CrossRoads Farm

I Just Can't Wait....

05 August, 2005 - 7:43 am

I just can’t wait for the Our Town Singers to start rehearsing again. Then I found this on my now ended Art journal.

From Creative Spirit March 25, 2004

As long as we live there is never enough singing.
~ Martin Luther

Singing.

Goddess Above, how it fills me up and makes me happy…..Last night I went to choral for the first time. I was fine until I got in the building and started meeting people. I started to get nervous. Then Tom showed up and I felt a little better but I still had my doubts.
The ladies started asking me questions about my musical background. Whether I was a soprano or alto, etc. I was afraid that our director, Helen, would ask me to sing by myself so she could decide where to put me. Scared out of my bloody mind is more like it. I almost left. I really did.
But instead Helen asked. “First or second soprano?” I told her honestly I wasn’t sure. She sat me down with the sopranos. She said, “Ok, just listen for a few minutes and when you are ready – jump on in.” Ok, I can do that.
I can read music. I play the recorder, and I can pick out a simple tune on the piano. But I can’t sing by sight reading. It was amazing to me though how quickly I caught on. Like looking at a language I’ve always known.

We started with a song I’d never heard. A Red, Red Rose. It’s based on a Robert Burns poem and is just lovely. In the spring concert just the ladies will sing this selection. So Helen had asked the Altos and Basses to show up at 7:30 so she could work with us. I realized almost immediately I’m a first soprano. I would have done much better except for Hyacinth.
This is not the woman’s real name, but those of you who have ever watched the British comedy Keeping Up Appearances will know exactly what I’m talking about when I call her Hyacinth. She’s enthusiastic I will give her that. She’s loud. But she’s not always on key. Unfortunately we were sharing sheet music.

At any rate we worked on the new song for about twenty minutes and moved on to Bridge Over Troubled Water. Then our Alto’s and Basses showed up. Helen asked us to get on up and sing our new song. Well, I managed to arrange myself so I could hear the other first sopranos on my left side, while I kept Hyacinth on my right. Much better. This song is so pretty and heartfelt….I’ll be honest - it almost makes me cry.

We went back to Bridge Over Troubled Water. This is one of my very favorite songs – but you should hear it in four part harmony. Amazing. Difficult. But amazing. Then a patriotic number which should be interesting when we get it all together. At one point the basses are singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic while the altos and tenors sing Johnny Comes Marching home and we sopranos do Shenandoah. Right. I don’t believe it either – and I was there.

At any rate I had a wonderful time. Can’t wait for next week. I brought sheet music home. And I just feel like singing.

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