Notes From a Dodgy Tenor...

TOP 5 ...

2010-02-23T00:28:00.000-08:00

Well there was a bit more snow over the weekend and there may still be a chill in the air, but looking beyond all that ... i have to say that i really enjoyed going to Grosvenor last night!

That's not to say that i don't normally enjoy it, but having thought about it, i reckon that it must rank in my top 5 rehearsals ever over my time in the choir! (don't ask me to list the other 4, but i'm sure there have been other notables over the years (?!)

New music was swallowed up last night and Orban will become a choir favourite, i'm sure. When i say 'swallowed up' though, i guess i've got to thank the better sight readers in the tenor section (i am the dodgy one, remember) for aiding that enjoyment of the practice :)

And as i was saying ... what about a little Hans Zimmer choral soundtrack music next week Ed ???

Onwards and Upwards (and maybe even across the ceiling...)

DT

Did you survive the snow?

2010-01-19T13:08:00.001-08:00

Well?

Most of us did ... apart from Ed (our musical director) having fallen and broken a wrist! It makes for interesting and somewhat challenging practices, but hopefully we're being a sympathetic bunch and responding to the slightly more restrained waving of arms and cast!

January has seen the arrival of a new tenor and a bass - 'thrown in the deep end' seems an apt phrase, but i hope the guys are enjoying the experience and craic.

Hopefully, a weekend of recording awaits around the corner, so that's what we're aiming for at the minute - wish us well!

DT

p.s. A SPECIAL mention to say thanks to all those who were able to make it along to the Carol Service back in December and for helping us raise almost a £1000 pounds for our chosen charity - the Northern Ireland Transplant Association!

Happy New Year

2009-12-31T08:49:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a Happy New Year for 2010!

Have a good (and safe if you're driving) night out tonight

Snowing again ... joy !?

DT

One more sleep til Christmas!

2009-12-24T07:35:00.000-08:00

Well, the height of the season is almost upon us!

We've had a busy December starting with a guest appearance with the Queen's University Brass Ensemble - very festive, and a talented bunch they were - i believe we might even have a new choir member out of that one ...

Then there's been the Carol Service in Down Cathedral - don't forget to tune into BBC Radio Ulster this evening (24th) at 5.00 p.m. and again on Christmas Day at 12.00 noon for two 1 hour programmes featuring words and music from last Friday night's service - CAROLS FROM DOWNPATRICK - a great service as ever and like i've said before - it's the gig of the year which we enjoy the most!

AND THEN THE SNOW CAME!!!

That made for an interesting journey to a wedding appointment just outside Warrenpoint on Tuesday. We wish the bride and groom all the best for the future and hopefully they're enjoying warmer climes for their honeymoon!

And now we're here on the Eve of Christmas - Happy Christmas one and all from the choir and sure, we'll see what occurs in the New Year!

Onwards and Upwards!

DT

Another December ... another BBC recording!

2009-11-11T12:46:00.000-08:00

What do you know? It may have been Radio 3 and BBC 4 last year, but that was only show-casing 2 pieces really. THIS YEAR, BBC Radio Ulster are are coming along to Down Cathedral to record this, our 16th annual Carol Service for broadcast on Christmas Eve!

Great Stuff!

Can't wait to get back to Downpatrick - brings back lots of happy memories of my own school carol services held there all those years ago. But there's two dates before then to get right first - the hard work is starting to pay off! St John's Church of Ireland next Friday for the concert of many names and many lighting scenarios ...

:)

DT

And tonight Matthew, Grosvenor are under the guest direction of ...

2009-10-20T00:23:00.000-07:00

Well it was last night actually and we finally found out we had an impressionist as a musical director!

He was doing his best to sound like either Sir David Attenborough, deep in some rainforest, Adam Sandler playing 'Little Nicky' or one of Marge's sisters in the The Simpsons ... and what a quiet rehearsal was had with everyone straining to hear him, but the voice did start to return near the end at least.

And the other landmark last night was Grosvenor reaching it's 16th birthday - nice to see we've managed to keep five of those founder members there too ... just so we can remind them of how old they are :)

Anyway - a week off next week, and then the big push continues towards Christmas!!!

DT

September comes and goes ...

2009-09-30T14:07:00.000-07:00

I've said it before and i'll say it again, but WHERE DOES THE TIME GO???

The start of the new session has seen the choir grow in size to around 40! Exciting times all round (even if it does mean a steep learning curve for the new members (!) but you'll all enjoy it when it all comes together - i can guarantee it)

The next big thing coming up is a choral workshop day organised by the Ulster Society of Organists and Choirmasters in Carrickfergus on Saturday, where we get to be guinea pigs under the direction of Dr Martin Neary - i wonder what he'll think of Grosvenor compared to the choir at Westminster Abbey? No pressure ... i guess ...

DT

(... not at all phased by the news that there are distinct lack of other first tenors on Saturday either ... ooh er ...)

Practice makes perfect!

2009-08-23T12:57:00.001-07:00

And it all kicks off again tomorrow night as we make our way back to St Johns!

Hope the members have been keeping those vocal chords in shape (and not just lubricated on a Saturday night out! ;)

But then again, there is a little kindness as we get the following Monday off for the bank holiday (not that i get it off in work - no more breaks til Christmas) but it's short-lived as there's a demo recording for a new Belfast based musical project on the Wednesday! Back with a bang!

Onwards and Upwards and i can't wait ...
DT

So much for the Summer !?

2009-08-05T14:56:00.000-07:00

Not wanting to wish away the holidays, but come on - this weather is getting as bad as last year!!!

Well, i didn't get away on that wee spanish holiday i talked about in the past, but for all who know us, i can suffer that wee bit for the future benefits in the long run...

A month of our choir break is past. September, and a busy Autumn session beckons, but we did have our Lucy's wedding last Friday to keep us busy last week in the lovely surroundings of the Culloden Hotel. All singings went well and sure, we even had a little staircase sing-song while waiting for the bridal party to come over for photos.

(I hear the party was a bit of a hoot too (which i unfortunately missed) and i hear that nameless parties enjoyed themselves immensely until they had to head back to Tuesday, via 3 or 4 stop-offs at Saturday, Sunday, Monday on the way...)

Sure, we're only young once :)

DT

Summer holidays!

2009-06-29T15:35:00.001-07:00

What do you know? The summer break is now upon us - what to do with our Monday nights? For me, it meant a glass (or two) of white and watching 5 sets under a new roof at SW1. Will the week end with the young lad from Dunblane being labelled (as Sir Terry has commented) the 'Dour Scot' or a British tennis great??? Time will tell.

Our last gig of the year was up in Carrickfergus in front of the Castle as part of the NI Armed Forces Day celebrations, and i have to say - i certainly enjoyed it! A nice mix of pieces ranging from wartime medleys and mixing some of our recent repertoire with an ultra current (and hastily arranged) little nod in the direction of the late Michael Jackson - i trust it came accross ok on the night :)

BUT - the summer shall be broke up just a little as we get to sing at the wedding of our Lucy - at the Culloden, don't ye know! Good luck with the last minute preparations.

And sure - if the notion takes me, there might just be some more updates on here!

Onwards and Upwards!

DT

Word for the Day

2009-06-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

The word for today is "mawkish"

The meaning:
1. Excessively and objectionably sentimental
2. Sickening or insipid in taste

My thesaurus adds these thoughts:

Adj. 1. mawkish - effusively or insincerely emotional; "a bathetic novel"; "maudlin expressions of sympathy"; "mushy effusiveness"; "a schmaltzy song"; "sentimental soap operas"; "slushy poetry"
hokey, kitschy, maudlin, schmaltzy, schmalzy, bathetic, sentimental, slushy, soppy, soupy, mushy, drippy

emotional - of more than usual emotion; "his behavior was highly emotional"

Thanks to banjo for bringing this word to our attention - i have learnt something today

:)

... i shall try to keep my interpretation to the upper side of mawkish ;)

DT

Nearly there - July approaches!

2009-06-21T14:31:00.001-07:00

It's nearly the holidays but then again, unless you're a teacher or a student (of which there are some number in this choir ... bluffers, all of them of course ;) nothing really changes for the rest of us, except for getting Monday nights off practice at Grosvenor.

But it's nice to get a break. Just the choir dinner at Eight South to contend with tomorrow night - i have no idea what i ordered, but i'm assured Thomas does, thankfully. Grosvenor dinners are always fun - especially when it comes to working out the bills - make sure someone brings a calculator, and watch for the fiends who order drinks and add them to the total bill - like i said - never a dull moment! :)

***Stop Press*** Another gig has landed in our laps though at the last minute, and an open air one, none the less! We've been asked to sing at the final night of Armed Forces & Veteran's Week Celebrations at Carrickfergus. That should be fun as long as the nice weather come's out to play on Saturday evening (27th June) There may well be fireworks in the air later that night, and while on that subject, i hear that a certain percussionist is coming to partake in performances - fun fun, though all escape routes to establishments of refreshment are cordoned off til well after - i don't think there's any mentions of green eggs and ham this time anyway gordy ...!

Onwards and Upwards
DT

Here comes the sun ...

2009-06-02T00:01:00.001-07:00

Well, i suppose it actually already here ... finally!

And that means we're almost at the end of the choir year. A well earned break approaches, but we have another couple of engagements before the end of the month and there's always the choir dinner to enjoy, once somebody organises it!

So - what plans has anyone for the summer then? (just to see if anyone ever reads the blog?) All those poor teachers get a well earned break while the rest of us continue the torture :)

Anyway, i'm off to a sunny spanish island in just over a month - can't wait!

DT

(oh - almost forgot to mention - the new committee was voted in last night ... and there's even room for a dodgy tenor - times must be tough! Thanks to last year's committee members for all their hard work)

Are ye right there Michael?

2009-05-10T02:53:00.000-07:00

What am i on about - you may well ask?

We finally had our first proper public performance this week since December, and it was quite an eclectic mix of pieces in an after dinner performance for the folks of The Percy French Society at their annual dinner in North Down.

Even if you don't recognise the name, you should most definitely recognise at least one of Percy's most famous songs, 'The Mountains of Mourne'?

For me, it brought back childhood memories of playing an old 78 rpm record on a small record player that belonged to my grandmother which featured the songs of Percy French sung by Brendan O'Dowda - a famous Irish tenor, who became closely linked with French's songs, releasing albums and touring his own one man show centered on the life and work of Percy French.

The songs are perhaps not to everyone's taste, but French became famous for his comic folk songs such as Slattery's Mounted Fut, Abdul Abulbul Amir and Are Ye Right There Michael, Are Ye Right? - a song ridiculing the state of the irish railway system in rural Co Clare.

So if you like a bit of a laugh and a catchy folk tune - go onto google and try Percy French and indeed Brendan O'Dowda and have a listen to or see some great performances of some of Ireland's most memorable folk tunes! IMHO

DT

Happy Easter

2009-04-10T00:30:00.000-07:00

Just a quick thought this morning - hope everyone enjoys whatever breaks they get!

Bit like Christmas i suppose - trying to remember the real meaning for the season under all the commercial stuff!

Happy singing

DT

It's been a while but ...

2009-03-25T15:34:00.000-07:00

Well, we've been busy working away.

Last Friday night saw the first of a number of recording sessions as we endeavour to hopefully put together a new album this year, as well as getting some other tracks together for airplay on the radio.

I have to say though - with all the business and goings-on towards the end of last year with Choir of the Year and Christmas etc, these first few months of 2009 have seemed a little quiet :(

But, saying that - we've covered quite a bit of new repertoire and delved back into the archives and our own back catalogue, to refresh (and re-learn)some old favourites. It's easy to forget sometimes how many changes there have been in the ranks over the years, but it's good to get back into some of the older stuff again and re-visit some of those old favourites that you might have forgotten and learn them again with newer choir members ...

Hopefully they like them too!

It's good to try some new things ...

2009-02-16T13:57:00.000-08:00

Ok, so maybe interpretive dance should be struck off that list after this evening, but it hopefully gets a smile going ... :)

Six weeks into this new year, and we've weathered the colds and flu and even the snow and ice - now we just need the remainder of the soprano and alto sections to come back from the Caribbean and the Land of the Long White Cloud and we should be set to proceed!

Some very interesting repertoire in the pipeline too, which is coming together quite nicely ...

So long to 2008 ...

2008-12-31T09:42:00.000-08:00

Well - the hours are ticking away to the end of what has been quite a year for this bunch of people from in and around Belfast!

We've put on concerts, won at festivals north and south of the border and taken wee trips to Liverpool and the big smoke of London and finished it all off nicely in a cathedral on a hill in the County Down ...

BUT!we can't rest on our laurels. 'Onwards and upwards' seems to have become one of my little tag lines, and it seems even more apt in this situation. We've raised the bar, so 2009 is going to be interesting and even more hard work, but that's why we spend our Monday evenings from September to June just off the Castlereagh Road - because we enjoy singing!

See you all next year - all except however, for the other dodgy first tenor, as yet another one has been drawn to the scottish highlands - what is it with the water over there? (... or maybe it's those hops they add to it!) All the best Paddy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

DT

Happy Christmas (Carol Service is Over)

2008-12-20T02:05:00.000-08:00

Ah ... it can feel like Christmas now - the last refrain of Hark The Herald has reverberated around the Down Cathedral naive and the traditional post-service christmas chinese has been digested (just about!)

Well we managed to skirt around most of the colds and flu bugs for the 15th annual service - if you're still to sing anymore yourself before Christmas - good luck and sing out - it really is the most wonderful time of the year! (for singing anyway) Hope all that Christmas shopping is done!

Thanks for reading the blog this year - it's been something new - ramblings most of it, but hey...

Merry Christmas one and all from me and i'm sure i can say, the rest of Grosvenor!

We came, we saw ... we almost conquered!

2008-12-08T04:41:00.000-08:00

Talking on the bus on the way back towards Gatwick last night, some of the choir wanted me to title this blog "We woz Robbed!" but i guess that wouldn't really be fair to the winners (... or would it?)

No, but seriously - each of the seven choirs who made it to the Grand Finals deserved to be there. There were so many great and diverse performances - i wouldn't have wanted to be a judge - how do you compare and indeed choose between barbershop, children's choirs, youth choirs, early music, modern music ????

But then again - they had long enough to do it as the rest of us had to sit through green eggs and ham ... (and no, that's not a comment on the Southbank centre's catering outlets either - you had to be there ... all we'll say is BRING BACK THE CRAMPER! Those is the know will know what i mean!)

The best thing to come out of last night's competition however were the comments from the judges after our performance - glowing tributes to Ed's hard work and glowing tributes to the work of the choir and in terms of the bigger picture, comments that said we brought out a warmth in our singing that represented the warmth of the people from Northern Ireland.

The judges did say that there was just a point between the top two choirs - i wonder if we'll ever find out that runner up name ...?

Here we go ...

2008-12-06T06:12:00.000-08:00

Well, the time of waiting is almost over!

While the advance party are shopping their way around the capital as i type, the rest of us are (of course) checking over our music and making sure we know every note... (no, honestly ... or maybe, like in my case, wrestling that Christmas tree into position for decorating before getting the flight tomorrow morning!)

Hasn't it all been fun though? I think so. There's been lots of press coverage from local newspapers and radio, and we had the guys over from BBC Wales filming for the 'meet-the-choir' segment which will go out on the televised highlights of the Grand Final on BBC 4 on Friday 12th December at 7.30pm!

So it's all good, if a little tiring - there's still the small matter of our fundraising night in S.D. Bell's next week, then carol singing in Castlecourt and our Annual Festival of Nine Lessons with Carols in Down Cathedral on Friday 19th (...and whatever else we get roped into along the way!)

Anyway, wish us luck - and i'll be back to report on Monday!

DT

We are the choir who say CHREE!

2008-11-17T14:26:00.000-08:00

... we have however managed to avoid such other words as 'Peng' and 'Neee-wom' as they tend not to lend themselves to neither Christmas nor competition choral pieces - hard to believe i know, but shrubbery should be kept to hand, none the less!

For those of you who are absolutely lost, the above has a little to do with diction and pronunciation ... and maybe a little to do with Monty Python ... but just a little...

Back to rehearsals tonight after a week off - only two official rehearsals to go! The committee has spent a knight round a table to the wee small hours and flight and hotel bookings have commenced, as does the fundraising!

Prior to the full onslaught of Grosvenor on London, the director and myself took it upon ourselves to conduct a reccie of the Royal Festival Hall and surrounding area on London's South Bank at the weekend and can therefore now tell you with no word of a lie that it's BIG! Therein concludes our findings.

Time ticks on (... but we're not dead yet!)

N.b. ...the fact that we ventured towards the west end and may have seen a show at the Palace Theatre may have possibly influenced some of these ramblings tonight ... possibly ... normal service will resume shortly ...

.. and the night after ...

2008-11-09T15:14:00.000-08:00

I ended my last entry "... now - onto the next one ..."

No sooner do i upload and then i find out that the judges have only gone and nominated us to go through to the Grand Final in London next month!!!

I think i'm too tired to be emotional now at this point...

Fantastic!

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more ... !

The day after ...

2008-11-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

What a weekend!

Arriving in Liverpool and finding out that the arranger of one of your competition pieces is going to be judging you ... (erk) well, it made it interesting i guess, but Mr Goodall seemed to like our interpretation at the end of the day!

Saturday was indeed a long day - rehearsals, soundchecks, Quickchef, rehearsals, Quickchef, rehearsals, Philharmonic - performance, work-shopping (while GC nips to the bar...), results, Philharmonic (bar this time ...)anchor, pizza ... bumper ....

It was a long wait til we got on that stage - even throwing in a 20 minute interval to add to the agony, but the performance ...

That performance is one thing that i'll remember for a long, long time. For eight minutes, we had the ears of the entire audience of Philharmonic Hall and the ears of four highly respected judges ... and for me, to a point, at the end of those eight minutes, i didn't really care what the judges were going to say - all i knew, was that i had just taken part in something very, very special.

It's hard sometimes, not to get carried away with the emotion of the moment, but the crowd's reaction and the feeling of acheivement while smiling and looking round at your fellow grosvenorites was something to savour and take in - indeed for some, last night was their first ever performance with the choir, but you wouldn't have known it.

To all who were involved in that performance ... thank you.

Now - onto the next one!

DT

Choir of the Year ...

2008-11-02T14:27:00.000-08:00

It's here ... crikey!

Back in June it was ok ... it's months away, sure ...

Ah well, this coming Saturday morning and we board the flight for Liverpool under the guidance of our spanish correspondant and hoping that the piano tuner has booked enough rooms!

How stressful do you reckon 8 minutes of performance can be? I'll tell you - quite a bit! But, in fairness to all - there's been a lot of work done already and perhaps, still a bit to do individually if we're all honest ... yes, even a dodgy tenor like me, and thanks must go to the MD (ed) for all the hard work so far, and for the rest that's still to come in next week...

So fingers crossed ...

On Eagle's Wing

2008-09-29T11:10:00.000-07:00

As i type, the curtain is about to rise at the Grand Opera House for the show's second run here in Belfast.

Grosvenor Chorale were lucky enough to be involved in this production, recording demo and choral backing tracks, and sang onstage when the original shows played to sell out audiences at Belfast's Odyssey Arena back in 2004.

And as he's been such a great supporter of Grosvenor, we especially wish the show's writer and composer John Anderson, all the best for the coming weeks as the tour begins!

We're losing them already ...

2008-09-15T14:52:00.000-07:00

Three weeks in and we've lost two already!!!

Nope, it's not quite that bad, but two of the men, er boys (...well, barely out of nappies really) are off to start and continue university careers.

Mark's off to Granada in northern spain to teach English, but then again, my memories of language assistants in school didn't see them actually do much work :) I'm jealous though - it's 31 degrees at the moment according to google weather, but i'm reliably informed by our spanish correspondant in the soprano section, that it can get suitably cold in the winter there too!

And Ashton's off to work on his golf at St Andrews - another nice cold and windy place too. Just wait and see - our Indian Summer is still just around the corner here in sunny N'orn Ireland - they'll soon be wanting back.

Best of luck guys and keep looking at that music for Liverpool!

p.s. if any south american correspondants see Paddy wandering around, tell him to get back here to the tenor section asap ...

We're back !!!

2008-09-01T14:55:00.000-07:00

Enough of other choirs - Grosvenor is back!!

The weeks are starting to tick down towards Liverpool. Great to see such a good turnout tonight and a few new faces too ...

So just two question remains - just what shade of purple do Cadbury's use? and just what will clothes shop staff be thinking when they see people walking in carrying Dairy Milk or Fruit and Nut bars???

Hhhmmmm ... ...

"Last Choir ... - how about "Strictly Choral Singing" on a Saturday night?

2008-09-01T14:17:00.000-07:00

The Beeb's 'Last Choir Standing' did pass the Saturday evenings, but it could be hardly called a choir competition, in my humble opinion... i'm just glad our 'MD' didn't send away the entry form!

Don't get me wrong - there were some great choir groups in the last stages, but stick a big backing track, lights and mics on any reasonable choir and you can do wonders. Throw in the choreography that some went for and you've got a great ensemble cast for any stage musical - but as i said - should it still be classed as a choral competition??

You don't get a safety track to fall back on when you're standing in a competition venue and judges' feedback is normally a little more technical and informative than that of the relatively random comments that were being thrown about each week at television centre...!!!

Anyway - i digress - the last choir standing - Only Men Aloud! I thought put on some really entertaining performances and i look forward to hopefully hearing runners-up, Ysgol Glanaethwy when they compete in the Youth Section of BBC 3 Choir of the Year in Liverpool ...

And so we begin ...

2008-07-21T13:31:00.000-07:00

Grosvenor Chorale or simply 'Grosvenor' as we know it, is on the eve of it's sixteenth year in existance ... but this is the first blog!

The choir is made of 30 or so folk from a lot of different backgrounds - ranging from engineers, teachers, students, nurses, sales-people, civil servants and if you ever need a new kitchen ... Anyway, as i said - a lot of different people, from teens to 40-somethings - yes, we do have a core of founder members too (so, they must enjoy it, if they still enjoy spending Monday evenings out for ten months of the year!) Not the usual bunch of faces that you see might see singing in a number of choirs and not just a collection of trained voices either...

This is a group of (largely!) down-to-earth people who work hard under the direction of our Director (or MD, as seems to be the buzz-title of the Beeb's choir competition, Last Choir Standing!) Edward Craig, based in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

We always have a busy itinery for the year from concerts to broadcasts, but you can check out more about that on the website http://www.grosvenorchorale.com/ - recitals, carol services, competitions ...

And the new year ahead has just got busier as we found out in the past month that we've crossed into new territory - securing a place in the BBC Radio 3 (Adult) Choir of the Year Final in Liverpool later in the year! Now that's a challenge, but it should be fun in the process ...!