I'm basically chained to my desk for the next 5 days. Thesis writing: it burns!

Yesterday, for the ecumenical service, we had a guy from the Word Festival speak. I can't seem to get excited about the Word Festival and his long, long, long, long sermon didn't help. It did help that a guy with twin girls sat down near me and we played peek-a-boo during parts of the service.

I was pleased that we sang 'Kingsfold', 'Repton', and 'Cwm Rhondda' for the hymns. There was one other, but eh. Those three are some of my favorites.

The anthem was something forgettable, but easy to pick up since I'd missed rehearsal last Tuesday evening. I think the easiness was picked to accomodate the people smashed from the music ball the night before.

Mass in the evening was super long. We had not only the usual kyrie, gloria, psalm, gospel acclamation, memorial acclamation, communion antiphon, sanctus, agnus dei, regina caeli, salve regina, and four hymns, but also the sequence 'Veni Sancte Spiritu'. Of the four hymns, two had 7+ verses, so lots of singing.

When I intoned the Kyrie, I felt like my chest was going to explode. The previous cantor was a soprano. Since I'm an alto, the organist lowered the piece, I think by a tone and a half. Unfortunately, that meant that towards the end of lines, I was having a hard time having enough air to sustain the notes, plus keep them loud. Which of course made me nervous and compounded the air-intake issues.

The homily for the day was an anti-abortion one. I don't even know precisely what I want to say about that. You could tell the congregation wasn't totally agreeing with him because people shift around a lot more. The things I notice from the organ loft...

Things went well until the Agnus Dei, at which point I was confused because Father skipped around in the missal a bit. I was trying to find my place and the organist gave me the tone for the Agnus Dei and I had to fumble for my Liber before beginning.

I spoke with the organist after and he seems happy enough with what I did, but I'm a little frustrated. I think it will help that he's going to raise the tone of the Kyrie and I'm going to dog ear the 'de Angelis' bits in my Liber so I can open to them quickly.

Exciting times, no?
Right then, back to work.

I'm working on my paper 'o doom. I will finish, but I will be a quivering mass of semi-hysterical crazy by Friday, I'm pretty sure.

1. The good.
Package from graphxgrrl arrived today. Cookies!
And, I was just thinking, 'hmm, I'm hungry' and the postie rang.
So, good timing, graphxgrrl, good timing.

2. The bad.
This happened a while ago, but I was reminded of it yesterday and it pissed me off at the time, and remembering it pissed me off again.
I often say things, the recipient of my communication doesn't listen/doesn't understand/doesn't care, and thus I am ignored/reprimanded/condescended to. In my opinion this is hugely unfair. Yes, I get the butthurt from this. *sigh*
The incident: We were singing $MUSIC and we didn't have enough copies to go around. The choir has 30-odd members.
The choir master said, 'I know the school owned 50 copies of this originally'.
I said, to the assistant conductor, 'why don't we photocopy a few so we have enough right now, since we own more than enough but can't find them'.
He apparently wasn't listening closely and reamed me out about music and copyright and publishers starving to death.
It he had listened, it all made sense. I'm not suggesting copying music that we DON'T own copies of, sheesh. I tried to explain what I meant, but he wasn't listening any more then than when I made the suggestion originally.
We get to suffer and share one piece between 4 people in the altos because the music librarian suffered a fit of alphabetic amnesia when filing? Lovely.
I know, I'm a big baby about this sort of thing. *headdesk*

3. The bizarre.
After the ecumenical service yesterday, I walked back to my office to leave my hymnal.
There were two people that can only be described as 'neds' walking the other direction with a baby carriage past the front of the chapel.
There were about 20 people, who had come for a christening, standing out by the founder's tomb. These people were all Scottish.
One of the neds yells, 'Gae tae f---, ya Yugoslavian vampires'.
I literally stopped in my tracks and pondered this wide-eyed.
There might be context there that I don't understand, but as far as I could tell it was just totally random.

I'm frantically writing. All research and no writing makes Jyll a very bad girl indeed.

If only research weren't so darn fascinating.

Today was the Kirking of the Trades at King's. They have a mace that could take the university's mace in a fight. Though, if the university mace and the student association mace were both up against the Incorporated Trades mace, then I'd give even odds.

There are seven trades traditionally represented. Their coat of arms shows one arm extending into the shield holding six arrows and another arm extending holding just one which is broken. I'm wondering if the broken arrow represents the non-fighting clergy? *ponders*

We sang Maurice Greene's 'Lord, Let Me Know Mine End' for the anthem and the 'Sanctus' from Missa XVIII for the introit. The Greene came out...interesting. Enough said.

After, there were sandwiches in the Linklater rooms (free food, ftw!) which they served to us on Royal Doulton china emblazoned with the university shield. They've done this before, but I'd not noticed that it was Royal Doulton until today. Boy, wouldn't that be exPENsive.

Now, I'm wondering what the heck possessed me to buy decaffinated coffee to keep in my office. I mean really, doesn't being a student mean caffiene toxicosis? It's my own fault for waiting until after the Hub closed. Bah.

In an hour an a half there's the Catholic service (Passion Sunday, but I don't think the liturgy will be any different than the rest of Lent).

Then, homewards for a wee cheeky curry since I don't feel like cooking.

I'm exhaustified.

Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK. It is also the 4th Sunday of Lent.

For the ecumenical service in the AM:
Introit - Attende, Domine (plainchant, 1st cent)
Anthem - Lord, Hear My Prayer (Mendelssohn-Bartholdy)
neepheid's lovely fiancé sang the solo
Hymns - Forgettable, except that we got to sing 'Nun Danket'

For the Catholic service in the PM:
the usual, though a new intonation on the Psalm since we did the 23rd tonight
Hymns - very odd words to the tune 'Personent Hodie', the rest ordinary

I have a weird throat thing where it doesn't hurt but feels like it needs cleared constantly. Hmm.

Today for lunch, we met A&C with children, neepheid + fiancé, Scumbag, and a few others at John Lewis. We picked a good day to be a party of 13, as usually that would be impossible to seat on a Sunday.

It was lovely to see my darling goddaughter on Mothering Sunday. However, I made her cry when I wouldn't let her pick her nose. Ah, well.

This has been a long weekend.

On Friday, there was a Station Mass for the Catholic community of the Aberdeen diocese. I went along to the service and we sang the usual plainchant for the service.
And, we sang 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross'.

On Saturday morning, I went to my own church as usual. I wasn't supposed to be on piano duty, but the pianist on the rota didn't show up, I played. Not bad. I realized that I can now play without freaking out about unexpected hymns. Woo.

I spent the rest of Sabbath with A&C and the kidlets. Alexander is double the size of my last visit, I swear. He's convinced that he's big enough to eat everything the big ones eat. Silly baby, pizza is for adults!

This morning, we had the ecumenical service at King's College as per usual. I was a bit surprised to see that only 2 guys showed up. We were luckily doing Franck's 'Panis Angelicus' for the anthem, so it was okay. We performed it in a mock-canon style with the altos against the sopranos. Considering it was set in soprano range and that there were 8 sopranos to our 3 altos, we did pretty well. Alto power, biff!
The introit was the Kyrie from Mass XVII.
They also celebrated communion at the service. We don't usually because the Catholics won't take communion at an ecumenical service and they don't want to offend them on a regular basis.
We sang 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross' for the closing hymn. That's round two.

This evening, it was regular Catholic Mass at the university. Dr. Williams was away this week doing a program at St. Machar's, so we were a little disjointed. The Memorial Acclamation was at the wrong point in the service, I'm thinking.
Anyway, we were the only ones, the Father started with the wrong tune for the Salve Regina, so there was an awkward five seconds of him singing along before we restarted the piece with the right tune.
The closing hymn was 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross' in case they didn't get enough of it on Friday. So, that's round three for the weekend. I started making up new harmonies in self-defense.

Honestly, it seems like a lot of running about, but singing is one thing I can do pretty effortlessly and I feel accomplished when I'm finished. And, I need a sock in the ol' morale at the moment.

Tomorrow, supervision. Joy. If only my confidence extended to that hour. *sigh*

We are returned from the US.

Well, we've been back since Tuesday, but I've been hit hard with the jet lag and feel like something scraped off a shoe.

Today was my first Sunday back at chapel choir.

Some date is commemorated at the university for 10 February. I'm not sure if it's the day the foundations were laid or the first student started or William Elphinstone took a walk or what.

Good stuff today, luckily all things I'd sung before but one.
Zadok the Priest - Händel
Gloria from Gloria - Vivaldi
and
Commemoramus - Williams (composed for the occasion)

Supposedly the Lord Provost was at the service, but I didn't see him.
I did see the Bishop of the Aberdeen Diocese as well as the Moderator for the Church of Scotland.

Afterwards, they'd laid on canapés for us in the Linklater rooms. Most were meatsome, but the bruscetta with goats cheese, tomato salsa and spring onions was delicious.

Singing
Man with man has come to dwell
takes on a different sort of meaning when you're singing it at a men's only jail (HMP Peterhead).

Just back from an Advent concert trip. FYI, the lyrics is from 'Hark, the Herald Angels Sing' in case you're not a carols type person.

Choir today:
Introit- Hide Not Thou Thy Face, R. Farrant
Hymns - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation
Our Children, Lord, in Faith and Prayer
God is Our Refuge and Our Strength
Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah
Anthem- Insanae et vanae curae, FJ Haydn (attrib)

Good stuff, if a trifle odd on the 'Insanae' since we seemed really to be lagging behind, yet all ended with the organ. Hmm. It's good to see Jayne on a regular basis, even if we don't sit near each other. (I'm an alto, she's a soprano.)

Today, I'm refitting one of the flowergirl dresses since she's grown in the last two weeks. Fingers crossed that she doesn't grow in the next 6 days.

Ahem. 6 days. Ahem.

Anyone staying at the Copthorne for the wedding: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday should be £65/room. If they've told you otherwise, don't pay anymore than the £65. Breakfast is included on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday mornings, as well.

I'm sick of thinking and talking about the wedding. Truly.

My mood has been 'busy' so much lately. I need a 'super-duper busy' mood, I fear.

This morning at 9:45 I went to the first of my Sundays with the chapel choir.

I turned up on time and we got a short lecture on the starting of the college and the history of the choir.

I'd known previously that Bishop Elphinstone was the one to start the college with a papal decree.
What I didn't know was that from the beginning, there were members of the college that were simply there to sing the rounds (Compline, Matins, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, and Vespers). They were paid as well.

When the Reformation came to Scotland, the chapel declined as a worship site until it was used as a library and as an occasional meeting place for the Senatus Academicus for the uni.

In the 1850s, it was refurbished extensively and in 1891 there is the first mention of a reforming of the chapel choir.
By 1906, the choir started wearing robes, the same colours as today: purple with gold piping.
Until the 1960s, the choir stood in the balcony, where the organ stands today. There were a few temporary choir spots in the chapel and in the late 1970s the final spot, just in front of the rood screen, was chosen.

After all this history, we went through the music for the day: 2 anthems, 4 hymns, a choral benediction, and a dismissal.

The hymns were new to me except the last, 'All My Hope On God Is Founded'. Easy enough to read on sight.
The first anthem was from a book of Tudor anthems in the Oxford series edited by David Willcocks. The second was a modified plainchant.
The benediction was copied and didn't have a author or title.
The dismissal was handwritten, I believe the choirmaster composed it.

We were led into the chapel by a man that I assume is the university marshall. He wore a blue cloak with the university coat of arms and a tri-corner hat as well as carrying a ceremonial mace.

For only 45 minutes of practice (we arrived an hour a half ahead but the history and robe assignments cut down actual practice) we did pretty well, I thought.

After the service, there was coffee and bagels and biscuits. Good to know, because I prefer to sing on an empty stomach, but I'd be starving if I had to wait to go home.

This is one of those times when I'm absolutely gobsmacked to be not only studying in Scotland, but also to be part of an academic tradition going back more than 500 years.

I've got loads left to sort through this afternoon, but I have two things that I need to put out there.

1. I got into the chapel choir.
I was literally quaking in my boots before hand (though, the boots are all but broken in now, hurrah!).
I'd not received the first email they'd apparently sent, asking me to have a piece ready to sing for the audition.
They asked what I could sing, and of course my mind goes blank. All those zillions of songs tucked into my brain took a sudden vacation.
'Sing "Pie Jesu"', the choirmaster said. The accompianist hits the first cord of Faure's version of such, and off I go on a soprano piece that I've not sung in 5 years. Also, I'm not a soprano.
It was a bit shaky on the high notes, but seemed to be acceptable.
I did a bit of sight reading. They stopped me about a page and a half in and said, 'Welcome to the choir. Be at King's College at 9:45 on Sunday morning'.

So, hurrah.

2. Gentlemen, I realize that in times past laundry, sewing, and garment maintenance have not been seen as manly duties.

However, given that it is now 2007 and you are buying your own clothes, I have a helpful hint.

Imagine you're going to buy a suit coat...even if it's just a trendy corduroy one.
Most times, the company that manufactured it will have helpfully tacked the back vent together. This is to prevent the garment from tearing up the back while in shipping.

Please, don't go out with it still tacked together.

Just a tip.