there are some of the loveliest British folk songs from the Welsh 'Ash Grove' through the English 'Oak and the Ash', via the Irish 'Fisherman's Night Song' to the beautiful Scottish 'Ye Banks and Braes of Bonny Doon'. One small purple book travels 1000 musical miles around the British Isles.

The young lad who performs on Sunday will hold the audience in the palm of his hand with his poised and heartfelt performance. The folk song will stand alone, and capture the very essence of singing. L will simply add his own sparkle to it, and make it his own for one passing moment in it's long and glorious history.

Ellie the Wonder Dog

Ellie in her prime !



My lovely little Ellie, the dog who can make all the small people sing, was quietly put to sleep this morning at 11am. She was 18 years 4 months, and was the oldest registered Cavalier King Charles Spaniel in the world. (NB I say registered - there may be others who are unregistered!) She had a long and very eventful life, and I am very sad she has gone. It was , however the right decision, she had lost so much weight and was often barely able to stand.

Like humans, however her appetite was still fine, but she would only be tempted with the finest chicken breast, mature cheddar cheese or chocolate - yes I know it is bad, but she came through unscathed! I bred her myself, and she then became an engagement present for my daughter and now ex son in law, but when Baby C came along she guarded her so much that she had to come and live back with me in Paradise, so here she has been for her last 7 years.

Please go on the youtube below and find out what a remarkable little soul she was. It is an interesting watch for me, it is the school where I taught all those years ago, and where my daughter was also a singing teacher. The little girls you see are now women, probably with babies and puppies of their own, but they all remember Ellie and the bunnies, in the teaching room, being Mummy to the 4 wild rabbits.

You will enjoy it!

She sat by my side when I taught, and as in my earlier post, was such a draw for tiny little singers who found her such a comfort, and took away some of their shyness. I shall miss her!

Only once did she object to the 'noise' in the room, a particularly high and loud young soprano was singing her scales (remember from the top down!), and Ellie must have had quite enough (sensible dog!), and she rushed off her bed and hurled her little body at the singer and howled like the true closet wolf that she was! For the rest of the time I taught that particular youngster, she always made sure she left the room and escaped to the safety of the kitchen....others sang as high, and maybe louder, but A must just have resonated at a frequency that made Ellie shudder.

Maybe at sometime in the future, when I stop all the travelling to competitions, concerts and masterclasses, I might consider another little Cavalier puppy, but Ellie the Wonder Dog will be a hard act to follow.

The Ballad of Jenny

The exam boards have for sometime chosen to give options for light songs. This includes musicals from 1900 right up until now. This is at all Grades from 1 - 8 and into diploma. When I was a student, the thought of singing 'commercial' or 'popular' music was unheard of, and, if I am honest, probably looked down upon. The school exam boards only allowed ' classical' music for O and A level, and so it was always considered a somewhat elitist subject.

This all altered with the introduction of the GCSE exam, when O Level was unceremoniously ditched! I was against, what I perceived as the dumbing down of the standard, and for a number of years whilst it and the Associated Board were experimenting with this whole new world of repertoire, it was a bit of a dumbed down mess.

I have moved on from my initial doubts, and now I really like the idea that a candidate has the opportunity, as the final fling of the exam, to show that they can entertain as well as use a solid classical technique. Many of my past pupils will use ballads such as 'Can't Help Lovin that Man' from Showboat, or
'Someone to Watch Over Me' by Gershwin, interspersed with some Flanders and Swann or Sondheim, as a final group of songs at the end of a recital, and it seems that nowadays young professionals must show that they can be versatile, and appeal to all audiences to earn their musical 'crusts' !

I have been introduced to some cracking songs over the last 10 years, and have often been astonished at what diverse sides of their personalities I have seen when students are given the opportunity to loosen up, and entertain the troops. If they are primarily the ubiquitous 'classical' singer, and if the repertoire is well chosen, then a world of vocal colours is added to the performance. If they sing this style within their own 'vocal box' it works fantastically well, it shows that vital versatility.

If, however the choices are not well made it takes away from the performance, and can leave the end of a concert or recital on a decided downer.

I was master classing a number of Undergrad students in Durham in May, and was very taken with a young woman whose voice is maybe not the most naturally startling in terms of vocal ability and technique, but she could give a song out with such conviction and commitment that we were all totally caught up in the moment. She sang
The Ballad of Jenny by Kurt Weill and Ira Gershwin :

Music: Kurt Weill
Lyrics: Ira Gershwin
Book: Moss Hart
Premiere: Thursday, January 23, 1941

Jenny made her mind up when she was three
She herself was going to trim the Christmas tree
Christmas Eve she lit the candles, tossed the tapers away
Little Jenny was an orphan on Christmas day

Poor Jenny, bright as a penny
Her equal would be hard to find
She lost one dad and mother, a sister and a brother,
But she would make up her mind

Jenny made her mind up when she was twelve
That into foreign languages she would delve
But at seventeen to Vassar, it was quite a blow
That in twenty-seven languages she couldn't say no
Poor Jenny, bright as a penny
Her equal would be hard to find
To Jenny I'm beholden, her heart was big and golden
But she would make up her mind

Jenny made her mind up at twenty-two
To get herself a husband was the thing to do
She got herself all dolled up in her satins and furs
And she got herself a husband--but he wasn't hers

Poor Jenny, bright as a penny
Her equal would be hard to find
Deserved a bed of roses, but history discloses
That she would make up her mind

Jenny made her mind up at fifty-one
She would write her memoirs before she was done
The very day her book was published, history relates,
There were wives who shot their husbands in some thirty-three states

Jenny made her mind up at seventy-five
She would live to be the oldest woman alive
But gin and rum and destiny play funny tricks,
And poor Jenny kicked the bucket at seventy-six
Jenny points a moral with which you cannot quarrel,
Makes a lot of common sense--
Jenny and her saga prove that you're gaga
If you don't keep sitting on the fence

Jenny and her story point the way to glory
To all man and womankind
Anyone with vision comes to this decision--
Don't make up your mind !

She was fantastic, and given that she wasn't the greatest voice, she almost completely stole the day. This, I have noticed is one of the real upsides of allowing young singers to incorporate a wider and lighter repertoire into their programmes. An upside which I have definitely taken too, since i would never never never have been allowed to go down that road - and I remember the past student, whose singers I was master classing, singing a humorous little something when she returned to sing in a concert with my then Ensemble in about 1995, give or take a year. I was astonished when she finished and at the end of the concert I said to her quizzically, 'I didn't know you could do 'funny' M', to which she replied in a rather terse and exasperated tone, 'You never gave me the opportunity to do anything funny Ann!'

Duly chastened, and in danger of flogging myself over the possibility of ruining her entire life, I have never forgotten that, and from that moment on, gave ALL my pupils the option and opportunity to show what they could do.

A close shave, that!



An amazing performance of this great song, by Julie Andrews, singing, gymnastics and real style!!

Trophy Day

Another day, another party ! We are still celebrating the 60 years of marriage, but it really does come to an end this evening, and I think my parents are delighted but exhausted! Their house is like a florists, they have received a wonderful array of every known flower from huge lilies, deep red roses, through to freesias via golden sunflowers. My mother is beside herself with pleasure and shock! Another cake, and a gathering of friends whom they both know well, so quite apart from being too exhausted to keep partying, at 10pm my father looked at me aghast when I asked if they were ready to go, and said firmly, No.

I collected my daughter from the airport today and that was a complete surprise for them, and I take her back at lunchtime tomorrow, so she will be back in 'sin-city' by 6pm in the evening. A fleeting but greatly appreciated visit to share their day. Thanks to all those who came and made their day.

I have not thought about a single crotchet, never mind a song, for the last 24 hours, but real life and work kicks back in on monday when the week begins again, At the end of the week I go once more to Yorkshire as two of my young starlets have been chosen for Awards from the Saltburn Music Festival and will sing at the Prize Winners Concert. They will perform a selection of the songs which gained them trophies. The lovely, and rather nostalgic element of this is that each award they won was presented to the Festival about 200 years ago by singers with whom I sang as a teenager - so I could tell them exactly who the presenter of the trophy was, and a little about them ! Actually, the tremendously talented young soprano who won so many of the Adult classes, I feel certain, will have won the Ann Lampard Award, and with any luck they may ask me to present it too her !

Normally the name on silver cups is that of some long dead and positively historical person of whom no one has any living memory ! Well, I am very much alive, and not even mildly doddery - except on a very bad day, when every teen I teach has driven me to the whiskey bottle - which is quite a feat as I don't even drink!

The songs my 12 and 18 year old will sing are, Foxgloves by Micheal Head, How Soft upon the Evening Air by Thomas Dunhill, and an unaccompanied Scottish folksong The Wild Mountain Thyme.

Should be a lovely weekend.

Well done guys!

Cakes and Heavenly Bread

We had a super day, and my parents were delighted with the surprise family visitors and a beautiful cake made and gifted to them by a local cafe where we lunch every week. Many thanks to them indeed, it was a fantastically kind gesture and so much appreciated by the 'olds' !

My father is VERY deaf, and even though he wears 2 hearing aids, it is the sort of old aged deafness for which there is just no cure. Parties are a nightmare as he cannot filter speech, all noise is equally as loud. It must be a nightmare.

Sometimes, after all the years of Gale Force 10 resonance heading in my direction, my ears do infact hurt! I am sure it is a hazard of the job, and perhaps in many ways just as detrimental as working in a night club for years with pounding bass notes always shocking the eardrums. I know I have said this before, but days without noise are like liquid gold.

However, I cannot imagine what it must be like to never hear very much at all. After a career which has revolved around my ears and the fine listening required to teach well, how would it be to struggle to hear even the most basic sounds ? It is, thankfully, out of my sphere of perception at the moment - long may that last!

On another note, one of the most exciting elements of my job after the long summer holiday, is hearing the amazing changes in my young pupils voices - the growth is astonishing, and I suddenly find myself re assessing the student, and re jigging my thinking about repertoire, future choices, and simply marvelling at how ingenious and miraculous our bodies are at simply growing and developing.

Between the ages of 12 and 17 voices change on a day to day basis, and sometimes I can here explosive development within 6 or 7 days. You can imagine, therefore, what differences I hear after 2 months ! Young R who is 13, came for a lesson yesterday and nearly blew me away. She has always had a 'small and perfectly formed' voice, and having taught her since she was 8 or 9, I have wondered when the muscular fireworks will begin. Well it was yesterday! Suddenly the decibel level grows out of all proportion, and her already solid little technique knows what to do with it, and the two elements together make for magic.

This, I suppose is my argument for 'starting them young'. So many singing teachers will not touch under 18's, and make a great noise about them being too young blah blah. All my teaching life I have had a small number of under 10's, and kept safe, nurtured and heavily monitored, all I can say is that the earlier they are given some rules and tools for singing - just the most basics, ie Vowel shapes, intonation and story telling - they soar and roar ahead when the muscle growth finally begins to happen ! They are confident, assured and simply use what tools I have given them.

They have a major headstart.

This quiet confidence and assurance spills out into many parts of their life, school work and public speaking, not to mention interviews and 'interesting things to say' for CV's and University personal statements. I once taught a girl who had a beautiful and tiny voice at 8, and who went on to do very well, was academically very bright, but was never going to pursue singing as a career. At her Cambridge interview her panel could see she was clever, knew her subject very well, and almost took that for granted. What they asked her about was her singing, and how she had enjoyed playing Barbarina in the Marriage of Figaro, with reference to that fact that they felt her music told them more about her than any number of academic questions they could ask. That is, clearly, a simplified version of the story, but it did show how valuable music is to the rounded person!



Young R sang Panis Angelicus in her lesson yesterday, that lovely, yet often badly sung movement from Messe à trois voix Opus 12 by Cesar Franck, and she sang it with newly found passion, newly grown warmth of tone and much excited commitment for one of such tender years - but that was only made possible because much of the hard graft was done over the last 4 years by an intravenous drip of singing teaching, which she simply acquired by osmosis! Now, it's all happening, and she has the tools at hand. Magical, magical, it is why I do the job.

Suddenly I have become a bit medical!

Aaagh! It took me 4 goes to pass my O Level Biology................

Diamond Wedding

It is my parents Diamond Wedding Anniversary today ! Family members are arriving soon, and so today is rather caught up in entertaining them and celebrating with the 'old's'.

I will return tomorrow with another blog, but not really any time to sit and write for 24 hours!

60 years - brave woman!

Britain's Britten

' Poised like a dart. At the heart of woman'
Act 1 Scene 3 The Rape of Lucretia


I am inordinately fond of Benjamin Britten operas. I know they can seem weird and often dissonant, but really they are 'music drama', not opera as we know it with arias and choruses which have a beginning a middle and an end, followed by applause.

Britten just draws us in to the drama and emotion of the moment, or in the lighter works the humour of the moment. If you have been lucky enough to visit Aldeburgh in Suffolk where he lived for almost all his life you would see the names of villages, lovely old churches and village halls which he mentions in those works such as Albert Herring, and Lets Make an Opera.

I taught my hugely talented young mezzo today, and last week took the plunge and gave her what is one of the few 'arias' in one of Britten's most formidable but fantastic works, The Rape of Lucretia. I sent her home furnished with the whole score and a DVD of the opera performed magnificently by Jean Rigby, Anthony Rolfe Johnson and many other greats of the British opera world. It was a gamble, she may have hated it, but this evening she came back positively glowing with excitement.

I was so thrilled that the combination of the high drama, the truly moving story combined with fantastic music and singing, had engaged and thrilled her more in one week than, than a year full of lessons may have done !

It is a wonderful piece, and I have often used it to really 'catch' teenagers, for whom the soppy stories sometimes seen in operas deemed 'suitable' for newbies, are irrelevant, patronising and downright silly ! They are much more riveted by a powerful, intense and compelling storyline, which had some shock and reality within it's bounds, and Lucretia is all of that and more.

Britten keeps us on the edge of our seats with the changes of pace, and the Male and Female Chorus roles making comment on the 'play within a play' scenario, the Male Chorus keeping the narrative strong and dangerous, and the Female Chorus trying desperately to intervene and stop the heinous act from happening.

I took a party of V1 formers to see the opera in London many years ago, and after the moment she has killed herself with a knife in her husband's arms, Junius, the young soldier who dared Tarquinius to seduce and eventually rape Lucretia, guiltily asks the audience 'is this it all ?'. The Male Chorus answers with ' God is All', and in this particular production the Male Chorus was wearing an almost religious black robe and a large silver crucifix. As he breathed to sing ' God is All', his chest rose and the lights caught the crucifix, thus for a brief moment the auditorium was filled with a blinding flash of light so bright the whole audience gasped. It was so dramatic, not only because of the shock factor, but because it was a complete accident of the moment. No performer, however experienced could know exactly where to stand, exactly how high to raise the chest, and exactly where the crucifix was at that moment.

The power of the theatre left those V1 formers with such a jolt of amazement and disbelief, I imagine if you were to ask them now, 37 years down the line, they would remember it as if it were yesterday.

In 1997 I produced my then group of singers in 6 performances of Lucretia, both in the South of England and at the Edinburgh Festival. Nothing quite so dramatic happened, but I know it was a memorable and rich learning curve which they still talk about with sharp and tingling memories.

Works like that live with one for all one's life, and one day young Mezzo M will make a thrilling Lucretia, and it will be hers for life too.



Benjamin Britten with Clytie his Dachshund. A picture of a happy composer - now there's a thing !