I'm a Messiah newbie. I've never done it.
This post is going to be an online grump about the sheer volume of work I have to do. Don't say I didn't warn you!
The "Hallelujah Chorus" is hauntingly familiar, as are a couple of the other, better-known movements.
And I can't help but giggle at the thought of singing "All We Like Sheep" surrounded by a choir of New Zealanders with straight faces! But I've never done any of Messiah as a soprano, and only a couple of the other movements as an alto.
Now that David has decided to pull the nasty on us, and make us sing four (!!) of the movements by heart, all I can think is Oh, crap.
Because it's just a massive amount of learning to do, if I want to present at the concert with any sort of quality in my performance.
By heart? When I've never seen it before? Who are you kidding!
Last night, at rehearsal, the rest of the choir were having enough problems with the "by heart, books closed" stuff. Mistakes and wrong entries, people looking and sounding rather flaky.
I know we'll be awesome on the night, but we have a long way to go still.
As for me, having never seen any of it before, if you think I sounded competent, well - surely you can't be serious!
So when David said, "Books closed", my natural response was, "Bugger That!" Which is Australian slang for "gosh darn, I'd rather not", in case you wondered.
I'd rather learn the movements properly first, than pick up a whole stack of mistakes in my head from trying to do the movements by listening to other people and guess what they're trying to remember they're supposed to sing.
In the case of one of the movements we were doing "by heart", I'd missed the earlier rehearsal, and had never even heard the movement before, or had a stab at it!
This was going to be really ugly.
So I sensibly ignored David's request, and kept my book open. I didn't try to hide it either - I'm not a schoolkid. But maybe I should have, because I got bailed up for it in front of the whole choir. Yay.
Okay, if you want mistakes, I'll give them to you!
I tried. But what tends to happen, when you have to learn a piece by listening to people who don't really know the piece firmly yet singing it around you, is you learn an osmosis-ized version, with lots of mistakes. And it gets into your brain, and then those errors you've picked up will stay there forever.
Now I have my errors firmly in my head, and you can guarantee I'm going to make lots of very LOUD mistakes from the back row, with no-one to correct me in the concert.
What's more, I may take a few of the sopranos in front of me with me. I apologise in advance!
Two weeks? A 250 page Messiah? No problem - I just won't sleep :-(
So here I am, two weeks out from the concert, with the whole of the Messiah to get down pat, four movements to learn by heart with no errors, and the errors that I currently have learned thanks to doing those movements without a score to unlearn.
The next couple of weeks are going to be busy.
That's okay. It's not like I have a life outside City Choir. It's not like I sing in any other choirs, have a job, have two preschoolers, a husband who doesn't remember what I look like, or have any friends or social life.
All good.
We can do this THING! Grrrr....
Look, I know we'll be awesome. We really will. And I'll love the concert. I always do.
But for the next couple of weeks I'll be more than a bit grumpy, because I'm going to have to eat, sleep, breathe and **** Messiah. Which is not really what I had in mind for this time of year, especially as the weather has been so beach-suggestive.
So if you're driving along in the city, and you see a silver CrapMobile, driven by a manic-looking soprano wailing "All We Like SHEEP!" at the top of her voice, with two kids in the back stopping their ears, you'll know its me.
Try not to laugh too hard. For my kids' sake!
10 comments:
You got me at New Zealanders singing "All We Like Sheep" with a straight face! I'm wiping my eyes. Jeez, good luck with the memorization, not an easy thing to do in a few short weeks.
To be fair, we knew a year ago that we would be singing Messiah in December, shortly after another concert in September, and we knew we had to have our own scores, and the practice midis link has been up on the blog since way back then.
The secret is, if you are not confident of the notes, just mime! We all survived our first Messiah with "memorised" choruses like that. And two years on you'll be one of the old hands who knows all the notes :-)
last night because of my eye problems, I had my score shut for most of the rehearsal. (Even I did not feel like singing Let us break or bonds from memory) I have sung Messiah a few times, and quite a lot of it is permanently in my memory.
Some people may be surprised to know just how many people in the choir are singing Messiah for the first time.
We have encouraged many school students to join the choir for this performance ( and perhaps we are hoping they will stay for more concerts). It has to be said that even with more experienced singers, singing from memory does make some people nervous, and it spoils their enjoyment of learning the music. I think it is causing some unnecessary stress for some people.
It is a very poor response to say that people can mime. Nobody in our choir should be miming in the concert. They should be singing. If the choir sounds untidy during the memory moments of the concert (and the critic notices it)the members of the choir will feel rather let down.
Hi Alan - Miming works well in some instances, and can be a good strategy - look at Marcel Marceau! Imagine his choral career without mime!
The benefits, to the audience, most definitly outweigh the disadvantages, to the choir. My first Messiah, (3 Messiah's ago)I was in the audience, and the memorised choruses were of such a distinctly different, and way better, quality that I wished the whole thing had been performed from memory. Getting heads out of copies is SO worthwhile. And for those of us who have only done it once or twice, remember there are many many more choir members who indeed, know the whole thing from memory having been singing it for umpteen times.
In any case it's good brain exercise - better than crosswords, sudoko or other puzzles.
AND finally - always remeber it will be fine on the night - it always is. Adrenalin is my (natural) drug of choice.
Alan there is no cause for concern. There are enough choir members who can sing the memorised choruses confidently so no critic will comment, I'm sure.
My perception of the young school students is that they memorise music (and all sorts of other stuff) much more easily than us older folk do.
I saw a video not too long ago of a Japanese choir who sang the WHOLE of Messiah without scores. So doing 4 choruses without scores is not such a big deal by comparison.
Hey Rosi - I nderstand what the benefits are supposed to be. But am not sure of the benefits of me standing there, looking gormless, because I don't know the music.
Hi Leta - See! I'm just a-gittin' olde ;-) Age has its merits - and excuses hehe.
But you don;t need to worry 'cos they will all be looking at me changing my mouth from glo to fle as I muck-up again!!! :)
Oh Rosi - You'll be fine.
Everyone in the audience will be too busy laughing at the basses who have been mis-cued by David and are singing along with the sopranos!
At least there will be a baaaaaa afterwards for we sheep who have gone astray! ;-)
Oh Leanne that's very funny - love the pun! Not many people will know we are having a supper with (cash) bar operating after the concert.
The audience is welcome to join us and meet the choir and orchestra!
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