Missing My Cue

This weekend is our 3rd concert weekend of the season in the community choir I joined last fall. It's been a humbling experience; I believe I had a lot of potential that went underdeveloped because of the choices I made for myself in my youth. I skipped college, moved away from my parents as fast as I reasonably could, met the man of my dreams, married, worked, had children, etc. for 19 years. Then I found this choir that performs pieces from the great masters of the baroque and renaissance periods. I'm singing along side accomplished, if not slightly frustrated musicians who took the conventional academic route to meet up where we all are now. I'm blessed to have the best of both worlds: my family life and music too.

With the first measures we ever sang together last September, I knew I was way out of my league! I felt like I ought to get up from my seat in the alto section and politely apologize that, "I must have misunderstood you at the end of my audition, Mr. Director. I thought you said, 'Welcome, I think you would be a nice addition to our group,' when you must have actually said, 'Get out -- now.'"

There were a number of strikes against me: I'm a poor sight reader, I'm out of practice (singing well requires physical strength and stamina) and I don't read or speak German! But I somehow manage to muddle through by concert time. Sometimes it means there are whole measures or sections of movements that I must fake because I can't keep up, but I'm finding that being less and less of a problem as the season goes by.

Last night was dress rehearsal and we were short a few key people. The irony is that we sounded pretty good without them! The director commented introspectively, "Interesting." We weren't always right on target though; most of us missed our opening notes the first time we tried to perform Pachelbel's Christ lag in Todesbanden (Christ Lay in Grim Death's Prison). I don't know about any of the others, but I know why I was late: I was simply enthralled with the beauty of the 12 measures of instrumental introduction that preceed our first note. What a joy! I'm very excited about the performances this weekend.