What A Joy Is Learning 2
(Singing)
There are so many beautiful lines in music and we vocalise only the most beautiful for our exercises and warm up. Singing higher up, lower down step by step till it reaches the high B or Pavarotti’s high C and the low G or F, accompanied by an organ. A beautiful line of the Ave Maria of Mascagny is one of them. It’s so beautiful: mi-do(up)-mi-mi-re-si-la-sol-do-fa-la(down)-mi-re-do. We, who sing, exercise it and those who hear it would be charmed, captivated.
Then would I choose the most beautiful pieces for my choir. I don’t let me thwarted, be scared of an aria, opera, oratorio. If it were too high I could transpose it to a lower key. Were it too diffcult I could simplify the music score, were I to have too few singers I could have the women take the role of men by singing one octave lower or the men take the role of women by singing one octave higher. Or we just vocalise the music as ‘Songs Without Words nr. 1’ of Mendelsohn or ‘Air on the G String’ of Bach. We all would improve, enjoy, the church congregation too and we become all-round singers.
I never taught them to sing well, - how could I? – instead, it is the music that should sing well.
What a joy and happiness we’ve got. We could never outshine the professional choirs. Yet, we would climb up higher and still higher up the mountain, though with some ten not selected, musically uneducated, aged members of about 70 years.
July 2010
(Singing)
There are so many beautiful lines in music and we vocalise only the most beautiful for our exercises and warm up. Singing higher up, lower down step by step till it reaches the high B or Pavarotti’s high C and the low G or F, accompanied by an organ. A beautiful line of the Ave Maria of Mascagny is one of them. It’s so beautiful: mi-do(up)-mi-mi-re-si-la-sol-do-fa-la(down)-mi-re-do. We, who sing, exercise it and those who hear it would be charmed, captivated.
Then would I choose the most beautiful pieces for my choir. I don’t let me thwarted, be scared of an aria, opera, oratorio. If it were too high I could transpose it to a lower key. Were it too diffcult I could simplify the music score, were I to have too few singers I could have the women take the role of men by singing one octave lower or the men take the role of women by singing one octave higher. Or we just vocalise the music as ‘Songs Without Words nr. 1’ of Mendelsohn or ‘Air on the G String’ of Bach. We all would improve, enjoy, the church congregation too and we become all-round singers.
I never taught them to sing well, - how could I? – instead, it is the music that should sing well.
What a joy and happiness we’ve got. We could never outshine the professional choirs. Yet, we would climb up higher and still higher up the mountain, though with some ten not selected, musically uneducated, aged members of about 70 years.
July 2010
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