High Note

Last night, I attended my first rehearsal with Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra.

From the moment I stepped into the room being used for singer registration, I was welcomed with friendly smiles and genuine excitement to have a new voice. I paid my dues, and for a Sac State parking pass, and retrieved my brand-new, shiny scores.

We will be performing some amazing pieces in our October concert--Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, (here is part 1, the most difficult of the three parts), Joseph Jongen's Mass Op. 130, and an arrangement of Let the people praise thee, O God arranged by William Mathias for the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer. Each piece is an example of 20th century music, with changing meters and difficult harmonies. The tonal center rarely stays in one place for very long, making it difficult for singers expecting notes to resolve a certain way.

The Bernstein, in particular, is going to be challenging. In the first nine bars of the first movement, the meter changes...nine times. That's right. The first nine bars all have different time signatures:

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Anyway, enough music geekery. Suffice it to say that I'm very excited to sink my teeth into these pieces, and I foresee quite a few hours of practicing with the practice CDs in my car ahead. We're singing in three different languages for this concert--Hebrew, Latin and English. The Latin is easy enough--I've sung Latin so many times that sometimes I feel like I speak it--but the Hebrew is going to be a challenge.

The best part of last night, however, wasn't just that there is fantastic music and a smiling, welcoming group of 160 singers. The best part was that the new singers all had to stand and introduce themselves. I mentioned that I am "one of the gazillions of unemployed California music teachers." Two ladies said, "Talk to me!" So I made two fantastic connections last night, both in a local school district. I had a good, long chat with one after rehearsal and I'm very excited to get to know some other music educators in the area. She actually went through the music ed program with my high school music teacher!

Our director is delightful--I can tell that he will demand excellence, but always with a smile on his face.

I'm so glad I made the point of joining right away--I knew, when I left Chorale, that it was essential to continue singing, and to be among other musicians making connections and having that creative outlet. I can tell I will enjoy my time in SCSO, and can't wait for more.