Glad to see the coffee is still on at the Table--though I don't drink coffee--rather gravitating to kids' drinks these days--Nesquik-which Jan tells me constantly can't rate as cocoa-- apple juice, grape juice, orange juice. And a lot of water.

Anyway, like some of the rest of you, I've had some great musical experiences lately. Things really worked out--and it was a near thing--could have been real frustrating.

As I said earlier, we in my group (of about 180) had to choose 1 of 2 concerts for the late winter-early spring. We split in half. I'm not a big fan of modern music (to put it mildly). So I picked the one with the pieces we had already done years ago-albeit 2 of the 3 were 20th century--Britten and Vaughn Willliams. At least I knew them.


After about 3 weeks of rehearsal, I found to my horror I had screwed myself up royally. The concert for my group was on the same weekend as an annual music weekend in West Virginia with a bunch of fellow folkies, singing country, bluegrass, parodies, Irish, doo-wop, gospel, and anything else. And really fun people. Among others Bill D and Rita go there--Rita organizes it.

But as Deirdre and some others have intimated, being in a chorus can be like being in another world. And you don't want to get tossed out of Paradise. Which may happen if you skip a concert without a real good reason. A folk weekend in WV just might not qualify.

So, three rehearsals in, I had to call our director and ask if I could could switch into the other concert (Tavener) (which only had 6 rehearsals to go)--doing the piece I had tried to avoid since it was a "North American premiere"--and when I hear "premiere" referring to classical music, I have an overwhelming urge to run the other way.

But our director OK'd it after all. And the other conductor--also our pianist--let me in also. Possibly since I was a known quantity to him, having just sung Porgy and Bess and before that a Family Christmas concert with him. And some other concerts--including an all a cappella concert last year.    And a recording of Latin American and African folk masses earlier, among other things.

Anyway, I now I was so glad to be allowed to sing the modern piece, since it meant I wouldn't miss the WV weekend.

Some of the singers wound up singing a drone (same note for pages and pages)--since Tavener has made the piece somewhat of a chant. When I got in, I felt--hey, no problem--give me the drone, I'll sing anything, just let me stay in so I can go to WV. But the guy next to me said he was having problems with his part. The general tonality was F but some singers would start on G and end on G. Not easy against the rest of the group and the orchestra all firmly in F. But I had noticed that even if you start on G and end on G you have to still realize the tonality is F. So when you hit an F, even in passing, you have to realize that's the tonic (home base) and orient yourself to that. When you do that , it's not so hard to sing the G to G part.

I hope I'm not boring you.

Anyway, it was great fun holding your own against the rest of the group. And I even got picked, as one of three out of 22, to sing the punctuation, at the end of each chapter, so to speak--"He wept over her" (in Greek--in fact most of our part was in Greek, and we had the president of our group, who happens to be Greek-American, coach us.

And the piece turned out to be a wonderful experience. It's Tavener's meditation on Jerusalem. It's amazing how an English composer managed to capture the atmosphere of the Middle East. He uses quotes from Matthew (Christian), from a Psalm (Jewish), and from Rumi, a very famous Arab poet (I found out). Jerusalem is not just the physical city, but a symbol of the perfection we all strive for and can never reach. It was a glorious experience--with gongs and other percussion, in addition to brass, strings and woodwinds. And a wonderfully smooth, yet emotional   countertenor--and I don't usually like countertenors. Tavener really evoked a Middle East atmosphere.

On top of that, of course, I was able to get to WV and had a spectacular time making music there. Up til 3 AM Saturday, 6 Sunday, and 2 on Monday. Saw some old friends I see rarely, and made some new friends. The viola harmonies were amazingly well appreciated. One duo even told me they wanted me on their next CD.

And Jan and I sang more duets than ever--we were lucky enough that her voice was in good shape despite the rough trip down there. We sang close harmony country songs and several people said we sounded really sweet.

So I've been remarkably lucky in all sorts of ways. And the Tavener wasn't just making lemonade out of lemons--it was a great opportunity.

Great to hear your Verdi went well, Deirdre, and that others' musical and other types of activities are proving so satisfying.