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.