Looking Up-ish

I feel I owe it to readers to let you know that things don't look quite as bleak as they did on January 2, despite the murderous cold.

I went back to choir practice yesterday (over my partner's screaming objections; she thought I should stay home because of the weather) and it was less ire-provoking than I feared.  Yes, we are singing yet another spiritual by Moses Hogan that is all about a high soprano showing off, with a few nice bits for men, and women with lower voices doing nothing but singing the same two or three notes over and over again, but we are also singing two pieces that I really like.

I have to make clear that my utter loathing of Hogan's choral works has nothing to do with race or musical snobbery and everything to do with being sick of women with lower voices being treated like second class citizens.  Didn't the man ever listen to Marian Anderson?

Anyhow, as we are supposed to sing the piece in two weeks, little Miss will no doubt show up on the Sunday (she is not available on Wednesday nights any more, which makes her look even more like a prima donna, although I know that is not why she is doing it) and sing the solo (which overrides the entire piece).

Now that we have the schedule for Epiphany I contacted the Director about singing the Nin song in the Spanish service and I listed Martin Luther King Sunday as one of the dates I was available (the other being February 1 when our choir is not singing).  Then either I can be excused from singing that piece altogether or I can just grunt my way through it (all it requires; I think the range for the second sopranos goes from middle C to the D toward the top of the staff, and there are no opportunities for lovely sustained singing for us) knowing that I will have something to look forward to, as the Spanish service is afterwards, at 12:30.

We are singing two pieces that I like.  One, called "Adam Lay Ybounden" has some nice climactic "high" singing for the sopranos (meaning Gs, which are easy for me) and the other, Dominic Argento's "Gloria" will have something really special for me. I took a look at it and offered to sing the top alto part (it has four women's parts), which regularly goes up to an E and an F sharp.  Also the altos do a lot of singing on their own as a group, so that is a venue in which I can shine and sing with my glorious big mezzo voice in a range that is not limited to my lower passaggio break and below (where most alto parts sit), but in fact sits mostly between the middle and the top of the staff where my voice is the strongest and I find it easiest to sing.  And the sopranos often sing all together, often in a high range with words.  It makes sense that for this piece the ranges are higher than for most choral pieces, because it apparently is from an opera called The Masque of Angels (which I had never heard of). If I sing in an opera chorus I would be singing the top line on the alto staff, because opera chorus parts more accurately mirror opera voice fachs.  (I also see that there is a mezzo role in the opera.  I am going to see if she has an aria.)

Anyhow, so this has cheered me up quite a bit.

I also had a fabulous voice lesson Tuesday despite having had a bad asthma attack that day.  My teacher said that the high As and B flats I sang in my lesson were the best he had ever heard.  And Seymour is going like gangbusters.  I have to make a mental note to sing like that always, including with the choir, unless I am singing something marked pianissimo.

And we have a pianist for our May concert: the pianist who played for Carmen.  I think after the concert is over I am going to work on finding another venue for that Carmen piece.  It has legs, I really believe it does, and it is relatively short.  I just have to find audiences other than the kind of people who go to hear music at Lincoln Center or Juilliard all the time.

Lastly, I think the weather is looking good for next Thursday, which is when my partner and I are supposed to go be evaluated for the Alzheimer's chorus.  I have no idea what, if anything, will come of that, but we will see.