Tongue Twister

Today

On Friday Paul and I went to very nice concert given by OpusIII and the Selwood Strings at Marston House. A very civilised event and typical of many such occasions in musical Somerset.

I used to sing with OpusIII and it was good to see the gang again and have the opportunity for a chat.

It's an all-female choir and many of the pieces they sing are arrangements of popular songs - "Autumn Leaves", "How can I Keep from Singing" etc, but there are one or two pieces especially written for female choirs. One of these was a jolly interpretation of "Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers" by Frank Bridge. ("I remember singing this when I was at school, aged about 12", I whispered to Paul.)

In My Day

When I went to grammar School, one of my most exciting early experiences was listening to the Madrigal Group. I set about finding out how you joined. Easy - you had to be in the main choir and be either in the 5th or 6th form.

The first was easily accomplished and the second just a matter of hanging on. Music was taught in my school much like reading is in primary schools, so I soon learnt my "every good boy deserves fruit" and, as there was much singing, was able to put it into practice.

By the time I was 15 I was a reasonably accomplished sight reader with a pretty top soprano voice. So I was in! In the elite group known as the madrigal group.

We did sing madrigals and a host of other songs as well. We were the ones who sang the more unusual Christmas carols at the nine lessons service and entered competitions. As this was a London School, competition was quite fierce, but we won prizes. And I liked very much the opportunity to get out of school and visit other London schools and venues for these events.

One of the songs we sang was "Peter Piper" by Frank Bridge, which I've never forgotten.

Bought some pickled peppers at a market stall the other day. They were horrible.