What's Next

I haven't written anything lately because not much is happening.

My vocal progress continues to solidify.  Like someone who's lost weight or gained muscle tone, I now have a totally new voice: about a minor third higher and 20 pounds lighter, but in no way smaller.  So this is really me.

I have not had much on the calendar.  On August 23 I will be singing both the "Laudamus te" from the Bach B Minor Mass and "Domine Deus" from the Vivaldi Gloria in both church services.  I feel liberated now with the new music director (the original choir director still leads the choir but the new director schedules solos) because I think he has a better understanding of how my voice sounds at its best.  Pianissimi are lovely, and I would love to be able to master singing them above a high A flat (now that I have those extra notes, I might as well play with them) but they are not for everything, and a big voice has its own splendor that goes way beyond that anathema of church music - singing loud.  Anyhow, this will be a big sing, albeit in a comfortable range, so I will need to stay quiet for part of Saturday which is usually my eldercare day.  It seems that fewer people are volunteering to sing stand alone solos because, for example, when I was at church last Sunday (to see friends visiting from Jerusalem) there was no vocal music at all.  The "Domine Deus" feels easier now that I am singing it with my real voice.

I also heard again from the filmmaker who wants me to sing the Bach aria in her film.  She can't afford to pay the accompanist until her grant money comes through, but things are moving ahead with the film, so I may do the recording in the Fall.  This was another pleasant surprise: the piece (despite my having had it transposed down - it is normally sung by high light sopranos like Natalie Dessay) is still in a high-ish tessitura (similar to that of Giovanna Seymour) and I used to struggle with it, enough so that I had planned to only record the "A" section once and dupe it for the reprise.  Now I am sure I can sing the piece all the way through and it felt quite comfortable.

In a funny way my voice feels like a sink that had been bunged up and now that obstruction is gone.  I referred to this as a "gag reflex".  I don't really know what else to call it.  It would kick in if I started to get tired or was singing in a high tessitura or tried to sing at all above a high A natural.  My teacher had said that the reason for all this is that cartilage and small muscles in the throat and palate are not flexible in older people and it takes much longer to train them.

I was also fishing around for something to sing at the September 11 concert if the woman who runs it will be having it again.  Any time she talks about vocal technique I want to scream (no pun intended) because she has no idea how big voices work, and her suggestions are much more counter-productive than those of the choir director, who at least only tells me to sing softly, not to sing sour spread vowels (in fact he always tells the less trained singers to make more space and darken their vowels).  But I like that she provides opportunities for people to sing and she is extremely knowledgeable about various matters of style.  Anyhow, previously I had never wanted to brave singing an aria in one of those concerts, but this time I thought I would take a look at Fenena's two page aria from Nabucco which is deceptively simple, but then has that deadly octave jump up to a high A, which is, if not pianissimo, at least supposed to sound smooth and lovely.  Well, that was 200% easier to sing than it was three years ago when I recorded it, also.  So maybe I will offer that, or Laura's aria, which I could sing in my sleep, and it is short.

So that's about it.  Nothing much else ever really happens.  I can't afford to go anywhere and can't leave my SO alone anyhow.  In 12 months I will be able to collect Social Security on top of what I make working part time, so maybe we can try to go to Maine again.