The Choir - now shorter

[jean]

The Girls can only aspire to equality with the minor generic 'Public School', then?

[underthecountertenor]

I wasn't equating all GPDST schools (let alone all girls' schools) with all minor public schools (some of which would be girls' schools of course) in all respects. Just trying to envisage the likely background of the people I've most often heard say 'berk' for 'book' and 'musuc' for 'music'. Probably hopelessly inaccurately and with extreme prejudice, but there we go.

[french frank]

Yes, I'm afraid I did! It's normally on when I'm in the car on the way to doing some choral singing. It's such a mixed bag. SM-P clearly knows her stuff (about choral and contemporary music), and the musical content is often very worthwhile, but all too often both the content of the script and its delivery (Blairdemotic glottals and all) are so patronising that I have to switch off simply to avoid road rage.

I lose track of what I've said to whom but the question of the lack of a programme which covers the major choral works is one on 'the agenda'. The original change from 'Choir Works' to 'The Choir' seems to be yet another example of the shift towards an emphasis on people, performers and audiences rather than music. An added meaning to the word 'populist'.

Considered opinions about the new programme would be interesting - prefereably not concentrating on … people.

[doversoul1]

It’s probably a pointless thing to worry about before we actually hear the programme but I’m not too sure about this bit:

Tom looks at a cornucopia of opening bars - from classical to pop, to see how composers grab our attention, and go on to keep us listening. With thoughts from composer Anna Meredith on the terror of the blank page,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078n8xp

How much does Tom Service know about pop music? And how relevant / interesting is it for the listeners who are beginners to hear about what problems composers have? I hope this is not an attempt to make it sound all ‘no difference form what you are used to’ and ‘all about personality’ business.

Should this here?

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?15047-Tom-s-new-Listening-Service

[oddoneout]

I've just read the blurb again and have to say haven't found it any more enticing second time around, and I can't see it attracting younger listeners. If it were a TV programme I wouldn't choose to watch on the basis of this bit of verbiage. As it's R3 I will listen, as all hope of good new ideas has not been quite extinguished in me yet.

[underthecountertenor]

It’s probably a pointless thing to worry about before we actually hear the programme but I’m not too sure about this bit:

Tom looks at a cornucopia of opening bars - from classical to pop, to see how composers grab our attention, and go on to keep us listening. With thoughts from composer Anna Meredith on the terror of the blank page,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b078n8xp

How much does Tom Service know about pop music? And how relevant / interesting is it for the listeners who are beginners to hear about what problems composers have? I hope this is not an attempt to make it sound all ‘no difference form what you are used to’ and ‘all about personality’ business.


http://www.for3.org/forums/showthrea...tening-Service

I think it's probably best to reserve judgment until the programme has gone out. It can't be easy deciding how to pitch an educational music programme aimed at younger listeners who are able to pick and choose at will from a range of music unimaginable when I was growing up. All I can say is that it can't be worse than France Musique's cringeworthy Saturday morning effort 'Klassiko Dingo'.

But you're right - this should be elsewhere.....

[ardcarp]

Let's face it, the only kids likely to listen are those with faintly cultured parents who are prepared to sit down with them for half an hour. Quite good if some enlightened schoolteacher were to use it in class on i-player.

But full marks to R3 for trying.

[french frank]

Let's face it, the only kids likely to listen are those with faintly cultured parents who are prepared to sit down with them for half an hour. Quite good if some enlightened schoolteacher were to use it in class on i-player.

But full marks to R3 for trying.

I'm afraid that's so - I have, as far as I've been able, tried to point out that the BBC as a whole needs to do much more than it does - not just for interesting younger audiences in the lind of content Radio 3 offers, but for adults too. Leaving everything to Radio 3 just means a lot of people get browned off with the attempts to 'widen the audience' - which don't work anyway.

Every service has its controller, and if they don't want to give certain types of material air time, no one's going to make them.

But, yes, full marks for the endeavour - and good luck to it.

[Nick Armstrong]

The Choir today.... The lucky R3 audience is promised:

Karl Jenkins's Adiemus, Blokefest

Sara Mohr-Pietsch looks ahead to 'Blokefest', where men gather together in the Wiltshire countryside to enjoy a long weekend of choral singing and male bonding. Her choral classic is Karl Jenkins's chart topping Adiemus.

Mind you, you have to love these quaint rural euphemisms.

One thing I know is that there is likely to be a resounding click at Caliban Towers around 3.59pm... Because Choral Evensong sounds from the Choir thread to be a bit of alright So to be fair to R3, something for everyone....

..... so, was anyone here listening? (Whether with chums in a field in the West Country, or otherwise )

[jean]

I heard it. All that stuff about male bonding.

I don't really care much what men get up to alone in their sheds, but when so many mixed choirs that sing proper music are desperately short of tenors and even basses, I find it all a bit frustrating...

[Nick Armstrong]

I heard it. All that stuff about male bonding.

I don't really care much what men get up to alone in their sheds, but when so many mixed choirs that sing proper music are desperately short of tenors and even basses, I find it all a bit frustrating...

Wasn't this about them doing it in the open air? Or did I take 'countryside' too literally...!?

[DracoM]

R3 planners' desperation breathed through every note and syllable of that programme.

Sorry, but I really begin to think R3 has badly missed the youth bus. If they had continued Pied Piper etc, they might have had a chance, and the demise of 'schools radio' means that kids simply do not now have the template that radio can inform / entertain. Tho' you have to navigate the fact that anything done in class is likely to be a no-no out of it.

A thought: if a Pied Piper type MUSIC prog - preferably with LIVE music - properly but minimally fronted, were issued on Youtube as well as transmitted, it might stand a chance. Tom Service bumbling, deadly serious semi-gibber is for me a total turn-off. OK, the prog is not geared for me, but you get my drift.

[subcontrabass]

the demise of 'schools radio'

Schools radio is alive and well, just no longer broadcast during the day on Radio 4. Programmes can be heard between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. on weekdays on Radio 4 digital or accessed via iPlayer. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio for the range of what is available.

Howver, on my limited experience of hearing some of the music programmes they do not, sadly, compare favourably with what was provided in the past.

.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

R3 planners' desperation breathed through every note and syllable of that programme.

Sorry, but I really begin to think R3 has badly missed the youth bus. If they had continued Pied Piper etc, they might have had a chance, and the demise of 'schools radio' means that kids simply do not now have the template that radio can inform / entertain. Tho' you have to navigate the fact that anything done in class is likely to be a no-no out of it.

A thought: if a Pied Piper type MUSIC prog - preferably with LIVE music - properly but minimally fronted, were issued on Youtube as well as transmitted, it might stand a chance. Tom Service bumbling, deadly serious semi-gibber is for me a total turn-off. OK, the prog is not geared for me, but you get my drift.

Yes. The Beeb really has lost the plot, which isL

Appoint a team of presenters on long-term contracts.
Realise that all isn't well, so mix the team up.
Ditto.
Borrow presenters from other stations - ex-news readers, etc. Don't worry if their knowledge base is limited.
Etc.

[Cockney Sparrow]

Schools radio is alive and well, just no longer broadcast during the day on Radio 4. Programmes can be heard between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. on weekdays on Radio 4 digital or accessed via iPlayer. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/schoolradio for the range of what is available. .

Arrived back from holiday in the early hours this morning, after multiple delays. For some reason I wanted to hear the BBC as I went to sleep (on a sleep timer) and yes - school radio came on. Being exhorted to prance around being a something or other didn't appeal (took me back over 50 years !) so I turned off.

And - as to tenors and basses - if we can get more men singing and finding it is rewarding, it might be possible to recruit more of them (such as get them to leave work early to make it to rehearsals). Tenor and bass recruitment - a subject dear to my heart!