Latest posts

I’m still standing

Posted on 21 April 2024 by rpg

Big Vet doesn’t want you to read this post.

Chickens, famously, do not have teeth.

Instead they have gizzards, A gizzard is a kind of bag betwixt beak and stomach in which foodstuff is ground by little bits of stone and the like that they pick up from their surroundings—grit. Gizzards are muscular organs, as they need to be able to grind items as hard as wheat and sweetcorn kernels. This is probably why they were the source material for the production of a protein that was the subject of a certain thesis.

Gizzards, or more commonly ‘crops’, are subject to a range of disorders, and in particular, “pendulous, or spastic” crop, which “occurs when the crop muscle becomes stretched and the crop will fill to a massive size“.

We got our first three hens in February 2020. This was an undertaking totally unrelated to Covid, although you might be forgiven for thinking we were going into survivalist mode. One of the hens suffered from a massive gastrointestinal tumour and had to be put down in the first week of 2021.

We got two more hens in the February. One came into lay and then 2 months later had a prolapsed vent and died. The other, Artemis, developed a pendulous crop. After that, we changed our supplier.

But Artemis (Arty to her friends) is still alive today, and that’s what I want to talk about.

A pendulous crop is, according to the veterinary profession, a death sentence. Without being able to grind her food, the affected hen will starve to death in the midst of plenty.

I took Arty to the vet in Maidstone—a 25-minute drive away. Poultry vets are few and far between because chickens are not really kept as pets, and commercially, if a chicken gets sick it’s goodbye chicken, thanks for all the eggs.

However, an hour and about £150 later I came away with little hope and seven syringes of an intramuscular injection, the name of which I forget, that the vet said might (might) stimulate the muscles of the crop to contract properly and save Arty’s life.

Yeah, learning how to give i.m. injections into the breast of a chicken wasn’t on my bucket list but here we are.

And, you know what, it worked.

For about a month. And then the pendulous returned, and I thought that’s it, thanks for all the eggs.

Until we came across the concept of chicken bras.

There’s a little place that makes these things, just for this sort of condition, and Arty has been wearing one (or two, because she keeps snagging them off on the various branches in the run) for the last 3 years, almost.

And the damn things work, and she’s been laying eggs like a normal hen, but with a natty blue and white bra.

Arty (left), trying to avoid me

Arty (left), trying to avoid me. Rhea’s cool.

Okay, so she hides from me when I have to go into the pen to readjust her over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder (see ‘snagging’, above), and her crop is still pendulously huge if you take it off, but it works.

Big Veterinary does not want you to know this.

Posted in bra, chicken, Cock, Don't try this at home, Gardening, hens, nature | Comments Off on I’m still standing

Sweet home Alabama [2]

Posted on 14 April 2024 by rpg

It never ends.

Evil incarnate

Evil incarnate

There’s always something to do, whether it’s laying turf, repairing hoses, or pulling up the wild onions.

I’m taking advantage of the unexpected time off to fix things around the house and garden. In the best traditions of yak shaving, there’s always several things you need to do before you can fix the thing you set out to fix. The chess pieces you have to put on the board (and the multiple trips to Wickes) before you can actually drain the hanging water feature to reseal it.

And of course while I’m going around the garden I spot other things (including wild onions, natch) that I didn’t even think about before I saw them and I then I have to sort that out before I get to job I started—or intended to, anyway—a week ago.

And then there’s the stuff that critically fails just about just before you’re about to go out for your pre-birthday dinner.

Gaffer tape for the win

Gaffer tape is the best. Except when it’s black insulating tape.

Which resulted in another trip to Wickes on Saturday and, what of all days I’d forgotten, was Vaisakhi, which explains all the magnificent dastars, not to mention the surfeit of BMWs and Mercedes parked all the way up our road. And what should have been a 5-minute dash turned into a 20-minute detour through the less frequented parts of Gravesend and slightly elevated cortisol levels because I had to finish fixing the hose (and several other things, ibid) before an indeterminate number of people turned up for my birthday party.

FIRE

Fire makes it good

I did make it back in time to light the pizza oven, lay out the kegs, and even enlist the Pawns to help me decide whether any of our homemade wine was worth serving (or even legal). They didn’t take much persuading, it has to be said.

And the win, the real win, was that the 2023 harvest (Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay from the greenhouse vines and possibly even more Chardonnay from the barbecue corner [we have no idea what it is because we didn’t plant that vine. It just produces hundreds of pounds of grapes every year]) not only popped when I opened it, but retained its fizz, and was eminently drinkable (if a little cloudy at the moment). I have, finally, cracked the Merret problem, and we opened another bottle today and it was just as good.

Sparkles

Sparkles

How was your weekend?

Posted in Birthday, grapes, Me, offspring, Pawns, personal, pizza, Science-less Sunday, Spring, wild onions, wine | Comments Off on Sweet home Alabama [2]

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Posted on 7 April 2024 by rpg

Hard to believe, but 4 years ago we were in lockdown. Bit of a shit time, really, with scary NHS bears yelling at us to STAY HOME, schools shut, people being shouted at for being (gasp) outside, and all that NHS crapping clapping. At least there was Joe Wicks.

Scary NHS bear

Let’s not do that ever again. Please.

It wasn’t all bad. I built a scale model of London City Airport (and of all the airports in the world this being the best is the hill I will die on). I learned how to make bagels.

And I built a treehouse.

Throw a pallet in a tree

This started with me throwing a pallet up into the willow tree and then figuring out what I needed to put on top of it, and then negotiating the shortages of all sorts of building materials (because everybody was at it, remember?) and fucking social fucking distancing at fucking Wickes to collect the damn materials once they were in stock and cramming it all into my tiny Peugeot (God rest her soul) to get them home.

Treehouse, nascent
Joshua, being 6 at the time, wasn’t exactly helpful, but at least he enjoyed it.

Today, nearly 4 years after assembling the roof and then disassembling it ‘cos I had to get it into the damn tree, I finished the project.

Oh, it’s been loved and used (and almost turned into a gin deck) since June 2020, but the skylight was just just a hole covered by loose roofing felt.

One of my ‘sabbatical‘ projects was to actually fit the skylight.

Today, dear reader, that happened.

Chisel

And Joshua was actually helpful. He was able to hold the window from the inside, chip away at the rough edges, and even wield the No More Nails gun to immense effect.

I guess 40% of your time on Earth will make that kind of difference.

How times change.

Posted in Don't try this at home, fucking scary NHS bears, Joshua, Lockdown, offspring, Science-less Sunday, treehouse | Comments Off on The Times They Are A-Changin’

What I Gave Up For Lent

Posted on 3 April 2024 by Henry Gee

The thing I usually give up for Lent is abstinence, but it turns out that my deprivation this year was more substantial. As you’ll both know, for a while I’ve not been listening to, watching or reading the news. It turns out, entirely by coincidence, that the day I decided to do this was Ash Wednesday, so I decided that I should return to the world of current events on Easter Sunday.

So what’s changed? Not much. It’s a case of Meet The New Boss, Same as the Old Boss. There is still conflict in the Middle East. There is still conflict in Ukraine. There is still antisemitism. There is still transphobia. The England team invariably loses. If Norwich City gets promoted to the Premiership, it’s bound to be relegated given another year, two at most. The governments of those countries that feature prominently in the news seems as inept/venal/corrupt as ever. Some politicians/football managers/celebrities have disappeared from the feeds, to replaced by other politicians/football managers/celebrities identical (to me) in all but name. King Charles III and his daughter-in-law, the Princess of Wales, have been seriously ill, but are now getting better. This is a good thing, but people are becoming ill, and getting better, all the time. Except that some get worse.

So, what did I miss?

As it turns out, nothing much. So my return to the world of news was not marked by a sudden rush to buy all the papers, log on to the news websites every five minutes or impose a hush when news bulletins come on to the radio, still less the TV. Instead, I find myself bumping into the news in a much more muted, less enthusiastic way than I once did. I’ve not bought a newspaper (I find them all universally dreadful). The only periodicals to which I subscribe are The Literary Review (which I read avidly) and The Spectator (which I dip into only now and then when I’m feeling especially depressed). I’m willing to bet that one would have to wait many months — perhaps years — before the news became substantially different. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

So why are people (some people anyway) obsessed with news? I have no idea. It all seems so — well — trivial. The only thing likely to stir the sludge of my cynicism is the re-election of Donald Trump to the Presidency of the United States, if only to confirm my dim view of the human condition, for the section of humanity represented by Trump seems to be intent on diminishing the reproductive self-government of women, and it seems a truth that’s self-evident (to me) that the reproductive self-government of women is the only thing worth getting steamed up about, as any and all benefits experienced by humans in general, such as increased health, wealth, welfare, contentment, education and longevity stem, ultimately from that sauce source. Societies that restrict the empowerment of women will either fail to develop, or go backwards.

In sum, my experience of news abstinence (I have coined the term nayesrein) is the cultivation of a kind of Philosophic Repose (on a good day) or Swiftian detachment (on a less good day). For in the end, we’re all doomed.

Comments Off on What I Gave Up For Lent

This is what we find

Posted on 31 March 2024 by rpg

While making Richard’s Famous Margaritas(tm) (note to self: post this on Magirism at some point) this afternoon, I had to clear the Triple Sec optic from the sugary lunge build-up. After cleaning, I picked up the wrong receptacle and dropped two measures of triple sec into the dregs of my Tribute instead of the cocktail shaker.

Optics

Jenny said something about my career coach and turning disaster into opportunity, so I dropped in the juice of half a lime and a couple of measures of pisco and made something that was quite wonderful.

Come to my birthday party and discover more about this metaphor.

Posted in 15MinutePost, Science-less Sunday | Comments Off on This is what we find

What I Read In March

Posted on 29 March 2024 by Henry Gee

UntitledAustin Wright: Nocturnal Animals Teacher Susan Morrow used to be married to a failed writer called Edward. Twenty years later, divorced with two children and comfortably re-married to a physician, she receives a manuscript from Edward, from whom she hadn’t heard for all that time. Over Christmas, when her husband is away at a conference, she dives in and discovers a terrifying crime story in which a husband, wife and teenage daughter are hijacked on the freeway during a vacation. Much of the rest of the novel consists of Edward’s novel seen through Susan’s eyes, interspersed with Susan’s reflections on her own past and present life, all the while asking the question of why Edward has sent her this novel, after all these years — a question that’s, teasingly, never answered. This is one of those novels that’s gripping at the time but which one forgets as soon as it is finished, even though, so it says, it is now a ‘Major Motion Picture’, a strap line that seems to ensure obscurity for almost any book to which it adheres.

UntitledMichael Reaves and John Pelan (eds) Shadows over Baker Street I had never before heard of this cobwebb’d grimoire: news of it was bruited forth to me, no doubt by some eldritch form of astral projection, by my associate Mr. C___ D___ of Leeds, our correspondent in all matters chthonic. The great thing about fanfic, I suppose, is that the author is free to do mashups of otherwise separate tropes of popular culture. Offspring#2 and I have wondered, for example, whether the egregious intrusion of Tom Bombadil into The Lord of the Rings might be spun as an incursion into Middle-earth by Dr Who circa Matt Smith, with Alex Kingston as ‘the River Woman’s Daughter’. But I digress. Conan Doyle’s well-loved stories of the tenants of 221B Baker Street have inspired a legion of knock-offs; as have H. P. Lovecraft’s demented demonology that is the Cthulhu Mythos. Some of these are really good — I cite for example the TV series Sherlock in which Holmes and Watson are re-cast in modern dress, and the novels of Charles Stross set in ‘The Laundry’, the government’s department of the occult. But what if Holmes and Watson were themselves to encounter the Elder Gods? Think about it. Holmes succeeds by the application of pure reason. Lovecraft, by the conjuration of an ectoplasmic atmosphere of supernal terror (or so they tell me) which almost by definition defies ratiocination. So here we have a collection of stories in which Holmes and Watson are invited to investigate cases of reanimation, eructations of ancient cults, and people who seem to be turning into fish. The best one is the first, A Study in Emerald, by Neil Gaiman (of course) and most of the rest are a lot of fun. Real people such as H. G. Wells get stirred into the mix, along with — on one occasion — William Hope Hodgson’s character of Carnacki the ghost hunter. The High Victorian atmosphere lends itself to excursions into orientalism that might not be welcome nowadays except in the guise of pulp pastiche. There’s a lot about Watson’s time in Afghanistan, for example, and the abhorred Necronomicon of Abdul Al-Hazred makes several appearances. I could have had more about Moriarty, to be honest (he only features in two of the eighteen stories) and overall they get a bit samey after a while, though nothing less than enjoyable for those of a certain cast of mind. I am struck by Philip Ball’s contention in The Modern Myths that the literature that gets into the popular imagination is that which is formulaic, and not necessarily very good. One cannot deny the power of the Music of Erich Zann Cheap Music. Your powers of deduction amaze me, Holmes, how did you work out that our visitor was an acolyte of Nyarlathotep, the blind idiot God who resides in the very vortex of the void, whisperings of whose existence have only otherwise reached our ears through the terrified murmurings of those who have delved too deeply into the occult, the forbidden, and the arcane? Elementary, my dear Watson. It’s the tentacles.

UntitledCixin Liu: The Three-Body Problem When one is listening to audiobooks, the program will sometimes come up with suggestions of the if-you-liked-that-why-not-try-this variety. So imagine my puzzlement when after listening to Barbra Streisand’s memoir My Name Is Barbra the algorithm came up with hard science fiction from China. Naturally, I dived in. I’d heard vaguely that Chinese SF is cool and trendy, and that the big name in the field is Chinese-American Ken Liu, but hadn’t heard of Cixin Liu, a Chinese author, here translated by Liu (sensu Ken). I shall ask no further questions of the algorithm, as  The Three-Body Problem is one of the very best modern SF novels I have ever read. The novel starts in 1967 when a young girl, Ye Wiejie, witnesses her father, a physics professor, beaten to death by high-school students during the Cultural Revolution. This traumatic event shades her future, and — eventually — that of humankind. We see her brutal exile to a remote logging camp, to her involvement as a technician in a secret radio-astronomy program of initially unknown purpose,  to her political rehabilitation, and, finally, retirement as a physics professor at Tsinghua University, where her father had once taught. But there is another strand to this — or, rather, several, as the novel is somewhat nonlinear. In the present day, Wang Miao, a materials researcher working on a super-strong nanofilament, is coopted by a bluff, hard-drinking, hard-smoking cop Shi Qiang to investigate the mysterious deaths of several scientists. This leads us, through various diversions, to a secret scientific society charting the very limits of science; eco-terrorism; an eerily realistic computer game set on a planet orbiting chaotically in a triple-star system (hence the title); and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The scope is vast, and some of the set-pieces are truly staggering. Witness, for example, an analog computer consisting of thirty million soldiers arrayed on a vast plain using black and white signal flags as ones and zeroes. And the efforts of alien scientists to create sentience by etching microcircuits inside protons. It shouldn’t really work, but it does. There is a lot of exposition, which I don’t mind, but others might find it holds up the action. I was captivated by the sense of exoticism: Ken Liu’s translation is compelling for an English-language reader or listener while maintaining the original novel’s distinctive Chinese flavour. Imagine my surprise, when looking up from this bravura feast of diamond-hard SF, to learn that there are sequelae, and, not only that, a televisual version on Netflix. Unlike Nocturnal Animals, I don’t think I’ll forget this one, and I have already cued up the sequel. I may be some time…

UntitledSerge Filippini: The Man In Flames To the modern mind, Giordano Bruno (1548-1600) is a martyr to an embryonic science in an age of intolerant religion, burned at the stake for his doctrine that each star was a Sun with its own system of planets. There was more to it, of course. In addition to his cosmological speculations, Bruno evolved a philosophy — even a religion — based on the idea that God lived in all things, and that people should be free to worship as they wished. It was a dangerous time to hold such views, and Bruno was nothing if not tactless in promoting his prolific works and disparaging of anyone who didn’t agree with him. Not surprisingly he made more enemies than friends and was forced to leave the city in which he resided at any time and hit the road. He never stayed anywhere long, and lived the life of a perpetually peripatetic scholar (nowadays we’d call this a ‘postdoc’), picking up lecturing jobs where he could before the tides of religion and politics turned against him. Born in what was then the Kingdom of Naples and initially a Dominican monk — before he was (inevitably) excommunicated — he progressed through Italy, Switzerland, France, England, France again, Germany and was lured back to Italy where, in Venice, he was betrayed, imprisoned, tried, transferred to Rome, tried again, and finally executed. The Man In Flames is the autobiography he (probably) never wrote, during the final ten days of his life, as revealed to author Serge Filippini and translated from the French by Liz Nash. The book stays fairly close to what is known of his life, but of course takes some license,  allowing us to meet, through Bruno’s eyes, contemporaries such as Montaigne, Tycho Brahe, Johannes Kepler, Giacomo Archimboldo, Philip Sidney, King Henri III of France, Queen Elizabeth I of England and even a young William Shakespeare. A story of passionate love runs through the book like a thread: the love of Bruno’s life is Cecil, a brother of Philip Sidney, who, as a diplomat to the Venetian Republic, is unlike Bruno in every way. Cecil is calm and urbane where Bruno is an excitable loudmouth who promotes his heterodox views to everyone he meets, whether they are welcome or not. Even Cecil cannot save Bruno from a fate that he seems to have brought upon himself. As a book, The Man In Flames is an enjoyable, occasionally scatological romp through an often lethally turbulent time in early modern history.

Posted in Writing & Reading | Comments Off on What I Read In March

The Country Life

Posted on 24 March 2024 by rpg

I set up a WhatsApp group for the locals, so I can let them know when I have eggs available.

“Hello Richard!” they’ll message, “Any eggs available today?”

At this time of year, with an average of 4 eggs daily, the answer is invariably ‘yes!’, and they’ll pop round, cash in hand, 20 minutes later.

There’s something deeply satisfying about the whole arrangement.

I also have a standing order (6 eggs/fortnight) and an advance order for Easter Saturday, so I have to watch supplies, but I still had 2 eggs at lunch today, as well as enough to make gelato and pavlova.

In news to warm the cockles of Henry’s, I planted out my potatoes today. Jenny has been chitting the Maris Pipers and the Charlottes since January, and now they’re looking alien enough to go in the ground. It’s also past the Spring Solstice, so the time is right, and in they go.

I’ve got 2 rows of six of each, plus a couple of tubs for the leftovers. It’s taken about 8 years but the main ‘physic’ patch in the garden felt like real soil this afternoon, so we’re hopeful for a decent crop.

Po-tay-toes

Po-tay-toes

 

Posted in 15MinutePost, community, eggs, Gardening, nature, potatoes, Spring | Comments Off on The Country Life

Sourcing music – a Making Music webinar

Posted on 19 March 2024 by Frank Norman

I recently attended a webinar about sourcing sheet music, organised by Making Music. There were more than 100 attendees, mostly from amateur orchestras and choirs, all eager to learn about the best and most cost-effective ways to procure musical scores for performing groups.

It was a comprehensive overview: we heard from 11 separate speakers, each promoting a different service. I knew something already about music libraries and music publishers, but it was interesting to learn about some of the newer community initiatives. Some of the services go beyond simply supplying scores and can help music groups discover new repertoire.

  1. Music Bank, Ben Saffell

This is a service that Making Music (MM) runs. It is a catalogue of music which can be borrowed by MM members from other MM members. Anyone can search and see what pieces are available but to see which member holds the piece (so that you can ask them to borrow it) you have to be a member of MM.  There are nearly 13,000 holdings listed.

The search function is quick and allows you either to search for a specific composer or title, or other keywords. You can also specify the work length, composer nationality, musical genre, instrumentation. It includes both choral and orchestral music. MM members can make a small charge for the music loan, but this is expected only to cover ‘postage and packaging and a small and reasonable admin fee’.

  1. ENCORE21, Lee Noon

Lee Noon is Librarian for Music and Performing Arts at Leeds Libraries – one of the biggest music lending libraries in the UK. He is also on the committee of IAML UK & Irl (the UK & Ireland branch of the International Association of Music Libraries) and was here to tell us about a service that IAML UK run called ENCORE21. This is a union catalogue of choral and orchestral sets held by libraries in Great Britain. Most of the holdings are in public library collections, but it also includes holdings in university libraries and music colleges.

It is free and open to anyone to use. It is straightforward to search but there are not any browsing options (duration, genre, nationality etc). Lee mentioned that there is uncertainty about the future funding for the maintenance of ENCORE21, and currently IAML UK is seeking views on the service.

Lee also talked in general about music services provided by public libraries. Some of them will loan direct to groups across the country. Lee recommended people to use and support their local library music service as they have to demonstrate that they are needed and useful.

In discussion it was noted that there were some interesting developments in Norfolk and Bristol public libraries.

  1. NPALS (Nottingham Performing Arts Library Service), Stephen Chartres

Stephen Chartres works for Nottingham City Council and he was the project lead for NPALS when it was developed in 2015/16.

The service has 3,500 titles and 87,000 copies. A bespoke IT system was developed that allows users to search and reserve sets without the need for manual intervention. This self-service system is available 24/7 and is designed to be sustainable and affordable and to meet user needs. It has delivered efficiency gains and has made the service more widely available. NPALS will lend directly to groups across the UK, though groups outside the east midlands will need to register (this is free). The catalogue is open to anyone to use – it allows searching by composer, title and publisher.

Details of charges are on the NPALS website. NPALS has 380 registered groups using its services, and gathers feedback via user groups. It uses some volunteer effort, though not much was said about this. NPALS is still run by Nottingham City Libraries.

The IT system that NPALS developed is also used by NewSPAL and has recently been licensed to Hertfordshire Libraries.

  1. NewSPAL (New Surrey Performing Arts Library), Mark Welling

Mark Welling is chair of the trustees of NewSPAL. NewSPAL was set up by users of the former Surrey Performing Arts Library (SPAL) when that was closed by Surrey County Council. It is an independent charity and took over the stock of the former SPAL. It has over 4,000 titles and about 125,000 copies. The catalogue is free to browse and you can also check availability. The music was recatalogued by volunteer musicians and singers.

NewSPAL uses the NPALS software to provide an online catalogue and reservation service.  It lends directly across the UK and more than half of its members are outside Surrey. Users need to register (costing £15) in order to borrow, but there is no annual charge. Hire charges are benchmarked against public library charges. NewSPAL is not-for-profit. It is always interested to hear what users want, and it has made some acquisitions in response to demand.

There are two professional music librarians and volunteers also help to run the service.

  1. PMLL (Printed Music Licensing Limited), Viki Smith

Viki Smith is general manager of PMLL, which is part of the Music Publishers’ Association. PMLL represents the rights of music publishers and issues licences on behalf of the rights-holders permitting the reproduction of printed music.

Viki told us about the Amateur Choir Licence. This licence enables choirs to legally copy sheet music, and allows minor arrangements (eg a key shift). It is only for pieces up to 16 pages long. There is an annual charge for the licence, based on the number of members of the choir and the number of works to be licensed. Choirs need to report what they have copied. Copies can be used for 24 months; after that the choir will need to re-license them.

There is guidance on using the licence on the website and also guides on hiring and using music. The PMLL website also has a useful section called ‘Raising the bar – Essential Advice on Launching Your Amateur Choir’.

  1. Hal Leonard, Oliver Winstone

Oliver Winstone is Strategic Partnership & Education Manager at Hal Leonard, which is both the largest print music publisher in the world and also the biggest music distributor in Europe, representing more than 100 publishers. Hal Leonard also owns musicroom.com and provides digital music services. Their website has a comprehensive catalogue of all the music that they can supply.

Oliver said he was interested in feedback on digital services for choirs, and the digital learning tools. I couldn’t find details of these on the Hal Leonard website, but I think he was talking about ChoralMix – see this article to learn more about it.  He also mentioned the Arrange Me function, whereby you can upload an arrangement that you have made of a work and Hal Leonard will sort out the rights and profit share with the arranger.

  1. Composers Edition, Dan Goren

Dan Goren is the founding director of Composers Edition (CE), a different kind of contemporary music publisher.

CE has about 90 living composers as members and it works hard to promote them and their music, working with professional and community music groups to support performance of contemporary music. CE will help performing groups to find new music to fit into a programme and can help to make links between groups and composers, e.g  commissioning new works. A section of the CE website is devoted to commissioning new works.

The CE catalogue can be browsed by composer and by category (choir, orchestra etc), and you can apply filters such as ‘theme’, duration, and date range. You can also preview the score before committing to purchase.

Dan said that CE is keen to support community music groups and is prepared to be flexible when making deals.

  1. Choir Community, Piers McLeish

Piers McLeish is the CEO and cofounder of Choir Community, a music publisher that provides high quality musical arrangements of a wide range of titles and genres. They have about 25 arrangers on the books and about 1400 titles. You can freely search or filter by composers, genre, choir type, voicing, accompaniment, duration and difficulty. CC aim to provide music at affordable prices. Choirs must register and provide information on the number of choir members and the cost of a licence for an arrangement is based on this. Currently CC has about 9,500 registered choirs, half of them in the UK.

You can preview the music and also listen to an audio file. There are also learning tracks available to purchase.

CC makes some items available free of charge. They are a musical partner to RNLI in its bicentenary year and have published a collection of pieces with a maritime theme. One of these is free to download too.

They have a blog, and there is an interesting blogpost on Making Music Day, 21 June 2024.

  1. Newzik, Emma Hakimi

Emma Hakimi is a sales manager at Newzik, a digital music provider based in France. Newzik launched in 2014 and its first paperless concert was held in 2016. They have 40,000 clients, including many leading professional orchestras and ensembles. Newzik works with most of the leading music publishers.

The company provides digital scores, and these are held in the cloud. Performers access  via the Newzik app and will see their part in the app, drawn from the same central score. Each performer can mark up their part as they wish. Newzik has collaborative features that can be useful – e.g. allowing performers to share their markings if they wish. Emma said that this can save time in rehearsal.

Newzik has many interesting features, and clearly represents a very different model. Emma mentioned that they give discounts to small and amateur groups. I’m not sure whether many amateur groups are ready to move into digital music, but I expect it will start to happen in the next few years.

  1. Contemporary Music for All (CoMA), Emory Southwick

Emory Southwick is Music Sales and Catalogue Coordinator at CoMA, an organisation that encourages amateur musicians to take part in contemporary music making. Its music collection includes 900 pieces of vocal and instrumental music, many with flexible scoring. Included in the collection are many partsongs. Prices range from £20 to £60 for a full score plus parts.

  1. Light Music Society, David Greenhalgh

David Greenhalgh is a trustee and librarian of the Light Music Society, which is the custodian of the Library of Light Orchestral Music. This is based in Bolton and holds about 40,000 sets of orchestral and dance band music. About 5,000 composers are represented, including more than 100 women composers.

The catalogue is free to use and loan charges range from £10 – £40, plus an annual membership fee of £33.

  1. Other sources

During the session some other sources were mentioned too, by the organisers or other attendees or in the chat.

  • Gerontius has a searchable directory of music for hire
  • IMSLP (International Music Score Library Project) is an online library of public domain (out of copyright) music
  • Musica International is a database of choral music, about 200,000 items
  • CYM Library is an independent not-for-profit music library with nearly 1500 sets available for loan. (Disclaimer: this is where I volunteer).

Two other services that weren’t mentioned but I have heard recommended are:

  • Chameleon Music Hire has over 4,000 titles available to choirs
  • Zinfonia  combines information from many hire and sale catalogues in one place.
Posted in Libraries and librarians, Music | Comments Off on Sourcing music – a Making Music webinar

Switching to a new library world

Posted on 18 March 2024 by Frank Norman

Between leaving school and going to university I spent a year working as a library assistant in a public library service; not a branch library but the headquarters of the service. The Library HQ had a large reserve stock, supplementing what was held in the branch libraries, and some specialist stock (standards, sound recordings, music & drama). It received many requests from branch libraries every day so things were always busy. I had already decided that I wanted to become a librarian and this temporary job gave me a useful introduction to some basic bibliographical skills, book handling skills (shelving, tidying) and practice at clerical tasks.

There was a group of half a dozen library assistants and we cycled through various different departments on a monthly basis.  At least, that was what was supposed to happen but after a few months the cycling stopped as we were short staffed. One unfortunate person got stuck on general duties but I was lucky to be in the Music and Drama section at that point and I spent six months there altogether. Our job in this section was lending out sets of orchestral parts, vocal scores and plays. This was great for me as I was a classical music fan and keen on singing in choirs.

Fast forward nearly 50 years. My career in biomedical libraries is completed and I’ve retired. I’ve spent a goodly amount of my spare time during those years singing in choirs but I’ve stepped back from that too. What next? It’s time to combine my library and musical expertise, and give something back to the world of amateur music making.

Eighteen months ago I started volunteering for the CYM Library – a music library that lends out orchestral and vocal sets. Mostly we lend to amateur groups – choirs and orchestras. Once again I am counting vocal scores, checking orchestral sets are complete, rubbing out pencil markings, checking our catalogue and the shelves to see if we can satisfy a request, making up parcels.

The CYM Library is an independent charity with one paid (part-time) member of staff plus several volunteers. It is self-funded, though occasional external grants make it possible to purchase new stock. It’s been good to feel that I’m contributing my time and skills to a worthwhile cause.

Obviously it is a very different library world from what I’ve been used to, but there are overlaps and parallels.  Some of my ‘transferable skills’ come in useful too.

Anyway, don’t be surprised to see a few posts here from the world of music libraries.

Posted in Libraries and librarians, Music | Comments Off on Switching to a new library world

In which I dream

Posted on 17 March 2024 by Jennifer Rohn
Lab worker looking at a Petri dish

One from the archives: I check out some urinary tract infection bacteria, circa 2016

Last night I dreamt I was pipetting.

It was a beautiful Gilson p200, the classic model of my formative years. The precision instrument felt reassuringly heavy and solid in my right hand. Despite its age, the movements were smooth and easy after years of faithful service. Double-slam the yellow tip, plunge, immerse, pull up, transfer, expel while mixing up and down, shoot the spent tip into the benchtop bin with a satisfying rattle, repeat ad infinitum – movements as familiar and thoughtless as clutchwork while shifting gears.

I was in the midst of one of those experiments where you’d have to perform the same rote transfer hundreds of times, the hours somehow compressed into timelessness, into a state where tedium encroaches upon nirvana. The manipulations require little thought, so your head fills up with all sorts of other things: the next step in the protocol after these racks of tubes are finally completed; when you will get a chance to collect ice and thaw the enzyme, eat, grab a quick coffee, nip to the loo, write up your notes; what time you might manage to leave the lab, and whether any other late workers along the corridor might be up for a spontaneous evening social. It could have been one afternoon in any of the thousands that occurred in the roughly 25 years when I was heavily active at the bench, not just funding, planning, analysing and writing up research like now, but actually performing it manually.

When I woke, I wasn’t sad to find those days far behind me. My plate is full of ample nourishment. In the grand principal investigator cycle, I currently have two grants under consideration, three in preparation, two newly funded with personnel to hire, and two papers at draft stage. My substantial team is busy producing interesting data. I’ve got about ten invited talks or keynotes to discharge so far this year, and while teaching itself is winding down for this term, there is still plenty that needs attention in that sphere.

Do I miss my Gilsons? Of course I do. There is something raw and vital about benchwork – not just the work itself, but the phase of life it punctuates. My lost youth is rattling in that cardboard tip waste box, along with the camaraderie of my fellow travellers. It’s lonely at the top, and scientific friendships – though still present and important – are never the same as during your PhD and postdoc, when everything seems possible and the future is a bright unknown. The reality is probably less exciting, but far more satisfying than those long-ago aspirations.

I wouldn’t be young again for anything – but a girl can dream.

Posted in academia, careers, Nostalgia, Research, Scientific thinking, The ageing process, The profession of science | Comments Off on In which I dream