Notes From The Choir Loft

The Truant Chorister begs your forgiveness, as she has been terribly delinquent in chronicling this season's adventures. In the spirit of all things Choral and Christmas, please enjoy this... Unofficial, Unauthorized, Underground Preview of the #MusicSunday Christmas Concert 1. Without looking at the bulletin... count the number of instruments used in the performance. It should be well into double-digits, but the correct answer will depend on whether you decide to count 'bass guitar' as a 'guitar' and 'English horn' as an 'oboe'. 2. As an old pastor of mine used to announce in the middle of the most contemplative part of Christmas Eve Candlelight service: "now watch out folks, we're working with Live Fire, here!". Oil lamps and youth. "What could go wrong??" Just in case, there are a number of deputized fire marshals. Seriously. See if you can spot them. 3. Make sure to listen for the Altos' Very Difficul

Greetings, dear choristers! I'm afraid my choir notebook is downstairs at the moment so the notes are flying without a net. This is the week all our hard work pays off and we conquer the Matterhorn-sized mountain of a piece called Nimrod (aka: Lux Aeterna). I do remember that in the midst of the epic Elgar rehearsal, there was something about a Kierkegaard-ian Leap of Faith. I have no idea which specific part of which piece this occurred in, however, as it applies to so many different places. I think I will save the, um.... unique phonetic alphabet of M. Dodds for another edition. The CD has been a wonderful help in the car, but if, like me, you sometimes find yourself without a CD player, here are some helpful links: Lux Aeterna Extra Practice Opportunities: **Incredible** version by British group Voces8 By Parts Note: I struggled with the sound quality when I tried playing it on my laptop, but it worked out well when I played it on my TV (standard TV spe

Greetings, dear choristers! Profound apologies for the slow start to the season. Your favorite underground, unauthorized, pirate choir blog is finally back! Class Notes: We started off the evening with a light-board masterclass. If you find yourself walking in darkness, see Rosemary or Angie, who now hold all knowledge of the Sanctuary lighting system. And started off singing with: Christmas! With Handel and Gjeilo, both of which will test your "skill of being stubborn". If you are looking for extra inspiration for the Norwegian pieces, I highly recommend SlowTV , now on Netflix (especially the boat ride)! The highlight sof the night were stories about the Handel-era musicians, and their various hijinx (In my head, the following facts are the basis of a Hamilton-type rap musical) - During a performance of 'Cleopatra', Handel was hitting the keyboard while this guy Matheson was on stage singing. But Matheson's part ends in act III (he was playi

This week we were treated to newly alphabetized choir folders! ...completely disrupting my normal organization rule: last rehearsal's order, then performance order, then special-sectioned by whether I've ever thought we were singing it next week, but it turned out we weren't, and then the two lone songs I thought were still alphabetized but it turns out I mixed up whether song titles starting with "The" belonged with "T"s or with their second-word counterparts. I suppose I will have to muddle through as best I can for the next few weeks... In other news, it was a Monty Python-heavy night, with the Knights who say Ni and the Killer Joke skit , presented here conveniently captioned in an unspecified Slavic language. We are truly living in a glorious age for the internet.  And I'm not sure whether to root for or against a children's book collection of Michael's childhood adventures... "A is for Alligator... and Amputation..

Well folks, unless you are Gonzaga, South Carolina, Oregon, or Carolina.... my sincere commiseration. Personally... I'm pulling for Anyone But Chapel Hill . Boom. That's right. I went there. (But I'd really like South Carolina to take it even though my bracket has Gonzaga...) But with that said, it's officially April, and I suppose time to move on.... back to Netflix, and waiting for football season. March Sadness, indeed. This Week In Music Lit: The march-like quality of Handel's 'Lift Up Your Heads' is because French Overtures included a march for royalty, who liked to make an entrance. And the previously mentioned antiphonal effect echos the origins of Psalm 24, which is implicitly about the King entering Jerusalem and the Biblical accounts that the dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem involved two choirs, answering each other. (I may have made some of that up. Pls verify with someone who took better notes.) Handel was theatr

Greetings, and a very happy Best Month Of The Year to you! March is like three weeks of Christmas for basketball fans and add to that some sunshine and blue sky days, and that makes it by far the all-time, hands-down, best month of the year. Fact. (But be aware: with such indulgence comes great responsibility. Two years ago I made the mistake of binge-watching White Collar on off-nights and wound up with several weeks of dreams about an art heist crew run by Charles Barkley! a. He was surprisingly knowledgeable about forging ancient artifacts. b. Tell me this shouldn't be a 30 minute sitcom. I'm just saying.) From the Peanut Gallery: "and it's 'a cappella!" *followed by a chorus of resigned sighs and at least one "....must we...." from a section which will not be named* "when I turn out the lights in class, people tend to fall asleep" *followed by a thoroughly entertaining flurry of 'J'accuse!', adamant deni

It was a dark and stormy night which brought the intrepid singers to the balmy and sauna-like Ash Wednesday 'slash' double secret rehearsal night. It was the best of rooms, it was the worst of rooms, it was a lovely service, and joyful evening spent singing, it was quite toasty and overly warm... Highlights:  - "Sopranos, you need to take your own moral responsibility for that note" - "Sopranos, I completely repent of the backhanded compliment" - A required clarification on 'favorite students' vs 'favorite choristers'. - And at one point, my notes say that the tenors were called "well behaved". It was certainly an odd night indeed. - The valiant UNCSA students arrived despite having to face the "hardest, most worst-ever" midterm the next day. - We also celebrated the birthday of one 'Laura McN', notable for being a leap-year birthday and bringing up some sort of reference to the Pirates of Pe

This week's Choir Chronicle is not only a bit late, but also short and sweet. Blame the weather. I hope yal are having a beautiful Saturday! Quote of the week: "We're not quite all getting this, but we have a great attitude!" Runner up: "Is that you growling, Nancy?" Vocab words: Tenuto: "a note or chord held for its full time value or slightly more." Trattenuto: "held back with a sustained quality, similar to ritardando" Compound Melody:  "more than one melody or line by a single voice through skipping back and forth between the notes of the two melodies." Sometimes known as Melodic Fission , which is my new favorite musical term. ....and two others that are unfortunately lost to my incredibly poor handwriting and memory. Procrastination, people! There are consequences! This week we sing M Dodds favorite: Praise, My Soul, The King of Heaven Choir favorite: I Surrender All "Holy Holy Holy&quo

Hey, yal, and welcome back to your favorite choir rehearsal recap! I decided it was time to nudge the choir stuff into its own cyber-place, apart from the usual posts on Abridged (rants about the medical system, complaining about insurance, etc). This new URL for The Truant Chorister is:  thechoirloft.abridgedtheblog.com Sigh, yes. It is hosted on blogspot not wordpress. I have no defense except that I'm not a millennial and, well, it took literally* 10 seconds to set it up. (*in the truest sense of that word) For the newly initiated, these posts are the sole work of The Truant Chorister herself, so as to maintain plausible deniability for the estimable Dodds and Orgain. Additions, substitutions, and guest posts are welcome! This week: We welcomed even more new faces, Huzzah! Including some section leaders who are already proving their invaluable worth as melodic anchors, giving us much more confidence in the part-singing and note-finding. One of the songs (