Weekend in Review

A gooder, I think, all in all...

Helped WH with recording a student recital (nice to hear a genuINE alto, for once) at MHU on Friday night. And by help, I mean arrived after he had set everything up, sat with him in the booth during the recital, put away three things after the recital, and then put my coat on in a meaningful manner... USEFUL! Popped over to the home of some dear friends afterwards to have a glass of wine and get caught up. Much amused by their little boy, who has discovered the little suction cup toys that you press down and then wait to see them shoot up into the air when the suction cup releases. No matter how many times he played, he took great joy in the whole process every time, right up to the peals of giggling at the end. Great joy.

Saturday, we had a very productive Chamber Choir retreat in preparation for a very large project being done in partnership with another chamber choir in the province. We have officially turned the corner with the music, so that feels great! Then back over to the home of the same dear friends to present the little boy with his birthday present. (He's FOUR! Already! Hard to believe I held him when he was only 12 hours old.) Then WH off to record another student recital and me off to grocery shop.

The Sunday morning service at MHU was one of those services where eight things go wrong but in the end, you go home satisfied anyway. There was reading confusion, and psalm confusion, and confusion in the mind of the intercessor about where last weeks' mining accident had occurred (West Virginia... Kentucky... whatev). But we got a smoker of a sermon from our Hon. Ass't that felt pointedly directed at ME (because it's all about ME), so there was much to reflect on that made the rest of the morning's oopsies seem irrelevant.

And then last night, another student recital, one that I'll list among the very best of the (many) that I've heard. Tough repertoire, maturely delivered, demonstrating the most incredible ability to be both restrained and LOOKATMYBIGVOICE that you could possibly imagine.

So a good weekend leading into another long week.

How are you?

Updates, Updates, Updates

What I've been up to: lots of work, getting ready for the beginning of concert season, trying to rest when I can, keeping up with both So You Think You Can Dance and So You Think You Can Dance Canada, being sat on by cats.

What I'm reading : Serious Eats. (Seriously, prepare to drool)

What I'm listening to: lots of Bach and lots of Mendelssohn, in preparation for Chamber Choir's first concert of the season.

And life rolls on...

There are lots of posts brewing, so hopefully I get some more time to blog more often.

Letting 'er Rip

During the summer while the Church Choir is on holidays, we often have guest singers on Sunday mornings to lead the psalm and sing an aria or two during communion and at the end of the service. I usually volunteer for one or two of these Sundays and this morning was my day.

One of the side effects of being the soloist on any given Sunday is that I sit up right next to the organ where WH is playing. And one of the nice things about being right next to the organ is that I can sing hymns absolutely as loud as I want to because nobody can hear me. Correspondingly, I cannot hear anybody BUT myself, so it's like my own solo hymn-sing with full pipe organ, complete with last verse re-harmonizations.

Hurray!

Easter Monday

I have been a neglectful blogging friend this week, in terms of both my own posting and commenting on others. Now that Holy Week is over, I'll hopefully have more time.

Speaking of HW, the music was glorious, the services were poignant and meaningful and there was good will and community in evidence at every turn within the church choir. Easter feeds my musical soul.

We stayed in bed this morning until almost noon, watching useless TV and chatting about things we need to do this week and teasing the cats and eating nice breakfast and drinking good coffee. Then we were off to the local Do-It-Yourself-Store to pick up some tile samples for the kitchen and some paint for our afternoon project of getting all the paint-touch ups in the house complete. And we managed to do it!

We did have some excitement today when Mama Cat sauntered through the paint tray and then left about two-dozen paw-shaped paint spots all over the hardwood floor. Fortunately, we were able to get our hands on her and get her belly and paws scrubbed (which she was remarkably amenable to). Doubly fortunate, all the spots on the floor were fresh enough to come up with a cloth. Triply fortunate, she didn't jump up on the bed while she was on her little paint-covered journey. Currently, she is asleep on WH, with paint still visible on her whiskers. I think she's tuckered out from her adventure.

We're off to rehearsal with Chamber Choir in about an hour, so taking advantage of the meantime to watch a little Jays action.

And spring has sprung in Prairie Town!
Tuesday Morning Update: It is snowing and blowing and generally ugly. Stupid Prairie City.

Best. Weekend. Ever.

Well, pretty close, anyway.

On Saturday night, WH and I attended an auction and dinner concert for one of the Colourful University choirs. We were attending as guests of the artistic director, in exchange for promising that we would bid on items and help the choir raise some money! And we did! We went home with $100 in gift certificates from a local pub and a really nice basket of gourmet coffee.

But the real excitement came during the live auction. One of the items up for bid was a chance to conduct the choir in concert during their season next year. I have always wanted to do this. So I started bidding. Eventually, it came down to me and another lady pushing the bids up $5 at a time. The drama and tension were high. And I won!! Actually, eventually we called it a tie, and will both get the chance to conduct next year!! I am very excited!!

And then on Sunday, I woke up to find that for the first time since November, I AM NOT IN LAST PLACE IN THE HOCKEY POOL! Given that at one point, I was 45 points behind the second last person, this is indicative of a pretty amazing comeback!

How was YOUR weekend?

Blogging Update

As in, update about blogging...

I miss it. I'm having a tough time finding time for it these last couple of weeks with the big weekend for Chamber Choir that just passed. (Went GREAT, by the way!) And as a result of the big weekend, we haven't really done anything in the way of grocery shopping, the house has been a mess, we're behind on house projects, and it's taken me 6 days to do 4 loads of laundry.

There are lots of blog posts rolling around in the old noggin'... I hope to find some time for them soon!

The Week in Point Form

• WH is away this week at Big Choral Conference where the corn grows high. Having a good time, and buying music and schmoozing. It is +30C where WH is this week, whereas I could not find our front walk this morning because of a massive dump of snow and subsequent wind. Not. Amused.
  
• Chamber Choir has a big concert next Saturday that is being recorded both for a radio broadcast and for a CD project. Lots of work to get last minute details ready for the concert, get last tickets sold, learn those last few notes, and make sure enough volunteers have been secured for front of house.
  
• I'm feeling somewhat guilty that I did not shovel the aforementioned buried sidewalk before I left this morning. Poor mailman.
• I'm currently in the midst of the massive post-renovation clean-up, which requires that every. single. surface. in. the. house. get dusted. Last night was the dining room, including all the knick-knacks on the mantle, and the books in the bookcase, and the intricate nooks and crannies on our dining room table.
  
• I think that our hardwood is going to need to be swept (the old fashioned way) and then vacuumed and then swiffered and then mopped before it looks semi-normal again.
  
• I think the cats are tired of being dusty.

The Choir Sections Part 2

Ah baritones... sweet baritones.

Baritones are one of the 'tween sections of the choir; that is those sections that are kind of like another section, but not always.

Baritones are KINDA like basses, but not always. In general, in four-part music, baritones sing with the basses. And that's fine, but baritones like divided music especially because unlike the basses, baritones like the upper register. Technically, it sits more easily in their voices than it does for basses. Being able to carry the upper range also sows the seed in the hearts of some baritones that maybe, just maybe, they might be asked to be a tenor someday.

Predictably, Baritones are resistant to very, very low repertoire. Baritones perceive a bass's love of the very low range as showing off.

Some baritones are former tenors, and they carry a certain sadness with them of what once was. These baritones can almost always identify a second tenor that they think should have been moved to the baritone section before they were.

Baritone sections as a whole tend to be younger than bass sections.

Baritones think that basses talk too much in rehearsal.

In my experience, baritones don't have the same kind of gruff exterior as the basses, but tend more towards outward displays of kindness, genuine interest and laughter.

Read my post about basses here!

The Choir Sections Part 1

I've wanted to do a blog series for a while now that talked about the defining characteristics (and characters) of the eight sections of a standard choir. And I say eight sections because I believe that second sopranos are different from first sopranos, basses are different from baritones, etc. Obviously, there are differences between professional choirs and community choirs and church choirs, but there are some distinct similarities too!

So I'd like to start my survey at the "bottom" with the basses.

I've heard it said that double-bass players in an orchestra love their job. I think the same applies for choral basses.

Basses love what they do. Most of the basses that I've had the pleasure of knowing love being the root of the choral sound, the pedal point, the foundation. There's a consistency and a comfort to the traditional bass sound that is, from a witnesses point of view, as pleasant to sing as it is to hear.

Despite the love, Basses often present an outward persona of gruffness and disapproval. Don't mind them; they don't mean it.

Basses tend towards suspicion of music that asks them to sing up in their high range or even worse, falsetto, because it takes them out of their comfortable rooted place in the deep low range. After all, that's what we have baritones and second tenors for, right?

Basses live for singing KING OF KINGS in the Hallelujah chorus.

I have never sung in a choir that didn't have at least one deaf bass. Often, there are TWO deaf basses who sit next to each other and try to help each other out. This is not productive.

Basses are the section most likely to keep singing when the conductor signals a stop in the rehearsal, but Basses need, and love, a conductor who cues well.

Basses are the singers most likely to have mustaches.

This 'n' That

Other than two performances of Messiah that went really, really well, we didn't do a whole lot this weekend! Let's see...

• I got a grant application all but finished, which is great... just a couple of little details to finish up.
  
• I made Chocolate Crinkles from the Company's Coming Cookies book... so yummy.
• We went to the Church Choir Christmas Party, which is always a wonderful time, with lots of terrific food and SINGING!
• We played Cribbage and Sorry.
• I finished all my Christmas shopping on Saturday morning and came home and got everything wrapped that needed wrapping.
  
• We slept in.

And that about covers it! It's so nice to be finished with the choral commitments, and to know that we're both actually going to be home on a weeknight, for once. Hurray!

All We Like Sheep...

...are singing Messiah this week!

Tonight is our last rehearsal with WH, tomorrow night is piano rehearsal with the guest conductor, Wednesday night is orchestra rehearsal, Thursday night is dress rehearsal and then two performances, one each on Friday and Saturday night!

It will be a long week, and I wish that my Christmas shopping was finished, but I do love Messiah, and am grateful for another opportunity to sing it!

A Looooooooooong First Sunday

If I were to identify two services during the year that I love the most and would most regret missing, I would say Palm Sunday and the Advent Lessons and Carols Service. The latter was held yesterday, and it was lovely, but it was sandwiched in the middle of the First Sunday of Advent that WOULD NOT END.

0730: Up, out of bed, into shower, into clothes, into makeup, under hairdryer, etc.

0845: Into Flora (sexy red car) with WH and MB, off to Tim Horton's drive-thru for weekly Sunday breakfast order (Exra large triple triple, large double cream, medium double cream, fruit explosion muffin, banana nut muffin, toasted honey wheat bagel with plain cream cheese)

915: Church Choir Practice for Advent One service

1030: Advent One Service

1200: Quick lunch at WH's desk while he puts finishing touches on Lessons and Carols (L&C) bulletin

1230: Print bulletins. Engage in 1 1/2 hour long fight with photocopier from h*ll. When we had the upper hand on the fight, we folded and stapled. The whole thing took about twice as long as it should have.

1500: Rehearsal for L&C

1600: Sing L&C service, including brief solo-stint as Second Boy. Music includes three carols, the Advent Prose, Mattins Responsory, and four (or five?) hymns.

1700: Look longingly at post L&C potluck supper but dash away to grab quick sandwich from Subway and then head to Big Concert Hall in downtown Prairie City for gig with local military band in support of local branch of Awesome Charity.

1730: Rejoice in discovering that WH has a dressing room for this gig. Trust me, when 60 women from the choir and 25 women from the band are all competing for two washroom stalls at intermission, a husband with his own dressing room (and bathroom) is wonderful.

1735: Watch as WH attempts to register the massive pipe organ at BCH while various members of the band rehearse various pieces of music in various keys and various volumes. Curse self for not bringing Advil.

1830: After arrival of other members of Orchestral Choir, rehearse opening and closing of the program.

1900: Participate in requisite pre-concert reorganization of the choir into more balanced seating arrangement. Remark with fellow alto on similarities between choir reorganization and herding cats.

1920: Without usual member of Orchestral Choir who gets us lined up before concerts, pre-concert lining up takes much longer than usual, and considerable confusion results about how we walk into the BCH. Miraculously, we end up in the right places in the choir loft.

1930: Sing concert, consisting of four traditional Christmas carols, an arrangement of Do You Hear What I Hear (hear Chorus gag), and a song called I'm Dreaming of Home, commissioned a number of years ago to recognize those soldiers who fought at Vimy Ridge and used often now to commemorate those soldiers who are serving overseas and are thinking about home. Dry tears.

1940: Watch member of bass section from Orchestral Choir throw up (in the choir loft).

2020: Intermission. Go use spouse's bathroom (first in line!). Have similar trouble lining up choir. Return to choir loft for second half.

2200: Finish concert

2205: Dash upstairs to post-concert reception, eat three appetizers and a square, shake hands with band leader.

2210: Go home.

2230: Photocopy sections of grant application for Chamber Choir that is due today. Put grant application into envelope and clearly mark with address so that WH can drop it off on Monday (today!).

2300: Attempt to go to sleep.

2300 - 0615: Toss and turn.

Being the Choir Wyf, Part 4

I've been involved in a number of conversations in the last couple of weeks about the choices that professional musicians make about balancing family and career. We know many professional musicians who have chosen to have no family at all and have thrust all their energy into the career side. In many cases, extreme loneliness is the result, even if the career is highly successful. When we got home on Friday night after the performance of Solomon, WH said to me how happy he was to be able to come home and celebrate a successful concert with someone else. One of our singer friends has been the subject of some criticism for having had children and a family perhaps at the expense of what could have been a vast international career. But at the end of the day, she goes home to two beautiful children, and a house and husband that she loves... and I'm pretty sure that she has absolutely no regrets. And I am glad, hugely glad, to be able to be the person with whom WH comes home and celebrates his successes.

Here's a bloggy safe picture of my hubby rehearsing the choir before the dress rehearsal of Solomon last week. Pretty cool, eh?

Revelling in the Quiet

Solomon went very, VERY well. We had a terrific house, and all the musicians - orchestra, choir and soloists - performed wonderfully well. I'm so proud of what WH has accomplished with this concert... what a rush the whole experience has been.

We have spent the rest of the weekend moving around very quietly and without a lot of motivation. We didn't get dressed yesterday until 3pm, and are having a quiet afternoon today with the Grey Cup, trying to get caught up on some of the work that we haven't had time to focus on in the last couple of weeks.

I think that the cats are grateful to have a little attention.

Back to the regular grind tomorrow, which will be just fine. Prep for Messiah is well underway, and at least one other Christmas gig, as well as early work on our spring concerts.

And, of course, my day job!

We're Hanging in There

This week is unbelievably busy.

Yesterday, we picked WH's parents up from the airport in the morning, and then WH had his first orchestra rehearsal for this Friday's production of Solomon. This morning, we were up at the crack of dawn to get to a promotional TV shoot for the concert at 6am, and now (10am) WH is doing a radio interview. Then we're rushing home to catch a phone call from the local paper, grab some lunch, hopefully find a bit of a nap, and then the orchestra and soloists rehearse from 2 until 4:30. Then home for a quick dinner before orchestra and choir rehearse tonight from 6:30 until 9:30.

WH teaches first thing tomorrow morning before we rush off to do another TV promotion, and then I think we have the afternoon quiet before our dress rehearsal in the evening.

There are no rehearsals on Thursday, but I have to go to a meeting in the morning, and then a grant application workshop in the early afternoon. One of our soloists is giving a master class at Colourful U. in the afternoon, which we both hope to get to, and then we are planning to make reservations somewhere for the cast of soloists for supper.

On Friday, I think that we are going to be very quiet and very relaxed so that we are full of energy for the concert in the evening!

I took this week off work and I'm very glad that I did. I wouldn't want to be missing all this excitement! Having WH's parents in town is wonderful, because they are taking care of a significant amount of the food preparation for us, so we're not having to worry too much about getting fed!

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For those who asked about the car break-in: WH lost an old iPod and a bunch of spare change, and they punched in the lock on the passenger side, so we'll have to get that fixed. So it's a pain in the butt, but at least they didn't break any windows.

Meal Planning

Not actually Chorus.

I did it, I did it, I DID IT! I planned our dinners for the WHOLE WEEK yesterday, and then we went to the grocery store and bought all the groceries for all the meals I've planned. If that doesn't seem like a big deal, trust me, it's a big deal for us. This week will mark the first time EVER that we've actually planned a week's worth of food and then followed-through with it.

So here's what's on the menu, starting with last night:

Sunday: Orange Cumin Chicken, white rice and steamed carrots.
Monday: Chili (WH is making this for the crock-pot right now!) I'll go home and make some muffins to go with it.
Tuesday: Chicken Quesadillas with green salad
Wednesday: Marinated Pork Tenderloin with baby potatoes and broccoli
Thursday: Penne with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Friday: White Fish (probably halibut) with potatoes and veggies, all done in a tin foil pocket in the oven!

The only thing I have left to buy for the week is the fish, which I'll buy fresh from FredtheButcher on my way home from work on Friday. I'll provide a recipe or two tomorrow for Trader Tuesday!
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In other news, the first concert of the year for Chamber Choir went very, very well. This concert was a joint project with one of our local youth choirs, so we had a huge audience and they were very responsive. The choir sounded great!!!

Top Ten Hymns

I thought it would be fun to try and narrow down the hundreds of hymns I love into a concise list of my favourite ten. I decided quite early on in the process that I would call this A top ten list of my favourite hymns, rather than THE top ten list, allowing for the fact that if I do this again in a month's time, the list will probably be different. I've included the tune names in italics. (and you'll have to forgive me for linking to cyberhymnal and their terrible electric versions of all these hymns. You have to imagine them with choirs and descants and pipe organs and alternate harmonizations and all that good stuff. Think English Cathedrals!)

1. Eternal Father, Strong to Save - Melita

2. For All the Saints - Sine Nomine

3. Jerusalem, the Golden - Ewing

4. Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven - Praise My Soul
This was our wedding processional, and I can't sing it now without getting teary.

5. We Plough the Fields and Scatter - Wir Pflugen

6. Once to Every Man and Nation - Ebenezer

7. Rejoice the Lord is King - Darwall

8. At the Name of Jesus - Weston

9. All my Hope - Michael (with the descant that Howells wrote - another wedding hymn)

10. There is a Green Hill Far Away - Horsley (preferably with last verse unaccompanied)

fridayFridayFRIDAY

IT'S FRIDAY!

And I have a whole bunch of little miscellaneous bloggy thoughts to share with you today!

• I wasn't home for the game last night, so can't really blog about it in much detail. But I was happy to see that BJ Upton had a better night than he did in Game 1, going 2-4, which helped the Rays pull out the win at home. I would have started to doubt my prediction if the Phillies had won both games in TB, but I'm sticking with the Rays in 6/7.
  
• I wasn't home last night because WH and I went to see the Orphei Drangar, or the Sons of Orpheus, which is probably the best men's choir in the world. They come from Sweden, and are touring North America as a part of the farewell tour of their long-time conductor, Robert Sund. The concert was FANTASTIC. The choir has an incredible range of styles in which they are experts, singing everything from Schubert to an arrangement of Shenandoah, and all of it beautifully.
  
• I am going to be in the United States for the election. I'm travelling to City With Lots of Roses next weekend for a conference and don't fly home until the day after America votes. It will be an interesting experience to compare to our most recent federal election.
  
• Last thought about the election... when candidates say things like, "God will do the right thing for America," it turns my stomach. This means you.
  
• I look at my schedule for next week, and it makes me want to cry. And I think about going to this conference, and I don't want to go. And then I think about getting to go shopping at Macy's, and I do want to go. And then I think about the Canadian dollar, and I don't want to go again.
• I get to babysit two of the most lovely babies in the whole world tomorrow. CAN'T WAIT.
  
• WH gets his stitches out today.
  
• We are going to spend most of the weekend marking scores for the upcoming performance of Solomon. WH's hope is that if we can get all the orchestra scores marked beforehand, that will save him MAJOR time in the orchestra rehearsals. But somewhere between the publisher and Prairie City, one-third of the orchestra scores have disappeared. We have all the upper string parts, but no bass, no winds, no timpani, no harpsichord. Aie.

And that's about it for today!

Have a wonderful weekend everybody!

The Good, the Bad. the Ugly

of Chamber Choir Retreat Weekend!

The Good

We learned a TON of music, made good progress on our memorization of three spirituals (Deep River, Witness, Wade in the Water) and started to learn the (very difficult) music for our Spring concert. The food was fantastic. And we spent lovely quality time with other choristers in a beautiful location. AND got our choir pictures taken in remarkably short and well-organized time. Hurrah for hiring your wedding photographer to take pictures of your choir!

The Bad

I suppose that there is a blurring of lines between The Bad and The Ugly, but I think I'll say that the only bad things were the standard bad things that come out of a weekend-long rehearsal process... I'm exhausted in pretty much every way, I ate too much German food, my back is sore from sleeping somewhere other than my own bed, and I missed the kittehs.

The Ugly

WH hit his head. Hard. Against the edge of a low-hanging ceiling in the room where we were sleeping. And we all know how speedily and liberally heads bleed. I'm so grateful to the retired nurse in the choir who took control of the situation and insisted on driving us to the hospital, which was a half hour away down the pitch-black Prairie Province highway. Three stitches later, and WH is fine. No concussion, which is a relief. Actually, the most uncomfortable part seems to be the spot on his left arm where they updated his tetanus shot.

I'm glad to be home.

Friday Wrap-Up

Well, wasn't THAT a baseball game to remember last night?! Leave to the Bo-Sox to mount a seven-run comeback (the second longest in history) and run this series to a sixth game. Back to Tampa Bay they go!

And the National League series is all wrapped up, of course, with the Phillies taking it over the Dodgers in 5 games. The last time that the Phillies were in the World Series, they lost to the Blue Jays... sigh. Those were such happy days...

Anyhoo, this weekend is retreat weekend for Chamber Choir. We're headed out of town tonight to a cottage run by German Mennonites where we'll spend the next two days singing and singing and singing some more! The German Mennonites will do their very best to stuff us full of food during any moments when we don't happen to be singing. I'm looking forward to it... It will be tiring, but there are many, many worse things than a weekend full of good music.

Have a good weekend everybody!