The Mercenary Bass... Sings Tenor?!
May. 23rd, 2005 04:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
damontWriting from Ayrfield; once this is posted I'm heading home. With luck I'll miss the worst of the thunderstorms.
Got up much too early on Saturday with the intent of getting a haircut before morning practice. I just managed it; got there 5 minutes after the shop opened, there was one person getting his hair cut and nobody in the queue, and *four* people walked in right behind me -- had I gotten there two minutes later I couldn't have gotten out before 1000, and rehearsal start time was 0930. Got the hair cut: warning to folks, I got it cut rather short, anticipating possible job interviews in a few weeks.
Saturday morning rehearsal ran more than half an hour long: we finally broke at 1205, and then the Mozart small group (including myself singing tenor!?) practiced for 15 more minutes. Afternoon we ran more than an hour over as well, which meant that I had to curtail my intended schedule a LOT -- and I still missed the pre-concert warmup. Not that it mattered; I used the first two numbers as my warmup, and no further amount of warmup could have helped when it came time to sing the Mozart... In retrospective, though I had taken it easy during the afternoon rehearsal, I should have taken it even easier. There was just the slightest tickle in my throat -- after so much rehearsing that day I'm not surprised -- and I mangled two out of the three high F's. I am told that it wasn't very noticeable by others, even those in the choir, so that's not so bad; yet I still wish I'd done better for my *own* satisfaction.
I knew, from rehearsals, that I might have a hard time singing a few of the second-half numbers for entirely non-musical reasons. I managed better than I thought I might and only had to drop out briefly during the first problem piece and for less than half of the other.
Overall, I believe the concert was a success musically. We did not get near enough publicity though, so attendance was likely less than 100 people; as the stated reason for this whole venture was to raise money for the archiving of the Choir's old concert recordings, I'd have liked to see a better turnout. Perhaps we should have aimed for a date while the College was in session? In any case we needed better publicity. My thoughts are aiming towards a "newer Choir alumni" reunion aimed at Frank Lendrim's tenure (1974-96) but I know that someone else will have to organize it. (I am afraid in general that putting my name on something as an organizer is cause for people to stay away... this is one reason I prefer to work behind the scenes.)
Sunday morning I got up way too early so I could go to church with my father. With the choir service slated for 1000, the only Mass that did not conflict was the 0715 one (the others being at 0900 and 1100). We went; the new pipe organ at St Bede's is quite nice (which is why we specifically went there) and is more than half paid for in only 6 months. (This turned out to be the big Organ Fund-Raising Sunday there as well, as they'd like to have pledges in hand for the rest of the cost by July.) After Mass we went to the choir's memorial service at the Wren Chapel, after which we all said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. It being an utterly gorgeous day, I took a walk around the campus (I'll note some observations in a later post) and then headed to Ayrfield.
It's finally started to rain but it doesn't look like there's anything severe in the way, so I'm outta here. Later!
Got up much too early on Saturday with the intent of getting a haircut before morning practice. I just managed it; got there 5 minutes after the shop opened, there was one person getting his hair cut and nobody in the queue, and *four* people walked in right behind me -- had I gotten there two minutes later I couldn't have gotten out before 1000, and rehearsal start time was 0930. Got the hair cut: warning to folks, I got it cut rather short, anticipating possible job interviews in a few weeks.
Saturday morning rehearsal ran more than half an hour long: we finally broke at 1205, and then the Mozart small group (including myself singing tenor!?) practiced for 15 more minutes. Afternoon we ran more than an hour over as well, which meant that I had to curtail my intended schedule a LOT -- and I still missed the pre-concert warmup. Not that it mattered; I used the first two numbers as my warmup, and no further amount of warmup could have helped when it came time to sing the Mozart... In retrospective, though I had taken it easy during the afternoon rehearsal, I should have taken it even easier. There was just the slightest tickle in my throat -- after so much rehearsing that day I'm not surprised -- and I mangled two out of the three high F's. I am told that it wasn't very noticeable by others, even those in the choir, so that's not so bad; yet I still wish I'd done better for my *own* satisfaction.
I knew, from rehearsals, that I might have a hard time singing a few of the second-half numbers for entirely non-musical reasons. I managed better than I thought I might and only had to drop out briefly during the first problem piece and for less than half of the other.
Overall, I believe the concert was a success musically. We did not get near enough publicity though, so attendance was likely less than 100 people; as the stated reason for this whole venture was to raise money for the archiving of the Choir's old concert recordings, I'd have liked to see a better turnout. Perhaps we should have aimed for a date while the College was in session? In any case we needed better publicity. My thoughts are aiming towards a "newer Choir alumni" reunion aimed at Frank Lendrim's tenure (1974-96) but I know that someone else will have to organize it. (I am afraid in general that putting my name on something as an organizer is cause for people to stay away... this is one reason I prefer to work behind the scenes.)
Sunday morning I got up way too early so I could go to church with my father. With the choir service slated for 1000, the only Mass that did not conflict was the 0715 one (the others being at 0900 and 1100). We went; the new pipe organ at St Bede's is quite nice (which is why we specifically went there) and is more than half paid for in only 6 months. (This turned out to be the big Organ Fund-Raising Sunday there as well, as they'd like to have pledges in hand for the rest of the cost by July.) After Mass we went to the choir's memorial service at the Wren Chapel, after which we all said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. It being an utterly gorgeous day, I took a walk around the campus (I'll note some observations in a later post) and then headed to Ayrfield.
It's finally started to rain but it doesn't look like there's anything severe in the way, so I'm outta here. Later!
