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A Soprano Rehearses Bach
9:59 a.m. Feel bad about being ten minutes late to Bible study, but at least it put me right on the church campus. I am on time for the dress rehearsal.
10:01 Tell Sue that this will be my first performance with reading glasses. She tells me that she left her glasses at home.
10:02 Wonder whether I should wear my glasses with the zebra stripes or the Swarovski crystals to the concert tomorrow. Is Swarovski crystal a fancy new name for rhinestone? Ponder suggesting to Jim that he keep a couple of spare pairs of reading glasses for people who forget theirs.
10:04 Miss an entrance.
10:10 This is the first time the choir hears the arias. Sharon looks drained but the solo fits her voice better than anything I’ve ever heard.
10:13 There are a lot of musicians, aren’t there? Jim said there would be thirteen, but it looks like more. Maybe he said there would be seventeen. Some prime number. That’s good. I promised Adriane I would be at her house at 12:45 to baby sit. With a huge orchestra like this Jim won’t keep us past noon. The overtime is too expensive.
10:16 Flip to next chorale. Notice a da capo at the end of Sharon’s aria. He’s not really going to take these pieces back to the beginning, is he? The rehearsal would be so much more efficient if we skipped the da capos, or stopped immediately and resumed about five measures before the segno. Would you call more than one da capo "da capi"?
10:17 Yes, he is going back to the beginning and continuing to the segno.
10:18 My nail polish is badly chipped. Should I repaint with red, or should I do something more somber in observance of advent?
10:20 Can’t see Jim very well in these glasses. It seems silly to wear my contacts and then put on reading glasses that blur my distance vision. Take off the glasses. Now text is practically unintelligible. Why? Put glasses back on. It’s a serif font, but the descenders are narrow and the kerning is tight. It’s a double challenge to read the font, including those funny double esses and the umlauts, and to remember the German pronunciation at the same time.
10:21 A little jealous of the fourth oboe, who has his glasses down by his chin and is reading the New York Times. His hinges must have springs in them. His right earpiece dangles by his earlobe.
10:22 Is his oboe larger than the other oboes? Does it have a different name? Can I ask somebody without looking stupid?
10:23 Consider advising publisher how difficult it is to read this font. While I’m at it, consider suggesting a heavier cover stock. This score is 236 pages. The cover should do some of the work of supporting it, so I can grasp the music from the bottom if I want, without the pages folding over. I swear, this cover feels flimsier than the pages inside.
10:29 Bass soloist has a powerful voice and good pronunciation.
10:31 Sue murmurs that the weather tomorrow may affect attendance. I haven’t checked the weather. What’s supposed to happen? “Snow.” The weather is such a mixed blessing. If it’s bright and sunny, people decide to stay outside and not attend. If it’s horrible, they stay inside and not attend. Maybe a little precipitation would be a good thing.
10:35 Chagrined to realize that this is the dress rehearsal and I still don’t know I’m supposed to hold that note for so long. Mark it.
10:37 Decide the long oboe is also known as a cornet. That makes sense. The "c" in “oboe da c” must be German for cornet.
10:41 This is taking a long time. Wonder how we are going to finish by noon.
10:45 Remember my uncle’s theory that reading glasses make the eyes weaker. Take off glasses. Can’t read text. Put them back on again.
10:52 Bass soloist looks familiar. Could he be the guy I sang “All I Want Is a Room Somewhere” with at the library fundraiser revue?
10:56 Joanna and Andi trill. Do not feel comfortable trilling unless a professional tells me that I am doing it right. My singing teacher told me up toward the end that I had a natural coloratura voice. She waved a couple of pieces with trills in them in front of my face, but only introduced me slowly to turns. So much of our music calls for trills, and I feel inadequate to perform them. Maybe I can teach myself trills by looking on Wikipedia.
10:58 Remember piano lessons, how I never in three years learned how to use the sustain pedal. Why do music teachers hold off all the showy techniques?
11:00 We are not halfway through. Hope that most of the rest of the music is chorales. Chorale pages go much faster, since you can only fit two systems of music on each page. It’s the arias that take longer per page. At least now I know that Jim is not going to call a break.
11:10 Jim calls a 10-minute break.
11:18 “Are your oboes different lengths?” I ask the principal oboe player. They are, she informs me. The long one that belongs to the New York Times reader is an English horn. I tell her that the score calls it an oboe da c. She tells me that is short for oboe da caccia, another name for the English horn. She seems pleased that I have taken an interest in their instruments.
11:23 Jim announces that Sharon has gastric distress and may not be able to lead the alto section tomorrow, but she will sing her soloes. That explains why her illness does not affect her voice. We resume.
11:26 Tenor soloist sounds much better in the sanctuary than he does in the rehearsal room. His voice is richer, less reedy. Then he deftly tackles a couple of runs of 16th notes, reminding me that the “run of shame” is coming up.
11:27 Since September I have struggled with the runs in this music. They go on forever, with complicated twists and turns. I have done everything with them except take them home and actually work on them. At least four of the sopranos have mastered them. My plan is to smile and pretend. The key to good pretending is having a clue as to when the run ends. You don’t want to be the only soprano with her mouth shut while everyone else is still singing.
11:29 I am pretty sure I read about a guy who wrote a computer program to analyze Bach’s music. The program looked for patterns. It told you which notes Bach “really meant.” If I knew that, I could skip the nonessential notes. Or maybe it analyzed Mozart.
11:30 Singing in German is hard, especially high-velocity German. I imagine what it felt like to Bach’s contemporaries to hear religious music sung in modern German instead of Latin. Our audience tomorrow will miss the thrilling immediacy. But even when we sing in English the text is hard to understand. Perhaps the Germans couldn’t understand the words either.
11:31 We are not going to finish at noon.
11:32 Lasset uns nun gehen gen Bethlehem. I picture Bavarian villagers in dirndls and lederhosen convincing one another to visit the miraculous stable. Oh, yeah, like the Austrian nativity set my family had when I was a girl.
11:47 It’s not just German, it’s gemütlich German. Ja, ja, mein Herz soll es bewahren translates to Ah, yea, my heart will ever cherish, words I am pretty sure you will never find in Händel or Duruflé. Practically Brahms in its schmaltz.
11:53 Almost done, but no way we will finish by noon.
12:06 Done, including going back to page 74 and singing through page 80. Sue leaves. She has to go to work. I consider following her, but I would have to step over all the other sopranos in the pew, or through the oboeists.
12:07 Jim asks the chorale to wait while he asks the orchestra to play the sinfonia again.
12:11 Jim excuses the orchestra and asks the chorale to sing the first chorus. Again.
12:15 We finish.
12:49 Arrive at Adriane’s house, my pencil still in my hair.
home
10:01 Tell Sue that this will be my first performance with reading glasses. She tells me that she left her glasses at home.
10:02 Wonder whether I should wear my glasses with the zebra stripes or the Swarovski crystals to the concert tomorrow. Is Swarovski crystal a fancy new name for rhinestone? Ponder suggesting to Jim that he keep a couple of spare pairs of reading glasses for people who forget theirs.
10:04 Miss an entrance.
10:10 This is the first time the choir hears the arias. Sharon looks drained but the solo fits her voice better than anything I’ve ever heard.
10:13 There are a lot of musicians, aren’t there? Jim said there would be thirteen, but it looks like more. Maybe he said there would be seventeen. Some prime number. That’s good. I promised Adriane I would be at her house at 12:45 to baby sit. With a huge orchestra like this Jim won’t keep us past noon. The overtime is too expensive.
10:16 Flip to next chorale. Notice a da capo at the end of Sharon’s aria. He’s not really going to take these pieces back to the beginning, is he? The rehearsal would be so much more efficient if we skipped the da capos, or stopped immediately and resumed about five measures before the segno. Would you call more than one da capo "da capi"?
10:17 Yes, he is going back to the beginning and continuing to the segno.
10:18 My nail polish is badly chipped. Should I repaint with red, or should I do something more somber in observance of advent?
10:20 Can’t see Jim very well in these glasses. It seems silly to wear my contacts and then put on reading glasses that blur my distance vision. Take off the glasses. Now text is practically unintelligible. Why? Put glasses back on. It’s a serif font, but the descenders are narrow and the kerning is tight. It’s a double challenge to read the font, including those funny double esses and the umlauts, and to remember the German pronunciation at the same time.
10:21 A little jealous of the fourth oboe, who has his glasses down by his chin and is reading the New York Times. His hinges must have springs in them. His right earpiece dangles by his earlobe.
10:22 Is his oboe larger than the other oboes? Does it have a different name? Can I ask somebody without looking stupid?
10:23 Consider advising publisher how difficult it is to read this font. While I’m at it, consider suggesting a heavier cover stock. This score is 236 pages. The cover should do some of the work of supporting it, so I can grasp the music from the bottom if I want, without the pages folding over. I swear, this cover feels flimsier than the pages inside.
10:29 Bass soloist has a powerful voice and good pronunciation.
10:31 Sue murmurs that the weather tomorrow may affect attendance. I haven’t checked the weather. What’s supposed to happen? “Snow.” The weather is such a mixed blessing. If it’s bright and sunny, people decide to stay outside and not attend. If it’s horrible, they stay inside and not attend. Maybe a little precipitation would be a good thing.
10:35 Chagrined to realize that this is the dress rehearsal and I still don’t know I’m supposed to hold that note for so long. Mark it.
10:37 Decide the long oboe is also known as a cornet. That makes sense. The "c" in “oboe da c” must be German for cornet.
10:41 This is taking a long time. Wonder how we are going to finish by noon.
10:45 Remember my uncle’s theory that reading glasses make the eyes weaker. Take off glasses. Can’t read text. Put them back on again.
10:52 Bass soloist looks familiar. Could he be the guy I sang “All I Want Is a Room Somewhere” with at the library fundraiser revue?
10:56 Joanna and Andi trill. Do not feel comfortable trilling unless a professional tells me that I am doing it right. My singing teacher told me up toward the end that I had a natural coloratura voice. She waved a couple of pieces with trills in them in front of my face, but only introduced me slowly to turns. So much of our music calls for trills, and I feel inadequate to perform them. Maybe I can teach myself trills by looking on Wikipedia.
10:58 Remember piano lessons, how I never in three years learned how to use the sustain pedal. Why do music teachers hold off all the showy techniques?
11:00 We are not halfway through. Hope that most of the rest of the music is chorales. Chorale pages go much faster, since you can only fit two systems of music on each page. It’s the arias that take longer per page. At least now I know that Jim is not going to call a break.
11:10 Jim calls a 10-minute break.
11:18 “Are your oboes different lengths?” I ask the principal oboe player. They are, she informs me. The long one that belongs to the New York Times reader is an English horn. I tell her that the score calls it an oboe da c. She tells me that is short for oboe da caccia, another name for the English horn. She seems pleased that I have taken an interest in their instruments.
11:23 Jim announces that Sharon has gastric distress and may not be able to lead the alto section tomorrow, but she will sing her soloes. That explains why her illness does not affect her voice. We resume.
11:26 Tenor soloist sounds much better in the sanctuary than he does in the rehearsal room. His voice is richer, less reedy. Then he deftly tackles a couple of runs of 16th notes, reminding me that the “run of shame” is coming up.
11:27 Since September I have struggled with the runs in this music. They go on forever, with complicated twists and turns. I have done everything with them except take them home and actually work on them. At least four of the sopranos have mastered them. My plan is to smile and pretend. The key to good pretending is having a clue as to when the run ends. You don’t want to be the only soprano with her mouth shut while everyone else is still singing.
11:29 I am pretty sure I read about a guy who wrote a computer program to analyze Bach’s music. The program looked for patterns. It told you which notes Bach “really meant.” If I knew that, I could skip the nonessential notes. Or maybe it analyzed Mozart.
11:30 Singing in German is hard, especially high-velocity German. I imagine what it felt like to Bach’s contemporaries to hear religious music sung in modern German instead of Latin. Our audience tomorrow will miss the thrilling immediacy. But even when we sing in English the text is hard to understand. Perhaps the Germans couldn’t understand the words either.
11:31 We are not going to finish at noon.
11:32 Lasset uns nun gehen gen Bethlehem. I picture Bavarian villagers in dirndls and lederhosen convincing one another to visit the miraculous stable. Oh, yeah, like the Austrian nativity set my family had when I was a girl.
11:47 It’s not just German, it’s gemütlich German. Ja, ja, mein Herz soll es bewahren translates to Ah, yea, my heart will ever cherish, words I am pretty sure you will never find in Händel or Duruflé. Practically Brahms in its schmaltz.
11:53 Almost done, but no way we will finish by noon.
12:06 Done, including going back to page 74 and singing through page 80. Sue leaves. She has to go to work. I consider following her, but I would have to step over all the other sopranos in the pew, or through the oboeists.
12:07 Jim asks the chorale to wait while he asks the orchestra to play the sinfonia again.
12:11 Jim excuses the orchestra and asks the chorale to sing the first chorus. Again.
12:15 We finish.
12:49 Arrive at Adriane’s house, my pencil still in my hair.
home
Latest page update: made by Katharine.Hadow
, Dec 1 2007, 8:03 PM EST
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About This Update
Edited by Katharine.Hadow
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Edited by Katharine.Hadow
15 words added
8 words deleted
view changes
- complete history)
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