I tried a sketch
Of this trombone
But halfway through
It was lifted
And played
Right in front of me.
A glorious rendition
Of the Sloop John B
With accompanying
Guitar, Accordion and Cornet.
So I sang along instead…
Bad trombone
Tag: Singing
Climbing
Today I felt like I climbed a mountain…. I was rehearsing with the choir that is putting on a Christmas show tomorrow in the church. For weeks we have sung in the choir stalls near the altar, which was easy enough to move around. But last night they bought in a stage made of a metal framework and a flat top. It had a step up to it. That’s great but I struggled to climb up onto it. My Parkinsons makes me feel like I’m teetering forward and over balancing, which, added to vertigo, made me feel very unsafe.
The compromise was to sit or stand at the side of the stage, then walk up and round some steps behind the choir stalls to come out by the altar. Three steps, not as steep, but in almost complete darkness, which bought out my anxiety again. I hauled myself up the steps and dropped down them on the way back, making my knees hurt.
After eight or ten of these trips I was shattered. The show is the cast singing big songs interspersed with individual solos. It was very tiring. I felt like I’d climbed a mountain. So as a compromise during the performance I will mostly be sitting in the main church, just moving to the side of the stage for the ensemble songs… As I say I’m shattered!
Singing
For health….
My Parkinsons is getting worse so I’m getting some therapy to help keep my voice strong and help my throat muscles.
I’ve joined a few choirs over the years and found out singing is great for lung health, breath control, and keeping your throat clear.
So this week I’m actually going to 4 rehearsals and will be singing with friends at a Christmas show on Friday. My main concern is my poor balance and weakening muscles. Shaking and stuttering isn’t helping either, I need to keep trying to improve. Maybe I need physiotherapy. Thanks for hearing my moaning!
Odd, this week’s writing prompt.
The Lykewake Dirge.
Chorus: This ae neet, this ae neet
Every neet and all
Fire and fleet and candleleet
And Christ receive thy soul….
We were learning odd old songs last night at choir, appropriate to the season.
Verse: When thou from heme away art part.
Every neet and all,
To Whinny moor thou comst at last.
And Christ receive thy soul.
The song talks about if you ever gave someone shoes and hose, you can sit down and put them on, but if you didn’t the ‘whins’ (winds?) shall pick your bare bones. It goes on along these thoughts. The figures in it, carrying a dead body, proceed from Whinny Moor, to Brig o’ Dread at last.
If you gave Meat and Drink to anyone the fires of Purgatory won’t touch you, but if you have naught, the fire will burn you to your bare bones.
Thus this old Yorkshire Dirge gives it’s message that if you treat people well and with kindness you shall be saved from the fires of Purgatory, but if you were mean spirited, that is your loss.
It’s interesting to find out about songs like this in our modern age. Spooky and frightening images of people striding out across a dark, windswept moor. High above towns and cities. Perhaps men wrapped in dark clothes and cowled or hooded cloaks….
Carrying a body to its last resting place? Maybe a bog grave where the body will be preserved in acid peat. Their skin turning to leather over the centuries. Held in a peaty stasis whilst their life’s works are weighed in the balance. Bones turning brown and black.
The cloaked figures striding off into the distance, like figures in the latter day ‘Traitors’ TV programme.
Next week we will be learning Carols, ready for Christmas……..
Singing
One of the choirs I’m in went to a singathon today. Choirs and performances all day. This is a photo in the cafe. I don’t have permission to take photos of the participants.
It was lovely to join in with the choir, we sang songs from around the world including Tonga, Trinidad, France, Romanian, and Maori. I had to have a chair as I cannot stand for long, which is immensely frustrating. But it was great to be out and about, and driving through the autumn countryside was a bonus.
As we left we heard the theme to “Blackadder” played on recorders through an open window. A really eccentric English moment.
I didn’t post yesterday…
I forgot to post and now it’s 1.04am so I’ve lost my number of days of posting consistently. I have been busy looking after my cat and I went to choir practice. I then fell asleep and I only just woke up. I should really have gone to bed, but the armchair is comfortable and warm. Upstairs is a lot colder because I am trying to save on the energy bill. Anyway, boring post! Goodnight!
Middleport
This weekend I went to Middleport pottery to sing with a choir to accompany a play called “Boats, Barrels and Bottle ovens”.
We sang seven songs. From different years over the time when the Trent and Mersey canal and the Caldon canal that is an offshoot of it were built by Josiah Wedgwood and James Brindley. Each era was represented by the cast acting out scenes, first by the side of the Dane, a working narrow boat, then inside a bottle oven to represent the Harecastle tunnel in Kidsgrove. A scene at a boat club in the 1960’s where they discussed reopening the cauldron canal that was full of rubbish and weeds at that time and finally we sang in a scene from the 1980s and then up to date.
I’m not fit or well and this was challenging with freezing cold, wet and windy weather, uneven cobbles and slippery surfaces. I can only thank the people who placed chairs for me so I could sit down in safety when I needed to. Without them I could never have done it. X
Congleton music festival
Today I went to sing with loud mouth women at Congleton in Cheshire. It’s the furthest I’ve traveled in a year and I had to get a lift from another choir member as I’m not allowed to drive yet and I won’t drive that far anyway.
The photo doesn’t really show it but it’s quite a steep slope at Congleton Physic garden. The performance area was down a grassy slope and over uneven crazy paving type stones. That made me pretty nervous and I had to hang onto an arm to get down there even with my walking stick.
I’d borrowed a collapsible stool so I could sit down when I needed. But I managed to stand up during our performance. We sang a mixture of Croatian, French and medieval songs together with a few more modern songs. There were not many of us so we moved around, some people sang high and then low parts, I sang low and middle. This was strangely our first performance of the year so it was a little anxiety making. But we managed with just a couple of mistakes.
I’m home now and only just feeling a bit less tired. Sitting in a strange car, out of my control made me very tense, but I’m glad I went and I’m glad I sang.
Music
What brings you peace?
I’m not keen on pop music, but I’m finding that as I get older I’m happy and at peace when I’m listening to classical music. Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Mendelson, Holst, and several more. I’m not good at remembering the sonata, or opera, or symphony titles and numbers. But I love the sound.
I’ll sometimes try and sing gentle songs, some religious, some not. It’s the sound and choral tones that affect me. Brings me peace.
Orchid
I didn’t notice but one of my orchids has flowered. Not a good photo, lots of camera shake. You can just see there are a few lower buds yet to open.
Today I got soaked walking 100 yards to choir practice. I can’t drive and I struggle to manage with a walking stick and a brolly, so I left it behind It was drizzling when I went out but it came down heavy as I walked along. So much so it was raining into my eyes. I was told not to get water in my eye that had been operated on. I avoided doing it in the shower but unfortunately the weather got the better of me. Still I have antibiotic eye drops to put in.
Which reminds me I’d better water the orchids.
Mallaband-Brown 