Singing Competition

[Liz Jay]

We did the chants in an Aural Training class with poor dear Miss Cordery.

Munch

Re chants. Was there some percussion going on as well? I seem to remember some rattling spoons or something?

I THINK we worked with a BBC school radio programme, the sound quality was sometimes poor though, so perhaps they were recordings. Whatever, it didn't last long and we were soon back to the songs from the shows. Feed the Birds, How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria etc.

I can sing along with all the Christmas TV offerings. Maybe not in tune but I know all the words!

The Yoga Club was great fun. We must have been very supple. I distinctly remember being able to wrap both legs behind my head - ye gods!!!

Love

[Alexandra Thrift]

The Yoga Club : It was Liz Jay (Plummer) who started it all. She bought a book back from Singapore where her Dad was posted with the forces.....I've no idea what inspired her but we were entranced.I somehow got hold of another " emaciated gurus" book ( that Munch described) and the Yoga Club was born. This was about 1966 ...way before yoga was even heard of ! Mary Mc was good as she was double jointed....I think she became a double-honorary member for being able to hold the lotus position whilst standing on her head. Siobhan ( who is fine Englishangel but very busy ) hung upside down in the lotus ( sort of from the top of her legs) from the bars in upper dorm and slipped off,gashed her head and ended up in the infirmary........the yoga club may have been banned at that point ??


Chanting with Miss Cordery: Liz, I also still have that chant on the brain

"We always believe what the newspapers say
and tuppence or thrupence is little to pay for a good read ,a good read
a read on the bus or the train or the tram
to keep you informed for the day."

Notice how we have remembered it because we learnt it as a chant. Rudolf Steiner schools still use this method of learning through rythmn. Much like we used to learn tables " Once two is two, Two twos are four" etc. Very effective. Learning tables like my son did with just two,four ,six eight etc doesn't have the same chanting power to remain in the memory plus he never learnt the factors like we did with the old method.

Anyhow....I think it was great that we did those chants.We really enjoyed them.I teach english to foreign students. They often have difficulty getting a "feel" for the rythmn of English ,and chants like that are fun and can be helpful.

Bridge: I did Bridge with DR. I really enjoyed it and used to practice for hours with Siobhan and Susan Knight in sixes dayroom. I stayed with Siobhan one holiday ( possibly the one where we canvassed for John Major , a friend of Siobhan's Mum,when he became a Lambeth Councillor) and we dressed up in our Harris Tweed Coats and went off to the Ideal Home Exhibition where we somehow discovered a "Bridge" stand. There were plenty of older ladies there who seemed to have spent a lifetime playing and invited us to a game. We must have been about 13 or 14 and we beat them hollow. They were gob-smacked......where had these strange adolescent girls in weird attire appeared from??

Can anyone explain what DR meant by the tramps who didn't draw trumps ?? " draw trumps"....what does that mean......I know what trumps are ...but DRAW trumps ??

Gotta go.Love to all.

[Angela Woodford]

The Yoga Club

I was on the sidelines of the Club - but still feel a terrible embarassment that my legs were too fat to attempt a Lotus position!

"We always believe what the newspapers say."

Notice how we have remembered it because we learnt it as a chant.

Now I've got it back on the brain! No...no....

I know Alex can still chant "Hidden in the alder bushes" from Longfellow's "Hiawatha". Miss Champion set it as a passage to learn for the 3rd Form. It will stay with me for ever. And not just the words - the delivery is important. You have to assume a deadpan glazed-eye expression and recite the lines as a monotone obsessive-compulsive dirge.

What a sad thought ! Walking along the Embankment on the way back to Charing Cross. I have often noticed depressed-looking men ambling along. Going - where? Why? Now I realise. They are failed Bridge players.

Love

Munch

[MKM]

Can anyone explain what DR meant by the tramps who didn't draw trumps ?? " draw trumps"....what does that mean......I know what trumps are ...but DRAW trumps ??

Drawing trumps just means you keep leading that suit. The opponents have to follow suit, so all their trumps get used up. Then you can win more tricks with all the Aces and Kings you have in other suits. If you forget to draw trumps, then one of those good cards may get trumped, and it's off to the embankment with you.

I once got lectured about this (not at school) when I failed to draw all the trumps, and went off in what should have been an easy contract (2 hearts). I did try to draw trumps, but somehow seemed to have lost count. It wasn't until the next hand that we realised that there were 14 hearts in the pack.

[Angela Woodford]

Drawing trumps just means you keep leading that suit. The opponents have to follow suit, so all their trumps get used up. Then you can win more tricks with all the Aces and Kings you have in other suits. If you forget to draw trumps, then one of those good cards may get trumped, and it's off to the embankment with you.

Thank goodness I never tried to learn Bridge! This is beyond me! I could now well be wandering up and down the Embankment myself, clinging to a threadbare blanket, in despair. A lucky escape!

Mary, do you remember our House Christmas decorations inspired by the brown sauce made in Oswaldtwistle? (The Food Strike resulted in this fabulous addition to the totally predictable menus.

Love

Munch

[Liz Jay]

It wasn't until the next hand that we realised that there were 14 hearts in the pack.

Now Mary I don't claim to be an expert in Maths OR Bridge, but as an experienced Teller of Fortunes I am fairly familiar with the normal make-up of a pack of playing cards, and I'm pretty certain I've never seen 14 hearts in any pack.
So what kind of company were you playing cards with, and was it FOR MONEY????
Somebody *well deserves* to be wandering the Embankment with their possessions in carrier bags.
Cheating at Bridge indeed........ha!!!!

Love

[englishangel]

I know Alex can still chant "Hidden in the alder bushes" from Longfellow's "Hiawatha". Miss Champion set it as a passage to learn for the 3rd Form. It will stay with me for ever. And not just the words - the delivery is important. You have to assume a deadpan glazed-eye expression and recite the lines as a monotone obsessive-compulsive dirge.

Blimey, that takes me back, the picture on the back wall. I think a quick glance at the poem and I wouyld be able to go throught it.

And how about "Hamelin Town's in Brunswick by ancient Hanover City, the River Weser deep and Wide, washes its walls on the southern side......"?

[Liz Jay]

And how about "Hamelin Town's in Brunswick by ancient Hanover City, the River Weser deep and Wide, washes its walls on the southern side......"?

" ....A pleasanter spot you ne-ver spied
But whence begins my ditty
Almost five hundred years ago
To see the townsfolk suffer so
From vermin.....'Twas a pity......!!!!!...." (to be continued)

From memory only though girls, no cheating!

When we lived in Germany we went to Hamelin (correctly Hameln) specially on several summer Sunday mornings to see the legend acted out in the town square by locals wearing costumes. Somewhere I have some blurred photos of German kids in rat costumes.
I often found myself singing under my breath.
In true Germanic pedantic tradition it was actually quite boring with a lot of long speeches!!!!

Love

[MKM]

Mary, do you remember our House Christmas decorations inspired by the brown sauce made in Oswaldtwistle? (The Food Strike resulted in this fabulous addition to the totally predictable menus.

The only thing I remember about our Christmas decorations was that DR disapproved of them. But I do remember the brown sauce. Has anyone visited Oswaldtwistle? Do they do tours of the factory?

[Katharine]

Did you carry on Holly Burning on the last night of the Christmas term? I THINK we actually did burn the holly and other decorations when I started but later the chimneys weren't swept. The whole house gathered around the fireplace (5s side?). Then, in number order, we chose a carol to sing. We started at 1 and counted up one year and then reversed the alternate years.

[midget]

And how about "Hamelin Town's in Brunswick by ancient Hanover City, the River Weser deep and Wide, washes its walls on the southern side......"?

" ....A pleasanter spot you ne-ver spied
But whence begins my ditty
Almost five hundred years ago
To see the townsfolk suffer so
From vermin.....'Twas a pity......!!!!!...." (to be continued)

RATS (to be shouted)
They fought the dogs and killed the cats and bit the babies in the cradles
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats, and drank the soup---from the cooks' own ladles

We sang it on Speech Day one year

Did you sing "She was a pretty little gosling"? It brought tears to the eyes of some elderly ladies in the front row on Speech Day.

[Liz Jay]

" Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats
And even spoiled the women's chats
By drowning their speaking
With squeaking and screeching
In FIF-TY diff'rent SHARPS and FLATS!!!!

At last the People In a Body ......"

(...took me a bit to understand that turn of phrase as I don't think I had ever heard it before!!!!)

"To the Town Hall came flocking...."

There's a solo bit coming up soon, can anyone remember who sang it?

Talking of solos, Alex, I have to tell you that my sister Lin has stolen my copy of "Carols from Christ's Hospital". She is a member of their local church choir and they do a carol concert every year, she was after hijacking some of the more unusual carols.
So our dear favourite "Te Harinui" could be enjoying a revival in the York area!!!.
She was asking me if "J.M.Taverner" was famous, as she believes there is someone of that name who's very big in musical circles. Had to confess I had no idea. Anyone know the answer to that?

Sorry but I don't recall the Gosling song....


Love

[Angela Woodford]

She was asking me if "J.M.Taverner" was famous, as she believes there is someone of that name who's very big in musical circles. Had to confess I had no idea. Anyone know the answer to that?

Now, Liz, there's a contemporary composer, John Taverner, writes very intellectual sacred music. That must be the one.

Love

Munch

[Alexandra Thrift]

I was the Pied Piper and very thrilled to have been chosen.

( from memory)

" But," said he
"Poor Piper as I am,
If I can rid your town of Rats
Will you give me a thousand guilders ?"

"One! Fifty Thousand!" Was the exclamation
Of the astonished Mayor and Cor-por-ation.


Yes,I am forever afflicted by the dreaded maladies of weird chants and songs that creep into my consciousness quite randomly at any time of the day or night;

Hiawatha ( Hidden in the alder bushes there he waited 'til the deer came........), odd bits of the bible,What is this life if full of care ,we have no time to stop and stare ? The Pied Piper, I wish I were a little spur,Three Little Maids from School are we,Now Your Days of Philandering are over , Munch's Singing Competition Songs and the other one that Sixes won when we sang the Zingari Wedding Song (or whatever ) and Rolling Down to Rio ( "dillowing in his armour"). I also have firmly fixed forever in my minds eye ,should I wish to recall it ,Janessa Fletcher whirling around in a frenzy in sixes Dayroom ,in the dark to the Stones "Paint it Black" and Ruth Mc Curry (saviour of Greyhounds) gyrating sedately to " Sloopy Hang On ".

Thanks Mary Mc for reminding me about "drawing "Trumps....I think I used to say "lead" trumps....but hey ,what's in a word ?

Love to all, Alexandra

PS. To Liz. Lin can get the words for most of The Carols from Christ's Hospital off the internet.

and to Katharine........I LOVED Holly Burning,which we certainly did when I was in sixes.I think we really did burn the decorations....didn't we ?
I also loved it when the choir went from House to House carol singing late at night. Each House had chosen a couple of Carols which were dutifully offered up. I think DR mentions it in her book.

[englishangel]

I also loved it when the choir went from House to House carol singing late at night. Each House had chosen a couple of Carols which were dutifully offered up. I think DR mentions it in her book.

I often think of this too, My favourite was going down the back of the staff houses too, between the wall and the Old School. I really felt that Christmas was coming when we did that. Miss Jukes, Miss wilson and Miss Blench always had very good taste in carols.

"The Pied Piper of Hamelin" by robert Browning (courtesy of the University of Indiana.)

http://www.indiana.edu/~librcsd/etext/piper/text.html

And "Hiawatha" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (courtesy of the University of Virginia)

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/toc/moden ... nHiaw.html

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