choir

[cellio]

This Pennsic the Debatable Choir will mark its 25th anniversary. (Whether this is actually the 25th anniversary depends on how you count some early proto-choir formations, but this doesn't really matter. It's 25th anniversary observed. :-) ) We've started working on the music for it and I am jazzed. This is going to be fun, and is looking to be a longer concert than we usually do, which makes me happy.

ariannawyn asked me to direct one piece, which we started last week. Somewhere around a third of the choir (maybe a little more) has sung it before though not recently, and at least one person who hasn't is an excellent sight-reader, so after two practices at which we also did other music, people know it well enough that we can start putting some shape to it next week (dynamics, paying attention to what the words mean, that sort of thing). Except I short-changed the altos this week on going through parts, so I'll have to make it up to them.

I've lost track of how long I've been in the choir. I was one of the original members, but I took two breaks. I think I've been there for about 20 of the 25 years, but it never seemed important back then to track such things. There are two other original members, also with gaps (for moves to other cities, in their cases). But we manage to have a good supply of newer members too, so even though the choir is approximately a quarter-century old, we have plenty of vim and vigor and lots of fun.

But I must admit that even after that many years of choral singing, I just cannot wrap my head around French. Italian? Sure, no problem -- I don't speak the language at all but I don't think you'd know that from my singing of it. Latin? I understand a little of it but it's basically like Italian in my brain. Hebrew (we're doing one Hebrew piece)? I understand what we're singing; no problems there. English? Mostly fine; the 12th-century stuff is rough but we're not working on any of that right now. German? Eh, I can make it work. But French, on the other hand, to my brain is nothing but a sequence of random-ish phonemes with "eur" sounds mixed in. Memorizing French songs really challenges me. I don't know why. Fortunately for me, currently the Italian songs outnumber the French ones in the concert list. :-)

Comments

[akitrom.livejournal.com]

What's the program? And, will you be performing it at the May event?

[cellio]

The program is a secret, at least for now. :-)

We'll be doing a subset of it at the May event, yes. Will you be coming to that? It's a shlep for you so I wasn't expecting you, but it'd sure be great to see you!

[rjmccall.livejournal.com]

I don't know what era the songs you're singing are from, but Old French phonetics were very different.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

I can read & remember French OK, but I can't pronounce it to save my life. I blame it on growing up hearing PA Dutch regularly. OTOH, when I lived in Germany, my accent had people believing *I* was German.

I tried to take Latin in HS, but they made me take 2 years of French 1st -- and then dropped Latin. (Does the DC use classical or ecclesiastical pronunciation?)

I ended up taking Spanish instead, which in combination with French has gone a surprisingly long way toward grokking Italian lyrics I've sung.

Speaking of multiple languages, I find when I'm (technical) writing that I can't listen to anything with lyrics in English. However, lyrics in *other* languages, even ones I know enough of to understand the words, don't bother me.

[ariannawyn.livejournal.com]

I think the whole choir has matured a lot over the last few years, and most of the newer members are really quite good singers. Pieces that once took us weeks to learn just notes and rhythm for now come together in a practice or two, allowing us to spend more time on nuance. That's one of the reasons I was willing to go with the idea of such a long concert.

FWIW, the basses are going to need a fair bit more work on your piece next week, too. :-)

I talked to Liz via email about doing a recording and she was enthusiastic, offering to let us use her concert venue, Mr. Smalls, and to help with recording and engineering. We're going to get into more specifics when I see her at Youth Fighter Practice on Sunday. I'm really excited about the possibilities.

[jeannegrrl.livejournal.com]

Goodness that sounds like lots of fun! Good luck w/ the French!

[alaricmacconnal.livejournal.com]

Hey! That's not fair ... I missed practice this week! What piece are we doing next week? :-)

[ariannawyn.livejournal.com]

Come to practice and you'll find out. :-)

[alaricmacconnal.livejournal.com]

:-) ... I plan to be there! (as long as my return trip goes as planned :-P).

[(Anonymous)]

I'm with you on the French. I've even sight read in Old Church Slavonic with less difficulty! I will say that I always found the medieval French pieces easier than modern French pieces I've sung with other groups, but still. So many wasted letters used. Don't they know that Hawaiian or Slovak could benefit if they just shared with other countries?

Congratulations to the choir!

--Pamela/Anastasia

[cellio]

True, the early French motets we've looked at are different, and much easier for me. The vast majority of our music is 16th-century, by which time the more modern pronunciation had settled in.

[cellio]

(Does the DC use classical or ecclesiastical pronunciation?)

Ecclesiastical, I believe, but since I've never studied the language I'll defer to ariannawyn if she's listening.

My high school offered Spanish and German. I took the former on the theory that it would help me with more languages, but it turns out three years of high-school study wasn't enough for it to take root.

I can't listen to text I understand when (technical) writing or programming. I'll get sucked in. But then, I can't "watch" TV while doing anything that requires visual attention either; I used to know someone who could read and watch TV, but I don't think I could even do embroidery (assuming I did embroidery).

[cellio]

You're not the only bass who missed practice this week, or last week for that matter. It's easier to teach the part when everyone's there. :-)

[cellio]

You're right about the choir's maturity. We learn much more easily than we once did, and some of our newer members are quite impressive! I'm glad we haven't scared people off.

FWIW, the basses are going to need a fair bit more work on your piece next week, too. :-)

Yes, but having given the basses more time the first week and the sopranos more time the second, with the other parts getting less attention, I feel I owe something to the altos and tenors. It's ok; I assume we won't be performing it before May.

I talked to Liz via email about doing a recording and she was enthusiastic, offering to let us use her concert venue, Mr. Smalls, and to help with recording and engineering.

Cool! And I'm especially glad that she can help with engineering. I've been involved with two kinds of recordings: ones where a group borrowed equipment and did the best it could with the knowledge of the group members (c.f. the Debatable Consort on the "Tape of Dance" project), and ones where we had the services of outstanding engineers (c.f. On the Mark). I definitely recommend the latter. :-)

(I'd be interested in hearing her estimate of how much studio time this project would take.)

[cellio]

It'll be fun, and odds are reasonable that we'll be able to get someone to tape it for folks who can't be there. :-)

Are you still singing in your choir? You haven't written about it lately.

[cellio]

You're right; medieval French is easier. Most of what we sing is renaissance, by which time bad language habits had settled in. :-)

Old Church Slavonic? I find I have no expectations of that; I'm not sure I've ever heard any.

[jeannegrrl.livejournal.com]

No, and I miss it terribly. The first few months after we moved to Baltimore, I tried to commute to DC for rehearsals, but at about an hour each way, it was just too much for me.

I haven't found anything around here that remotely approaches what I had with Zemer Chai. Admittedly, my standards are pretty high, but time to precious to spend it singing mediocre music... I know it sounds snobby to say that, but for me it's true.

I harbor a fantasy of finding 2 or 3 other people like me (who preferably sing different vocal parts) to form an ensemble of our own, but as of right now, it remains in the realm of fantasy. Perhaps as the kids get older, I might brave the commute, and return to Zemer Chai...

[(Anonymous)]

It's pretty much exclusive to Byzantine Catholic (Greek Rite Catholic, which is not the same as Greek Orthodox) churches. Holy Spirit church in Oakland is a Byzantine church you're probably familiar with. It's the one next to Rodef Shalom with the big mosaic on front.

OCS was pretty much created to be a liturgical language when two Greek saints started missions trips into Eastern Europe in the 800s. Because of this, it has roots common to many different Slavic languages. It originally was written in the Glagolitic alphabet (which looks like pre-Cyrillic), but in the U.S. you see it written in either the Latin or Cyrillic alphabets, depending on where the immigrants who founded the church came from.

I used to go to mass with my grandparents sometimes when I was a girl. I know a bit of the mass without having to read it, but the fun part was sight-reading all of the 12-letter long vowel-deficient words. :-) I just opened my grandma's prayer book for examples:

tvorjs'c'ich (the apostrophes represent the diacritics that look like the little "v"s; s'=/sh/ and c'=/ch/)
nepokolebimych
prichod'as'c'ich

You get the idea. I have a theory that the reason why the tones (music) in Byzantine churches are so slow is so the congregation can work their way through all the words. ;-)

Sadly, as people are getting further from the immigrant generations, the masses are being sung almost exclusively in English. The liturgy books have pretty much always been printed with English in one column, OCS in the other, and frequently the service would shift (unexpectedly!) from one to the other. There was also a period where larger churches would have two masses, one in English and one in OCS. The last few times I've been to a service, only a few of the really common responses have been in OCS. The rest is in English. I'm all for people knowing what they're saying in church, but it was easy to see with the two-column approach. It's a bit of a shame, because the OCS really was beautiful to listen to (in a mournful, Eastern European sort of way), and English just doesn't have the same flow. Of course, we say the same with Latin liturgical music, too, I guess.

There. Now that's _way_ more than you wanted to know. ;-)

--Pamela

[cellio]

There. Now that's _way_ more than you wanted to know. ;-)

No it's not! I enjoy learning about these things. And the language controversy doesn't seem any different then the kerfuffle over switching from Latin to English in the Roman Catholic church, or in some of the arguments about English versus Hebrew in (liberal) Judaism (in traditional strains the question likely wouldn't come up).

Sorry about the comment screening; I've been getting a lot of spam via anonymous comments lately.