Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Fabulous day! We went to a rehearsal of the BBC Singers, directed by Bob Chilcott (member of the original King's Singers). They were rehearsing for their recording session later this week, when they will record a bunch of stuff by Samuel Barber. Oh yeah, and this was their only rehearsal for the session. That's just how they do things here in the choral world here! It's unbelievable. They are just incredible sight readers. And the fact is that it shows on their recordings. Very few recordings of British choirs are nice and polished. If you listen to Polyphony's recording of Eric Whitacre's choral stuff and then listen to the BYU Singers' recordings of the same pieces, not only will you notice a difference in sound (which is a HUGE one), you will also notice a difference in the...cleanliness of the recording. We spend so much more time perfecting and polishing things, whereas if they simply get the notes right (they automatically include the dynamics written in the music), they are pretty much set to go. Yeah, there are some dynamic contrasts, but they mostly happen only as written in the music. Anyway, it is really incredible the level at which they sight read. I only wish I could do half as well as they do in the sight reading world. I have focused so much of my training on tone that much of the rest of my musicality has suffered. It's now catching up, but it is surely a slow process.

Anyway, here are some of my notes from the rehearsal:

- TONS of vibratto - makes the sections more separate and distinct, instead of homogeneous and blended.
- Sure on this Shining Night (Barber) - While there is too much vibratto, I really like the basic sound the choir makes for this piece.
- The Monk and his Cat (Barber) - too dark, heavy of a sound for this piece.
- if they lightened/brightened, chords would come to life, but because of the weight, the chords become murky and cloudy (see Polyphony's recording of Whitacre's stuff).
- it's not bad right now, but it's simple not as lively as it could be.
- I like the alto sound - not enough volume, but it is much better blended with the sopranos than other professional choirs.
- they get bored if they have more than a couple rehearsals on a piece?! Craziness.
- Unlike other British directors, Bob Chilcott actually has real icti! Oh the art of conducting!
- "Under the Willowtree" - fun operatic part; sweet rhythms. Singers did it a couple years ago--I want to check it out.
- "Praise Him" - has to have HUGE "p" on "praise" or it literally sounds like "raise."
- I love that Bob Chilcott took the time to inform us about a few of the things having to do with the pieces. It helped us connect more more to the choir and the pieces. In fact, I am SUPER impressed with the warmth and openness of the British people in general. They are incredibly friendly and haven't got the slightest bit of a problem striking a conversation with just about anyone. It's really refreshing and I feel like we Americans have a great deal to learn from them.

After the rehearsal, I headed out with roommate Chris, Heidi (dear, wonderful friend to whom I've grown pretty close on this trip), Caitlin, Heather, and Emily to take the audio tour of Westminster Abbey. It was great. There is just so much history that has happened in that building. Everybody who's been anybody in British history is either buried or honored by a sculpture of sorts in the abbey. It is an amazing piece of architecture. I really loved it. We went into one area of the abbey, off in a wind called the Chapel House, I believe, where there were the most incredible acoustics I think I've ever heard. I have never been in a more ALIVE place in all my life. It was AMAZING. Just humming, you could hear the note resonating for about 3 seconds after you hummed it. We decided we would “ooo” a few hymns in there and it just sounded so GOOD!! It was such simple music, but the harmonies really sprang to life and the sound was so full, even though we were singing as quietly as we possibly could. It was funny—after we stopped, a woman who had walked in after had started approached us after we had finished and told us she thought the music was some recording to add to the ambience of the chapel. Another funny thing that happened there was that we kept on telling each other we needed to leave, but it took us three or four hymns to finally get out of there because we were so addicted to the lively sound the chapel could produce. We were sad we were all in different choirs and didn't have any real pieces we could sing together. Perhaps at some future date, I'll head there with some renaissance group and do some fun stuff. I really don't think I've loved singing in a space so much as I did in there.

After the Abbey, Christ and I wandered a bit and got some dinner at a Portuguese restaurant before heading back to the Abbey for a concert by the Abbey choir. They did Vivaldi's Gloria, as well as Handel's Dixit Dominus. I enjoyed the Gloria, but once again, it was more of the Baroque. There were parts, however, that were simply exquisite. And those boy sopranos and altos....GAH. They are SO good. Man, when they are good, they are GOOD. Wow. I found the the Dixit a bit more pleasing to my ear—it was a bit more down-to-earth, so I liked that a bit more. It was a bit frustrating because we were actually behind the choir, behind a screen, so we could neither hear, nor see very well. Oh well.

After the concert, Michelle, Scott and I went to a musical theater open-mic bar, where we met up with a friend from the singles ward here, as well as a friend who is on the theatre study abroad here. The bar really had a FUN atmosphere and I really liked how positive everyone was. I sang two songs-- “Moving too Fast,” from L5Y and “The Old Red Hills of Home,” from Parade—both by Jason Robert Brown. It was a really great place, so we'll probably go back next week and jam it up a bit more.

Ok, I made up for yesterday today, so I have written about four pages double-spaced. I'm now starting to write everything twice because apparently my hands are falling asleep and can now no longer hit the correct keys. To the bed.