WE DO BURNS AND KINDNESS

Our first song this morning was SIYAHAMBA, and after our altos learned the harmony part we gathered our forces and sang it giving it our best 'Desmond Tutu full African sound'.
Thinking, on the 25th, about Burns songs and after listening to AULD LANG SYNE, it struck me that kindness is a quality Burns mentions frequently in writing about people and I reflected on the fact that relationships can be based on many different qualities but kindness is an essential component in the mix.

We'll tak a cup o kindness yet,
O this is no my ain lassie, fair tho the lassie be,
O this is no my ain lassie, kind love is in her e'e.
I'll meet thee on the lea rig, my ain kind dearie O.

This thought spurred me on to take two of these songs this morning, AULD LANG SYNE, to the older tune, and THE LEA RIG, both of which we enjoyed singing.
Later we learned the AULD LANG SYNE tune, the first part only, on the instruments but enough to hear that it will be effective played this way. Good to take a fresh approach to the lovely old tunes.

CLICK, STAMP, SLAP, CLAP.

FIRST YOU MAKE YOUR FINGERS CLICK
THEN YOU STAMP YOUR FEET
BOTH HANDS SLAP YOUR KNEES
AND CLAP ON THE BEAT.

This quickened the reactions this morning, the four part round bringing in a succession of body percussion sounds and all that clapping and stamping was just the thing for a cold morning.

We returned to THE NIGHT SHALL BE FILLED, and are now getting the hang of it, the jumps in the melody and the lovely caressing semitones giving the feel of Arab music.
THE WATER IS WIDE, a call and response song, was another challenge to the listening as well as the breath control, with its long notes which create the harmony.

Improvising on the instruments is flowing much better now as our technique is improving and today we did the rounds with six or seven people taking the plunge, improvising a section.

We're working on the Orff piece:

EVENING RED AND MORNING GREY
HELP THE TRAVELLER ON HIS WAY
EVENING GREY AND MORNING RED
BRING DOWN RAIN UPON HIS HEAD.

This involves flutes, solo and together, and solo singer then chorus with xylos, bells and timpani. Should be fun when we get it up to speed.

WE BID FOR THE BLEND

We started this morning by doing some loosening up movements to music from Shaun Davey's piece THE BRENDAN VOYAGE. The track, Water Under the Keel, begins with a melody on the Uilleann pipes and grows to include the full orchestra, giving a wonderful opening up feeling which is exactly what we need to prepare for a good sing.
After some voice warming exercises we then applied ourselves to the Carl Orff piece, Evening Red and Morning Grey.
The four lines of this rhyme are set to a very simple tune which moves stepwise within a small range of notes, allowing us to listen carefully to each other trying for a good blend of the voices. This is a piece to be worked on over a period, involving as it does flutes, xylophones, timpani and sleigh bells as well as the voices.

We then turned to a more challenging sing, a beautiful setting of the last stanza from Longfellow's poem, The Day is Done,

And the night shall be filled with music,
And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
And as silently steal away.

The jumps in this melody need careful concentration but express beautifully the sense of the words making it a real pleasure to sing, especially individually, in our quieter moments.

Getting out the instruments after our coffee, we played about with rhythms on the small percussion before lunging into a piece involving improvisation from several members _ an interesting and lively sound as well as good fun.

Finally we gave full voice, again listening as we sang, for a good blend, to GREEN GROW THE RASHES O! (almost, but not quite, from memory).

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ENJOY MUSIC CHRISTMAS LUNCH

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THE FAIR LADY -- TAKE 2 !

THE PENTATONIC SCALE

Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale, using audience participation, at the event "Notes & Neurons: In Search of the Common Chorus", from the 2009 World Science Festival, June 12, 2009.

THE TURNING OF THE YEAR

Amid these grim, wet, cold, gloomy days it's good to remember that we're coming up to the shortest day and that's the burden of our new song, words and music by Jan Holdstock.

THE TURNING OF THE YEAR

The leaves are gone, the boughs are black and bare against the sky, _
So bring a branch of evergreen and hang the holly high.
For the darkest days are over_ and the spring will soon be here,
So we sing _ and we celebrate _ the turning of the year.
The days are short, the nights are cold, the sky is dark with rain,
But we can see the sunlight in the candle’s flickery flame.
The wind may blow, the frost may bite, but we will take the time
To cheer our hearts with carolling, with music and with rhyme.


We picked it up quickly and were soon carolling away like linties, enjoying the music and the up-beat sentiments.

I'm always happy when it's time to sing the Carol of the Advent, the lovely French tune Besençon, to words by Eleanor Farjeon and we gave it full voice.

The spotlight was on the percussion department today, allowing them some time to concentrate on exactly where and how to hit that drum and cymbal, get the feel of the weight of the beater and also listen to the sounds as the beater hit different parts of the instrument. The result was sensitive playing from both players and now we're ready to film our piece again, first time we have a full turnout.

Last meeting of the year next week followed by the Christmas lunch.

THE FAIR LADY -- TAKE 1 !!!

A CHORAL SOUND

The Enjoy Music Group - Click to enlarge

Of course we are a music group, exploring and enjoying many aspects of music, but singing is a particular joy and we have been quietly and steadily training ourselves to be better singers and even think about blending our voices. This happens regularly whether we are twelve or twenty but this morning the combination of being twenty, and at last feeling comfortable with GREEN GROW THE RASHES O, was quite special and for the first time I felt we were singing as a choir. Words are almost perfect from memory and the faces are showing real feeling for the song,_a pleasure to see and listen to.

We also spent some time this morning having ourselves filmed singing and playing THE FAIR LADY. It's some time since we made a film and I think we got a good format this time for our position in the room. It went quite well but the results were so close to being good that I've decided we should do it again next week now that we're familiar with the drill and get it right.

We are scheduled to finish this term on 1st December but decided to add a meeting on the 8th after which we'll go for lunch at Douglas Park Golf Club

CALL AND RESPONSE ROUND THE CIRCLE.

Call and response is one of the oldest forms of song, found in many parts of the world. It depends on one person with a strong voice who sings a line at a time for the others to echo. We have a number of these in our repertoire and sing them either with one caller or in two groups, _ one group calling and the other responding.
Today we sang WHAT'LL I DO WITH THE BABY-O? with each person taking a turn to 'call' a line of the song, right round the circle. Interesting how the need to sing the line, solo, demonstrated how not everyone was secure in the song and concentrated minds on fixing the melody. By the third time round, all were singing their lines in good, clear, confident voices.
This is a good way to build confidence among singers and also a fun way to sing.

GREEN GROW THE RASHES O we have almost memorised and our challenge now is to begin to enjoy the song and sing it confidently.

We ended the morning with ALEYKUM ASALAAM, Arabic for "Peace be unto you', a four part harmony piece by Nickomo. It's some time since we sang this but after re-learning the parts we achieved a full, close harmony sound which sent us off with a musical warmth inside on a cold morning.

THE FAIR LADY IN BALANCE.

For several weeks we've been practising the barred instrument parts of the Orff-Keetman arrangement of the old Scots ghost song, THE FAIR LADY and of course we had to use all the instruments, glocks, xylophones and metallophone, allowing everyone to have a go.
The arrangement, however, calls for only xylophones and metallophone, seven barred instruments in our group, and today we added the bass drum and a cymbal, nine players altogether, leaving the others to sing the song.
This was a good balance of sound. We heard the drum and cymbal to great effect and the voices came over clearly above the gentle rhythmic ostinatos from the xylophones and metallophone. We repeated it many times, enjoying the sound as well as the satisfaction of getting it right, at last.

The success of this may have been due to the good warm up at the beginning when everyone did an improvisation, to be copied by the group. Many of these were snippets of songs learned long ago, and happily revived, giving a lot of laughs, as well as good exercise for the voice.

THE BLACK SOCKS WARM UP

Black socks, they never get dirty,
The longer you wear them the stronger they get.
Sometimes I felt I should launder them;
Something keeps telling me: don't wash them yet,
Not yet, not yet, not yet _.

This energetic round started us off on a chilly morning, warming the voices and the spirits. Careful attention to tuning the notes and managing the jumps in the melody paid off as we were soon singing it well. Next week will be the move into three (or four) parts.

Our current Burns song GREEN GROW THE RASHES O was next. We spent some time noting pronunciations and note lengths before launching into the song, the challenge of which, for a group, is to sing the tricky rhythms together and accurately; the words are so good that they sing themselves. The range of this song makes it difficult for a group of mixed voices, and here it is the bases who need to jump octaves to stay with the melody. But ever resourceful, they manage it and our tenor, struggling somewhat in the low notes of the verse, really shines in the chorus.

The scale in the accompaniment of THE FAIR LADY is now a dawdle for us but fitting it in between what comes before and after is still difficult. It's a real joy now to see the agility of everyone crossing the sticks for the notes of the scale and playing with obvious feeling for the pulse of the piece.

We ended the morning with FAREWEEL TAE TARWATHIE, always a favourite

OUR DEFINITIVE VERSION

Singing a Burns song as a group means deciding on pronunciation and that involves considering all the ways we've heard that song sung, as well as our own individual native dialects of the Scots words. In our group these native dialects include Glasgow/central Scotland, Aberdeen, Stirlingshire and west coast and today we worked on finding a consensus as to what felt right for all of us. So pencils in hand, we read over GREEN GROW THE RASHES O, writing in word by word, directions as to how to pronounce the printed text and ending up with our definitive version.
After that we sang it with good feeling, not quite all together yet, but now at least we know where we're going with it.
The cafe is now open again and we enjoyed the break upstairs.
Afterwards, working on the instruments, we practised fitting in the 'scale' section of THE FAIR LADY, which took some time, but as I see those crossover movements with the sticks looking more agile, it is now beginning to feel more relaxed and truly musical.

WE DO BURNS

Beginning today with some scat singing in a jazzy round by Orff teacher Woflgang Hartmann, we further warmed up the voices with the round BIRDS FLY SOUTH, in three parts plus bass ostinato. Two whistling improvisers, although soft, gave the piece atmosphere and the ensemble worked well.

After that, we took a fresh look at the Burns song GREEN GROW THE RASHES O! and decided we liked every one of the five verses. There was some discussion of how we should pronounce various words _ we have many different backgrounds, as far as Scots language is concerned _ in our group. Interesting to hear the range of ideas and come to consensus. The range of the tune is a challenge for our mixed voices but we'll work at it and perhaps stretch the range of a few members (in a good way).

We missed the flutes today for the Connemara lullaby but substituted voices before coming in with the words. Wonderful how we can now sing and play at the same time, keeping it all together beautifully.

Finally, we practised the parts for THE FAIR LADY, which we've always found difficult and we'll come back to that next week hoping to get it right next time.

TO GREENLAND AND BACK

We spent some time and effort today on TARWATHIE, achieving a good blend of the voices and having a try at memorising the words, which one member, who'd visited Greenland, found entirely reminiscent of the landscape there.
LOVE SOMEBODY, in 'call and response' form, always requires sharp attack at the beginning of phrases and this took a little time to establish. Also, more verses would be fun and this was the challenge set to our wordsmiths this week: Write more verses!
By now in good voice, we revived from last spring the Orff piece about the bells of towns in France, CARILLON. The melody is in two voice parts with the bass holding a low, sonorous DIN DONG ostinato.
This is accompanied by our two flutes, glocks, xylophones and metallophone. It lacked good balance since several strong singers were missing today, but it should sound good with our full complement.
We ended the morning with CONNEMARA LULLABY; remarkable to hear how comfortable we now are with this dorian mode melody which at first seemed quite strange to our ears.

A SCALED DOWN (AND UP) DAY.

For various reasons, to do with The Mod, sunny climes, grandchildren and home maintenance, our group was small in number today: nevertheless we learned a new round _ a "DOO-BE-DOO" by Wolfgang Hartmann, an Orff teacher who worked for many years at the Orff Institute in Salzburg and now travels the world giving seminars.
Moving on to the instruments after that, we had a really good practice, 'crossing over' with the beaters and playing scales, up and down. We did make those xylophones sing!
We followed this with CONNEMARA LULLABY - practising the words to become more comfortable with them and enjoying the repeats: flute-song-flute.
Although the high voices were missing today for SONG OF THE SOUTH, Irving Berlin's arrangement of WAY DOWN UPON THE SWANEE RIVER, we sang the melody which gives scope for concentrating on good, round tone on the long notes.
FAREWEEL TAE TARWATHIE was our final song, started by Don singing verse one in a low key then raising the pitch, all joined in for the rest of the verses.

THE CALL OF THE SOUTH

Returning to BIRDS FLY SOUTH today, we sang the four part round in perfect togetherness, the bass ostinato giving just that little bounce to keep the birds going so that the soprano improvisation on names of the big, solitary birds _ osprey, eagle, sparrowhawk, falcon_ was able to soar above the music of the flock.
This good ensemble continued in CONNEMARA lullaby, the melody played today on two flutes, an octave apart, which gave a fine, full sound. The original words of this melody being lost in time, we sang a new text written by one of our members which fitted perfectly both the music and the mood of the melody.

CONNEMARA LULLABY
Words: Ruth Mills
Tune: Irish, Traditional

On peaceful shores the waves are lappng
And calling me to tarry awhile.
I walk beside the sparkling water
And all my cares wash away on the tide.

A gentle breeze embraces me softly,
A gentle breeze is leading me on
To tranquil pools I see before me ,
My cares are washing away on the tide.

Next. we sang through THE CALL OF THE SOUTH, an Irving Berlin arrangement of the Stephen Foster song, Way Down Upon A Swanee River, which features a melody for soprano which complements the main tune. This gives scope to the fine soprano voices in our group and will be interesting to hear next week when they've learned it.
We ended the morning with FAREWEEL TAE TARWATHIE, giving the first verse to our bass singer, in a low key, accompanied by quiet humming from the others. Raising the pitch after that, we enjoyed singing the rest of the verses.

ONE FLUTE FOR CONNEMARA

BIRDS FLY SOUTH was again a good warm up song, now more relaxed and even sounding 'fluttery' in softer voices and four parts.

Moving on to THE CONNEMARA LULLABY, we sang the tune by heart this time before picking up the beaters to play the instrument parts, glocks and upper xylophones playing two note chords. By the time Diana added the flute melody, it was really impressive how everyone was listening intently, slowing or speeding up to follow her and keeping the ensemble intact to give a really sensitive and musical rendering, __ a pleasure for us all. We look forward to hearing this piece next week with the whistle and perhaps another flute.

After the coffee we picked up the golfing song CARMEN ANTISPHAERISTICUM, which we'd promised to help Gordon with, ready to sing the choruses after his three verses. We were completely unprepared and amazed at the lovely tones that flowed and the confident singing Gordon gave us. As a result we sang with gusto and declared him well ready to sing at the golfing dinner in Troon.

FAREWEEL TAE TARWATHIE the song of the Dundee whalers, collected by Ewan McColl with its lovely slow three beat metre, recalling perhaps quiet reflective nights rocking on a calm sea, was our last of the morning __ five verses and a good sing.

OUR NEW SESSION BEGINS.

The seasonal round, 'Birds Fly South' _four parts with bass ostinato, was a good start, going at a brisk pace and opening up the voices.
But following that burst of energy we could wait no longer to hear from our new member who'd brought along his concertina. To see such an instrument, far less hear it played these days is rare and we appreciated every note of the two tunes, sensitively played.

Lucky then that our next piece was The Connemara Lullaby, arranged by Orff and Keetman for flute and instrumental ensemble. We began by learning the distinctive melody, in Dorian mode, singing it many times until our concertina player declared "I can play this!" and went off to practise in the next room.
Meanwhile, we picked up the sticks to tackle the parts for the barred instruments.

Finally coming together for the whole piece, the Lullaby, played softly on this fine rosewood framed concertina, sounded beautiful accompanied by the xylophones, glocks and metallophone. Next week, we hope to hear it on flutes and tin whistle as well.

'Beautiful Africa' was a good sing to finish off our morning.