I just did one of those things I've been saying I'd do for...well, ever! I just joined a choir!! The University of Plymouth Choral Society to be exact.
Wohooo...ooooh...oh shit. I haven't sung regularly for seven years, I haven't sight-read for a lot longer than that and I've never sung in a community choir before. What have I let myself in for?
It was one of those things that I had to not think about to do. I've had 'join a choir' on my To Do list for years now, but whenever I've looked into it, the location was too far away, or the people were too uppity, or the cost was too prohibitive, or you had to audition (horror of horrors!), or it clashed with something else I was doing.
Well, this one is 6 minutes walk from my place, is only 35 quid, the people are really friendly, it's open to everyone and what else am I doing with my time at the moment???
So I said to myself, said I: Just Do It. So I did. And shat myself for the entire 6 minute walk to the ex-church they rehearse in. And shat myself again when I got handed wads of paper a centimeter thick full of black dots that are supposedly called notes. And then shat myself again when I looked at the title of the first wad of paper...
THE, and I do mean the capitals, THE Messiah!!!!
Crap...
Cool...
Shit...
Wow...
Holy ... yeah, well you get the idea.
It's a damn good thing that my mother has played Master Handle's Masterpiece to us every Christmas that I can remember - the music is part of my soul I swear - as sight reading something that complex would have been a nightmare otherwise. And I did ok I think - I was very rusty, and not at all sure I was in key and on note (I couldn't hear myself!), and I had a bit of trouble with a twisted tongue at several points. But it went OK. And Boy was it FUN!
And then there was a second piece. This was a tad more tricky. You see, it was Magnificat, by Tommasso Albioni. In Latin if you please. ... Oi Vay. I got lost there I can tell you. I couldn't read both the notes and the words at the same time so ended up humming 'cause there was no way I could pronounce the words let alone sing them. Something to learn!
Yipee, yay, wee-he-he!!
SO GLAD. So cool. So, are you going to come to see me at the concert? 12th of Dec I think. So shit me twelve ways from Sunday, I'm going to enjoy the hell out of this!
1 comment:
1) WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
2) University choral societies are uniformly awesome, in my opinion. Never met one I didn't like.
3) Magnificats are cool - like Requiems, Masses & Misereres - they're all musical settings of prayers, so once you've got your brain around the words for one, it's just a matter of learning the tune. Not that this helps you right now :)
4) Argh! Can't make Dec 12th, am gonna be sweating my arse off in Australia.
5) "Shit me 12 ways from Sunday". That's a novel turn of phrase.
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