Choral Singing

Since my Lana Turner moment of discovery at the age of 53 took place in a church, I have had a special spot in my heart for singing in a choir. This seems odd to most people since my parents were atheists. As a child I yearned for a religion and as an adult I found Unitarian Universalism which has as its tenet that God is one thing, and that Jesus was a great teacher and prophet, but not divine. They also believe that the jury is still out regarding whether or not there's an afterlife.

It's also odd that I love singing in a choir since I have a big voice that does not "blend" easily. Singers with operatic voices have to be very careful not to do things to "blend" that will scrunch and squeeze our voices into uncomfortable places. The deadliest of all is trying to sing "straight tone" like a boy soprano. Luckily, I sing in a Lutheran choir (Unitarian Universalist congregations rarely have a good classical music program) which goes for a more mature womanly sound. That being said, I still have to be careful not to blast out the windows.

As a mezzo-soprano, I am never sure which part I should be singing. I don't have light floaty high notes like a soprano but I don't want to be stuck below the staff a lot with the altos. Luckily, my choir sings a lot of pieces in eight parts which means I get to sing second soprano which is really what a mezzo-soprano is. I'm happiest not having to go above or below the staff too often.

What happened this evening was we were given a piece of music by Handel in four parts with a very high soprano part. Normally, I would have bitten the bullet and given it a shot (I have done well with the soprano parts in some of the Bach cantatas we've done, for example) but to sing it properly (without blasting out the windows or choking) I would have to sing it into my voice, and since the Sunday we would be singing this is two days after my auditions, I wouldn't have time to do that. And really, what would I rather do? Devote my energy to singing the Wagner and the Handel arias as well as I can or sing a soprano choral part? So I decided to take the path of least resistance and sing the alto choral part, which has a range of about six notes and will not drain my energy away from what I need to stay focused on. Part of me sees that as a failure, but that's silly.