Recital Rehearsal

It's asking a lot. To expect choir member who are volunteers, out of the goodness of their hearts, to help me prepare music for my degree recital. On top of the church music we are already planning to sing. It means extra rehearsals, and I thought about it a lot. Can I ask for Saturday rehearsals - every month?

We usually do an extra rehearsal before our Christmas cantata, and sometimes we have to add one before cluster choir. But every month for ten months? Am I asking too much? It will be a total of twenty hours. A half week of work. Just because I love singing and being involved with music doesn't necessarily mean everyone will be overjoyed at the idea.

I ask. Is it OK? People respond. For the most part, if they don't have a previous commitment, they are OK with it. I schedule it for early afternoon, thinking that gives people time to sleep in and maybe get some housework/laundry done. They prefer getting it out of the way in the morning. Better not to chop the day in half. I am OK with that.

Choirs seldom have a chance to become really comfortable with the music they are expected to sing. When I have sung with other organizations, I never quite feel ready to present a concert. I am still digesting and getting familiar with the music. Yes, I can sing it, but I have to pay attention to the marks on the page, focus, strain to get things right. I always wish I had just another week or two to prepare.

So my goal for this recital is to give people lots of time to be comfortable with the music. I would like it to flow from the heart and not have to get stuck in the head. Can the music become ingrained and intuitive? Can it be as natural as singing Happy Birthday? After all, this is not the kind of music you find yourself humming. I will work toward that idea. Then we can move beyond performance to expression. From translation to persuasion. From stiff and formal to natural.

Today I work on vocal production, understanding how we sing, how it differs from speaking, tuning the choir. We learn the Our Father chant. It is stiff and awkward. We work a bit on the Tavener. It feels strange. I see heads shaking. This is foreign for them. But it will get better. Hang in there. We will learn it and suddenly it will just flow out of us comfortably.

A good beginning. Now I just have to work on a strong second session.