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    2003-12-30 11:26   ...2 comments

This letter arose from listening to an interview on Sounds Like Canada about the Men of the Deeps coal miners choir from Cape Breton and the new NFB (National Film Board) documentary about them. It’s funny how one doesn’t automatically associate coal miners’ music in Britain with the experience of Canadian miners… Anyway, it was cool to find out about this group.

Sounds like Canada Crew:

I listened with interest to your “Men of the Deeps” segment this morning. You played the choir’s recording of Kay Sutcliffe’s “Coal Not Dole”, and I thought you might like to know of another Canadian connection to that song; a connection that crosses the Atlantic and back again.

There is an excellent recording by the UK singers “Coope, Boyes and Simpson” (on their album “Funny old world” NMCD3) which makes a medley of Sutcliffe’s poem with another, and is sung to the Victorian Christmas tune “See Amid The Winter Snow”.

In 1996 Shelley Posen (of Ottawa’s acclaimed “Finest Kind” folk trio) penned new words to the tune, calling the new song “No more fish, no fishermen”. In his words, the song was written about the calamitous demise of the 500-year-old Newfoundland cod fishery in the 1990s; years later its dire message can apply to most fisheries in the world. Basing his poem on Sutcliffe’s as interpreted by Coope, Boyes and Simpson, Posen’s version packs the same punch as the original poem. Sadly, these two songs are just as relevant here in Canada today as Sutcliffe’s original was in Britain.

I think Posen’s version is worth playing, particularly with its Christmas tune. He recorded it with Finest Kind in 1999 (on “Heart’s Delight” FAM03) as well as on his new solo recording (“The Old Songs’ Home” WDM01).

I urge you to check it out.

Regards,
Colin Henein
Ottawa

LINKS:
Recent article on “No more fish, no fishermen”
Shelley Posen’s website
Finest Kind’s website
Coope, Boyes and Simpson

 › letters     2003-12-18 00:32   ...0 comments

The conductor was Thierry Fischer, and man he was weak. This performance only worked because the orchestra know this piece so well that they can carry on without any direction at all. All he did was wave his arms in a random fashion, totally without any relationship to the music. The chorus was on their own, and were remarkably together given that few entries were indicated, and fewer cadences conducted, nor was any significant beating of time present during the sixteenth-note runs that are so prevalent through Handel’s work.

The great amen was actually boring, which it should not be. It was boring because there was no direction for any movement: neither dynamic nor tempo was altered by this vegetative “maestro”. The CAMMAC chorus achieved more passion after 2 hours of rehearsal.

The piece was not helped by a bass soloist who believes that wide and inaccurate vibrato will camouflage imprecise timing of long runs. The soprano was good, as was the tenor (I’ll grant him a pitch problem once, as the rest of his performance was grand).

As always my favorite performer was the timpanist, Ian Bernard who is a delight to watch onstage. After him would definetly be the trumpet solo, smooth as silk in “The trumpet shall sound”.

All in all, a fun evening from the point of view of being a critic, but a disappointing performance, salvaged only by the efforts of the chorus and orchestra to overcome the totally farcical direction.

 › events     2003-12-17 23:32   ...0 comments

Freezing the gums first only postpones the soreness after. By November 2004 I’ll have a new front tooth, a permanent one, but that’ll be after a year of dentistry…

And they have the nerve to charge for this…

 › health     2003-12-17 23:31   ...0 comments

Wow. 10 grams is huge.

The most shocking thing in this article: “An Admiral’s Feast — a platter of fried shrimp, scallops, clams and fish — at Red Lobster contains a heart-stopping 22 grams of trans fats.”

 › health     2003-12-09 00:57   ...0 comments

Jen has been watching the ski conditions like a hawk since the first snow several weeks ago. Nothing like getting your first ski of the year in within the first week of December… Bodes well for the year… send us some of that snow!

P8-P9 loop. Gatineau Park 1/250 sec @ F6

 › sports     2003-12-07 23:20   ...0 comments