March 31st
Today it’s a case of spending time with my recuperating parents – Tesco shopping already, lunch made, soon it’s a trip to the cinema in Worksop with some to see the new Cinderella movie while others nap, then prescriptions to collect, then tea to make, then TV football in the evening. My lovely brother has gone to France until November and we miss him already. This is the sound of his car. We find the sound it makes when the engine is switched off is titteringly funny – doesn’t show up very well on the recording, but nevertheless, here it is.

March 30th
Today I have had a rest with naps. On Saturday I directed a concert in St. Maurice’s Church, Eglingham. It was the cheerful Bailiffgate Singers who did the most glorious job with Purcell’s “Come Ye Sons Of Art” and a selection of Northumbrian folksongs. I have been working with this wonderful choir since September, and have had the most exhilarating time with them. My temporary directorship has come to both a thrilling and somewhat sad end. I shall miss the music and the people dreadfully. Here’s the end of “Gan To The Kye”, the final item in our concert, and our post-concert team photo.

March 29th
Today I have spent the day at the Hepworth Wakefield creating musical compositions inspired by the art works on display. There was good feedback from the well-over 90 people who came through the workshops today – a good crop. The music you hear was inspired by Benglis’ The Graces. The boys in the group thought that it created a calm and peaceful ambience in gallery 7 and so you hear their tranquil scene-setting. What I should really tell you about is last night’s wonderful, wonderful concert by the Bailiffgate Singers, but that requires a more considered response, so now I have two days of no work ahead, I shall apply myself anon!

March 28th
Tonight I shall be conducting my final concert with Bailiffgate Singers, but in the meantime, Jamie and I have been on an excursion to Belsay Hall. What we like to do there is walk through Crag Wood, admire the flowers in the quarry gardens, search for things we’ve never seen before and sing duets in the banqueting hall of the castle. This one is the chorus of Robinson Crusoe. We saw a nuthatch in the quarry, and noticed some ceiling hooks in the main atrium. We were also the first visitors of the new season which we thought warranted a prize, but no.

March 27th
Today I have sung the alto part with Lorna in hymns at a funeral, conducted Bonny At Morn, and made cheese scones. I don’t think I’ll be doing much more of usefulness today, so I’m relaxing with a rum and coke and some Bach, and in the absence of actual chocolate, I have this photograph.

March 26th
Today I have been cutting and sticking piano music with a pianist friend of mine, like we all used to in the old days. We chatted of our days as music students and swapped stories of families and musical experiences as we gently made her music less troublesome with the page turns. That scotch tape is so good for not showing up on photocopies! This is the Bailiffgate Singers (and the audience) singing the NE mining song “Jowl Jowl and Listen” in Wednesday night’s concert with some appropriate images from last October.

March 25th
This evening, I will be conducting a concert. I have spent the day trying to avoid thinking about it so that I don’t get myself into a fraught state. But, now, at 5 o’clock it is time to start preparing myself. I have my folder organised, the blu-tac holding my flute together is in place, my thunder drum is ready with the other concert items I require. All the songs are in my head, and hopefully my arms and hands. I know the ones they’re worried about and I have a plan to help in our brief pre-concert rehearsal. I am not worried at all except for those times when I have to speak to the audience! I know that when faced with it, all will be well, because I am very experienced at dealing with concerts and calmly making my way through them no matter what happens. I tell myself this at 5pm on the afternoon of a concert, and send you a snatch of Felton Lonnen, one of tonight’s calm and serene Northumbrian songs, with a photo from this very morning of the road in question.

March 24th
Today I have played listening games with the Year 5 classes. A judicious mixture of David Bowie, Mozart, Bananarama, The Tornadoes and Holst in a planetary odyssey of educated guesses and thoughtful workings out was the result, and creme eggs for the winning teams. Oh, and such a shame – there were a couple of those left over for the train ride home! In other news there were 18 separate views of this song  (“March Of The Heavy Ginghams”) yesterday in New Zealand – I sense that some choir in that brilliant-cricket-match-winning land is a-learning it, eh? The umbrellas in the picture are from the 2011 Silverstone Formula 1 Grand Prix crowd. We got wet, then the sun shone upon us.

March 23rd
Today I’ve been playing my flute for the listening game we all love and also teaching some 5 year olds “Yo Ho Yo Ho Ho” my popular pirate song. One of the little pirates said, “You’re a colourful lady, Mrs Camm.” This is a bit of what she meant. There were also red umbrellas and green bits on my cardigan.

March 22nd
Yesterday we were going to go for a walk but a movie, shepherds’ pie and various rugby matches on telly got in the way, so this morning I upped and went out for a sunrise walk after nearly three months of deliberately avoiding them. I tried to record the sound of the sunrise, but the waves were roaring so much and the wind was buffeting my little machine so much that it just sounds like white noise. Instead, I ventured into the little strip of dunes that runs between the sea and the golf course and so you hear what I think is a skylark (it looked and behaved like one), a stonechat guiro-scraping every now and then, a pheasant squawk and some reeling black-headed gulls, plus of course the constant and not-so-distant growl of the waves.

March 21st
Today, I ate a banana for breakfast. A long time ago I wrote many songs about bananas for the children of St. John Vianney’s School in Manly, Brisbane. Here’s is Denise’s class doing their giant banana dance, and here also is the choir of Swansfield Park First School in Alnwick, Northumberland, singing the last verse of one of those songs: Banana Boy. When I lie in my bed, my Mamma says to me, “Sleep, banana boy, Mashed banana will help you sleep: Sweetest is best, I won’t hear a peep! Sleep, banana boy!”

March 20th
Today I have been sorting out programme notes for next week’s concerts, and practising my flute part for “Bid The Virtues”. This is a picture of one of the fountains in Trafalgar Square taken last Friday after having just visited the National Portrait Gallery in which I saw the famous portrait of Henry Purcell. He wrote Bid The Virtues, you know!

March 19th
Today I have been running singing workshops in Wakefield Cathedral for Year 3 students from a variety of local schools. I had written them this song about the rood screen and we rehearsed and performed in the quire. Here is the 2nd verse and the scene later on when all 140 children were assembled in the nave – I was peering at them through you-know-what. A tale of mystical menageries Peering at the rood screen A serpent and a hare: They are living on the rood screen Oh can you see the pelican? She’s feeding her toddlers. A green man in the choir stalls And dragons on the rood screen

March 18th
Today I have made an arrangement of the “missing” Purcell movement for our concert next week, composed a new song for an up-coming workshop, written a report for an AGM, been to an AGM, and had a most exhilarating and exhausting rehearsal for our Bailiffgate Singers’ concert next Wednesday. I think it’s going to brilliant. Who’d have thought that 7 months could whizz by so quickly?  It’ll be sad to leave. This song is about the bursting forth of spring which is imminent, I feel. It’s called “Spring Burst”. The picture is of a structure in Kew Gardens – I was there on Saturday. The concert is on Wednesday 25th at St. James’ Church, Alnwick and is in aid of the Great North Air Ambulance. See you there! Quiet, frosty winter Sleepy earth is resting Foggy, silent winter Everything is waiting Spring burst (mm), spring burst (doo) Showers bursting over my head (oo) Spring burst (mm), spring burst (doo) Flowers bursting yellow and red (yeah) Spring burst (mm), spring burst (doo) I can’t stop my dancing feet (oo) Spring burst (mm), spring burst (doo) Burst with me to the springtime beat. (yeah)

March 17th
Today has been a busy one with four workshops in one day – two at the Hepworth Wakefield and two at St. Michael’s School in Flanshaw with a speedy 45 minute stomp through Wakefield in the middle. It was Geometric Soundscapes at the Hepworth with one group of five-year-olds tackling musical triangular ideas with “the big foot” in Gallery 1, and the other group incorporating circles, squares and “loads of rectangles” in their composition inspired by Hepworth’s Crucifixion in Gallery 5. What you hear are the squares and rectangles, with a bit of “scratchy surface” and a random child-cough. What you see is the version of the sculpture that is in the grounds of Winchester Cathedral. The afternoon saw the completion of Year 5’s “Space Compositions” with increases in confidence and creativity being witnessed in all directions. An excellent composery day.

March 16th
After unexpected news that I don’t have to go to Wakefield today, I am spending the day with my family in Worksop. This morning the three Camm siblings went into town to see what’s what. We found a new zipwire in the playground at the Memorial Gardens, so one of us had a go, one of us took a picture and one of us recorded the sound. We also went into the library and discovered three facts. Mine was that in 1951 when these gardens were being constructed the Council set aside 17s6d for six metal “Keep Off The Grass” signs.

March 15th
Rain.

March 14th
Today we went to see Purcell’s Indian Queen at the Coliseum in London where they tuned up, applauded the conductor and started the 2nd half with a spot of perfectly balanced operatic choral singing. It was very intense and emotional, the modern/traditional art work was fab, the duets and trios were intricately intertwined, and the dancers were bendy and expressive. I loved it! The audience members around us did not have their minds open and found it somewhat testing to their sense of what is right and said so loudly in the interval – those that stayed for the 2nd half, that is. We also went to Kew Gardens today and enjoyed the bracing north-easterly trees, some friendly wildlife, a reclining figure by Henry Moore, and lots of brilliant art work in the pavilions.

March 13th
Today we went to the National Portrait Gallery and Tate Modern. My favourite things were a famous portrait of Henry Purcell and excitement upon excitement, the “other” “Pierced Hemisphere” by Barbara Hepworth. I wrote a song about the white one which sometimes is on display at the Hepworth Wakefield, but this one – well I’ve never seen it before so I could barely contain myself. Here’s a fade-in from my song. The cornet player is a certain Roy Taylor who plays for Carlton Main Frickley Brass Band – they’re the Yorkshire Area Champions for 2015, you know! The words are: I found this rock near the white bubbling stream, Smooth and round, nestling in purple block. Impossible fossil, spiralled scratch line, Light-holding, shadowy eye.

March 12th
Today I have travelled to London. While I was on the train, I had plenty of ideas for my new Wakefield-Cathedral-inspired song for next week’s workshop there. Then I have been walking around London and eating Lebanese food, and now I am weary, but happy. Here’s a round about a birthday and an action shot of me with a zebra. The words go: I’d like a zebra for my birthday if you please, And I’ll ride him through the streets with the breeze in my hair, All the people will stare in amazement As if they’d never seen a zebra before.

March 11th
Today I’ve been once again considering Tony Williams’ poem “Stone Pigsties”. We might try it out at choir tonight. Here’s the “ruined farm” section with a picture of a ruined farm!

March 10th
Today I was listening to recordings of the compositions that my delightful year 5 classes are working on so I could give feedback for improvements. I always get them to say their names first so I know whose music I’m listening to, and ask them what the focus of their music is, and then a bit of instant feedback at the end. Here’s some of what I heard. As I walked up to school I passed through Thornes Park which has some exotic bird life.

March 9th
Today I have been working on a setting of Tony William’s poem “Stone Pigsties”, discussing a new leavers’ song with some year 6s and taking picture of the rood screen at Wakefield Cathedral to inspire another song for a workshop there soon. In other news, this song has been popular this week and the activities that go with it have been downloaded a few times. The picture was taken by Jamie in the old days.

To read more about this song and hear the whole thing: Go to Our School Is Like the Taj Mahal

March 8th
Solo. It’s Rock Festival Choir singing Riu Riu Chiu from a few years ago and a picture of layers of mountains in the Lake District near Threlkeld.

March 7th
Today I have had a day off and spent it watching the European Athletics Championships on the telly and listening to podcasts on the radio. So by way of a fade-in, I give you a picture of me at Auckland University Music School and the music is from my marimba concerto, composed while I was studying there for my Doctorate.

March 6th
Today I spent the day delivering “Sea Pie Parcel” composing workshops at the fairandfunky Fairtrade Conference for Schools in Huddersfield. It was an exhilarating and thoughtful day with 80 children from ten schools,  in mixed Year 1 to Year 6 groups learning about Fairtrade, and having creative fun. I didn’t have the chance to take any pictures, but plenty were taken, so I’ll share once I get my hands on some! In the meantime, here’s a picture taken on my walk back down to the train station of the football stadium in the afternoon sun, and the end of our final performance – the Afghani farmer is cutting down his wheat crop, then the wind blows the straw and grains about in a dramatic fashion! (“It’s looks like a corn explosion!”, exclaimed Dominic of our inspirational photograph.)

March 5th
Today, as well as preparing my balloon collection for tomorrow’s workshops with fairandfunky in Huddersfield, I have once again driven to Wooler to take a Silver Singers session. We had a go at my arrangement of Hinemoa which is a Maori waiata. They made excellent headway with this and other songs, and much laughter occurred as well. I shall miss these lovely people when Veronica returns next week. Here is part of the song performed by the Bel Canto choir from Christchurch in New Zealand, and these crocuses are thriving in Wooler this week, I can report!

March 4th
Today I have mooched around. Having decided that yesterday was plenty busy with new music and travelling, I have stayed put. Tonight, however, is the joyous prospect of Bailiffgate Singers, and we’re singing this in our “Songs of the Industrial North” selection. I remember doing it with the massed KS2 children of a Swansfield Park First School in Alnwick a few years ago, and lo and behold, lurking in the darkest recesses of my computer is a sound file of that very splendid experience. I remember that I made a deal with the headteacher that I would go in and take KS2 singing for free for a term or two as long as I just did my songs with them! This is the first verse and a bit of chorus. The picture is of the mouth of the River Wear, and the song is Maggie’s Rant.

March 3rd
Today has been a long but exhilarating day. Firstly, I delivered a two-hour schools workshop at the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield with some delightfully enthusiastic Year 5s from Allerton Bywater School in Castleford (you hear the end of our music inspired by Lynda Benglis’ The Graces – it’s the crystal waterfalls, which at the very end freeze over – played by our balloon orchestra!), then I walked through a hailstorm up to my usual afternoon young friends, who were in irascible moods, but still managed to improve on their “space” compositions from last week, and then I had a very cheery meeting with Tracey from Wakefield Cathedral about our upcoming singy/composery day of fun. Then, it has to be said, I took about four hours to get home which included a desolate 45 minute stroll around the limited thrills of Newcastle Bus Station, but home now and warmth and cheeriness are resumed.

March 2nd
Today I have been continuing my musical exploration of castles with the 5 year olds, and I have travelled to and from them on the East Coast mainline which as of today operated by Virgin Trains. This sign was my first evidence of the change – purple signs now red and the company logo all over them. All announcements on the train also now include “Virgin Trains East Coast”. Here’s one – unfortunate signalling issues north of Retford the reason for the slowness of train-travelling-along noises.

March 1st
Here’s the end of our wonderful Rock Festival Choir concert this afternoon. It’s the last chord of Woods’ “Hail Gladdening Light”, followed by lots of applause. And why not? It’s a tasty cake too, made this morning for Mum’s birthday. All gone now. Orange flavoured yum-gloop all over it and inside it. Ooh.