Rhinegold Singers taste victory

The Rhinegold Singers have emerged victorious, with all limbs intact, from the first round of the Office Choir Competition. This is despite the fact that, due to the creepily similar 'red and black' dress codes of all the choirs involved, the Apothecaries' Hall looked more like the set of The Cook, the thief, his wife & her lover, than a civilised vocal contest. And when I say vocal contest, of course, I mean BRUTAL MEAT RIPPING SMACKDOWN.

John's college

To play this composer's oboe concerto, you will require, among more regular items of percussionry (such as the waterphone and lion's roar): 10 'or so' tin cans, 5 scaffolding bars, 4 car wheels, 2 spring coils and and oxygen cylinder. And they're letting him loose on Dartington?!



Actually, the appointment, from 2011, of John Woolrich as artistic director for the next three years of the 60+ years old summer school and festival could be a stroke of genius. Dartington is nothing if not eclectic. So who better to take over the reins than the classical music's foremost Selecta. Over the years, his concert programmes (he has been closely involved with Britten Sinfonia and is associate artistic director at the Aldeburgh Festival) have become renowned for their intelligent mixing of old and new, familiar and unfamiliar. Always he puts the focus on the qualities of individual pieces, which the audience can inspect as if they were curious samples picked out from a larger, less defined musical landscape.

It's the same in his own music, which might draw inspiration from Monteverdi (eg the short piece for viola and strings, Ulysses Awakes) or surrealist art (The Elephant from Celebes) - as well as the local builders' merchant.

The music of everyday life

You all know what I mean. That jingle preceding the railway station announcement which, though a simple arpeggio, reminds you unfailingly of the last movement of Telemann's viola concerto. The signal indicating that the doors of the tube train are about to close - it's the theme from the Alpine Symphony, right? Or is it Dvorak 7? Or is it just a random falling minor third?



Then there were the automatic hand driers in the toilets of my university library which, when starting, sounded exactly like the very opening of Walton's viola concerto. Or the Samsung ML-2010 mono laser printer which produces a tritone when in action. What the devil...?

Yes, as Martha and the Vandellas foresaw, there is music, sweet music everywhere (if not swinging, swaying and records playing). And, for sure, you'll have your own examples of musical themes that are insinuated in the fabric of your day-to-day life.

Take car horns - they always seem to parp out a major second, or a minor third. How brusque, when all the driver wants to do is toot a cheery greeting or gently alert a dozy pedestrian to his presence! And so intrusive for the poor bystander who happens to be nearby. So why not provide motorists with a choice of horn: what about a nice major third when politeness is required, and leave the surlier intervals for, ahem, emergencies only.

And it could have been a night to marimba...!

Viola d'Odio was mightily disappointed to discover that this week's performance of Steve Reich's Drumming at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, featuring a starry line-up of Britain's kings of hitting things at the right time and led by Colin Currie (not pictured), is sold out.



For many, Drumming is one of those pieces which, when heard for the first time, comes as a revelation, almost euphorically so. And its fans come from all kinds of musical traditions and backgrounds. So it's not that surprising that all the seats should have gone.

I suppose I can't really complain - c'est la vie and un reminder to have a little more foresight. But a couple of thoughts nag. Firstly, my attention was drawn to the event because it featured in the Guardian Guide's Preview section. Why preview an event which anybody without a ticket will be unable to attend having read the article?

Given the piece's cult popularity (if that's not a contradiction) and the illustriousness of the performers involved, the Southbank Centre has missed a trick in not programming more than one performance - my second irritation. It could have run for a week and sold out each night!