Author: K O'Neill

till the remaining spaces for PDtP March 6th are released via this link. Get in quick as they may not be around for long.

In other news, there are still places left at tomorrow’s Continue reading Only 15 mins

then you have the chance to sing it this coming Saturday (February 25th).

The Choir of King’s College, London are putting on a come & sing afternoon workshop before their public performance of the work later that evening. Tickets are Continue reading If you can’t wait till our 5th Birthday to sing Spem in alium*

to booking going live for PDtP March 6th. (Apologies for the premature posting earlier.) When booking opens at 9am tomorrow, you’ll be able to register via this link.

Once all the spaces have gone, more will be Continue reading Let’s try that again, shall we? This is the 12 hour countdown

As previously threatened, the next PDtP will take place on March 6th. Registation is via this page; first booking period goes live at 9am on Saturday February 18th, with more spaces released at 5pm on Friday February 24th.

Although our Franco-Flemish Special was a tough act to follow, this is going to be another great session, not least because we’ll be celebrating International Women’s Day with some corkers by Maddalena Casulana and other women composers.

Before that, we have a Counterpint in the Cafe session on February 28th. Booking is via this page and is already live. (Spaces were pre-released to our Twitter and Facebook followers; follow either/both accounts to be first in line for future sessions.)

Finally, our next Counterpint at the Canbury is likely to be in March or April, so keep an eye out for updates.

Cheers

Kevin

I don’t know about you, but my head is still lost in the world of the Franco-Flemish masters, following Monday evening’s PDtP special.

Pretty much every piece proved to be a hit right from the start, from the proto-chorale of Isaac‘s Innsbruck, ich muss dich lassen all the way through to the bliss-injected Long temps mon cueur by Manchicourt at the end of the evening.

In between we enjoyed some belters thanks to Arcadelt (Voi ve n’andat’al cielo), Lassus (Justorum animae) and Clemens non Papa (Vidi Jerusalem), as well as more challenging (but rewarding) fare in the form of Gombert‘s 6-part reimagining of Mille regretz and Josquin‘s Tu solus facis mirabilia.

However, it was Josquin’s O benigna (aka Inviolata, integra et castiga Part 3) that stole the show for me. The final run-through was utterly sublime, and I actually found it quite moving that a group of scratch singers could make something so intricate sound so ravishingly beautiful in such a short amount of time. It really was one of those moments that made me realise why I love this crazy project so much.

Thanks once again to all who came and made it such a great night.

Thanks, too to everyone who came to January’s Counterpint at the Canbury last week. We had a great turn-out despite the weather and enjoyed some of the many hits from previous PDtP sessions.

I’m also very grateful to Dan Hayes for helping out during part 2.

The next PDtP session will be Monday March 6th and before that we’ll be holding a Counterpint in the Cafe session on February 28th; booking details for both will go out sometime next week, alongside a confirmed date for our next Counterpint at the Canbury session.

(We will almost certainly be revisiting many of the Franco-Flemish works in both the Counterpint sessions so if you missed out on Monday’s session, you’ll get another couple of chances to sing these amazing pieces of music.)

In the meantime, here are a couple of other events you may be interested in:

• On February 18th, the Music Sales Group are launching the new Novello Book of Hymns with a night of beer and hymn-singing at All Saints Church, Fulham; details can be found on the Facebook event page.
• Music as Therapy International are putting on a fund-raising Come & Sing Messiah on March 11th, with former King’s Singer Jeremy Jackman directing.

Cheers

Kevin

thinking about tomorrow’s Franco-Flemish Special.

Those of you who’ve been coming to PDtP for a while will know that I’m a big Josquin fan, and tomorrow we get three(-ish) works by the great man to perform, including this one:

(though sadly not the version with obbligato accordion.)

Josquinophiles may also be pleased to see that Gombert‘s remix of the master’s Mille regretz is also on the set-list:

It wouldn’t be a celebration of all things Netherlandish without an appearance by Lassus:

And at the lesser-known end of the F-F spectrum is Manchicourt, though with a chanson like this we should be singing his stuff all the time:

All these and many, many more besides! There’re still a couple of spaces left for sopranos, tenors and basses so with the tube strike called off, why not come along?

Cheers

Kevin

…but that is what we’re doing at the moment, as all their spaces at Monday’s PDtP have now been taken. Then again, with the world currently turning upside and reality twisting itself into new,  ‘alternative’ forms, it probably shouldn’t be so surprising.

(All alto spots have also gone, but no one’s puzzled by that, given that alcohol is on offer.)

This means that we still have room for a couple of basses and even more room for sopranos.

What’s going on sopranos? Are you worried that the Franco-Flemish repertoire, with its emphasis on lower voices and dense textures, will hold nothing of interest for you? Fear not: we’ve got loads of great, great stuff that will be right up your alley.

Or perhaps you’ve found the event less attractive without a poster to promote it? Again, we’ve addressed your concerns:

Whatever it is that’s been holding you back, shrug it off and sign up now for what will be a great night of singing!

Cheers

Kevin

…but just in case you do, booking for PDtP on February 6th is now open.

If you miss out on the first tranche of spaces, more will be available from 9am tomorrow morning, after which the waiting list will be open.

Also, there’s still room for some tenors and sopranos at Tuesday’s Counterpint at the Canbury Arms in Kingston. (Basses and altos can join the waiting list next to the bass booking line.)

And finally, if you’re near the Square Mile on Sunday, the City Bach Collective are performing BWV 72 at 6.30 in St Mary-at-Hill. (If you’re familiar with the Lutheran masses, then you’ll recognise the first movement of the cantata as the basis for the Gloria of the G minor Mass, BWV 235. Hashtag: BachFact.)

Cheers

Kevin

Which, to be honest, is not a phrase you get to use every day. But on February 6th, we’ll all be shouting it from the rooftops, as that is the day of the PDtP Franco-Flemish Special.

We’ll be enjoying masterpieces from Lassus, Arcadelt, Isaac and, of course, the immortal Josquin.

Booking goes live at 5pm tomorrow (Jan.27th), with extra places released the next day at 9am.

We reserve some spaces for first timers so if that’s you, drop me a line via the comments box below before Saturday morning, including your singing voice, and we’ll see what we can do.

Cheers

Kevin

If you guys are suffering from a post-Christmas blow-out, it hasn’t shown! We’ve had a couple of great nights of singing so far, which makes me think it’s going to be another great year.

Last week we enjoyed a cracker of a PDtP session, even if the texts to some of the works were the source of some mirth:

https://twitter.com/anotheriain/status/821809507592531968

Highlights of the night were definitely Kirbye‘s Alas! What hope of speeding,  the Kyrie from Victoria‘s 4-part Requiem, Giovanelli‘s O salutaris hostia & Stoltzer‘s O admirabile commercium, though a personal favourite was BWV277: only 16 bars in length but with depths unfathomable.

Gluttons for punishment were afforded another boozy singing opportunity less than a week later, with our first Counterpint in the Cafe of 2017:

(Christina’s photos turned out much better than mine…)

Again, many hits of the evening, but stand-outs were Brito‘s Circumdederunt me and Zielinski‘s Vox in Rama.

Thanks to all who came along and made them such fun nights.

As you know, our next PDtP is Feb.6th and before that we have Counterpint in Kingston on Jan.31st. (Verrrrry limited places left at that one so I’d book sooner than later if you want to come along.)

Counterpint in the Cafe will be back in Feb. too so all in all, there’s a lot going on!

Thanks for your continuing support and hope to see you soon.

Cheers

Kevin