Part 2
I really enjoyed the first part of choir season, plenty of challenge as our first piece was entirely foreign to me both musically and lyrically.
Der liebeslieder waltzes - Johannes Brahms
It forced me to restore my sight reading in a big hurry, and learn German phonetically.
I bookmarked a YouTube quartet version
as it was easier to pick out the tenor parts vs the choral version I got on iTunes, which seemed to be soprano-dominated.
As I drove around listening to it and absorbed it in repeated iPod-headphone sessions the gorgeous melodic structure unfolded in my mind in a very satisfying way.
A layman's observation: classical music is less rooted in repetition, melodic simplicity or metric reliability than pop and rock. This made it much less easy to "latch onto." The rote memorization techniques I relied upon my whole life that allowed me to hear a song once or twice and know it by heart were useless.
It is a suite of love songs with some (reputedly) slightly scandalous inspirations behind it.
Each movement is based on a poem, with the melodies strongly portraying the lyrical narrative. Brahms was impressionistically painting with sound while also flaunting and toying with some very masterful composition techniques he'd absorbed from his influencers.
As I said, very satisfying both for the mind and the heart.
Getting know this piece took a considerable investment of listening, learning and attention.
Then there was the matter of attempting to reproduce it in a way that did it justice...
I recorded myself singing through it quietly at the dinner table - HORRIBLE
Listening back to that completely crushed my confidence in my singing ability and I almost gave up the whole endeavor.
More practice, strict, formal rehearsal sessions applying the techniques I had been taught in vocal exercises and it started to get better. One thing I noticed was that running through the piece with the iTunes choral version required a full-blast commitment because singing the high head voice passages in light falsetto sounded like Mickey Mouse and made for bad pitch all around. It takes a constant application of breath to stay on key, even more so in the quiet passages. Exhausting.
Fast forward to debut night at a lovely church in Oakland, I felt ready, I was invisible in the back so no one would notice if I flubbed a word or two. You've got to really have stuff memorized because even though you are holding your music book, you really need to watch the conductor and project toward the audience, surprising how much you forget once nerves intercept.
I sang pretty good but my voice surprised me and cracked in some spots, it never, ever did that in practice. My guess is your trying harder, pushing a little more and probably drying out the 'old vocal cords as a result.
The bummer part? The Oakland chorus performs it once and then never goes back to it again until maybe in another season. I'm used to continually cultivating and improving a repertoire, not here!
So, that really chapped my hide.
To be continued, maybe.
Part 1
I've long been fascinated by classical singing technique, opera and musical theater.
In Seattle I studied under the Maestro Dave Kyle for a year and it improved my singing by leaps and bounds.
I decided to put some renewed focus on strengthening my "academic" singing.
So I took back up with an excellent voice instructor in my area - Victoria Rapanan
A few months ago.
Initially with a goal to sing the role of Jean Valjean from Les Miserables
What can I say? I saw the movie and got fired up - it was the first musical I saw on Broadway and made a big impression on me.
(another secret - not anymore -goal of mine, to get into a local production of that musical)
Jean Valjean is pretty high on the tenor scale - but I can do a pretty good Javert, so I worked on the song "stars"
Fast forward a couple months, I was looking for choirs to get into because it's great practice. I was working on my lesson stuff, but you kinda need a weekly workout to build stamina.
San Francisco had pretty stringent sight-reading requirements and I'm a LOUSY music reader, my ear always dominates the internal processing.
So I found the Oakland Symphonic Chorus, went to an audition, did my Les Mis song and passed the audition!
I think this will be an interesting change from all the Rock and Acoustic stuff I've done lately.
I will update this blog with calendar and observations as I embark on this new journey.
My EP "Nocturne" is still pending, I just need to make time to master the songs and put them on itunes. Heck it's only been 8 years since the last CD!
peace, love and music,
Kevin
