This morning I sang "Jesus is a Rock in a Weary Land" for the offeratory. The Director of Music Ministries picked it out for me. It was just something in the hymnal but after years of singing spirituals with the choir, I figured out a way to interpolate notes into the second and third verses including a high A flat and a chesty middle C, so I was able to showcase my big dramatic voice. And it got applause. After sitting through the beginning of the service, I can see why the Director picked that piece: the subject of God (or Jesus) as a Rock was the theme of the morning.
Now I will go back to working on my recital music. I am continuing to sing better and better (my voice is getting bigger, the top is easier, I have more stamina) but I probably don't practice as often. I am consumed with issues to do with my partner. Her dementia is getting worse. She got into a fight with the aide last night thinking the aide was trying to poison her, so she refused to take her pills. I had to stay on the phone with them for a half hour to get her to take her pills. I am still really living one day at a time. I have no idea what the future holds.
But there will be singing in it.
Sunday, August 27, 2017
Friday, August 11, 2017
Back to My Fach
Yesterday, I was engaging with someone on Facebook about my blog, after previously, a few days earlier, having read this article about one of my lifelong singing idols, whom if things were different I would move Heaven and earth to study with, and I realized that a post is long overdue.
Things with my partner have stabilized. I think she will make it to another Thanksgiving and probably Christmas and New Year's as well. She has a hospital bed. She is going to have Moh's surgery next week, and we have an ambulance reserved (it is the only way she can travel). We continue to enjoy snuggles and tv watching. Her dementia waxes and wanes.
My 67th birthday passed with pretty much nothing other than my partner "buying" me a Wimbledon towel. (This means she said I could use her credit card to buy it from their web site.) It was a lovely present. To me a "present" should be something you wouldn't buy for yourself. It doesn't need to be expensive, but it needs to feel like a luxury. Not business as usual. A friend sent me a check so I bought two ballet tickets. If I want entertainment, I go to the ballet. Going to the opera stirs up too much "compare and despair".
My recital program is set. I am not singing the Vivaldi aria that I mentioned in an earlier post; it would take too long to learn. But now that I know I love it, I plan to revisit it. I am going to sing "In Buddy's Eyes" from Follies. I will substitute my partner's name (which scans perfectly) for "Buddy". It is a song that has meaning for me. I may dedicate it (and "Vanilla Ice Cream") to Barbara Cook, who died this week.
My church solo (suggested by the Minister of Music) is taken from the hymnal: "Jesus is a Rock in a Weary Land". It looks quite simple, but if I interpolate some high notes and some low notes into the second and third verses (stylistically acceptable) I can sing it with my big dramatic voice.
Because I had been working on this spiritual, I was in a "dramatic mezzo" mode (which I can't be when I sing my recital music which is mostly light) so at my last lesson I took a crack at the dreaded page in Aida: "Chi ti salva sciagurato, etc." I aced the high B flat. I aced it at home the next day; with my tendancy to sing sharp when I sing a capella, the note was a B natural. I am singing up to a full voiced C every day. Maybe I can revisit some of that music, or maybe next year I will look at the French grand opera material I had been thinking of doing. Whatever is going on in my life, I'm a dramatic mezzo and this material is what I am meant to sing.
Things with my partner have stabilized. I think she will make it to another Thanksgiving and probably Christmas and New Year's as well. She has a hospital bed. She is going to have Moh's surgery next week, and we have an ambulance reserved (it is the only way she can travel). We continue to enjoy snuggles and tv watching. Her dementia waxes and wanes.
My 67th birthday passed with pretty much nothing other than my partner "buying" me a Wimbledon towel. (This means she said I could use her credit card to buy it from their web site.) It was a lovely present. To me a "present" should be something you wouldn't buy for yourself. It doesn't need to be expensive, but it needs to feel like a luxury. Not business as usual. A friend sent me a check so I bought two ballet tickets. If I want entertainment, I go to the ballet. Going to the opera stirs up too much "compare and despair".
My recital program is set. I am not singing the Vivaldi aria that I mentioned in an earlier post; it would take too long to learn. But now that I know I love it, I plan to revisit it. I am going to sing "In Buddy's Eyes" from Follies. I will substitute my partner's name (which scans perfectly) for "Buddy". It is a song that has meaning for me. I may dedicate it (and "Vanilla Ice Cream") to Barbara Cook, who died this week.
My church solo (suggested by the Minister of Music) is taken from the hymnal: "Jesus is a Rock in a Weary Land". It looks quite simple, but if I interpolate some high notes and some low notes into the second and third verses (stylistically acceptable) I can sing it with my big dramatic voice.
Because I had been working on this spiritual, I was in a "dramatic mezzo" mode (which I can't be when I sing my recital music which is mostly light) so at my last lesson I took a crack at the dreaded page in Aida: "Chi ti salva sciagurato, etc." I aced the high B flat. I aced it at home the next day; with my tendancy to sing sharp when I sing a capella, the note was a B natural. I am singing up to a full voiced C every day. Maybe I can revisit some of that music, or maybe next year I will look at the French grand opera material I had been thinking of doing. Whatever is going on in my life, I'm a dramatic mezzo and this material is what I am meant to sing.
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