Wednesday, February 20, 2008, 06:24 AM - Church Stuff
It was really nice at choir last night. We had our somewhat-belated Valentines Day choir party (we had bad weather last week, so practice got cancelled). Of course, Thistle always likes choir practicel most of my ability to play handbells comes from him :) He played one of the pieces we practiced, although Joan is the only on in choir observant enough to detect his presence (probably a good thing, since it would get tiresome explaining that whole dissociative / changeling / angel thing to the solids, heh heh).
We had some snacky things like chocolate strawberries and biscotti, and we set up a video player so we could watch "The Vicar of Dibly". And Doug came to the party! Yay!!! He really likes my chuch, since we're pretty liberal and have this crazy notion that God actually loves the people/entities he has created. Oh... Doug and Joan really get along well. I'm so glad, since Joan is my best friend in choir. I gave her a cameo appearance in chapters 51 and 52, hee hee!
Oh... and it was day 7 being meat-free. Only 23 more days until I can cal myself a vegetarian!
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( 3.1 / 1276 )Sunday, April 9, 2006, 06:43 PM - Church Stuff
Everyone at church, myself included, really likes the Choir Master. She's a classically trained musician with a masters' degree fromthe Peabody Institute. She was also a child prodigy who learned how to play the piano at age 5. She's of good, solid German stock, which naturally makes her a perfectionist. Most of the time, that is a GOOD thing. Around the Christian High Holy Days, it can be a real drag.
the problem comes from the fact that she sort of forgets that we are an amative choir that are volunteers and have no formal music training. With that in consideration, we are probably the BEST unpaid/ non-professional choir in Maryland. A big part of our success is her leadership. That said, she has the habit of assigning music for us to learn that is beyond our skill level to play. We practice and practice and practice. Then the Choir Master starts getting edgy and nervous when it starts looking like we won't get the piece correct before we have to play it for REAL.
Today was Palm Sunday, and I had three pieces of music thatwere pretty much beyond our skill level. One was a handbell piece in which she spliced two really difficult compositions together to makeone excruciatingly difficult assignment. My part included ELEVEN bells! Then there were two vocal pieces - one in Greek and one in Latin. The tenor set was above the staff about 75 % of the time, and I felt like I had been strangled by the time we finished singing.
The GOOD news is that we pulled it off somehow at the last minute. The only time we got it right was when we had to do it for real. This means that we didn't look like idiots. The bad news is that the Choir Master will up the ante even higher when Christmas comes around! Aieeee!
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( 2.9 / 1044 )Wednesday, April 5, 2006, 06:07 PM - Church Stuff
Tuesday evenings are always for because I have handbill choir practice at church. The bells at the church are really cool: Malmark brass, with five octaves (ranks 3-7). I usually ring the bass bells (octaves 3 and 4). These are REALLY big bells. The biggest, C3, actually takes two hands to ring.
Since we have Palm Sunday and Easter on the next two Sundays, we've been doing a lot of practicing. I have one assignment that involves six bells!
A guess we'll find out soon if the practice sessions will come to fruition!
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