I may have mentioned here before that I sing with the BBC Symphony Chorus. It’s not a job, it doesn’t pay much of anything (£3 per rehearsal, which doesn’t even really cover travel expenses), it demands a lot of time (including every Friday evening), and it’s darned hard work. Choristers get no individual glory, only collective recognition, and instrumentalists tend to look down on you (if I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard the phrase “musicians and singers”…).
And yet, when you’re standing there on stage singing your tonsils out, there occasionally come those moments, those brief, fleeting moments, in which suddenly you become elevated above the mundane drudgery of everyday existence. There’s just something about being a part of something bigger and greater than yourself to make you realize what’s really important.
I dunno; maybe it’s because I have a dull office job, or because as an American I was never previously exposed to the level of choral singing that seems to be taken for granted in England, where choir singing is encouraged from early childhood. All I know is that it makes me happy.
There you go: mundane, pointless, and shared.
P.S. Another perk: the rare all-expense-paid choir tour, coutesy of the Beeb. I’m off to Italy tomorrow for a four day, four city, four concert tour (Ravenna, Rome, Faenza, Cesena) to sing Verdi until my ears bleed. Barely time to buy postcards, let alone sightsee, but at least we’ll eat well.
I know I can’t sing. But I love to. I will randomly break into song whenever I find it appropriate. I sound horrible, but it amuses me. Therefore I do it.
Whoa.
You sing with the BBC Symphony Chorus?!?
Wow. I did not know this. I am so impressed (and soooooooooooooo jealous).
Which Verdi works are y’all performing? And what part do you sing?
Know what you mean about the “bigger and greater than yourself” feeling. And I hate when it ends. Closest I’ll ever get to nirvana. Until the next time.
Jacksonville Symphony did Mozart’s Requiem not too long ago - quite good, but difficult to keep from humming along in the audience. Orlando Bach Festival Choir just did both Verdi’s Requiem and Bernstein’s Mass on the same program, but I could not get tickets - sold out well in advance. Grrrr. Unfortunately, there are not too many professional choruses in this town (only two - OBFC has enough women, not enough men, and the Orlando Gay Men’s Chorus, well, I am neither), and I don’t belong to a local church (which would not likely do or do justice to Wozzeck or Brahms’ Liebeslieder Waltzes or P.D.Q. Bach’s Hansel and Gretel and Ted and Alice).
Look at it this way - in choral music, the symphony is there to back up the words! ;).
screech-owl, who has been on both sides of the orchestra (played French Horn and has sung in the chorus as one of not enough altos [but what I really want to do is conduct!])
Three concerts of the Four Sacred Pieces plus the Vivaldi Gloria, one of the Verdi Requiem (and man, that sucker is loud). The Vivaldi got tacked on just before Xmas (thank you very much, Maestro Olmi![sub]Not![/sub]); given that we just had a rather difficult concert a week and a half ago (Schnittke Faust Cantata), the pressure has been intense. Fortunately, most of us could sing the Gloria in our sleep. Oh, and we’re supposed to memorize the Italian national anthem. Hmmm…
I sing Bass I (i.e. baritone), but am in the section that seemed to get regularly seconded to other sections, sometimes to the Bass IIs but more often to the Tenor IIs (including, notably, during the Dies Irae:eek: ).
It’s not that hard to get into the BBCSC – you have to be able to sing in tune and learn music very quickly, but you don’t have to be soloist quality. The killer is being able to spend 5-6 hours a week (or more) in rehearsals.
I think I see the problem there…
What do you consider to be a “professional” chorus? Despite the fact that our concerts cost money to get into, we’re technically “amateur”, since this isn’t what we all do for a living.
Look at it this way - in choral music, the symphony is there to back up the words! ;).
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Yes, yes. There are some concerts we do where I feel like the chorus are essentially backup to the orchestra and soloists (Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe, for example), and some where we take center stage (metaphorically speaking), like Elgar’s oratorios (and why, dammit, isn’t The Dream of Gerontius ever performed in the US?!?).
Oops, bad choice of words. Both are volunteer community choruses. I was thinking along the lines of “chorus that performs with instrumental backup”. I used to sing with the Syracuse University Oratorio Society (college choir) that would regularly perform with the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra.
Never heard of Schnittke’s Faust Cantata - who publishes the score so I can get a copy? Never heard any of Elgar’s oratorios performed live. Can you recommend a recording and the score?
And that’s another thing! You can’t get a choral or orchestral score in this town fer luv ner munny! I found the vocal edition to Bach’s Mass in B Minor in a thrift store for a buck (cruddy Shirmer edition), but that was a fluke - no where to buy The Tender Land or any of the greats around here.
I’m not much for choral scores – the Schnittke score was a BBC revision of a fairly awful edition, and it’s been abotu six months since I’ve sung Gerontius. Recordings of the latter: I know Richard Hickox has recordings of the three big oratorios by Elgar (The Apostles, The Kingdom, and The Dream of Gerontius), but I have not heard any of them. I keep hoping we’ll record them – Elgar seems to suit us particularly well – but thus far all there is is a videotape of a 1997 performance at St. Pauls (which may or may not be available in the US).
Oh, do I know what you mean. I sing in the Glee Club at my college, and there are so many times that I go into rehearsal feeling stressed out or grumpy and walk out with a smile on my face. I love to sing, plus our director is absolutely amazing and I love working with him so, so very much. It is such a welcome relief from classwork, just to go in and do nothing but sing for 2 hours. Ahhh.
Those transcendent moments…I had one during the Christmas Vespers service back in December. I love that music so much, and this was my last one, as I graduate this year, so it was rather bittersweet. During O Holy Night–which is far and away my favorite, and we do a particularly lovely arrangement of it–I had that moment where every fiber of my being, my entire heart and soul, was poured into singing that piece. I’m getting goosebumps just remembering it.
We’re working on Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem right now and will be performing it in mid-February. That is one beautiful piece of music and I am very much looking forward to it.
I can certainly relate as well. Singing has been my outlet as long as I can remember. I’ve done chorus, chorale, church choir… I’ve sung probably every possible genre of song one can sing. But what really releases me, most of the time, is to go outside, take a walk, and just BELT IT! Sometimes, I’ll sing “The Rose” (song with a lot of meaning to me) through just once, then go back inside, feeling better. Other times, I’ll sing anything and everything that comes to mind, making a melody of my life. But never, in all my life, has singing ever failed to lift my spirits.
Its great to find other people that have the same outlet!
My fave! (Requiems are my favorites in general, but Brahms’ is the best. “Smiling though tears” as one of my music history professors put it.
I especially love the fugues and the really wild parts leading up to them!
(Are you performing it in German or English?)
BTW, If you like EDR, find a copy of Brahms’ “Nanie” (“Even beauty must die”. Schiller, I think.) Gorgeous cross-rhythms and harmonies, as well as a very moving text. That piece is wonderful to perform, and I still get shivery thinking about it.
I have a B.A. in Music (tuba), and feel that the time spent on stage is the finest part of my life. Nothing I have experienced before or since compares to playing with a symphony, orchestra, brass band or even just a quintet to make me feel so much a part of something beautiful and moving.
I sold my horn to pay rent the day I moved in with my girlfriend (now wife of 14 years); I haven’t played a note since. Sometimes when I listen to music I feel like I’m a part of it and everything is right with the world. Other times it feels like a great, gaping hole has been torn in my life and it’s never going to heal.
One of my New Year’s Resolutions for this year was to try to get back into music. It may not work, but dammit, I’m going to try.
screech-owl, we’re doing the Brahms in German. Our GC director says he can’t sing EDR because he gets so emotional he physically can’t sing. If he wasn’t half my size and married, I’d fall madly in love with him.
