Monday, May 05, 2008

Choir Service

I am feeling much better, thank you. The choir rehearsed on Saturday to make sure we were ready to perform the service on Sunday. Last Wednesday, I had nothing over a C#. Saturday, I had an F# back. Unfortunately, we practiced so much that I only had a D on Sunday.

Still we sounded good. I loved the way the final chords rang in the sanctuary when we finished loudly.

I hope to get a copy of the recording of the service. I know people were taking pictures. If anyone is kind enough to forward one to me, I’ll post it here, too.

We performed several numbers in a variety of styles, and there was only one that I really detest. “I Sing of Brooks” (The version we did even left out the references to Mab and the fairy king.) is a stitch craft sampler. It is as if the composer wanted to write a piece to show all of the techniques he knew—regardless of if they made musical sense. He throws polyrhythms, key changes, and meter changes together in a migraine-inducing hodgepodge that would have been better left forgotten.

Thankfully, most of the numbers we performed were at least listenable, and some were very good. A couple were even interesting.

Grateful Monday

So that brings me to Grateful Monday. Today I am grateful once again for music—even music I don’t care for. I am glad to be able to sing well enough to participate in the choir (even if not everyone agrees) where I am exposed to all kinds of music. Only by listening to enough music can we define what we like by understanding what we don’t. We have to listen to a lot of music to understand what we like, as opposed to what we are merely accustomed to.

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