My neighbour loves to sing

Which is laudable, at least from the point of view that singing is an inherently Good Thing.

You can set your clock by him at the weekend.

First comes the vocal 'exercises,' going doh-mi-soh-doh'-soh-mi-doh, but never quite managing to get the octave (high doh) in tune.

Then comes some wailing and drumming, to help loosen everything up.

No breath control exercises, however.  Clearly this guy doesn't need to work on his support (much).  Actually, you can hear him expelling the left-over air at the end of every phrase -- a series of oomphahs to punctuate his "repertoire."

There are a few other things that bother me about this guy's approach to his voice.  His exercises are performed at a uniform dynamic -- shouting.  He clearly doesn't listen to his own sound (surely it's bouncing off the walls at him???).  There's no mid-way point where he could actually work on his tone.  He doesn't sing vowels so much as a series of increasingly complicated diphthongs; let's not worry about his bizarre approach to consonants (mostly consists of shutting his mouth hard).

The whole voice gets squashed into a very narrow space, which is a common fault among pop-inspired amateurs.  He has little sense of the potential of his vocal colour, again, probably a result of lack of proper training.  What strikes me most of all is just the sheer lack of originality, summed up in the sentimental trash he sings: a long series of stomach-churning ballads, most of them involving some character called yeeeeew and aaaaaaah and mayeeee.

I came home from a trip to the local cafes to hear this guy in full flight...from about 200 metres away, clearly audible over traffic on a busy road.  Given that he lives on the top floor of a three-storey building, this sort of carrying power is helped, but only a little!

While I'm glad he enjoys singing and wouldn't for a moment discourage him, the quality of this guy's voice could best be compared to standing next to an oil drill.  It's loud, brassy and carries across a great distance, but the same could be said for the bagpipes.  Carrying power can't disguise the fact that it's simply not an interesting voice under present uses.  Really interesting vocal colour is sacrificed to producing a very constipated rather plagiarized saccharine-pop sound.  If he was in a choir with me, I'd be putting some pretty drastic remedial measures into action.  Being an amateur doesn't excuse sloppy technique and bad tone; rather, if you really love singing, you ought to strive to be better at it.


Nobody deserves a front-row seat for the sort of punishment my neighbour visits on his voice.  It's a pity he seems not to realize...

Music for Sunday 1 May 2011

This week the parish is having a combined service at St George's, Reservoir. To make things interesting, there's to be a baptism as well.

Readings for Sunday are linked from here.  The psalm will be said.

The service setting will be Philip Mathias's Christ Church Mass (Together in Song, 757).

Hymns are as follows:

Introit: Christ the Lord is risen today [370]
Sequence: The strife is past [367]
Offertory: Easter glory fills the sky [388]
Communion: Christ is alive! Let Christians sing [387]
Recessional: Lord God of hosts, within whose hand [tune: Melita, 138]

The choir will be in recess for this week and next week.  Everybody has done such a lot of singing over the last couple of weeks: the break is very well-deserved!  I'm also taking a couple of week's break from parish activities.

Music for Sunday 24 April 2011

Readings for Sunday will be found here.  The Psalm is a home-cooked affair.

The setting will be Philip Mathias's Christ Church Mass (Together in Song, 757).


Hymns are as follows:

Procession: Light's reddening dawn gleams through the sky [360]
Sequence: The day of resurrection [361]
Offertory: Easter glory fills the sky [388]
Communion: Yours be the glory, risen, conquering Son [380]

There will be an anthem at All Saints:

Now the green blade rises -- (trad.)

Music for Maundy Thursday, 21 April 2011

Readings for the Mass can be found here, and the psalm setting here.

For the footwashing ceremonies, the choir will sing a selection of proper chants from the American Gradual.

The service setting will be Philip Mathias's Christ Church Mass (Together in Song, 757) for the Kyrie and Gloria, with the remainder being plainchant.

Hymns are as follows:

Introit: Love is his word, love is his way [534]
Sequence: An upper room did our Lord prepare [536]
Offertory: Where there is charity and love [434]
Communion: According to thy gracious word [515 ii]
Procession: Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle [331, tune Picardy 497]

Music for Holy Saturday, 23 April 2011

Readings for the Vigil and Mass can be found here.  The psalm settings are all a home-cooked affair.

The service setting will be Philip Mathias's Christ Church Mass (Together in Song, 757).  Hymns for the Mass are as follows:

Sequence: Easter Anthems [359]
Offertory: Jesus lives! you terrors now [372]
Communion: The strife is past, the battle done [367]

Music for Good Friday, 22 April 2011

Readings can be found here.  The psalm setting will be another home-cooked affair.

The choir will be singing a simple setting of the Reproaches.  Hymns are as follows:

Sequence: Were you there when the crucified my Lord? [345]
Prayers: There is a green hill far away [350]
Veneration: Glory be to Jesus [344]
Procession: Here we adore you, hidden Saviour, Lord [500]

Things that remind you the world is OK

This is the second-busiest week in the year for me, as you'll see with various blog entries popping up over the next few days.

Holy Week is one of the most stressful times of the year.  There's a sequence of once-a-year services, and these have to be done right in order to be worthwhile.  As for the musicians, well, there's a lot of singing to pack into about 36 hours at the end of the week.  Every group within a parish has its fair share of control-freakery, and this is generally the week that brings it out in full force.

Sometimes it's good to remember that there are other things in the world, some of them very fine indeed.

I was stuck in traffic on my way home from the morning round yesterday, and ABC FM did something rather wonderful.  Without making a big deal, they played Elgar's first Symphony.  (No doubt the presenter will be censured for not making the compulsory irritating offhand remark before hitting play.)  Sadly, this is a piece I don't know very well -- but intend to make up for that shortcoming in quick order.

To be stuck as a captive listener was a pleasure for once.  The Symphony was utterly spellbinding after spending the morning in an incense-drenched temple, and really made the remainder of the day seem much less of a drag.  The main theme has been the leitmotif of my day.  It never ceases to amaze me how Elgar could come up with these wonderfully memorable themes.  I thought I'd share it, so here is the whole hour of loveliness for you to enjoy.

One year in bloggery

It's twelve months since I started this blog.  It's had a few ups and downs, but still going.

Thanks to the readers and visitors who grace this page from time to time.

So who are you really?

The lady above has been giving quite a few speeches lately, mostly extolling the virtues of hard work and getting up early.  You know, valorising the working class -- never mind that the sole objective of that downtrodden sector of society is not to remain in that class.

I have a question.  Since the whole debate over welfare is all about labelling some of us indigent and lazy is no more than a replay of the argument between John Ruskin and John Stuart Mill over utilitarianism, which one of these is Gillard?

It should be remembered that Ruskin stood on the side of shared values, and recoiled from Mill's rather dry and atomistic conception of what we would nowadays term 'human flourishing.'  It would appear that the present debate could do with a hearty undiluted dose of Ruskin.

Of course, I'm just waiting for the brickbats to come flying at those of us who think for a living.

Music for Sunday 17 April 2011

And now we arrive at the pointy end of Lent.  Over the next few days I'll be posting about music for the various Holy Week services in the Parish of Jika Jika.

Palm Sunday is one of those highlights in the year for most people.  It's probably the one time in the annual cycle where the service involves moving into the street for most parishes.  I once worked for a parish where the church didn't have sufficient space for figure-8 processions, which necessitated regular forays into the churchyard and into the street on high days.  These sorts of things are more the exception than the rule, however.  Speaking as a convinced fan of processions in general, and outdoor processions in particular, I don't think there's anywhere near enough of it.

For the uninitiated, the service on Palm Sunday consists of two parts.  The congregation gathers in a place other than the church, where palms are blessed and distributed.  The readings associated with this part of the service can be found here.  Once everyone has their palm in hand, the procession forms and makes its way to the church.  The hymns we will be using for this part of the service are as follows:

Procession hymn 1: All glory, laud and honour [Together in Song, 333]
Procession hymn 2: Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle [tune: Picardy, 497]

The second part of the service is the Mass of the day, with the reading of one of the Passion narratives.  The readings for this part of the service can be found here, and the Psalm setting here.  The service setting will be plainchant, led by the choir.  The hymns are as follows:

Sequence: O sacred head, sore wounded [339]
Offertory: Lift high the Cross [351]
Communion: Here we adore you, hidden Saviour, Lord [500]

Hymn numbers are given here for the tunes only.  Because of the variations to the services during Holy Week, the parish produces a one-off booklet for these events containing everything congregation members need for their parts, including hymns and other musical elements.  Rather than type out the versions of the words given in Together in Song (thereby creating potential copyright headaches!), we tend to use public domain versions of the hymns set for these days.  As well as saving labour, using public domain versions often puts an interesting sidelight on hymns we sing in more sanitized versions at other times of the year.

Two weeks without touching newsprint

I've enjoyed two weeks without opening The Age now.  I've strayed onto the website a few times, but I've been deriving my news from the BBC and comment on local issues from Crikey.  My trips to the local cafe have been interesting -- the staff still think the first thing I'm looking for is the paper.  At the weekend one of the waiters brought it over, thinking I'd been hanging around for someone to return it to the pile.

And, you know what?  I don't think there's much to be missed about not reading a hardcopy paper every day.  I've gone pretty much cold turkey since Mad Mandy became a regular columnist on The Age, and yet to suffer any sort of withdrawal.  Giving up meat and chocolate at the beginning of Lent was much harder work.  I'm even getting my crossword fix from a couple of sources on the internet (thankyou, Lovetts!).

Instead, I've been making my way through a steady pile of books.  Half an hour in a cafe can get you most if not all the way through a chapter, with a nice gentle walk to help prime you up to begin and another stroll to help you absorb it after.  Not grinding away after reading some inane commentary by a staff reporter has also done wonders for putting my grant application together.

Something tells me I shall soon be describing myself as a reformed media consumer.  Not one of Rupert's paywall ponies, nor a glad recipient of Fairfax fluff (try this or this on for size, from someone I thought of quite highly until last week).  Some aspects of this new identity came to light this morning.  The barista at my local cafe told the new waiter that I have a long black, but used to read The Age -- apparently now I'm the book guy...

Gone Fishin'

Things have been a bit quiet here, not for want of will for it to be otherwise!

Right now I'm at work on a grant application.  Because of the timing of the application round it's going to be a fairly fierce fight through Holy Week and a little bit beyond.  Hopefully the bulk of the drafting will have been achieved by the middle of next week, whereupon regular services here will resume...

Music for Sunday 10 April

Readings for the week are linked here.  As with last week, the psalm setting is a home-baked affair.

At St George's the service setting will be Michael Dudman's Parish Eucharist (Together in Song, 756).  At All Saints the setting will be plainsong.

Hymns are as follows:

Introit: When I survey the wondrous cross [342]
Sequence: We give immortal praise to God the Father's love [118]
Offertory: Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle [331]
Communion: The royal banners forward go [332]