Thursday, May 13, 2010

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Today was great on almost all accounts. We started the day out with some rehearsal for our evensong groups, which was...kind of good. I made some ok progress on our pieces, but neither I nor Dr. Staheli was terribly pleased with how far I had come. And better yet, he let me know by pulling me aside from everyone else and talking to me briefly. I felt like I had let down my mission president. My psyche took a pretty hard hit for a little while today because of it. It was hard. And I was/am a little concerned that he won't let me back into Singers after that. But I worked really hard on it tonight with Jonnie and Matt, my roommates here, so hopefully that will do the trick. I feel pretty good about what we did—we'll see.

After rehearsal we took the tube to the Westminster pier and took a boat up the Thames to Greenwich for our concert tonight with The Sixteen. We toured around the charming little town of small, winding streets of Greenwhich, including the Prime Meridian and sea, time, and astrology museums near there. It was yet another experience that furthered my frustration for going places in large groups.

And then we went off to listen to a rehearsal with The Sixteen. First we had a little discussion with the director, Harry Christophers, who spoke mainly about the ensemble's reppetiore and history. Rehearsal followed and then we had another small discussion with one of the choir members. All pretty thrilling stuff.

After a cheap, good Chinese dinner with some friends at a local diner the concert started with an incredible chant by the men outside in the lobby, resonating throughout the entire hall.

Here are some of my notes from the rehearsal and performance:

- the tenors have a low, full breath, which creates a beautiful sound, even on the pianos and when they are high, but I noticed on a different piece that when the sopranos came in with their full sound, they effectively belittled the tenors with their sound. More on the sopranos in a second.
- Everytime I try to breathe like that, I get too much meat on my sound and it sounds a bit too manly, unlike these tenors, who, because of their high placement, blend incredibly well with the altos.
- I noticed there is a bit of closing down in the back of the mouth, which puts a bit more ping in the sound, which I really like, but I am often afraid of not blending if I were to do it in Singers. Perhaps I'll try it in the fall. We'll see.
- I really liked that they put countertenors on the alto part; it beefens up the sound in terms of volume, but it also makes it a bit too masculine for my ear. This leaves the sopranos out to dry a bit with their feminine color. However, the balance is SO much better because I finally have enough alto (if I could have more of anything in my life, it would be more alto). But with the countertenors on the alto, I lost the tenor. And even with the countertenors there, the sopranos still went to town a bit too much for my liking. I would take one soprano off the list to make it a bit better balanced. So often choirs are too blasted top-heavy and the only thing you end up hearing is the sopranos. And these sopranos are positively gorgeous, but I want to hear the other parts that go with it. Both with the Tallis Scholars and The Sixteen, it almost seemed like the concert was featuring the sopranos and the rest of the choir was their back-up vocalists.
- I remember one day in Singers when we only had 6 sopranos in rehearsal and the balance I wanted was FINALLY there. I wish we could have one soprano for every two altos. That would be ideal.
- What would happen if Singers totally let loose on the breath like these choirs are doing? Wow.
- If the sopranos are high, they are forte. Does it have to be like that?
- When the baritones went up into the tenor range (above middle C), I could finally hear the notes clearly, even among the rest of the choir blasting away at their own notes. Perhaps it does take the big, grounded, connected sound I am so wary to produce.

So there are some of my notes from the concert. What a THRILLING concert. Many people walked away from the concert as I did from the Tallis Scholars. They liked the sound of the Sixteen more than the Scholars because of the roundness and softness of their voices. However, I think I ascertained why I enjoyed the Scholars more: there were fewer people in the ensemble, so they each had their own, individual, unique sounds, but in order to really make the blend happen, they had to sing into the blend, as opposed to backing off, like we are so tempted to do so often. When the Scholars did that, there was an electric fusion that would happen and it really rocked my world. The Sixteen had that ping of the Scholars in the sopranos, but it was lost in the other parts. I wanted the other parts to bring up the ping and really fuse together on the blend as opposed to simply mixing their voices. Fusion vs. mixing. That's what I'm getting at here.

They did some incredible rep at the concert. I discovered a piece I'd never heard before, which I LOVED—Miserere Nostri, by Thomas Tallis. I am working on finding a recording of the Sixteen singing it so I can have it. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever taken in. I was blown away.

Just another INCREDIBLE, AMAZING day. This stuff feeds my soul.

Happy birthday to my dear mother! Oh, she is so fantastic. So many prayers of gratitude for her.