chorus blather, ugh
May. 24th, 2005 03:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamajoanI keep vacillating between wanting to post about last night's chorus rehearsal and thinking it dull. Sure, my journal, I can post whatever I want ... but if even *I* find it dull, why bother?
The short version, I suppose, is that I've been getting increasingly frustrated with chorus due to all kinds of behind-the-scenes politics stuff (which I keep thinking about posting/ranting here but haven't because it would take too long to explain), and, as always happens, you're all disgruntled and pissy heading into rehearsal, but then you get there and start singing and it's all great and you love it. And then, if you're perverse little ole me, that makes you pissy all over again. ;)
Anyway, I still think the concert will probably suck, at least somewhat, because we haven't rehearsed enough and a lot of the music is shaky. But it will probably be pretty fun.
The concert is sort of a multicultural retelling of the Exodus story, with music from many genres: classical, jazz/gospel, spiritual, Jewish. Also there's dance and some narration to tie it all together. The first half of the concert consists of choruses from Handel's Israel in Egypt, which basically tells the story of the ten plagues and the Israelites' flight from Egypt. The second half is a bunch of shorter musical pieces, from the genres that I mentioned, all along the general theme of the Exodus, oppression of Jews by Egyptians, Pharaoh vs. Moses, and so forth. And then the whole thing concludes with the final chorus of Israel in Egypt, which is about how great G-d is for parting the Red Sea and letting the Jews escape.
Honestly, I'd be happy if we skipped almost everything on the program, and sang only two pieces: the one gospel-y Aretha Franklin song ("Oh Mary Don't You Weep" with a fantastic soloist), which is just super fun (especially since our chorus is a bunch of mostly middle-aged white chicks, LOL) and "He Watching Over Israel" by Felix Mendelssohn, from his Elijah. I adore both those pieces. I could sing the latter repeatedly for the three hours and be happy. It just has such great lyrics: "He watching over Israel slumbers not nor sleeps. Shouldst thou walking in grief languish, He will quicken thee." And with Mendelssohn's lush, Romantic-era melody and harmonies, OMG, it's to die for. (I mean, seriously, people! "Shouldst thou walking in grief languish"!!! If that ain't purple prose I don't know what is!)
Ahem, but anyway, where was I? Oh yes. I think we have way too much music in our program for the amount of rehearsal time we've had, and much of it has suffered as a result. And that's the extremely condensed version of the rant I alluded to in my second paragraph above. BUT, having said that, I still think the concert is going to be fun and go over pretty well.
Of course, if I don't find someone to watch Isaac during it, it'll all become moot. *sigh* I did ask![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
anotherjen and she said she'd babysit, but that was when I thought the concert was in the afternoon. D'oh! Serves me right for not paying attention. It turns out the damn thing STARTS at 7:30pm. Sigh. I hate leaving Isaac with babysitters late at night like that. It's nothing to do with the babysitter in question, I just don't like getting back after he's asleep, and spending the whole time worrying about whether he'll even be able to go to sleep in the charge of someone he isn't used to. And if I take him to Jen's, then I'll have to disturb him to get him home, which also sucks. Siiiiigh.
I feel like I could have written this entire post in a much more concise and coherent way, but I lack the brainpower. I feel very scattered today. Where am I?
The short version, I suppose, is that I've been getting increasingly frustrated with chorus due to all kinds of behind-the-scenes politics stuff (which I keep thinking about posting/ranting here but haven't because it would take too long to explain), and, as always happens, you're all disgruntled and pissy heading into rehearsal, but then you get there and start singing and it's all great and you love it. And then, if you're perverse little ole me, that makes you pissy all over again. ;)
Anyway, I still think the concert will probably suck, at least somewhat, because we haven't rehearsed enough and a lot of the music is shaky. But it will probably be pretty fun.
The concert is sort of a multicultural retelling of the Exodus story, with music from many genres: classical, jazz/gospel, spiritual, Jewish. Also there's dance and some narration to tie it all together. The first half of the concert consists of choruses from Handel's Israel in Egypt, which basically tells the story of the ten plagues and the Israelites' flight from Egypt. The second half is a bunch of shorter musical pieces, from the genres that I mentioned, all along the general theme of the Exodus, oppression of Jews by Egyptians, Pharaoh vs. Moses, and so forth. And then the whole thing concludes with the final chorus of Israel in Egypt, which is about how great G-d is for parting the Red Sea and letting the Jews escape.
Honestly, I'd be happy if we skipped almost everything on the program, and sang only two pieces: the one gospel-y Aretha Franklin song ("Oh Mary Don't You Weep" with a fantastic soloist), which is just super fun (especially since our chorus is a bunch of mostly middle-aged white chicks, LOL) and "He Watching Over Israel" by Felix Mendelssohn, from his Elijah. I adore both those pieces. I could sing the latter repeatedly for the three hours and be happy. It just has such great lyrics: "He watching over Israel slumbers not nor sleeps. Shouldst thou walking in grief languish, He will quicken thee." And with Mendelssohn's lush, Romantic-era melody and harmonies, OMG, it's to die for. (I mean, seriously, people! "Shouldst thou walking in grief languish"!!! If that ain't purple prose I don't know what is!)
Ahem, but anyway, where was I? Oh yes. I think we have way too much music in our program for the amount of rehearsal time we've had, and much of it has suffered as a result. And that's the extremely condensed version of the rant I alluded to in my second paragraph above. BUT, having said that, I still think the concert is going to be fun and go over pretty well.
Of course, if I don't find someone to watch Isaac during it, it'll all become moot. *sigh* I did ask
anotherjen and she said she'd babysit, but that was when I thought the concert was in the afternoon. D'oh! Serves me right for not paying attention. It turns out the damn thing STARTS at 7:30pm. Sigh. I hate leaving Isaac with babysitters late at night like that. It's nothing to do with the babysitter in question, I just don't like getting back after he's asleep, and spending the whole time worrying about whether he'll even be able to go to sleep in the charge of someone he isn't used to. And if I take him to Jen's, then I'll have to disturb him to get him home, which also sucks. Siiiiigh.I feel like I could have written this entire post in a much more concise and coherent way, but I lack the brainpower. I feel very scattered today. Where am I?
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no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 08:11 pm (UTC)I may call my friend M who has babysat a few times at my mom's place and gotten him to sleep once or twice. I dunno.