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Friday 30 December 2016

None so stupid...

Non-Christmassy Christmas news 1. I posted about this moons ago but have neglected my own good advice. Underpants demand a strategy. If you buy a dozen pairs simultaneously (as I foolishly did several years ago), the elastic in all twelve pairs will fail simultaneously. At Cologne’s Christmas market I sensed the failure as my pants ceased to be two-legged and became a pseudo-kilt, hanging down my thighs beneath my trousers.

Sadness followed. After buying a replacement three-pack at Cologne's Primark (super-cheap clothing) I discovered that interim dieting had shrunk me from XXL to XL and the new pants' hold on my waist was uncertain. Strategy! Schmattergy!

Non-Christmassy Christmas news 2. To practice sustained notes I sing the traditional Welsh song: All Through The Night*. Because it's simple and dates back to my childhood I didn't bother with a score and sang from memory.

Sleep, my love, and peace attend thee
All through the night.


Guardian angels God will lend thee
All through the night.


Soft the drowsy hours are creeping,
Hill and vale in slumber steeping,


Love alone its watch is keeping,
All through the night.


The first, second and fourth couplets (in italics) have the same musical structure. The third (bold face) is musically different and higher, but not impossibly so; it presented a difficulty which I've idiotically lived with for months. Days ago I bought the score. Found that "the" in "Soft the" drops a tone and the difficulty disappears. Except for my bruised ass where I've kicked it.

*© Walter Maynard 

3 comments:

  1. I know that song. The congregation at church has adopted the tune but changed the lyrics. "God's Will be Done". Dreadful,I hate re-lyric'd tunes, but I learned the tune originally as part of beginner's trumpet repertoire. You may have first hit it there as well. A well placed "safety" pin might help with the undies. Maybe one at each hip for symmetry's sake. Could trigger some old memories.

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  2. MikeM: If you want to hear ATTN sung at its best, go to Youtube and listen to Bryn Terfel (Welsh bass-baritone, Britain's greatest singer, just knighted in the New Year's honours list). The only disadvantage for me, trying to duplicate his performance, is that he sings it in Welsh which would require further learning on my part. Not that he's in anyway limited: he's done most of the biggies in the Mozart operas and was singing Wotan in the Ring cycle I mention.

    ATTN would be a great exercise for smoothing trumpet tone; I played it myself back in the dim and distant days.

    Pamts etiquette. At the first sign of a defect throw away. One needs security down there - money should be no object.

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