Cat, cat where have you been?

 I've been to the castle to look at the Queen.

So a family friend who is totally into G&S operettas suggested that I had a listen to Merrie England (by Edward German and Basil Hood (yes I put the composer first!)). I remembered seeing a couple of vocal scores for it at the local second hand bookshop so after work I pootled along and picked up a very lovely condition copy for not very much money.

I then downloaded Spotify (again, not sure why it wasn't on my computer... it used to be). and proceeded to listen to the first version I found.

I'm highly confused.

Firstly by the plot. I have no idea what happens. There's love, I know that much, and someone that people don't like and Queen Elizabeth and a lot of singing about Robin Hood for a while. I guess it doesn't help that there was no libretto in the recording but the songs didn't make a lot of sense either.

I also spent most of the time being confused because it isn't Sullivan. I didn't realise how set Sullivan is in his composition. You hear G&S and generally you can tell it's that. Yup there's another one! Off it goes being what it is. This is similar, there's the solo lines, the chorus, the orchestra. The four part harmony in chorus. But it's weird. The tunes don't quite follow the same patterns, the harmony goes in slightly different directions, the chords and key changes are just... strange when all you are used to is G&S (and very much from the music aspect of life).

By the end I was bobbing along because the refrain of "hey Robin, jolly, jolly Robin" is bloody catchy.

One really interesting thing I noted was that often it wasn't the higher line that was optional but a lower line. Sullivan liked to give the option of higher notes for soloists (especially the soprano lines) but often they would be little notes as an option but if you can't do them, hey it's ok, we aren't judging you (yes we are) they were just optional. In here there are a lot of high notes for not just soloists but chorus too! One solo line (optional this time and a cadenza part either vocally done or played by clarinet, in the recording it was sung) went upto a top Eb! (I think the technical term is Eb6 but it's three ledger lines above the stave) and although a fleeting passage and an optional one at that I was impressed that it was there to begin with. That's very very high stuff!

I would quite like to see Merrie England performed now actually, to see if any of it makes more sense than the rather fuzzy crackly recording that I could get (with a few cuts in which meant that the madrigal (and yes there is a madrigal) didn't have the verse with nonny nonny in it which was a shame) and see if the lib makes sense and if it is funny. That's the thing: they are comic operas. I would usually term them operettas due to the use of libretto and not singing start to finish but at the front of the score states "A new and original comic opera". And thus it should be at least amusing. Or that you can see how people might have found it funny way back when because some of the jokes don't really make sense now, depending on how you play it.

That's another point. Some people take these things far far FAR too seriously. They are comedies. Sure they have sad bits where you shouldn't laugh because the person is heartbroken or whatever and that is the sad part of the show but there is always the twist of the story at the end. The comedic parts (normally baritone) who lighten the mood. The minor interjections of asides that the cast aren't privy to but the audience can see all that is going on making the scenario all the sillier. And yet people sometimes believe that you should sit in silence and applaud at the right moment at the end of a song for an appropriate length of time. My god you must live a boring life! It would be like going to see Billy Connolly and clapping at the end of a long joke to show that you approve of what has just happened. Imagine not laughing! This is the first modern equivalent that I could come up with but I guess it works.
I have to admit I don't always get the jokes but if you have a good enough cast then you can normally laugh because you see their reactions to all of it so you know it was rude or whatever. And thus you laugh because their character is insulted by the whole thing.

I must admit I am yet to see the funny side of Merrie England but then like I said I didn't really understand a great deal of what was going on. Staging does help.

I would like to listen to some more of these things I think. Not just G&S but I do believe that out of all of them it is G&S I will return to most, and in particular the S part. What can I say, I am music driven and thus when it comes down to it I will be a Sullivanite over a Gilbertian, but often one goes in hand with the other better than without the other. I wonder what it is I like about their shows though. Maybe it's just because I've been in them and not others. Who knows.

I should really get back to editing Patience though... it needs to be done.

Go listen to something different, you might surprise yourself,

loves,

Buttercup xxxxx

Come on then stars, you showy little fuckers, perforate the dark I dare you.

So last night I saw Sharks Took The Rest for, I don't know, the millionth time and I'll tell you what, it really only gets better because one, you know all the lyrics to the album tracks even when you don't realise it and two, when they play new songs it's awesome because then you know there is something new to learn over time (and hope for in a new release). Live music is the best. Currently in the band they have some of Matt Stalker and the Fables helping out and damn is Matt good on the high harmony notes! I keep forgetting this as a thing because I only saw them once (at a STTR single release gig) but he's very good. Funny moment of the night was when the microphone cable fell out of the mic and he had no sound.

Anyway point is good gig was good and I love live music.

Catch up time:

I was in a show. I had a role in a show. I didn't mess up any of my lib (all three lines every night!) and even the singing was fine (even a little bit of quintet goodness worked out in the end). Ultimately I totally rocked it and feel rather confident now. You know that whole "wait... you mean I could actually do it if I tried hard enough/was given the opportunity/didn't really suck at auditions?" yeah that. In fact I'm still feeling rather cocky about it after so many compliments :D I totally want to try at more... even though I do most years... oh little diva stage buzz! Anyway it was awesome because it was The Grand Duke and that's a fabulous show and I was totally knackered every night after it.

I was in another show. The next week. I'll tell you what, the only bit that makes two shows in two weeks crap is that the omgweneedtorehearse stage of the second show overlaps the performance of the first and makes things stressful and difficult. However after a lot of indecision Princess Ida definitely grew on me by performance time (mostly because I got to be angry for 2/3rds of the show and that was a nice change to dense bimbo that seems to be most of the female choruses in G&S).

I didn't get a job. Got the interview though and totally did well at that so I feel ok about the whole thing because confidence is my main issue in life.

I went on an adventure with Tarq. I had been rather ill and one day I asked (in whispers because that's all my voice would allow) if we could go on an adventure.

"what, today?"

"nope, I have work. Tomorrow?"

"ok"

 And that was that. I didn't mind too much where we went, I just wanted to go somewhere slightly different. Really anywhere would suffice. He is excellent at confusing me though and kept pretending to turn off and in fact took the junction back onto the road we'd just come off. It was ridiculous but very fun. Anyway we ended up in Whitby. I don't remember ever going to Whitby before and so it was really nice as a surprise (I totally expected somewhere closer to home than that!) and the weather was really nice. There was lots of fun but especially an awesome red top hat that if it is still there when I go back at some point and I have money I shall buy it because it was amazing! And also lots of interesting shops and views and there was the sea! I love the sea :D I love adventure times. I love Tarq.

Not much else has happened. I've eaten a lot of chocolate today which is both awesome and a terrible idea. Actually I love confectionery a lot. Too much really but it gives me lots of buzzy energy and tastes really good. So really that's ok then :)

There are many things that I'm considering in life. Confectionery, ludomusicology, G&S, recorders... I have always had an issue that I consider too many things at once. I tend towards Jack of all trades rather than particularly good at one thing. I see things on stalls and think "I could make that" or hear a thing and think "I could make something sound like that, or do a similar thing" but aside from being rather useful in making me not spend my money I'm actually not very good at following through. I couldn't even tell you if I was any good at the actual thing or not because I don't get far enough. It's highly bothersome.

I also don't know where I'm going in life. I want to do something awesome but I don't know what. It's that showy little part of me, the diva inside, that knows that I'm not really good enough but could be at least ok maybe, if I tried or even let myself be.

I think once I've finished all the scores that I need to do then I'll find I have a lot more time and a lot fewer things to do and I won't know what to do with myself because then I have to actually be an adult and not the wannabe student that I am. Everything is procrastination and once I run out of procrastinationing I don't know what I'll do!

I also would really like to get back into ludomusicology (game music). There's even a conference in April (which is actually a bit doable because it's in Easter holidays for me!) but then I think it's just me being silly and that I should grow up and you know the real world isn't about doing things like that and all that malarky. I don't know who tells people these things but I guess I'm a bit jaded. I love dreaming but know that it's just a dream and nothing else. But I would like to do more with it because I enjoy analysis, I probably can't do it very well anymore and I don't know any of the right terms, but I do enjoy doing it and video game music analysis is just more interesting to me. You can take the entire soundtrack and find things that link from one to the next or find reasons why this bit of music happens here. Not just "oh the forte here is dramatic for dramaticsake or just to add tension or whatever" but "the forte here links with the image happening on the screen and that makes everything EPIC". I like the links rather than just music by itself. The whole art form rather than just one bit. But whenever I think about it I don't feel smart enough. I don't feel like I could ever be good enough to do any of that and that if anyone read it they'd laugh at me and then kick my whilst I'm down or something.

I waste so much time worrying than actually doing that it's ridiculous. 

Anyone fancy giving me some direction?

Please?

Waiting hopefully,

Buttercup xxxxxxxxx