Brexit

I found this and I will simply leave it here without comment. It will probably annoy somebody.

Why children cannot sing high

Fashions change. When I was young it was common for children to sing in their treble register. These days children dislike trying to sing correctly and are afraid to be heard singing high. Boys do not wish to be compared to girls.

Sadly much of the music they hear is pitched far too low which is fine if an adult is singing. Female vocalists particularly - when they are not really singing very high (say the B above middle C) - SOUND as if they are whacking out a note from the top of their range. (Watch the video below when she gets to her highest note)

Well, partly, they are at the top BUT at the top of their chest voice which they are unable to take any higher. Singers like Adele, who may be genuine altos have some excuse and there is nothing wrong with a female singer having a song which falls within their range. It is sensible. However, many people (and I include school teachers) think young children should emulate the commercial sounds they hear.

Luckily there are enlightened school and plenty of girl choristers who sing high.

Just having a rant.

Sermons

I have been going to church ever since I can remember and sermons have been the bane of my life for nearly at least 55 years. Most I have heard are of little worth; a few have hit a nerve and/or made me think.

In general clergy feel they have a slot to fill and - by gum - they fill it with drivel. It is sometimes hard to follow their reasoning. Surely it all comes down to the same thing: "Try to be a better person".

We change with time

I am not the person I was years ago. I hit 60 in November. From the age of 1970 until 2005 I was mad on organ music and on playing the instrument. I gave my last serious recital early in 2005. I fill in, occasionally, on large(ish) organs now and again but I play an extremely small instrument weekly during term time and have no incentive to practise.

I was also a very keen bellringer from the age of 14 until a few months ago. Now I am just fed up and ring only now and again. I always wanted to learn more methods but ringers are not about (my area) who can ring them. There is a Surprise Royal at a town down the road 2 miles, and in the county vast amounts of Plain Bob Doubles is rung. You can get Cambridge minor but not a vast amount of surprise minor or major which is all I am happy ringing. I do not have enough 10-bell experience and see no need to gain it.

Ringing has let me down, I feel, although I have put plenty back. I fail to understand the need to teach people Stedman when towers are not going to be able to ring touches. As a branch it is all we seem to do. In short I am disillusioned.

When I was a boy I had a mis-spent youth around Peterborough. I would cycle to Woodston (Mon) Stanground (Tues) St. John's in town (Wed) St. Mary's in town (Thur) and often be taken to Yaxley on Fridays by the chap who taught me to ring; we are still very good friends. These days one has to drive some distance to ring every night, not that I have enough energy after school to do so. When I retire I shall be somewhat older and I already dislike going out on cold, dark nights.

I hate social occasions

Once again, at a drinks and nibbles "do", whilst a few people came to say "Hello" I found myself isolated. Everybody else was in groups of 3 or 4 and I was wondering where to stand and feeling like an idiot. You can hardly sidle up to group and latch on to their conversation. What does one do? I just left and I doubt anyone noticed.

What is more hurtful is that a chap I had emailed earlier to say "Chat this evening" didn't!

Perhaps I smell.

I Googled for an insight into this and found that - The last plausible explanation and answer to “Why do people ignore me?” is that many of the individuals you’ve met simply don’t match well with you in terms of values and interests. You’re not the kind of person they wanna be best friends with.

3 reasons I am sad for the UK

I am 60 this year. My father died aged 74 and my target is to live as long as he did. In another 14 years I wonder what the country will be like.

[1] I am already despondent about the issue of Halal meat. How does killing animals which have not been stunned make England a better nation? What is the point of the RSPCA?

[2] House building is another cause of concern. As far as I can see new houses are being built on what used to be prime farm land. Some will say we import more of our food these days. What happens when the (fossil) fuel runs out? How will we power our ships to bring food here?

[3] Town centres. People used to live in towns. Now people want to live out of towns - hence point 2 above. Town centres are dead because shops are moving out to superstores (also built on good land). Are town centres just places where night clubs thrive?

I am a little young to think like the character in the Barnum song "Thank God I'm Old" but it is getting that way.

Peterborough Cathedral

I attended two Evensongs at Peterborough Cathedral over the weekend as my daughter was singing with the visiting choir Luceat (which is mostly Oxford based).

I had reservations about hearing the organ after the pitch change but not too many new stops have been added according to NPOR so the marvellous sounds which comes from the Hill are essentially what I knew as a boy. The main difference is that there is no action noise (although that would have been sorted out in 1981) but I really did notice that I could hear no action noise at all during the services nor did I notice any thuds when pistons were pressed and the sliders moved (I assume they are still slider chests).

Luceat sang extremely well and I found the whole experience rather emotional; but what former chorister doesn't get a tingle when they hear the Howells Coll. Reg. "Gloria"?

The Sunday voluntary was Vierne's "Carillon de Westminster" which Andrew Newberry used to play, although, oddly, I never heard him do so. As the organ got louder and louder I could not help but recall how I had heard the grand sound of the organ at Andrew's hands going at full pelt. Of course it is probably louder at full tilt than he could achieve because it now has another Great Mixture and a second Tuba! Still, in my teens - when there were precious few pistons before the 1981 rebuild - I frequently had to respond to the call for "Clarion" (Swell) and "Ophicleide" (Pedal) neither of which came out on Andrew's piston settings and had to be drawn manually. My eyes watered briefly as a wallowed in nostalgia.

Today's organists seem far more skilled than was the case 40 years ago, but I am probably wrong: they have different skills. They can play the fast stuff but I was brought up to manage a large organ carefully and not to drown the choir. The Luceat organist was having fun and who could blame him? Had he been Dr Stanley Vann's Assistant Organist he would not have let rip quite so much.

Peterborough (Andrew said) is one of the few places where one can accompany the choir with Full Swell, as long as the box is not open too far. These days organists do open it rather more but, of course, they are accompanying adults not boy trebles.

So it was great to go back to my old stamping ground and to hear that church music is in safe hands in certain quarters.

Andrew, I miss you. R. I. P.

Here he is giving it some welly back in the day.