h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Both my choirs are in the final throes of rehearsal for concerts.

The small choir are performing in the Lady Chapel of St Patrick's Cathedral on Sunday evening. We're doing the Western Wind Mass by John Sheppard, which is a lovely four-part work, and then Psalms and Motets by Mendelssohn. The Sheppard is 16th century ewith very sparse harmonies, while the Mendelssohn is in full 8-part with very harmonic chords - there's a great contrast between the two. The Sheppard is in Latin (which we're singing using 16th Century English pronunciation, rather odd at times), and the Mendelssohn is in German. We've a native German speaker in the choir and she doesn't think much or our pronunciation.

The big choir have traditionally (since 1990) sung Messiah by Handel on the first Wednesday and Thursday of December, also in St Patrick's but this time in the main nave. Last year, however, we were hit by very bad snow and very few people turned up for the performance. Where we should have made 10,000 euros for charity, we ended up just barely breaking even and the charity got nothing.

This year we've decided to hold the two concerts a week earlier - we're less likely to be hit by cold weather, but on the other hand it is further from Christmas, so less people will turn up. Difficult choice.

Anyway, it means I will singing my little heart out on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. Then on Saturday I'm going to London for a h2g2 meeting of senior volunteers and owners. So it'll be busy for the next while.

Good luck with it all - that's a tough schedule!

Those pieces sound lovely. My choir is also in the throes of Christmas music rehearsals & starting for a concert next Spring, John Rutter's Mass of the Children.

Isn't choral singing exhilarating?

Yes it is. I get the same adrenalin buzz from concerts as some people get from rollercoasters. But I enjoy the rehearsals as well, otherwise I wouldn't do it.

After Christmas, we're going to be doing Carmina Burana. It's about 20 years since the choir last sang it, so it will be new to most people, and I haven't sung it as a bass before - I was a tenor last time we did it.

Being part of something that special sounds a wonderful way to give up your free time to. It's rather awe-inspiring


I'm sure you'll enjoy it, too.

The concert last night went very well.

Both the Sheppard mass and the Mendelssohn motets and psalms went down well with the audience. There is a huge contrast between the 16th and 19th Century music. Most of the audience seemed to prefer the familiar sounds of Mendelssohn - he's firmly in the middle of what they would call "Classical" music (although he is in fact an Early Romantic). Sheppard sounds old, thin and strange. But a few people were bored by the Mendelssohn and mesmerised by the haunting beauty of the older music.

There were about 50 people in the audience, and many of them stayed for the glass of wine afterwards.

Tonight is the rehearsal for Messiah.

I enjoyed your concert, and though I'm an early music head I preferred the Mendelssohn to the Sheppard. The choir seemed more animated, and the conductor seemed to find more to relate to. Perhaps that's because Mendelssohn had put in those helpful expression marks that early music is so lacking in

Perhaps that's not quite fair; the Sheppard was not done at constant volume, there were indeed gorgeous moments of ethereal glowing pianissimo. But after all the Sheppard is just not so interesting as the Taverner Western Wind mass that I sang as a fellow choir member with you a few years ago.

Mr Tuning Fork was happy, too. I noticed David checking as he took his final bow, and I asked him afterwards. He confirmed that the pitch had remained secure throughout. No small achievement for an unaccompanied choir.

Reliable pitch, pleasant sound, intelligent reading, committed expression, well done Gaudete!

Yes, I thought the other Western Wind Mass we did a few years ago was better, because the tune got passed around and each part got to sing the theme while the other parts did elaborate counterpoint around it. In the Sheppard mass, the sopranos got rather fed up singing the same tune again and again.