Flashback - Carols 2015

Carols at church 2015 was super fun and praiseworthy.

Dancers...

Choir - I think I had a much better handle on conducting a choir this choir - it sounded pretty awesome.  We sang "Mary Did you Know" - recently made popular by Pentatonix (google it - so awesome - no regrets).  Our choir did a great job - five weeks practice (less for most of the tenors), by memory and with some slight choralography.  Already plotting 2016...

Drama of Luke 1-2 - two unexpected babies - John then Jesus.  Excellent performances by a very introverted cast

Gab loved the dance.  I saw several loungeroom performances before the actual event.

Chris spoke about the joy of Christmas.

Repeat the sounding joy.

So so good.

Repeat the sounding joy.

from chaos comes...

In choir at the moment, in fact for the last six months, we are tackling Britten's War Requiem.  I am part of the Queensland Festival Chorus and we are singing this requiem in about three weeks.  I am still discovering bits in it we haven't sung yet.

When we first looked at it around Easter time it was a discordant mess.  Britten likes his clashy chords and funny rhythms.  I had my doubts it would ever sound any good.  I figured, well, it is all about war and the futility of it all, it is supposed to sound depressing and atonal.

Then over the last few weeks moments of beauty have emerged.  I will be sitting there listening to the tenors and basses rehearse, and glimpse what Britten had in his mind.  I hear the sopranos soar over us altos, meeting our notes then leaving them again.  The urgency of the Dies Irae making you feel unsettled and like guns are rumbling in the distance in a 7/8 rhythm.  The sadness of the Lacrimosa, weeping for the soldiers.  I feel like the choir plays the part of the ghosts of soldiers haunting the battlefield.  I use my spooky singing voice...

From the chaos is emerging tiny parts of beauty and order.

The poetry written by Wilfred Owen contrasts with the Latin Mass.  Some parts of the poetry are so sad:

Anthem for a Doomed Youth
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
Only the monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells,
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

and

The Next War
Out there, we walked, quite friendly up to Death,---
 Sat down and ate beside him, cool and bland,---
Pardoned his spilling mess-tins in our hand.
We've sniffed the green thick odour of his breath,---
 Our eyes wept, but our courage didn't writhe.
He's spat at us with bullets, and he's coughed
 Shrapnel. We chorused if he sang aloft,
We whistled while he shaved us with his scythe


So my mind is resting on the requiem for many hours a week at the moment.  It makes me feel thankful for hope and eternal peace.

when you know all the alto parts to carols by heart...

you know you have been singing in the Christmas choir for a few years.  This weekend was the 'Spirit of Christmas' weekend at QPAC - I am part of the choir.  It has been a massive week with rehearsals every night and three performances over the last two days.

Performing the Hallelujah chorus by Handel in a 150 strong choir with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the organ in the Concert Hall was pretty special.  As was doing '6 white boomers' with actions.

Here's a posse of altos just before the second half of the last concert.  We look pretty happy!

And in between the concerts on Saturday afternoon I popped over to the Lord Mayor's Carols at the river stage to do a quick bit of puppeting to promote Kidsgames.  Fun!  Rainy - but fun!  Hanging around backstage I spotted The Idea of North, Colin Buchanan, Marina Prior, and chatted a lot with the stage manager and the sound guy.  I felt like a backstage rookie.  But what an opportunity!

Oh yeah - that's Colin Buchanan behind us doing a sound check.

On the River Stage!

Very fun and a great way to use our talents to serve God.

choir

Hallelujah!

I have just go home from choir rehearsal where we are singing the Hallelujah chorus by Handel (among other things).  It is a fine fine piece of music.  That Handel knew what he was doing.

In fact, he had a handle on it.

Anyway, I am really enjoying being part of it.  When I ducked out for a wee break in the middle of rehearsal and listened to it it sounded AMAZING.  And there are weeks of rehearsal left!

I am in the QPAC choir which I joined about two years ago.  I had to go and audition, which was one of the scariest things I had done for a long time.  I couldn't imagine what it would be like if auditioning was part of your daily work life, let's say, if you were an actor or a singer.  You would have to have guts of steel.  My 16 bar audition piece I sang was chosen by my daughters - 'We are Australian' - I think they were singing it at school at the time.  I went and found my way through the tunnel system that is the underbelly of QPAC.  The girl who sang before me was excellent, and I got a little overwhelmed and thought I was in the wrong place.  But I summoned up some courage, steeled myself and went in and sang 'we are one, but we are many....'.

They let me in.

So on Monday nights for the last two years I have learnt all sorts of choir techniques and been in some pretty good concerts.  I love the sound and the breathing and the team sportedness of it all and the way you can think about nothing else in your week because you are concentrating so hard on your voice and the music and where on earth am I in the score.  And I have made some good mates in the altos.

At last my incessant humming has a purpose.  Hallelujah.