Choir rehearsal weekend
Jun. 26th, 2023 08:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lyornFriday to Sunday, my long-time choir had a rehearsal weekend in Hammelburg. The small town's claim to fame is being the oldest wine-growing town in Franconia.
As usual it was strenuous, but fun. I enjoy having the time and opportunity to work on one thing mostly undistracted, as I tend to unfocus very easily. This time, it was a bit more strenuous, first because of the heat (though our practise room had a valuable Steinway grand piano and was very climate controlled), and second because our conductor, always enthusiastic, had accepted an invitation for us to hold a half-hour street concerto in town on Sunday. So Saturday evening's practise sessions went to rehearsing for it (outside on a lawn the size of a football field, to get familiar with sound getting lost), and Sunday's to the performance.
The other three sessions made up for that. We plan to do a performance with Scandinavian songs next spring, so we learned one Finnish song and two Icelandic ones (not in depth yet), refreshed two Swedish folk songs, and "Hvem styrde hit din väg" (youtube). We continued working on Rajaton's "Butterfly", which we started on before Covid was even a thing, and which has already led to a lot of crying and gnashing of teeth in the choir because it's a bit complex. But well worth it, IMO. We managed to get through it for the first time, even though I had to spend Saturday's lunch hour alone with the grand piano to understand a somewhat unintuitive modulation. After coffee I could teach it to the others in my voice, and we actually made it work. \o/ !
We also got a bit into (not Scandinavian, for a change) "Stairway to Heaven", and I promised to write or link something so everyone well have an idea what the text is (maybe) about.
All in all, quite a good weekend. But I'm not unhappy that the next one will be in February!
The first day of my vacation (= today) I spent doing nothing. So, that was a good day, too.
As usual it was strenuous, but fun. I enjoy having the time and opportunity to work on one thing mostly undistracted, as I tend to unfocus very easily. This time, it was a bit more strenuous, first because of the heat (though our practise room had a valuable Steinway grand piano and was very climate controlled), and second because our conductor, always enthusiastic, had accepted an invitation for us to hold a half-hour street concerto in town on Sunday. So Saturday evening's practise sessions went to rehearsing for it (outside on a lawn the size of a football field, to get familiar with sound getting lost), and Sunday's to the performance.
The other three sessions made up for that. We plan to do a performance with Scandinavian songs next spring, so we learned one Finnish song and two Icelandic ones (not in depth yet), refreshed two Swedish folk songs, and "Hvem styrde hit din väg" (youtube). We continued working on Rajaton's "Butterfly", which we started on before Covid was even a thing, and which has already led to a lot of crying and gnashing of teeth in the choir because it's a bit complex. But well worth it, IMO. We managed to get through it for the first time, even though I had to spend Saturday's lunch hour alone with the grand piano to understand a somewhat unintuitive modulation. After coffee I could teach it to the others in my voice, and we actually made it work. \o/ !
We also got a bit into (not Scandinavian, for a change) "Stairway to Heaven", and I promised to write or link something so everyone well have an idea what the text is (maybe) about.
All in all, quite a good weekend. But I'm not unhappy that the next one will be in February!
The first day of my vacation (= today) I spent doing nothing. So, that was a good day, too.
