Or maybe Sylvia Brown? Our Christmas concert was last weekend and you can read my predictions here.
We were exhausted. Eight evenings of rehearsals and concerts within a two week period of time, with our own concert dead last.
While it wasn't a disaster, it wasn't exhilarating either. No major mistakes or flubs were made, but we just weren't quite "there." The Vivaldi "Gloria" was good but not great and the other pieces were OK but rather lackluster.
Our audience was gracious with lots of compliments, but as a singer, you KNOW when it's good and when it isn't.
Adding to the exhaustion was the problem of standing for long periods of time. We had one short intermission, but otherwise, we stood for a one and one-half hour concert. That also takes a toll on the energy of a group, especially if you don't move around a bit. At least I got to prop myself on a stool because of my knee problems.
Our reception was lovely and I think people really enjoyed the evening but how much better it would have been if we had not been so tired. We're not like Chanticleer where they do this for a living!
It's so easy to want to do it all because we love to sing. Maybe it was a case of what my mom called "our eyes being too big for our stomachs!"
Anyway, the board will be meeting tomorrow to dissect this concert and to address a few other issues.
Oh, and we've been asked to sing at a Christmas Eve service. We'll be rested and raring to go and it will be lovely. A perfect ending for the Christmas choral season.
...
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Thursday, December 17, 2009
A Case of the Nasties
These are the little creatures that took over my laptop last week. Nasssty! It's fixed now and I'll do a post soon about our Christmas concert. I'm still cleaning files and restoring!
Friday, December 11, 2009
Correction to Concert Date!
The Christmas Concert is tomorrow night, SATURDAY the 12th, not Friday the 12th, which is actually today the 11th. (Confused yet?) Dress rehearsal IS tonight and people are welcome to come to that, too at the same location as in the previous post.
Anyway, just to let you know, my computer is down with a virus and is in the shop being fixed, so I won't be posting much until at least next week.
Thanks for reading this drivel!! :)
Anyway, just to let you know, my computer is down with a virus and is in the shop being fixed, so I won't be posting much until at least next week.
Thanks for reading this drivel!! :)
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Christmas Concert 2009
Jubilate will host it's annual Christmas concert this Friday evening, December 12th at 7:30 p.m. The venue is beautiful St. Paul's Episcopal Church in downtown Salt Lake City, 261 S. 900 E. Admission is a donation to the Utah Food Bank.
We'll be singing Vivaldi's "Gloria" and other traditional Christmas songs. There will be the favorite audience sing-a-long and a fabulous reception after! Eat, drink, and meet the choir.
Come celebrate the season with us!
We'll be singing Vivaldi's "Gloria" and other traditional Christmas songs. There will be the favorite audience sing-a-long and a fabulous reception after! Eat, drink, and meet the choir.
Come celebrate the season with us!
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Giving the Choir the Finger (get your mind out of the gutter)
I've posted before about our director and his quirky ways of conducting. He enjoys making up new gestures on the spot just to see what we'll do. Sometimes, he'll even do this in performance.
Monday night, we were singing Lauridsen's "O Magnum Mysterium." It starts out pp (uber quiet) and we're NEVER quiet enough to satisfy him, so he begins directing with his pinky fingers, which he has done before. And IT WORKS! It looks totally ridiculous and works like a charm. And then we're all breaking up laughing and it gets completely out of control for a minute, but then we begin again and it's so hushed and gorgeous!
I guess we encouraged his quirky behavior because the Lauridsen piece gets much louder toward the middle and he did the following: as we continued to sing, he held up one finger on each hand, then another, then another, until all 10 fingers were up. And with each finger, we responded by growing louder and louder until we arrived at the mf (mezzo forte) indicated in the piece. CRAZY! We knew exactly what he wanted, even though we had never seen these gestures before and he didn't have to say a word!
Yes, peeps, this is what I call fun. Proud to be a geeky chorister!
...
Monday night, we were singing Lauridsen's "O Magnum Mysterium." It starts out pp (uber quiet) and we're NEVER quiet enough to satisfy him, so he begins directing with his pinky fingers, which he has done before. And IT WORKS! It looks totally ridiculous and works like a charm. And then we're all breaking up laughing and it gets completely out of control for a minute, but then we begin again and it's so hushed and gorgeous!
I guess we encouraged his quirky behavior because the Lauridsen piece gets much louder toward the middle and he did the following: as we continued to sing, he held up one finger on each hand, then another, then another, until all 10 fingers were up. And with each finger, we responded by growing louder and louder until we arrived at the mf (mezzo forte) indicated in the piece. CRAZY! We knew exactly what he wanted, even though we had never seen these gestures before and he didn't have to say a word!
Yes, peeps, this is what I call fun. Proud to be a geeky chorister!
...
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Donkey Kong
We had a great rehearsal last night with our own director.
Rehearsed Vivaldi’s “Gloria” with few interruptions. That was SO nice after last week. Right now it’s a matter of polishing and trying to follow each director’s interpretations.
The “other” director has programmed Rutter’s “Donkey Carol,” so we also reviewed that piece. Not my favorite Rutter carol. It kind of “galumphs” along in 5/8 time and I swear I can hear the donkey singing “Hee-Haw.” It just seems contrived. There’s a tendency to push to 6/8 at the ends of phrases, so we spent time singing while we tapped the rhythm. One of our sops, (a percussionist) had a trick – tap out the five notes, one on each finger. ONE,two, three, ONE,two, etc. Worked for me!
Having a rehearsal all to ourselves again makes me realize once more how grateful I am to sing with this group of people.
And if you want to read a really funny orchestral post, click here.
Rehearsed Vivaldi’s “Gloria” with few interruptions. That was SO nice after last week. Right now it’s a matter of polishing and trying to follow each director’s interpretations.
The “other” director has programmed Rutter’s “Donkey Carol,” so we also reviewed that piece. Not my favorite Rutter carol. It kind of “galumphs” along in 5/8 time and I swear I can hear the donkey singing “Hee-Haw.” It just seems contrived. There’s a tendency to push to 6/8 at the ends of phrases, so we spent time singing while we tapped the rhythm. One of our sops, (a percussionist) had a trick – tap out the five notes, one on each finger. ONE,two, three, ONE,two, etc. Worked for me!
Having a rehearsal all to ourselves again makes me realize once more how grateful I am to sing with this group of people.
And if you want to read a really funny orchestral post, click here.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
To Elaborate
OK, so now I’d like to expand on what I was saying about good conductors vs. bad ones. I have a minor in music from the University of Utah (actually an education music minor) so I didn’t have a lot of anything. One year of theory and history sprinkled with some conducting and composition classes. After I graduated, I took some conducting classes in the community and actually learned a lot more there.
So I’m looking at this from the perspective of a choral singer and not a director and definitely not an expert.
I’ve never understood why some conductors spend a lot of time TALKING about what they want a choir to do. It’s ineffective at best and confusing at worst.
If you tell a choir you want them to “lift” their voices at the end of a certain phrase, each choir member will HEAR what you said differently. Some will sing louder at the end of the phrase, some will chop the phase off, etc. Really, you get as many varied interpretations as you have choir members. Then the director gets upset because he thinks the choir isn’t paying attention to what he is trying to convey. He then interrupts the choir every two-three measures, going over and over the same thing.
Remember the adage about doing things the same way and expecting different results? It never happens! So everyone ends up frustrated, confused, and resentful. Valuable time is wasted.
A great director/conductor will use his (or her) entire body to convey his interpretation of the music to his choir or orchestra. It becomes a dance with the director leading and the choir following. Great directors are great leaders, physically. They use hands, arms, facial expressions, body movements to gracefully move choristers along with them.
When I was in college (a hundred years ago), I took a ballroom dance class. (OK, my face is bright red now. I’m officially a geek). When we took our finals, the guy I was dancing with was not a good dancer or leader and so we both suffered because he was leading, being the guy and all that.
The instructor then asked me to dance with him and it was effortless! He led me around the floor so skillfully that I could have followed him even if I had never had a lesson.
And that’s the way it is with a wonderful director. He/she can lead you wherever he wants you to go, just by his gestures and body language.
Having said that, I realize there is enormous behind-the-scenes preparation and that some conversation is necessary. I like the way directors are using the internet to post notes to choristers about upcoming rehearsals. There are many ways to prepare and communicate information before, or in place of, rehearsal time.
When it comes time to step in front of that choir, however, speeches should be over, the prep work done, and everyone is ready for the dance.
....
So I’m looking at this from the perspective of a choral singer and not a director and definitely not an expert.
I’ve never understood why some conductors spend a lot of time TALKING about what they want a choir to do. It’s ineffective at best and confusing at worst.
If you tell a choir you want them to “lift” their voices at the end of a certain phrase, each choir member will HEAR what you said differently. Some will sing louder at the end of the phrase, some will chop the phase off, etc. Really, you get as many varied interpretations as you have choir members. Then the director gets upset because he thinks the choir isn’t paying attention to what he is trying to convey. He then interrupts the choir every two-three measures, going over and over the same thing.
Remember the adage about doing things the same way and expecting different results? It never happens! So everyone ends up frustrated, confused, and resentful. Valuable time is wasted.
A great director/conductor will use his (or her) entire body to convey his interpretation of the music to his choir or orchestra. It becomes a dance with the director leading and the choir following. Great directors are great leaders, physically. They use hands, arms, facial expressions, body movements to gracefully move choristers along with them.
When I was in college (a hundred years ago), I took a ballroom dance class. (OK, my face is bright red now. I’m officially a geek). When we took our finals, the guy I was dancing with was not a good dancer or leader and so we both suffered because he was leading, being the guy and all that.
The instructor then asked me to dance with him and it was effortless! He led me around the floor so skillfully that I could have followed him even if I had never had a lesson.
And that’s the way it is with a wonderful director. He/she can lead you wherever he wants you to go, just by his gestures and body language.
Having said that, I realize there is enormous behind-the-scenes preparation and that some conversation is necessary. I like the way directors are using the internet to post notes to choristers about upcoming rehearsals. There are many ways to prepare and communicate information before, or in place of, rehearsal time.
When it comes time to step in front of that choir, however, speeches should be over, the prep work done, and everyone is ready for the dance.
....
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