Tuesday 10 January 2006

It's changed from fresh exciting sparkly winter weather, to wet windy hiding-indoors winter weather. So I've been very happy to spend the afternoon by the fire with Michael Marra's Burns demos. And they make quite a masterclass in Burns singing: every word in exactly the right place, and vast open spaces you could drive a bus through. Wonderful and deeply affecting. Now I just have to figure out what on earth we'll play that won't get in his way.

I said hello to MM briefly when we were both rehearsing Martyn Bennett's music on Sunday, Michael declaiming the text of Psalm 118 in Liberation. It was fun to be in a 3 hour orchestral rehearsal as part of the group of add-on non-notated musical misfits for once. Catriona McKay on harp, and myself with harmonium, organ and melodica, were sat in front of Tom Bancroft on V-drums and James Mackintosh on good old-fashioned drum kit, the two of them exchanging beats and good-natured drummer banter throughout. My favourite remark was 'we've just worked out that the salaries of the back two desks of fiddles is the same as the entire funding for jazz music'. Don't know if this is strictly true, but it can't be far off and it's a great line. Catriona has such strong rhythmic sense that the drummers were sometimes taking their tempo from her: small harp, unamplified, in an orchestra. Now that's clarity of purpose. 

But returning to questions of British culture: it's January, so the darts is on the telly. Great. Get it in the Olympics for 2012.