5/22/10

-watched sun rise

-real bum walks by and scowers the trash

-pubs going till like 4 am

-walked around looking for breakfast and a place to use the loo

-finally found the place Scott and I had dinner was open

-walked to find breakfast some more

-went to bus stop

-danny got news paper

-rode home

-felt disgusting

-Johnny had a "wait, where am I?" moment

5/21/10

brighton beach babay

-free day

-no class

-beach for 5 hours ish

-arrived and searched for Jessica's swimsuit for an hour

-burried each other in the sand

-ladies argue on the beach

-we get our photograph taken

-we run into town and walk around the lanes

-try to get everyone to look at the Pavillion

-look at the museum in the church that was started as an art gallery by some famous producer (the producer of Coldplay and something else)

-Scott and I went to dinner while everyone caught a movie

-brighton pier and the rides

-lay on the beach

-watch the sin and babalyon take place

-chat with the bobby (cop in England)

-Scott gets pooped on while waiting outside the Odeon theatre

-walk down to the beach, meet random drunk girls

-walk back into town and around to a pub, Logan, Scott, and I go into...lots of young people...younger than us....I didn't get ID'ed yea!

-walk back to the beach, find cardboard on the street

-bring it to our homeless hotel less hostel less friends

-Johnny and Robert were gone...with the random drunk girls...back to their hotel...dodgey!

-sleeping in cardboard boxes and people doing the nasty on the beach

-scott is still awake so I suggest that we go to find a hostel or cheap hotel

-logan, scott, and I search around and don't find anything

-we give up and wind up going to one of the big boats in front of the maritime museum

-watch the sun rise and chat in delirum

5/20/10

Tonight we listened to the Trinity choir rehearse and perform for evensong.  This was probably my favorite evensong.  Conducted by the same director as the Holst singers, I've seen him work twice now and I like his rehearsal style.  I feel as though he works very efficiently and has a good feel for how the ensemble wants to work.  He moved quickly with this group and commanded attention.  His conducting gestures were also nice and clear.  He conducts with his face and upper body and the choir responds to whatever intricacies he is asking for; though it's not always easy to see these from the audience I can surely hear nuance coming through.  With the Trinity College choir he chose what seemed to be more contemporary pieces.  It was so fun to hear a new sound from an evensong and their psalms were the most uniform and prayerful of any we have seen.  I felt, after simply looking at these students, that the environment at Cambridge is a little bit more relaxed.  Perhaps this is because we were in Oxford for evensong on the Sabbath but there were no boys in Trinity College.  Just a group of talented college aged students.  I liked that they moved from the choir stalls to stand around the piano and rehearse not spending too much time on any one section of the music.  Simply put, this was exquisite.  

-cambridge
-punting
-shopping in gentlemans shop for a bit
-roamed the market
-outdoor mall thing and jazz player
*scott got a bag
-sat on shore and watched punters go by
-ran to the evensong
-beautiful evensong at Trinity College with the polyphony conductor again
-came back and got tix for Venice and made plans for Brighton

5/19/10 Wednesday

Tonight we sat in on the rehearsal for the Holst singers at Temple Church.   I loved the architecture.  This simple gothic design is just so beautiful and gothic stained glass is my favorite.  The colors are so rich and vibrant.  I was soooo ready for beautiful music.  We talked in class about how the Holst singers are probably the group that we, as BYU students, could relate to the most.  They are not considered a professional choir and most of them work in careers other than singing or so I was told by members of the choir.  As I was sitting there listening I had a thought about acoustics and physics really playing a role for a choir.  Something as simple as elevating the men on chairs behind the women drastically changed the sound for the rehearsal.  

In regards to the singers, I felt that their sight reading was pretty decent but I'm wondering how they pull of coming together for so few rehearsals and sight read their music and manage to polish it in time for a concert?  I could see how connected these singers are to their conductor though.  This is something I haven't noticed as much with other groups.  There intonation was pretty great and I was particularly impressed with the sopranos hitting large interval jumps with such accuracy.  It sounded to me like they were singing right in the center of the pitch and I was highly impressed.  In "Praise Ye the Lord" I lost their consonants a little bit but, I think they made up for it in "Come Jesus Come".  What a moving piece.

-class was long today

-lunch of pasta at my flat

-little Venice

*chatting with this random couple

*walking, getting on bus, going back

*looking for cool stuff, the zoo the market...nothing
-we tried to find the puppet museum but it turns out to be like 12 pounds for adult tix
-took a nap in the park
-boarded the tube and went to Temple church
*we were there like 5 min late and everyone was already gone from the appointed meeting spot
-arrived in the church where the Da Vinci code was filmed, georgeous stained glass windows
*director directed polyphony also
*chatted with members of the choir
*got a ride to the grocery store from a member of the choir
*talked with the casheer from France

5/18/10

Today's BBC sinters rehearsal took place at a very small refurbished church.  When we stepped inside, they had rows of seats with programs and photocopied text and music for us to follow along.  They kicked off their rehearsal with "Sure on This Shining Night" by Samuel Barber.  I absolutely love this text and the Barber setting was pleasant to listen to.  I liked the way they performed this piece.  I've heard it done with quite a lot of pop sound but, I guess I should expect that the BBC Singers would be quality. I felt that the entrance gestures were less patterned and therefore more difficult to read than the BYU style.  I noticed that throughout the rehearsal it seemed as though certain singers, particularly women, were competing for their color to be heard.  There wasn't a very obvious lack of blend just a very subtle attempt to take over the sound.  Does that make sense?

The second piece they rehearsed was "The Monk and His Cat" by Barber again.  It was obviously a very playful song about the love between this scholar and his cat.  You could even "hear the cat" in the piano part.  For this piece, it seemed like the overall sound of the choir darkened considerably.  I'm thinking this was intentional because of a comment made by their director.  He made a comment that the BBC Singers is one of the few professional choral groups in England that actually has female altos which makes the treble sound a bit darker.  I had another complaint about the sound of the choir in this piece...the words were not intelligible.  Though this group may be less disciplined with tone and blend, they are incredibly sensitive to dynamics and also wonderful sight readers.

The 3rd piece they rehearsed was "Under the Willow Tree" a setting that I'm very familiar with for we sang it in honor choir in high school.  The first run through was a little rough rhythmically but I just have to keep reminding myself that they are most likely sight reading all of this music.  There was an alto soloist that I really didn't enjoy.  Her tone was so swallowed and she had all sorts of visible tension.  I could see it in her hands and neck and worst of all, her tongue!  This left me wondering, "what...why?"  There is a section of the music where it just really builds and there is this HUGE chord to the text "where shall we sleep my love" and it modulates.  The higher voices were just stabbing the music there.  It was so difficult to hear them rehearse over and over this bit without correcting that particular issue.  

Later on in the rehearsal they got to pieces where I could really hear a wonderful blend, beautiful dynamic contrast, and perfectly crisp consonants.  

Then they did "Twelfth Night" and I liked how sensitive they were to the composers intent based on what is included in the score.  The consonants were a little rocky at the ends of polyphonic phrases and there were a few problems with the pitch in the soprano line.  Other than that, I rather liked this piece and their rehearsal approach with it.

For the last half of rehearsal they worked on Schuman music set to Walt Whitman text.  The director took a moment to talk to us about this selection.  I was getting the feeling that he was basically saying we're only doing this set because we have to.  BBC makes us do this kind of thing.  I was surprised as they sang a section "To You" and the soloist was surprisingly unconfident.  These pieces seem to be a bit robotic.  I think perhaps the singers are struggling to enjoy them because their director doesn't enjoy them.  I think they have more potential however I do think they are rather strange.  Is it ok that I was offended at what he was saying about Whitman's poetry?

-today we didn't have class because we attended a BBC singers rehearsal.

*we were there from 11:30 until 3:30 with only a small lunch break

*I took SO many notes on their performance

*notes on rehearsal technique

-lunch of food from Damascus

-dinner of pasta...as usual

-performance at Wesminster Abbey

*handel's music and Handel's burial sight

-sing along piano bar immediately after

-musical theatre stuff 

*orange drink and mockery

*bathroom

*random friends

*called a virgin if it's your first time singing there

-it used to be a public bathroom

-Scott left early to skype his mommy

-meeting up with Kim and Paige

-going home barefoot and seeing a man peeing right there on the street....eeeew!

-home late and met up with Scott, made tea and ate bread, talked about Venice

5/17/10 Holistic Education

Today in class we reviewed all the concerts we have been to recently including the Tallis Scholars, The Sixteen, and Oxford.  It seemed to me during the discussion of the Tallis Scholars vs. The Sixteen that everyone felt they had to choose sides or pick a favorite and that favorite was The Sixteen.  I think this was probably due to the fact that we watched The Sixteen rehearse and Harry Christophers took the time to give us a little lecture about the origin of the group and the music selection for this evening's performance.  It's easy to see how everyone felt more connected to the group.  I simply enjoyed each for different reasons.

Also in class we looked at Bach's "B Minor Mass", Handel's "Dixit Dominus", and Vivaldi's "Gloria" in preparation for the concerts we will be seeing in the near future.  I really enjoyed discussing "Dixit Dominus" for it's a piece that I'm less familiar with and it's pretty brilliantly written.  The text "as it was in the beginning" appears again at the end of the song within the same music which is a witty thing to do.  We also talked about it's "ebullient" qualities (this is a new word for me) and I really like how I feel when I listen to this piece.  It's very regal sounding and quite a bit dancy.

Scott and I had a very educational afternoon at the British Library.  As it turns out, there was a huge display of all musical items in the collection.  I saw Beethoven's tuning fork which, supposedly, at one point belonged to V. Williams.  There was one of Purcell's original manuscripts, Handel's "Messiah", Haydn's "London Symphony", and Vaughan Williams "Scott of the Antartic" all in their own hand.  Incredible!  What a holistic education!

Tonight we attended the "London Bach Choir Rehearsal" in the only Byzantine church left standing in England.  They sang the "B Minor Mass" and Brahm's "Requiem" which was a surprise and a treat.  I was most impressed with the fact that this choir of 200 could sing all these melismas with such accuracy.  They happened to be auditioning assistant conductors that night which was also a unique thing to see.  I preferred the first conductor.  His rehearsal technique was more effective though it's difficult to say why because I couldn't hear what he was saying.  He was probably more more specific about what he wanted and he didn't spend too much time dwelling on specific problems.  He just seemed to expect that he would say it, they would rehearse it, and then everyone could move on and not make the same mistake twice.  Of course this is the ideal but, he seemed to hold the choir to this standard.

-running with Scott

-class with many concert reviews of the Tallis Scholars, The 16, Oxford

-looking at B Minor Mass, Dixit Domino, and Vivaldi's Gloria

-lunch of spaghetti

-fun at the British Library

*literature, poetry, theatre (Macbeth connection) , printing (Crandall Museum connection), religion, media, science (da vinci was an incredible mind, Physics Connection), politics (magna carta and king George...Robin Hood connection again)

*toe bothering me

-Pret for dinner (yummy tomato soup) and looked for shoes

-London Bach choir rehearsal at Wesminster Cathedral (only Byzantine building left standing in London)

*helped Chris and Anna finish off some fries and a Coke..yea baby

-Bach's B Minor Mass and Brahm's Requiem

*auditioning assistant conductors

-choice between piano bar and the dutch pancake house...Scott chose the dutch pancake house with Emily and Steve yummmy

-almost loosing my life to the motorcyclist

-random and fun night at the pancake house

5/16/10 Sunday

Today we attended the Oxford ward on our way out to the colleges.  We sang three numbers in church, all hymns.  The setting was ideal for truly bearing my testimony of the savior through song.  I felt pretty passionately about the text of "I Stand All Amazed" it nearly brought tears to my eyes to bear testimony in the intimate setting of the chapel with this ward all eyes and ears for us.  It felt so right to perform that way. 

Our next stop was to practice with our respective colleges.  I sang with Lincoln College.  What an exciting challenge.  I felt the greatest challenge was following this choir master.  I just struggled to get used to the down beats being where the upbeats are in his conducting pattern.  It wouldn't be a big deal to do this and just keep tempo but, we were practicing the psalm and these are always performed with more free rhythm. Ahhhh....struggle.  In the end we managed to pull ourselves together on that one and the director was patient and very understanding with us.  Eventually the members of the choir started to show up and that made things way easier.  The piece we were all obviously strongest on was "Hail Gladdening Light".  We also did Purcell in G for the canticles and sight read a few hymns.  The first hymn was a since to sight read because we had just sung it in sacrament meeting "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say".  muahahaha.  Our Purcell in G could have used another rehearsal for polishing but, the English don't seem too worried about perfection for their evensong and they are all pretty amazing sight readers.  

After the rehearsal we had tea with the Oxford students and chatted about school, music, and everyone was pretty interested in hearing about our study abroad.  I found out that this particular choir is auditioned but it's composed of students from some of the different colleges at Oxford and many of them aren't even studying music, like many of the students in our study abroad.  We also chatted about the differences between their hymns and ours, the differences in musical terminology, and the differences between our unis (what people call University in England).  I had a particularly fun conversation with a girl who was asking how many counts a dotted minim (dotted half note) would get in 6/8 time and I had fun explaining that it's the same count wise, just a different name...6 beats of course.  A little bit of basic theory mmm fun.

My experience at Oxford was absolutely wonderful.  I could see that the tradition of choral music is incredibly alive there and we were fortunate to sing with an interesting and talented group of individuals.  More than anything, I could tell that these individuals were all friends.  They enjoy singing together and they get a kick out of sight reading each Sunday together.  

-most amazing day at Oxford

-first we attended the local LDS services

*chatted with the locals

*had a munch and mingle

*sang in the meeting

*they do their meetings backwards

-headed out first, after some confusion, to rehearse with Lincoln College

*just us at first

*others joined, one girl asked me if we sing a cappella in America...ummm yes.

*tea with the students

*evensong

*drinks and mingling with people in the congregation and the clergy

*dinner-so fancy, felt like Harry Potter, great conversation about music and culture and social things, Tim gave me his meal and got his late, students stand as the fellows walk in, invite for more drinks but we had to go to catch our coach

-met up with everyone and boasted about how awesome our experience was, it seemed like nobody felt their experience was that great

-slept on the bus ride back

-scott carried me home because he's awesome like that

5/15/10 Saturday at Oxford

Today I had the privilege of attending the New College evensong rehearsal.  I heard from the small group that attended their rehearsal yesterday that these children are incredible musicians.  Sister Hall asked who would like to attend the rehearsal and I shot up my hand.  She took the first six she saw and what a treat it was to watch these little boys working on such thick repertoire!  They practiced music for their evensong and some for their other concert engagements.  This rehearsal was conducted like a well oiled machine.  The boys quickly moved between pieces (silently), they helped each other, and they answered questions about theory.  I just went over the modes with Matt yesterday and I was blown away that these children were already well trained enough to know what mode they were singing in.  There was also a portion of rehearsal where the conductor pointed to each child in turn to check how well they knew the piece and how well they were singing it.  If one boy messed up the director would stop and ask "what happened there?" and the boy would answer with something like "I keep singing the fifth sharp" or something like that.  The director would say "what are you going to do?" and the boy would say "fix it".  What dedication from such a young musicians.  I learned a few things from this rehearsal but mostly that children are so capable!  If you set the standard high and encourage them in the proper ways, they will rise to the occasion.

We attended evensong there with them.  They sang an introit, Stanford's "ascendit", responses Howells "St. Paul's Service", and Finzi's "God is Gone Up".  It's been so fun to listen to the songs that we studied in culture class before coming to England being performed live and by some pretty incredible and well respected choirs.

-roam with Logan

-headshots

-covered market for Scott's man bag (he didn't purchase) and umbrella that he loved but didn't get, he says in his blog it's because he didn't want to spend the money and cart it home...the real reason is that it was blue and had accents that he felt were to feminine.  

-tour with Ruth, seeing where famous people went to school

-oxford time, thus us being on time to Christ's Church meant we were 5 minutes early

-sandwiches at Mortens, ate there 2x. :) sooo fresh and yummy, lovely courtyard

-Asmolean Museum

-New College evensong, scott experienced the choir the day before

-6 people at the rehearsal, very intimate setting, got to do all that with Scott

-not open to the public, just students

-sleeping on the bus back

5/14/10

Today was our first of three days at Oxford.  I've been looking forward to this experience as a highlight for the entire program.  We split into groups and headed off to different choir schools to observe these young singers and some students even got to tutor these children in music.  We followed Sister Hall to the Dragon School, a private school for boys and girls.  I really enjoyed observing these two choir classes.  These children are ages 8 to 12 and quite a well behaved but energetic group.  Their teacher was great at captivating their attention.  I felt like I was watching Marry Poppins directing music she was just such a ball of energy.  They did some simple warm ups.  It was intriguing that these kids pronounced the African text in the warm up as if it was french.  I was blown away that they all study English, French, Latin, and Greek.  Amazing.  It was fun to see music be taught in this way.  Such a contrast from what we have been hearing from the children at the Choir Schools associated with the cathedrals and abbeys.

That evening I attended evensong at Christ Church with the same group of students.  I was really impressed by the acoustics in their church and the warm tone created by the boys in the choir.  

-first day at Oxford

-split into groups

-dragon school

-Jess, Nick, me trying to get ahead and do our own thing

-market time: bought bread, jessica goes crazy over scarves

-gathering for evensong at Christ's Church College

-purchase stockings

-take off on busses