FEBRUARY 2011 - Thames Valley Chorus · TAG RAG FEBRUARY 2011 I am still looking for members to...

www.tvchorus.co.uk FEBRUARY 2011

Registered Charity number 1125742

See the photographs in full colour on the web issue of Tag Rag at

< http://www.tvchorus.co.uk/tagrag.html>.

Left - The Lottery +Four

!quartet" (Ray Wright, Ian

McDonald, Syd Boyd, Clive

Pugh and Peter Leverett) is

shown in action on the special

promotion day in Broad Street

Reading. (see Editorial)

Below -The Cancer Research

UK representative and Vickie

Randall from Daisy"s Dream on

Tuesday 15th February after

receiving donations to their

causes from Chairman Sean.

READING BARBERSHOP HARMONY CLUB

Please update your diaries to include the list of Club commitments above.

A LOOK AHEAD TO MARCH 2011 SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY

FEBRUARY

2011

1

Rehearsal

2 Daytimers

Douglas Bader

Court

3 4 5

6 7 8

Rehearsal

9 10 11 12

‘AWAY’

Day

13

A cappella

Spring Fest

Didcot

14 15

Rehearsal TAG RAG

COPY DEADLINE

16 17 18 19

20 21 22

Rehearsal TAG RAG

DISTRIBUTION

23

24 25 26

27

28 29

Rehearsal

30 31 FEBRUARY

2011

Calendars showing the remaining days of February 2011 and the month of April 2011

are at the back of TAG RAG

MORE DATES FOR YOUR DIARY * indicates an addition or update to last month’s Tag Rag

* FEB 24 Thu Daytimers Meeting & Rehearsal Parkside Int. Hotel RG30 2BE

FEB 27 Sun BABS meeting to discuss Training rpt Birmingham

* MAR 2 Wed Daytimers Douglas Bader Court Woodley RG5 3AF

* MAR 12 Sat Full Chorus ‘Away’ Day at St John’s Hall Woodley

MAR 13 Sun A cappella Spring Fest - Didcot

* APR 9/10 Sat/Sun Full Chorus ‘Away’ Weekend at St John’s Hall Woodley

APR 29 Fri Royal Wedding

* MAY 7/8 Sat/Sun Full Chorus ‘Away’ Weekend at St John’s Hall Woodley

* MAY 13 Fri Daytimers ‘Eurovision for the elderly’ at Shawfield Day Centre

Ash nr Guildford GU12 6QX 12.30 for a 1.30pm sing.

MAY 27-30 Fri-Mon BABS Convention Llandudno

JUN 11 Sat Full Chorus Reading Borough’s Music Month Concert Old Town

Concert Hall

AUG 26-28 Fri-Sun BABS 33rd Harmony College Nottingham

* SEP 20 Tue Daytimers Maidenhead Blind Club WAMSDAD SL6 1BN

* SEP 26 Mon Daytimers Datchet Monday Club WI Hall SL3 9EH

* OCT 12 Wed Daytimers Bray Senior Citizens Bray Village Hall SL6 2AA

BABS Convention 2012 Southport May 25-27

All these dates are listed in the calendar on the club website, with singout briefs, where available.


Values are like fingerprints. Nobody's are the same, but you leave 'em

all over everything you do. - Elvis Presley

TAG RAG FEBRUARY 2011

CONTENTS LIST

Page 2 A LOOK AHEAD TO MARCH 2011

2 MORE DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

3 FROM THE CHAIRMAN O’SHEA

4 EDITORIAL STARKIE

4 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE DECISIONS RIDLEY

5 TEST YOU NOTATION KNOWLEDGE STARKIE

6 ASSOCIATE MEMBER NEWS RIDLEY

7 BARBERSHOP BABES

7 SELECTED WEEKLY NOTICES

9 HISTORICAL NOTES HAYDN ADAMS

10 SUPPORTERS IRENE STARKIE

11 STEVEN SONDHEIM FEATURE

16 DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

NEXT COPY DEADLINE: 15TH MARCH FOR 22ND DISTRIBUTION

FROM THE CHAIRMAN

Firstly in response to the many phone calls I have

had I also share your disappointment in the

decision NOT to go the the OMF on Feb 5th to

defend our title which we won last year with a

much smaller chorus than had signed up for this

years event. You are aware however that Mark was

not happy with the "Balance " of those who had

signed up. I would like to thank Bob Ridley who

had to cancel the taking of the risers to the

event(yes it was our turn to provide them this year)

and also thank all members of the chorus who had

put their names down to sing

I am still looking for members to volunteer to

"SHADOW" members of the exec preferably from

the younger people in our chorus.

SOCIAL

We will be letting you all know in the near future

of the social events we are thinking of planning for

the coming year, we hope to provide something for

everyone but does not mean that everyone has to

attend every event, we will be happy to arrange

events for 8/10 members upward.

Sligo Music Fest 10th to 13th Nov We will let you all know pretty soon about this event, i.e. cost of hotels, travel etc. If it is the wish of the chorus to take part in this festival I can promise everyone that you have a great "CRAIC" in my home country. DAYTIMERS We will be having a meeting on Feb 24th at the PARKSIDE HOTEL in order that we can outline our position for the coming year. I'm sure you will join with me in supporting the "Daytimers" who are an important part of our club, we bring in a considerable amount of money every year, as well as being good ambassadors for TVC every time we perform

SEAN O’SHEA

Chairman

CRAIC is a Gaelic word with no exact English

translation. The closest you get is “fun.” It is

pronounced “crack”. Source - web Ed.

*****************************************




EDITORIAL

Again my postbag is definitely ‘thin’ this month

but Haydn Adams has done his stuff with his

records of previous years. I am grateful to Bob

Ridley for providing the list of decisions that were

made at the Club’s Executive meeting of January

17th.

I’ve had a quick look at the current status of Green

Dots for the Convention song That’s Life and note

that things are moving in the right direction. The

totals have increased by Bass+43%, Bari+22%,

Lead+12% and Tenor+63%. It is important to note

that the Bass section is now at 100%.

It was saddening to hear that jazz pianist George

Shearing passed away this last week. Now aged 91

and blind from birth he was a true genius of his art.

George was the subject of a brief item on Radio 4s

Last Word on Friday when I learned that he is

credited with making the style of playing known as

Locked-hands popular. The technique was to play a

chord on every melody note which mirrors the

homophonic style we enjoy so much in Barbershop

singing. You can catch the item on BBCs iPlayer

(Last Word 4pm 18/2/2011) - well worth a listen;

the item is covered in the first eight-minutes.

At the time of writing the Lottery +FIVE job is

now history and I’ll have a full report on the

exercise next month. There’s a photograph on the

front cover to whet your appetite if you didn’t get

involved with the singing.

GRAHAM STARKIE

Editor

*****************************************

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE DECISIONS

The following are decisions made by the Executive Committee at their meeting on 17 January and distributed to members for information. 1. Bearwood Concert It was agreed to donate £400 from the Christmas Concert to Cancer at Christmas. Together with envelope collection the total will be £768. The balance of profit to the club from the concert is £1689. 2. Christmas Greetings

The cash donated for the Daisy’s Dream charity is £340 plus gift aid. Presentations of the donations will take place soon. 3. Uniform

(a) Grey Suits Heather has ordered 20 grey suits at the same discounted price from M and S. (b) Green jackets The green jackets are in use for Daytimer events. The Executive Committee has decided to defer any decision to sell any green jackets for one year. (c) Walkout While no formal walkout will be defined the Executive Committee recommends green shirts with chinos. Heather is obtaining estimates to embroider the logo onto the shirts. 4. Oxford Music Festival It was agreed that TVC will supply the risers this year. More names are needed. 5. 11 June 2011 Reading Town Hall Concert. Richard has booked Ascot Brass and is investigating another act. A big effort will be required from members to sell tickets. 6. Shadows

Sean is continuing to seek volunteers as ‘shadows’ of Committee members. 7. Yearbook 2010-2011 The 2010-2011 Yearbook has been issued. 8. Convention The payment of deposits for the hotels in Llandudno (2011) and Southport (2012) was authorised. The feasibility of taking risers to the hotel in Llandudno is being considered.




9. Associate Members

The Associate Members numbers were 34 in mid-2008. Since then 5 have joined but 13 have resigned leaving a total of 26 now. It was decided not to increase the £12 subscription. BOB RIDLEY

*****************************************

TEST YOUR NOTATION KNOWLEDGE

My thanks to Haydn Adams for pointing out that I

had the answers for questions eight and nine

juxtaposed in the answers’ list. I’ve reproduced the

offending text below in the corrected order. How

did you get on?

I’ve not had time this month to prepare the next

knowledge quiz but I hope to include it for next

month.

CORRECTED SEQUENCE:

Q8 - The hash or pound (USA) signs are musical

sharps. They indicate that any notes that are

placed on these lines or spaces are to be

played one semitone higher than if the

symbol wasn’t there. This grouping in this

particular position indicates the tonal centre

of the music known as the key (A Major) but

that’s an explanation for another time!

Q9 - This is a Bass Clef or F Clef; a bass clef

because it sits on the horizontal lines of the

bass stave and an F Clef because that’s its

role in life - it identifies where the musical

note F is. You can be forgiven for not

guessing that this is a stylized ’F’! The

symbol is written starting with your pen

resting on the second line down which is

where the ‘F’ is on this group of stave lines.

The two dots either side of the F highlight it

as well so it’s a bit of overkill really. The

shape of the swirl is no more than a

flamboyant finish!

*****************************************

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As a service to Chorus Members, advice related to the above Services are available with no

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ASSOCIATE MEMBER NEWS

BOB RIDLEY Associate Member Coordinator

Thanks to Phil Griffiths for his note. I should

explain that in my letter to him I said that the

reason I missed seeing all my AM friends at

convention last year was that the son of Jan’s

friends in Washington DC was getting married.

The bride is from a strong Orthodox Greek

community in Falls Church, so the ceremony and

the reception was traditional Greek. Since Jan’s

friend’s family is stanchly Catholic with a

background originally from Ireland and Italy, there

was an international flavour! I am not so sure about

Phil’s suggestion of a Convention Package …

Good to hear that Dave Heighway is still singing.

We would welcome him back with us. And yes, we

do want Alan Rogers back on the risers. Phil

Hadfield completes a bumper crop of

correspondence this month and it would be great to

sing with him again and extend our overlapping

repertoire beyond Mary Lou.

www.tvchorus.co.uk Our website is constantly

improving thanks to the efforts of Pat Perridge.

Thank you to all the Associate Members for your

continuing support. Please send letters to me at

Langton Lodge, Icknield Road, Goring on Thames,

RG8 0DG or emails to [email protected]

ASSOCIATE MEMBERS LETTERS

Phil and Maureen Griffiths

First I must apologise for being late and causing

you to write to us but it was nice to get your news.

I agree with you that Ron will be greatly missed.

The Greek wedding that you attended sounds a

very colourful affair and could very well be the

theme for a Convention Package. I’m sure that if a

typical Greek type song could be found, with a

suitable arrangement, TVC would make a pretty

good fist of it. Maybe Emma could be persuaded

back to help things along.

Enough of that. Yes, we are very pleased to keep in

touch with the hectic life of TVC.

Yours sincerely

*******************

Dave Heighway

Thanks for your email. I am still enjoying my

singing with the Wessex Chordsmen. We have

been quite busy over the Christmas period singing

in old folks homes.

Mary and I send all our best wishes for a happy

and healthy 2011 to all those in the Club who

know us.

Regards

*******************

Alan Rogers

I appreciate your comment in the reminder about

how Ron Collis is missed. For years he patiently

wrote to me (how many people still write letters

rather than send electronic ones?) with a chatty

reminder that the Club would value my continued

support. He rarely lost an opportunity to say he

thought support would be best in person (on the

risers), but sadly I have never managed that.

The new electronic Tag Rag continues to impress

as well as inform – the quality of production is

very professional and I always enjoy scrolling

through the pages where so many still familiar

faces gaze out at the reader. I especially like

reading about success and that seems to be a

regular feature lately – congratulations to all

concerned.

I gladly enclose a cheque for another year of the

opportunity to read news of Club events, and

promise to drop in and see (or rather hear and see)

for myself what the club is up to these days. I’m

sure someone will take up Ron’s mantra that

support is best in person on the risers when I do!

Best regards

*******************

Phil and Pat Hadfield

I’m still heavily into golf with the seniors at Calcot

Park and as the match secretary for the Berkshire

Golf Captains Association. I’m also now the

secretary of Dexodus, which is the association of

ex Digital (DEC) employees. The latter kept me

busy during last year organising pension seminars

across the UK.




Apart from the joy of bumping into TVC members

around Reading and on the bus, this year was

notable because of Ian McDonald’s bullying.

When I played against Ian in our Seniors match he

mentioned that some of the chorus would be

performing at the Samaritan’s charity day at

Bearwood Lakes again. He then insisted that I sing

one song with them and tasked me with brushing

up Mary Lou. I must say I enjoyed the experience

and then sharing memories with the boys

afterwards. Thank you Ian but you’ve now

exhausted our overlapping repertoire!

Our family continue to give us much joy and we

expect to have another grandchild in March.

Please pass on our best wishes to the Chorus for

the coming year.

Yours sincerely

*****************************************

BARBERSHOP BABES

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR

FEBRUARY QUINTET

JULIAN CHARMAN

DAVE ELSON

RICHARD KIRSOP

ANDY RZYSKO

PHILLIP WARD

*****************************************

SELECTED WEEKLY NOTICES

DAYTIMERS' UPDATE (25 Jan)

A new 'Button' labelled Daytimers is now on the

members' home page of the Club website. It will

take you to a spreadsheet with all the names of the

currently active members of our group where all

the engagements we have in the diary including the

Daytimer rehearsals. If the singout bookings

remain a rare commodity the rehearsals will

become a regular feature. Please add your Y's or

N’s to indicate your intention to attend these

events. The spreadsheet has been initialised with

the availability data that I have but please check it

for accuracy and also complete any empty boxes.

On the singout front I have had three inquiries two

of which are now firm bookings (13 May & 26

Sep!) and I'm pretty sure that the other will be soon

since it's a repeat visit to the Bray Disabled Club.

I'm confident that we can get real value for our

money out of the daytime rehearsals; if we only

ensure that we retain a viable repertoire to meet our

customers' needs that will be possible. In addition

we are looking at reviving some of the repertoire

songs that served us well in the past to create an

additional interest. Currently we have our eye on

Dream A Little Dream of Me, Sloop John B and

Love Letters (Straight From The Heart) as the

front-runners. I've not had any suggestions yet on

an alternative venue to Charvil Village Hall so

unless I do I have to assume that everyone is happy

with it. Graham Starkie

DAYTIMERS REHEARSALS (1 Feb)

Two consecutive days of rehearsal have been held

at Charvil Village hall. The time was spent talking

about the Daytimer issues including singout

repertoire. We have decided to try to reintroduce

some older chorus repertoire songs. The two songs

Love Letters (Straight from your Heart) and Sloop

John B are our current choices. Another rehearsal

at the end of February will allow us to prepare for

the first singout of the year early in March. We are

also using the rehearsal time to discuss some of

those Barbershop things that we don't have time for

on Tuesday nights. The NEXT REHEARSAL

DATE is Thursday 24 February at the Parkside

International Hotel on the Bath Road in Reading.




We'll be there from 2pm until 4pm. We will revisit

a selection of songs from our singout repertoire

that we've not sung since October last year. That

song list will include: Give Me a Barbershop Song,

Can You Feel the Love Tonight, BOTB, How

Deep is the Ocean, Do You Hear the People Sing,

Sweet Georgia Brown, Everybody Step Medley

and New Ashmolean Marching Society'.

Graham Starkie

CAPITAL CHORUS EGGHEADS (7 Feb)

A team from Capital Chorus was invited to take

part in the peak-time BBC quiz show “Eggheads”.

Capital’s team – comprising Mike Cook, Paul

Gordon (erstwhile TVC member), Dave Lewis,

Erol McKenzie, Phil Leiwy, plus reserve Ian

Yardley – faced some of the world’s top quiz

champions. You can find out how they got on by

tuning in to BBC2 on Wednesday 9th February at

6pm (that’s tomorrow!). Simon Laight

REHEARSAL PROGRAMME (15 Feb)

Some of you were commenting on the lack of a

rehearsal plan last week and were sorry to have

missed Ian James. Well, sometimes one has busy

weeks. I'll be away for a week at the end of Feb, so

if anyone wants to volunteer to put the week's plan

together then please get in touch. Similarly, Craig

was on holiday. If anyone wants to support Craig

with weekly notices I'm sure he'll be happy for the

offer.

Amarillo's 4 week learning spot is up. Tonight is

it's debut.

If you miss a week, Pat Perridge often puts the

highlights of a rehearsal onto the web at

http://www.tvchorus.co.uk/members/toolbag.html

7;45 Section Warm up

8:00 Craft work with Mark

8:15 Reminder on the work with Ian. Also read

your emotion sheets provided by Mark

9:10 Notices

9:30 Amarillo

10:00 Can you feel the Love tonight

10:25 LGTA

Brian Milbank

LAST WEEK (8th Feb) REHEARSAL (15 Feb)

I did record the excellent rehearsal and coaching

session we had with Ian James last week, and you

can download the recordings from the Toolbag

page of the website. Ian was great and the sessions

are well worth a listen if you missed them.

Additionally, Mark asked me to remind you, or to

let you know if you weren't there last week, that

next week he will be doing some work on the new

That's Life key change, and asks us all to have

learned it for next week. There are new teach

tracks and sheet music for the That's Life Key

Change and the Song Plans for Raining, all on the

Songs page of our website.

Pat Perridge

THAT’S LIFE KEY CHANGE RECORDING (15

Feb)

Since the original teach tracks were produced for

That's Life there have been a number of alterations

and tweaks, culminating with a new key change.

The way we now sing it has moved sufficiently

from the original teach tracks that, in response to

requests from some members, we have produced a

new set of teach tracks to be as close as possible to

how we now sing it. This will enable you to

confidently use these tracks for

learning/consolidation.

These are now available on the web site in place of

the originals. There is also a sheet of music for the

new key change and the existing sheet music has

been annotated to draw your attention to the

change. We hope eventually to produce a

complete new score for the whole song, but did not

want producing this to delay getting out the new

teach tracks and key change.

Note that the starting key for the song has reverted

back down a semitone to the original D minor,




which means that we end up in the same key we

have got used to (and the final hanger for the tenors

is still top C# and not D - result!). James Porter

http://www.youbarbershop.com/ (15 Feb)

Why not subscribe to the new International online

barbershop magazine. (We are an affiliate

organisation if you wonder when you come to tick

that box). Richard Leathem (Marketing)

*****************************************

HISTORICAL NOTES

5 Years Ago February 2006

14th Daytimers at Hungerford Tuesday Club

20th An ad-hoc quartet of Geraint Lewis, Julian

Charman, Colin Thatcher & Jim Downing sang a

whole performance of ‘Hello Mary Lou’ on the

Andrew Peach show on Radio Berkshire

advertising the “Learn To Sing “ course.

21st Last night of the “Learn To Sing” course that

has run with success for seven weeks

25th There was a photograph of the full “Learn To

Sing” chorus and a report of the club’s success in

the Twyford Advertiser.

The show on Radio Berkshire and the report in the

Advertiser were there thanks to our Marketing

Manager & PRO Lawrence McNulty.

10Years Ago February 2001

10/11th Chorus away week-end, Dudley Hotel,

Brighton.

With Bill Rashleigh (SPEBSQSA), Lynda Wood,

Steve & Rhiannon Hall.

During the month Gerry Jenkins joined the

Executive Committee as Finance Director filling

the vacancy since the AGM last October.


10th Small Chorus at Holyport for the Women’s

Institute 40th Anniversary

17th ‘Love Is A Barbershop Song’ at the Hexagon,

Reading. RBHC show featuring:

Thames Valley Chorus

Flying High - (Pat Deeble, Graham Frampton,

Ed Dolan, Jim Downing)

Fever Pitch - LABBS quartet Gold medalists.

Otis B Driftwood - comedy jazz group.

Ed Stewart - Presenter from BBC Radio 2

Extract from the Reading Chronicle:

The Thames Valley Chorus is more than a well-

rehearsed choir, they also move and act, and they

are entertainers. Their number ‘If they could see

me now’ climbed with the chorus moving forward

in a surging expanding wave almost spilling off the

stage, it was impressive.

Extract from the Reading Evening Post:

Since the concert is an annual event I strongly

advise you to reserve your seat for next year’s

extravaganza. You will enjoy every second, I

promise you.


9th Full Chorus at the Masonic Hall, Wokingham

for the Wokingham Townswomen’s Guild

This was the first occasion when Pete Powell

brought the chorus on stage one section at a time,

at the start of the second half, singing their

individual parts to Do-Wacka-Do.

16th Full Chorus at Wellington College,

Crowthorne for the friends of Broadmoor Hospital.




23rd Full Chorus at High Cross Church,

Camberley. with the Thames Wind Band


8th Charity Concert, St.Mary’s Church, Winnersh

with the Barberettes. The combined choruses

outnumbered the audience by 6 to 1. Afterwards

we were thrown out of the Wheelwright Inn by the

landlord for singing… he had no music licence.


14th St.Valentine’s Day dance at Huntley &

Palmers Canteen, Reading

An evening of dancing to live music with a cabaret

by the Thames Valley Chorus.

The event was organized by Ray Piercey to raise

funds for RBHC.

22nd Full Chorus USAF Base, Greenham

Common.

A unique occasion as the organizer had mixed up

his dates and most of the personnel were away on

leave. The 25 on the risers fulfilled the engagement

by entertaining for an hour to a small band of their

own wives and children who had accompanied

them to the camp.

Cyril Duckworth asked if a regular feature could be

made in Tag Rag on ‘Where are they now’. A few

words of information about members who have

been absent for two or more weeks, are they ill?

dead?, on holiday?, resigned or drummed out?

Someone must know… or else we should find out.

Pete Powell resigned as Chorus Director of the

Barberettes due to his commitment to ‘Partners In

Time’ and The Thames Valley Chorus.

Les Hearn & Cyril Duckworth organized a

“Preservation Society” to sing cast off repertoire

songs. They meet at 7.15 on club night and sing

four songs per week in a pre-arranged order of

some 26 songs.

HAYDN ADAMS

*****************************************

SUPPORTERS.

Gosh, how cold we are having returned from

Barbados (and temperatures of 30 Celsius) last

Wednesday. We had a wonderful holiday and this

time hired a car and travelled round the island

visiting places of interest. I have to say that we

drove by some places more than once. It is quite a

challenge to follow any maps that exist and there

were at least two times when we ended up arriving

back where we had already visited. We had a

major hiccup on the second evening when we were

swimming in the lovely warm Caribbean sea.

Some “friends” have said that I would do anything

to be lifted by two burly lifeguards but believe you

me suffering a ripped hamstring muscle whilst

jumping a wave, and its consequent effects, is not

something I want to repeat.

To cut a very long story short the pain and badly

bruised and swollen leg (sob) didn’t hamper our

enjoyment of the holiday. Everything was done at a

much slower pace. Graham was an excellent carer

and we met some lovely people, both holiday

makers and locals. I saw my own doctor the day

we returned and was straight into physio and

strong pain killers and am getting around nicely

already.

On the third day there I noticed Gary Evans’

double sitting at breakfast; it was just amazing.

Needless to say we had to talk to him to find out

any connection. The only connection was that he

had worked for Air Canada but even that was

pretty spooky! Even some of his jokes were the

same …

Until next time,

Luv’n’hugs as always,

IRENE

*****************************************




STEVEN SONDHEIM

To mark his 80th birthday year, musical theatre

legend Stephen Sondheim appraised his long career

and dissected his own lyrics from West Side Story

to Sweeney Todd on the BBC RADIO 4

programme Book of the Week recently. The

programme entitled Finishing the Hat took its

name from Sondheim’s autobiography. It provided

a fascinating glimpse into the musician’s mind.

The title was borrowed from one of his most

autobiographical songs - Sondheim not only

collected his lyrics for the first time, but provides a

forensic account of the lyric-writing process.

As he discusses the lyrics for several of his major

musicals from 1954 to 1981- including West Side

Story, Gypsy, Company, A Little Night Music and

Sweeney Todd - Sondheim offers an illuminating

insight into the lyric-writer's art, as well as a

number of warm and witty anecdotes about the

remarkable figures with whom he has worked.

He discusses his relationship with his mentor,

Oscar Hammerstein II, and his collaborations with

extraordinary talents such as Leonard Bernstein,

Arthur Laurents, Jule Styne, Ethel Merman and

Harold Prince.

Penetrating and self-deprecating, thoughtful and

witty, Finishing the Hat is not only an informative

look at the art and craft of lyric writing, it is also a

window on musical theatre history since the 1950s.

If you’d like to hear the five fifteen-minute

broadcasts please speak to me. Alternatively your

interest may be sated by the following critical

review of his autobiography by Simon Callow in

The Guardian newspaper.

GRAHAM STARKIE

********

FINISHING THE HAT

"A printed collection [of lyrics]," says Stephen

Sondheim at the beginning of Finishing the Hat,

"is a dubious proposition." Indeed: like making a

musical out of the invasion of Japan by the west,

or the tortuous painting of a canvas, or the intimate

relationships of a group of New Yorkers, or the

assassination of American presidents. All dubious

propositions, all triumphantly carried off, as is this

book, one of the greatest books ever written about

craft in the theatre, which also happens to be a self-

portrait of one of the most striking and original

artists of our time. It is entirely typical of

Sondheim that in writing a book of such apparently

narrow focus, he should have produced a work of

vast breadth and scope. The surprise is how

moving, how deeply romantic the book is –

surprising, that is, to those who persist in thinking

of Sondheim as merely ingenious, a deviser of

musical crossword puzzles, instead of the

passionate explorer that he is, irrepressibly

searching for the new forms that will keep alive the

art to which he has devoted his life.

We student actors and directors who piled into Her

Majesty's Theatre in 1972 to see Company had no

doubt that we were present at a revolution in

musical theatre: all other musical shows we'd ever

seen suddenly seemed childish. Urban loneliness,

self-deceptions within relationships, the fear of

commitment – no one had ever expected to hear

about those sorts of things in a musical. "It's the

little things you share together / Swear together /

Wear together / That make perfect relationships. /

The concerts you enjoy together, / Neighbors you

annoy together / Children you destroy together, /

That make perfect relationships." The telephonic

pulse of the opening bars – a switchboard in music

– and the great underlying melodies surging up

through the orchestral texture with thrilling

metropolitan energy were to us the very sound of




now, the characters' emotions identical to our own.

We laughed, we cried, but most of all we hugged

ourselves for having, as we felt, discovered this

genius, our contemporary. In fact he was 42 at the

time; I don't believe we even knew then that he

was the lyricist of West Side Story. But when, the

year after Company, Gypsy finally arrived in

London and he stood awkwardly on the stage with

the composer Jule Styne as the applause went on

and on at the triumphant first night, we realised

that he was no guerrilla waging war on the musical,

but someone deeply plugged in to its great

tradition.

Finishing the Hat is to a large extent an appraisal

of that tradition and his place within it. Thanks to

the happy chance of being the best friend of the son

of one of the giants of American musical theatre,

Oscar Hammerstein II, who all but adopted him,

Sondheim was superbly well placed to learn not

only his basic craft but the lofty principles of the

musical play from the horse's mouth. Now, of

course, Sondheim is himself the horse's mouth, and

he imparts what he has learned with playful rigour.

The book starts off bracingly, with a statement of

the three principles of lyric writing (Content

Dictates Form, Less is More and God is in the

Details) and a brisk outline of the ground rules, in

the sixth of which we learn that "Oscar

Hammerstein II is not my idol". We have already

learned that Sondheim "cordially but intensely"

dislikes the lyrics of Noël Coward (a statement

which earned him hisses at the Cheltenham literary

festival a couple of weeks ago), and will soon

discover that he has equally rebarbative things to

say about the work of some of the deities of lyric

writing – Alan Jay Lerner ("a chameleon of one

colour"), Lorenz Hart ("sloppy"), Ira Gershwin

(who, he believes, showed off shamelessly because

he knew that he was merely talented, whereas his

brother was a genius), even Hammerstein, whose

much-loved lyric for the great Jerome Kern

number "All the Things You Are" is thrashed to

within an inch of its life. He comes back to

Coward, who really gets it in the neck second time

around: "overstated, sentimental . . . 'written' rather

than experienced".

There is another lyric writer, though, to whom he

gives the hardest time of all: Stephen Sondheim,

many of whose most admired efforts are found to

be obtuse, inelegant, exhibitionistic. The sin of

sins, in his view, is when a lyric forces you to hear

the composer's voice rather than the character's, a

self-confessed failing of his. Reading his

deconstruction and damnation of the lyric of "The

Little Things You Do Together", the very words

we kids so adored in Company back in '72, is like

overhearing a devastating tutorial in which the

tutor and the tutee are the same person. In every

instance, one is forced to agree – if, that is, you

believe, as he does, that logic is the sine qua non of

a lyric, and that tortured syntax, strained rhymes,

"poetic" writing, are simply poor craftsmanship.

The severity of his judgments is underpinned by

his personal philosophy: "if you think of a theatre

lyric as a short story, as I do, then every line has

the weight of a paragraph." Very occasionally, he

is quietly boastful about his own lines – "The Ben

I'll never be, / Who remembers him?"

from Follies makes him glow with forgivable

pride.

But despite his brilliant facility, nothing is ever

easy, because on each new show he has set himself

a specific challenge – a challenge that always

finally resolves itself as technical: the doing of it is

all. Scattered throughout the book are observations

about his craft which are riveting, and rivetingly

expressed: of one of his songs, "Getting Married

Today", for example, he notes that "the patter

sections may seem difficult to sing in one breath as

they ought to be sung, but in fact they're calculated

to alternate vowel and consonant sounds in such a

way as to make them easy for the tongue, teeth and

breath to articulate . . . in the best patter songs, the

faster you sing the easier it is." If Finishing the

Hat is not the Bible of lyric writing, it is certainly

its New Testament, expounding an approach to the

work which provides the best hope for the future of

musical theatre, whose possibilities Sondheim has

done more than any other writer to open up.

Picasso and Stravinsky endlessly reinvented

themselves, but he has constantly reinvented the

form, and – true to his own principle – he has done

that by constantly seeking out new content.

He claims to believe that the musical theatre is

now, finally, in its death throes, but nothing in his

practice reflects this. He has been famously

generous to hopeful young composers, and, shy

though he is, has made himself easily accessible.

Early on he says that to him teaching is a sacred




profession: he pays his debt to it over and over in

these pages – by some rather brilliant teaching, but

also by celebrating his own teachers, who have

been many and various. This is, ultimately, what

makes the book so moving: the creative

breakthroughs, the sudden understanding of what

one is up to, of what the craft requires, the things

that transform a show and make it live. It is

crammed full of brilliantly etched accounts of such

moments, and trenchant character sketches of some

of the great monstres sacrés of the theatre, but

above all, of course, it is a cornucopia of some of

the greatest lyrics of our – of all – time, some

familiar, some rescued from oblivion, all given

context and history. (Is there another writer who

could have rhymed Gielgud with feel good?) The

very best thing of all about the book (which takes

us up to Merrily We Roll Along) is its last word:

INTERMISSION. Act II is already on the stocks.

RRP £30 Available for £21 or less

***************************************** Thanks to Haydn Adams, Sean O’Shea, Bob Ridley

and Irene for supplying copy.

Editor

Graham Starkie

29 Kibblewhite Crescent, Twyford

READING RG10 9AX ENGLAND

Tel/Ans/Fax 0118 934 5214

Email [email protected]

20 February 2011

Copy deadlines: 15th Mar for 22nd distribution

12th Apr for 19th distribution

10th May for 17th distribution

14th Jun for 21st distribution

*****************************************

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