Needless to say, it did not.
Well (perhaps too well) rehearsed, it went smoothly at the Friday evening choir practise, but less so on the early Sunday morning run-through. Possibly due to the numbers being halved.
This is a common and very irritating phenomena in our choir at St Mary's.
We get a splendid turnout and the balance of sound is pretty well perfect in rehearsal, then, on the day at least a half dozen or so fail to show.
With something as ambitious as this lovely piece every voice is essential to the finished performance.
Getting everyone to accept this, is nearly impossible.
Those of us who are truly dedicated to the choir find it very frustrating but are quite powerless to change this attitude of the less dedicated.
From my own point of view a committment to the choir means attending every rehearsal and every service unless illness strikes.
The reason for this latest diatribe is that I went to bed with the music running round my brain on a loop, was just dropping off to sleep when a blood-curdling scream outside shattered the peace of the close.
After the 2nd and third shrieks it was obvious that the foxes were out on the railway embankment giving a recital.
Once all hope of sleep had vanished I thought I'd take my bad temper out in a blog post.
Well I have to vent my spleen somehow.
Oh and please do listen to this recording if you have time. It really is rather lovely.
In our choir one is expected to let the director know in advance if and when planning to be absent. She can then adjust her programming accordingly - pretty essential in my case as I am currently the only one in my part!
ReplyDeleteCourtesy costs nothing and stops the choir feeling like just a cheap substitute for the local Choral Societies!
Sadly our less conscientious members are also the ones who fail to let anyone know when they are about to take a day off.
ReplyDeleteIt is what to do abouit them which poses the real problem. We are not so blessed with numbers of eager (good) singers that we can aford to tell them not to bother to come again. Though the temptation is great.
A lovely piece, sung well on your video example. The others in the set are also fine with "Coelos Ascendit" being particularly good. https://youtu.be/nCzIVjR-0X8
ReplyDeleteI haven't listened to any of the other pieces but this one is I think truly beautiful.
ReplyDeleteOr, at least it should be, given the right amount of rehearsal.
What is so disappointing is that when we have sung it so well in practise and so few turn up on a Sunday those of us who really take a pride in what we do know we may quite possibly never get the chance to sing it again.