Catching up, part I
Marcus left on Monday afternoon, by which stage I was coming down with tonsillitis. I managed to get an appointment at the doctor's for that very same day and the penicillin I'm taking is fast getting the upper hand, so now it's sheer laziness that prevents me from blogging, not to mention how much I've to say about the last five or so days.
Incredible though it may seem, Marcus and I had never met face-to-face until Thursday; we've been chatting online and over the phone for a good two-and-a-half years but until now had never managed to be in the same place at the same time. It was hearing how bored he was spending the summer months at home which led me to suggest he take part in Spem in alium, little realising that I'd've hit the jackpot by mentioning The death of Klinghoffer receiving its British première at the Festival. Luckily his internet surfing led him to find this out for himself and our plans to meet finally started taking shape.
Thursday itself didn't leave us much time to get properly acquainted: he came to the shop just as I was about to finish my shift, with barely two hours to go until choir rehearsal, so we rushed home and I got cooking so our stomachs wouldn't rumble later on. Perhaps if this hadn't been our first time of meeting our conversation wouldn't have proved so distracting, but even so we were late arriving at the rehearsal.
We had a very brief look at the music for Sunday's eucharist and mattins, the latter including Gibbons' Hosanna to the Son of David, a favourite of mine since singing as a treble, so I was delighted to be asked to sing the second tenor solo with which the piece opens, despite some misgivings as I knew I was down to work on Sunday but still entertained hopes of getting out of it. Not surprisingly, the focus was to be on the evensong music, the infamous Tallis and canticles by Gabrieli and Palestrina, the latter two each being written for twelve voices.
We started off with Spem, our conductor pointing out it was best not to leave it till last, which first meant an enormous game of musical chairs as we all found the right place to sit (pretty well essential in a piece written for eight choirs). Then we were off ...
The notes themselves aren't especially challenging, as many of us had found looking over the music beforehand. It's more a matter of keeping track of the beat as there are loads of syncopations, and what with the number of voices, only at key points does everyone sing at once, so there was heaps of manic counting during the rests. It was something of a mess at first, not that surprisingly, but by the end of the rehearsal it felt as though we might have a chance of pulling it off. (The Gabrieli and Palestrina were much more evident and, to be honest, not half as interesting.)
As ever, a number of us repaired to the kitchen beneath the church for drinks afterwards, where conversation inevitably revolved around the music we'd just attempted, though it struck me for the first time how much medicine and health also came up - which was just as well, Marcus being a medical student and thus giving him something to contribute when we weren't all discussing church-related matters.
More discussion back home, and thence to bed. Heaps to get done on Friday, not least holding a small party in the evening so that Peter and Rob could meet Marcus and, perhaps more significantly, my date ...
Incredible though it may seem, Marcus and I had never met face-to-face until Thursday; we've been chatting online and over the phone for a good two-and-a-half years but until now had never managed to be in the same place at the same time. It was hearing how bored he was spending the summer months at home which led me to suggest he take part in Spem in alium, little realising that I'd've hit the jackpot by mentioning The death of Klinghoffer receiving its British première at the Festival. Luckily his internet surfing led him to find this out for himself and our plans to meet finally started taking shape.
Thursday itself didn't leave us much time to get properly acquainted: he came to the shop just as I was about to finish my shift, with barely two hours to go until choir rehearsal, so we rushed home and I got cooking so our stomachs wouldn't rumble later on. Perhaps if this hadn't been our first time of meeting our conversation wouldn't have proved so distracting, but even so we were late arriving at the rehearsal.
We had a very brief look at the music for Sunday's eucharist and mattins, the latter including Gibbons' Hosanna to the Son of David, a favourite of mine since singing as a treble, so I was delighted to be asked to sing the second tenor solo with which the piece opens, despite some misgivings as I knew I was down to work on Sunday but still entertained hopes of getting out of it. Not surprisingly, the focus was to be on the evensong music, the infamous Tallis and canticles by Gabrieli and Palestrina, the latter two each being written for twelve voices.
We started off with Spem, our conductor pointing out it was best not to leave it till last, which first meant an enormous game of musical chairs as we all found the right place to sit (pretty well essential in a piece written for eight choirs). Then we were off ...
The notes themselves aren't especially challenging, as many of us had found looking over the music beforehand. It's more a matter of keeping track of the beat as there are loads of syncopations, and what with the number of voices, only at key points does everyone sing at once, so there was heaps of manic counting during the rests. It was something of a mess at first, not that surprisingly, but by the end of the rehearsal it felt as though we might have a chance of pulling it off. (The Gabrieli and Palestrina were much more evident and, to be honest, not half as interesting.)
As ever, a number of us repaired to the kitchen beneath the church for drinks afterwards, where conversation inevitably revolved around the music we'd just attempted, though it struck me for the first time how much medicine and health also came up - which was just as well, Marcus being a medical student and thus giving him something to contribute when we weren't all discussing church-related matters.
More discussion back home, and thence to bed. Heaps to get done on Friday, not least holding a small party in the evening so that Peter and Rob could meet Marcus and, perhaps more significantly, my date ...
posted by Anthony at
07:30
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