Yesu

The soft yellows of the spiral staircase up to the guest rooms at Arundel


The staircase itself!



The log fire in the hallway at Boarbank where evening Compline is held



The snowdrops to welcome me in my room.


I made it to Boarbank Hall to the Augustine sisters who invited me for the first time last Easter time. It is such a beautiful place, large expansive gardens, a house full of painted wall panels in the reception rooms and parlours galore!

As this is only my second visit here they sisters are not as advanced as the Poor Clare's who have had my ministrations and bellowing's for around 15 years. I was so pleased to hear however, at our first morning session altogether that they had retained a good deal of what I had taught last year, and the mouth shapes came zooming back to them in a very short time.

Once again, bucking the trend, the community has expanded by four or five, and some who were aspirants last year are now novices, and others on their way to full vows. I am cheered by the influx of new blood I have seen at both places, each radiates warmth, and each deserves the pleasure of a thriving community.

One of the older sisters remarked to me after lunch had I noticed what a cosmopolitan group we were eating around the same table ? Infact we were English, Irish, Singaporean, Chinese, Hungarian, French, and me, a bit of a mongrel in ancestral terms!

The young Chinese lady had me singing in Mandarin !!! I learnt a song with her, in order to help her understand vowel shapes, and how to apply them to her own language. It made Gaelic sound like the simplest language in the known world! With much hand expression, wild gestures and laughing we communicated happily until her 20 minute slot was over. She wants to come back for more, so it must have meant something!

I was much moved to learn that the name Jesus in Mandarin is eminently recognisable as Yesu. Some things cross all barriers.

The two communities are so different, equally warm and welcoming, and most enjoyable to work with. Arundel feels like a group of old friends nowadays, and we work like a hand in a well fitting glove, and I feel as if I am still getting to know the Grange over Sands sisters, but what a joy and honour to spend time with them all. I love the job!

Some photos show how each house has an individual ambience, structure and lifestyle, each wonderful in their own way, and both in terms of the all important gastronomic delights of the table!

(It was Kedgeree tonight ! Yum)

Latin Mass, Coffee and free WiFi

I have had a super day at the Poor Clare's today, working with old friends and new friends. The community in Arundel seem to grow each time I go, which must be bucking the trend for enclosed convents and monestaries in 2012 I imagine. They are a vey cosmopolitan community, with sisters from Zimbabwe, France, Malaysia, Ireland, Scotland, England and India. They have a gift for 'inclusion', the welcome, and the bringing in of everyone is very tangible, whether to a new sister from another house in the world, or a brand new postulant, and even to a paid worker and relative stranger like myself.

We started our day with some general exercises in a plenary session. The music director Sr F always has some repertoire she wants me to work on, so after the warm ups, and maybe a new type of technical help we embark upon learning the new material.

There is, at the moment a very difficult issue in the Catholic church regarding translations of the Latin mass. I was, I must be honest, largely unaware just how contentious this has become, and it seems many years have gone into the minutiae of syntax of these translations. Without putting too fine a point upon it, I got the feeling that many folk feel that the time and finance might have been put to better use. The new lexianaries which contain these modern translations cost £258 per book, and each church, convent, monestary has to have a copy and has to use it. To me, as an observer and onlooker, the changes seem very small indeed, but it is not my place to judge, I realise!

We embarked on a squeaky clean new setting, new translation, of the Gloria. To put it mildly, I felt it was rather uninspiring, over complicated and perhaps a youthful composer trying to put in everything he/she has learnt in academic studies ! Bearing in mind that the nuns, whilst being very competent, and some very good readers, it was tough going, and took me all my cheeriness, encouragement and 'you can do this!!, to keep them motivated, and believe me in general nuns and monks are VERY self motivated. Some even indicated that a quiet word in the Abbess's ear about the suitability of this particular anthem, might relieve the situation. Like everywhere, an outsider can sometimes say what the insider finds hard to verbalise. I may give it my best shot tomorrow, and duck !

The Abbess is great, ducking will probably not be necessary.

To turn to the vastly important subject of Guest House food, I had the most wonderful vegetarian lasagne last night. I am generally not a fan of the usual veg lasagne, but this was splendid. I w told today that it was stuffed with lentils, red and green as well as chick peas and lots of onions. It tasted like manna from Heaven ! I have asked for all the ingredients which will be gladly given to me, but Sr G the young cook from last night said she could only give amounts enough to feed 30 mouths! I said, fine - one of my Paradise cooking friends will do the maths, and may even make it!

Am coffee ing in the Premier Inn opposite the convent, where free WiFi is on offer!

Costa coffee, wifi and nuns: a fine combination indeed!

An early lovesick maiden, with a lusterous head of curly hair I think!

Another day another 10 songs!

A very busy day today and then another rehearsal tonight.

I may not have time or wifi to post in the next few days, but the lapse will be due to lack of technology, rather than my tardiness.

Tonight the feet will be all tripping when we finish the first chorus for ladies, and Twenty Fine Lovesick Maidens do they make indeed! We are giving them props, an embroidery ring with a flowing piece of fabric and some stiches, good for making arm patterns and for hiding behind! The men will all have Swagger sticks, actually for the moment, garden canes cut to the right length - I wonder if any lungs will be punctured as they learn to keep them under control!

Aaagh!
Hope to report from the wonderful Poor Clares in Arundel in the next few days!

King David by Herbert Howells

"Tell me, thou little bird that singest,
Who taught my grief to thee?"


I was just thinking how time flies. Here I am with only 2 more teaching days to go before I am 'nunning' for 10 days, and 3 weeks 2 days before I leave for my sojourn in the Orient. I feel as if I have so much music to cram in before the deadline!

So many folk have their own musical deadlines, the Festival looms, and all that repertoire needs to be memorised and polished in the next 3 weeks, and for some the said repertoire is tricky stuff. On my way back from visiting Dad in the nursing home 30 miles away I was listening to my favourite playlist when a song came up which I realised I had never taught anybody for about 15 years.

What's going on, I said to myself - this is one of the finest English Art Songs of the last century. Why is nobody singing this for an advanced exam, a Festival class or my own Song School !?

So what is it? King David, by Herbert Howells. A wondrous piece of vocal music, so rich in text and melody and yet subtle and understated. The poem, by Walter de la Mare is magical. It talks about the biblical King David who is full of such melancholy that nothing can lift his spirits. Not the finest musicians in his employ or the finest music of the day can take the sorrow away from his heart. Only when he walks in his garden and hears the nightingale singing innocently in the nearby tree does he feel lifted, and yet this little bird is oblivious to his dark feelings, and presumably simply singing to catch a mate, or for the joy of singing ?! I am sure a birdwatcher will tell me different, but he definitely was not singing to ease the King's sadness!

Howells must have been so inspired by this poem, and his setting is warm, melancholic and wandering. So in keeping with the distracted King. Yet as the heaviness in his heart lifts he gives the singer a simple rise in pitch, and a couple of unaccompanied, and thus uncomplicated bars, free of cloying harmony or fussy piano roulades.

It is one of the greatest songs written, and I MUST use it in the not too distant future.

I have been inspired!

PS Not in the next seriously hectic 3 weeks however, though I may listen again about 25 times and remind myself of it's beauty!

Words

King David was a sorrowful man:
No cause for his sorrow had he;
And he called for the music of a hundred harps,
To ease his melancholy.

They played till they all fell silent:
Played and play sweet did they;
But the sorrow that haunted the heart of King David
They could not charm away.

He rose; and in his garden
Walked by the moon alone,
A nightingale hidden in a cypress tree,
Jargoned on and on.

King David lifted his sad eyes
Into the dark-boughed tree
"Tell me, thou little bird that singest,
Who taught my grief to thee?"

But the bird in no-wise heeded;

And the king in the cool of the moon
Hearkened to the nightingale's sorrowfulness,
Till all his own was gone.

Listen to the marvelous Sarah Connolly singing it. She sings a wrong word in the first verse - see even the greats make mistakes - how comforting!

'Sing Together' - the Purple Book of Success

Purple Wins !

The snow arrived today, and seems set to last through tomorrow. Not heavy, more like thick hail stones, but whatever the density the outcome is the same, a white road and a chilly zero temperature.

I had a tiny little thing for her first lesson today, a talented, eager and delightful small girl of 7 years from the next large village. Sometimes one can see a totally natural aptitude, a little rosebud mouth which does exactly what one wants it to do, and an ear that can up the scales by a semitone without giving it a thought. Well this small babe can do all of that, and I found myself smiling with glee at each new scale, as her lips made the utterly unflawed OO shape or AW shape, never wavering, and thus producing a true and pingy tone, absolutely in tune and centred.

The most important thing is however that she does not have any idea that it is a little unusual in one of her age, and so she just enjoyed herself and had a ball in her lesson! Potential indeed for the future. Infact her 20 minutes went in a flash.

I am away 'nunning' from next wednesday for 10 days, so I gave her two songs to learn, and so I will see how quickly she learns and memorises. Probably she will whizz through them and be bored by Sunday!

I know I have mentioned the wonderful Sing Together book before - but it is fantastic, and should be a compulsory textbook in all primary schools. Truly 'World Music' with little folksongs from all over, with piano accompaniments which are not out of the way for an average pianist, or even a less than average tinkler! My copy is wonderfully dog eared, has a broken back, pages float out when used and lots of pencillings jotted down for little people of years ago !

Try 'My Father's Garden', or 'Anna Marie', or maybe the jolly 'Smuggler's Song' for bouncy boys........I could go on and on.

Give it a try, use it in the classroom or musicroom for all your under 11's and I promise that they will enjoy it hugely.

Incidentally I have no shares in Oxford University Press; unfortunately!


PS I forgot, my wonderful Mezzo M came once again for a lesson today and is back in the saddle I think - new aria, excited about being in a concert once again and singing with such magnificent control, such huge ringing tone, and such joy - for both of us.



Guess what the new aria is?
That's right, 'Dido's Lament' Purcell. Scrumptious!

First Rehearsal on your toes

Don't you just love the trousers!

The weeks are zooming by and I am teaching everyday monday to friday until I go to Hong Kong. I feel as if I am back in London !

Still, it means that I can squeeze in more lessons and rehearsals than normal and then I can at least leave them all with a clear conscience.

We had our first rehearsal last night for Patience. It went so well, they were all singing with a big and healthy sound, and we started blocking so that by the middle of February, L and C have a solid base upon which to work whilst the pianist is otherwise engaged. Patience is so full of 'nutcase' characters, the aristocratic ladies, all of whom are following the aesthetic movement, and are as barmy as 8 week old puppies !

We set the ladies opening chorus, playing heavily on the melodramatic and the languishing lovesick, with much in the way of fake weeping and eloquent sighing. They did it remarkably well - Oh Dear ! The chaps marched well in time as fairly smart Dragoon Guards, but may not, in fairness have passed muster at Sandhurst yet, but in a few months they will be as 'smart as a carrot' as my father has always quoted!

I love it when rehearsals get going for real, so to speak. The journey of a show, whether 6 months in an amateur capacity, or in 3 weeks in a professional theatre, is exciting, almost exhilarating even. So full of promise and potential, so much undiscovered musical country. I love watching all the singers catch the infection which is the 'stage', and light up when they can ditch the day job and become someone else for a couple of hours.

This show is new to virtually everyone, and whilst that makes it harder on the learning front, it is also much more interesting to watch it piece together. There is some cracking music in the show, and some marvellously ridiculous storylines, largely based on the sillier elements of the Oscar Wilde movement. Initially it is quite hard to understand the 'aesthetic' movement, but it quickly becomes obvious it is just another implausible and impossible Gilbert and Sullivan plot.

One of the few which does not involve babies swapped at birth !

Hurrah !

One of the more obscure and silly poems written by ' dear Archibald'. Ahhhhhhhhhhh


'Gentle Jane was as good as gold,
She always did as she was told;
She never spoke when her mouth was full,
Or caught bluebottles their legs to pull,
Or spilt plum jam on her nice new frock,
Or put white mice in the eight-day clock,
Or vivisected her last new doll,
Or fostered a passion for alcohol.
And when she grew up she was given in marriage
To a first-class earl who keeps his carriage!'

'Were I Thy Bride' with canine accessories

I had to take my car to Inverness for a service this week, so whilst I was over that neck of the woods I taught three of my students who live in the environs of said city, to save them a trip over to Paradise.

It was a good, but long afternoon's worth of teaching, including a most memorable session with 17 year old M. She, along with a few others are entering the Inverness Music Festival in March, by which time I am in Hong Kong, so I am working them very very hard so they are ready to perform a good two weeks before the official dates.

M is singing 'Were I Thy Bride', Phoebe's aria from The Yeaoman of the Guard. She can be a serious young lady, and has a very intense, almost blinkered way of thinking about a song, so humour and fun can sometimes be in short supply! The song was going well, she had learnt it well, all was more or less note and word perfect, but it did not look much like she was seducing the clod Wilfred Shadbolt!

At the end of ideas for 'fun inducing', I decided that the last resort was to use a 'body' for her to sing to. The nearest 'body' to hand was Gretel the Cavalier King Charles ! She is dog and animal mad, so it turned out the perfect foil for her, and in a split second she smiled, giggled, cuddled and generally sang as if it were the most enjoyable moment of her short life, up to that moment. What a triumph, I must use the dog more often ! Her tone softened, she forgot about difficult breathing, she sang with bounce and freedom - it was a revelation to us both!

I wonder what the adjudicator would think if she turned up at the Light Opera class with an adorable Black and Tan King Charles wearing a miniature costume resembling the cutest jailer in the Western world.

If it were me adjudicating she would carry away the prize.

No question!

The antithesis of this happened in a small pupils's lesson, another M ! She was wriggling and scriggling so much we had a competition to see how long she could keep her shoulders from looking as if she had itching powder in her school uniform! 20 seconds was about the maximum, by which time she was exploding with wriggles!

The joy of teaching.

Everyone a unique challenge, everyday. How could I ever be bored?

'On a Bank Beside a Willow' by William Boyce

A place to dream


One of the most beautiful songs I know is 'On a Bank Beside a Willow' by William Boyce. I don't teach it a great deal because it is very difficult technically, mostly because of the large interval leaps of 6th's 7th's and Octaves. These wide leaps need so much vocal and muscular support, yet the overall style of the song is pastoral, legato and flowing. Tricky indeed to combine the use of all that hard work whilst seeming to float the magical melody.

In many ways it is so akin to ballet. So much energy and yet so light and effortless in what we see, and in the case of the song, what we hear. The song's melody soars and falls majestically, and is so full of passion, yet in a late Baroque song, written in an era when coolness and vocal mastery were almost more important that heart on the sleeve emotion.

It is the story of a girl who was loved by Damon a Greek god. More than that I cannot find ! I'm not sure that really matters, but the words are by Dryden and the music simply oozes the dropping tears of Aminta for the loss of Damon.

I was teaching it today, the first time in 10 years, as I have not had a high soprano with a purity of vocal tone, and the stamina to cover all the technical bases, so to speak.

Having said all that, my pupil L, did almost need mouth to mouth recusitation by the time we had finished! Good for the body, good for the soul and a work out above and beyond the call of duty!

I really enjoyed it!

O Soft was the Song of My Heart by Elgar

My favourite picture of Elgar, looking benign and a bit Father Christmasish!

Well, the new term starts today, back to the grind so to speak! Actually there are a few regulars who are still on holiday this week so I am eased in with a three quarter timetable. However, because I am off to adjudicate at the Hong Kong Festival in Feb and March, I am adding in an extra day of teaching for those youngsters and oldsters who are committed to high end exams, or singing in the Skye Song School in April.

So my usual washing and shopping friday is now a full teaching day. I worked out that there would only be around 5 weeks of this term before I was away, and not returning until, in effect, next term! I don't think I have ever been away for a month before, and that is a lot of of lesson time missed for the heavily weighted (not in lbs and ounces you understand!) with repertoire.

Some lovely repertoire is being sung at all of these events however. I taught a young man last friday who cannot come this week as he is to have a small operation in hospital today. He brought the gorgeous 'O Soft was the Song' by Elgar. I love it when they get to late teens and suddenly start to really understand how music works, and not be intimidated by 'grown up' songs, like the Elgar, which has changes and moods which require different colours and movement.

He had learnt it well, but the joy on his face when he heard the accompaniment and the harmonies swirling around underneath the voice was a wonder to behold, and at the end of the first sing through he said, ' Ah now I understand where the tune is going!'. Elgar had the most wonderful ability to take us away from the key, dance us around in completely unrelated keys and then bring us home with total satisfaction and finality. I loved it, even though some of the poetry he used was less than stellar sometimes, his melodies and tunes more than made up for any poetic flaws.

When one sings Elgar it is like being wrapped up in a blanket of rich sound, or perhaps akin to hugging a Faberge hot water bottle!

Now there is a flight of fancy!

Plockton Pals

Pretty Plockton


Today I had lunch with two pupils from some time ago, one I taught from the age of 10, and the other from 15. One is from the South of England and the other from Plockton just on the mainland. It was so lovely to spend time with them both, they are the sort of personalities where, regardless of how long it is since we met up, we simply carry on as if we chatted yesterday. Both of these young women, approaching their 27th year now ( Tempus fugit in a big way!) have made such successes of their lives in totally different directions, and with diverse aims.

F, from Plockton, is in her first post grad year at the Royal College of Music, and on her way to becoming a real star, yet steady and firmly rooted in her background and in her ability, with none of the 'diva' elements. She is hugely talented, but still has humility and fully accepts the precarious nature of the business. This will stand her in such good stead, and in many ways will enhance her chance of a meteoric career rise. These days there is no room for singers who are all pretty dress and no technique. She also has the kindest, most affectionate personality, and whichever route her life takes she will be a successful and contented person

C, from Surrey, came to me as a gorgeous and talented 10 year old, some 17 years ago, and went through school and the Junior Royal Academy of Music, so talented, and such a natural and delightful performer. I never ever had to teach her how to communicate with an audience and win them over completely. She always had a penchant for Kern, Gershwin and other composers of that ilk, and even today when I meet up with a colleague who was a house accompanist at the JRAM, he reminds me how C was the only singer he could improvise with, and who understood how to sell a Gershwin ballad. She sang at a St Martin in the Field's summer concert in her final year at the Academy, the only student from that august Junior Dept who ever performed a light piece as if she owned the venue, and with total professionalism. She left, decided singing was not for her, and is now extremely successful in the world of advertising and media.

Following the heart and gut is always the most fulfilling way forward - one girl has pursued the dream associated with the talent, the other has followed her dream, talent intact, but not as a career for her. They became friends, really close friends at 17, and have never looked back.

Whatever happens, introducing them to each other was the finest part of my influence in their lives, and it was such a thrill to see them both today, radiant, happy, fulfilled, and a teeny bit worse the wear from the extravaganza that is; 'Plockton Hogmanay' !



"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival."
- C. S. Lewis

Hogmanay Day

I am sitting in the No 1 Lounge at Gatwick Airport, it is cold and very rainy outside, but nothing like the cold I am expecting when I brave the stairway out of the plane in Inverness! I have spent a super 6 days with the family in Sussex, but all good things come to an end, so today I am on my way home, and looking forward to seeing friends at home, and feeling the super cuddle which Gretel gives me !

My ex son in law drove me to the airport along with the children, rather hang dog in appearance, and very tired from too many late nights and too much rich food ! He chatted about this and that on the way to Gatwick, telling me in much detail how proud he was of his newly acquired Chapel Choir, at the school where he recently became head of department. I smiled inwardly, M is primarily a rock musician, soul saxophonist, and backing singer with his own Blues band. He is a brilliant teacher and even as a boy his musicianship was very fine in all styles, classical included. Over the years we have had an undercurrent battle about the fact that most children nowadays are never exposed to anything but 'pop' culture music in school, which means that classical genres become devalued and forgotten.

The inward smile of the last paragraph was because he so wanted to introduce the Middy sound to his choir, he has been using all the scales and exercises he poo pooed as a boy and young man, aiming for a beautiful SOFT sound, and asking them to sing with a real sensibility with the words !

Result !

On the quiet, he has asked me to go and give the choir a vocal masterclass sometime in the coming year, how pleasing is that. He was gracious and humble in asking, and told me he finally understood how moving a soft, unified, head sound is, and how glad that he was part (all be it peripheral) for all those years of the Middy 'stable' training!

He was the finest Antonio in The Marriage of Figaro many years ago, not totally in tune, but so very funny - I think all the serious singers wanted to lynch him for stealing the show!

Of course I will be going to his school, as soon as he gives me a date.

Well done that man.