Hops, Skips, and Jumps

Lots of hopping, skipping, and jumping around today. My morning was filled with warming up, a few errands, and then classes. First was Bibliography, in which we discussed the relative merits of various search engines to the lovely gustatory background of Hershey's "dark" (they're really semi-sweet) and cherry-filled Kisses. Delectable!

Next was my voice lesson, which was focused mostly on the Messiah recits I'll be singing on Tuesday. My teacher helped me find whole new levels of expression and color with them. I just hope I can incorporate everything well for Tuesday! We also ran the Rejoice Greatly, which is still so much fun!

A neat little aside -- on my way to my lesson, I walked through the lobby of the school. The staff had already hung a huge wreath, complete with bow, at the top of the grand staircase. Right at the entrance, they were assembling a giant artificial Christmas tree that looks very realistic. While this was happening, a 20-30 person clarinet ensemble -- yes, all clarinets (bass, tenor, and alto, I think) -- was playing Christmas carols in a lunchtime concert. Beautiful!

At this point, it was a quick skip home to cram in some theory homework and make myself an early dinner. Another jump back to school to meet with the conductor for the Rejoice Greatly and make sure our tempi and ornaments are aligned. If you sing a piece without talking to the conductor in advance, it can be difficult to make sure things sit right for you. Rejoice has so much coloratura (the fast little notes) that if it's too slow, I end up needing to give so much breath to slow my coloratura down that things sound airy, like they have an "h" before every note. Not good at all. Since I'm a coloratura soprano, my voice has a natural rhythm, a band of metric beats within which it likes to live when skipping among those fast little notes. Helping a conductor know where I'm most comfortable means that my tempo at the performance is likely to be better suited. In the Rejoice, for the fast sections, that's about quarter note=100 (beats per minute). Since music is collaborative, it's also key to find out what the conductor's interpretive ideas are - would he or she like you to add certain ornaments (extra notes/frills)? Are there spots where (s)he wants a ritardando (deceleration)? Happily, my conductor and I were aligned on all these things!

After the rehearsal, I ran to the promenade floor to cram in some more theory homework. One of the classical guitar students was practicing in this resonant space, so I had about an hour of gorgeous background music giving a wonderful lift to my homework!

Soon, it was off to a mini-recital given by one of the candidates for an open voice teacher position here. A bass-baritone, he had a wonderfully resonant voice and a very sunny demeanor. He sang a piece from Verdi's Falstaff, some Hugo Wolf, a bit of Debussy from the Fetes Galantes, Schubert's Das Fischermadchen and Ganymed, a Charles Ives piece, and something else that I'm forgetting. He was so expressive, especially in the Falstaff, that he had everyone in the audience bubbling with laughter.

After the concert, I went to our next-door coffee shop for some hot chocolate and---more theory homework. It was peopled with students crouched over the little round tables in the dim lighting, trying desperately to plod through the last bits of work in the semester's final crunch. A few community members also sat enjoying their food and drink, perhaps smiling at the rest of us since they are in relaxation mode. Not that I mind. Being able to sit in a coffee shop at 5:30 at all is quite a miracle to me, and working on music stuff? So much the better!

All too soon, it was time for the final 3 hour dress rehearsal for tomorrow's choral concert. By the end of it, I was so dead on my feet that I was ready to drop straight into bed. But I plied my brain with chocolate cookies and apple cider, trying to bribe it to finish my theory homework. Success! I'm done for the night! And now to sleep...

~Hope