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

We had a very uneventful Christmas, as our eldest with family stayed in California for the holidays (he will be coming to Europe at the end of Jan for a conference in Brussels which he does every year - more on that later)

Middle son stayed at home in Bonn because they are expecting their 2nd daughter very soon, and our daughter-in-law is trying to avoid long journeys (varicose veins and things)

No 3 was here for a few days, and for Christmas lunch we managed to increase our numbers to 4, with sister-in-law coming, but without her man friend, who works for a care service and had to work. For the books - I did a very traditional German celebration lunch of venison, red cabbage and potato dumplings, (as per A87766726 ) followed by mince pies.

From 2 Jan, I was away with the choir in the Seminary in Speyer, where we were rehearsing for a weekend of concerts to take place on 5 and 6 Jan. At first it was just the ladies - we sang Britten's Ceremony of Carols, and then the men joined us for the other work, also British - John Rutter's Magnificat.

Our conductor is the First Organist in the Cathedral, but he was seriously ill over Christmas with a middle ear infection among other things, and hadn't been able to play in any of the Christmas services, nor was he up to 6 hours of choir practice three days in a row, but he found a substitute (amazing, at such short notice!). The replacement was a young girl from Cologne and she was absolutely perfect for the job. We had a wonderful week with her and the concerts were extremely well received. She made us do an impromptu encore, which was received with further long-lasting applause and a standing ovation on both nights.

I must also mention the harpist who worked really hard. She had to play almost non-stop through both works and even when we weren't rehearsing she was plinging away, practising, practising. When she played the harp solo piece in the Ceremony of Carols, several of us in the women's choir were reaching for our hankies.

A most exhilirating weekend, from which I am still recovering this Tuesday morning.

In other news, my Mum is tiring and weakening, but she always perks up when I phone her. My sister carries a lot of the responsibility for her and stayed with her over Christmas, which gave her a bit of time to go through the mounds of paperwork which had accumulated in the "office". Nevertheless, this summer we shall be checking GB's entry on how to get the Queen to send her a birthday card for her 100th birthday in November - provided both ladies hold out that long!

Bravissima!

I've never sung the Britten (I don't sing treble), but I've enjoyed hearing it many times. I've sung Rutter's Requiem, but not his Magnificat. Rutter's music seems simpler than it really is. I've found that it's hard for an amateur choir to sound as good with his material as his own hand-picked ensemble does.

I reckon we were somewhere between the two levels. All members of the chamber choir I am in are trained church musicians and have to audition to join.

One of our number who sang on the Saturday but lost her voice overnight and couldn't sing on the Sunday, so she watched instead, and said that the women's voices were very good, but the men were a bit slow on the uptake occasionally, and the conductor of my home choir who was also in the audience and knows the Rutter really well, was most impressed.

It's hard to get good tenors and basses for singing groups. I blame rock music for siphoning off the guys with tenor ranges. Also, the guys I know who do karaoke are all tenors.