my first performance in thirty years

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 25 Mar 24 - 11:08 AM

The next program for the chorus I sing with is
Anton Bruckner's Mass no. 3 in f minor,
which is a massive undertaking.
We are rehearsing it now and it is very difficult, moreover it is long.
At least the text is Latin,
as opposed to last year's Brahms which was all in German.

And my hair used to be auburn-red, since you ask, paperback.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 25 Mar 24 - 08:56 AM

Are you Black Irish, keberoxu? They're known to go prematurely gray. It's not so bad, at least people hold the door for you ( - :

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: The Sandman
Date: 25 Mar 24 - 05:07 AM

well done, it is important to keep at it if you can, if one doesnt then the nerves can take over for a lot of people, and it becomes harder the longer the person doesnt do it

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Mar 24 - 09:12 PM

It is a nice performance, given a little time it lets you watch it as a spectator, not remembering standing there. And there are several caps of white hair in that group.

What will you be singing next?

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 24 Mar 24 - 07:24 PM

Very late response to Stilly's question,
if I could see myself in the concert video,
because I just now reviewed the video myself.
I am visible because I have this cap of short white hair
surrounded by women in solid black dresses.
The white hair really stands out -- like a fake wig or something!

And, you know, we really did sound good.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,paperback
Date: 05 Jul 23 - 01:11 PM

What a nice looking group

Tea & Melba Toast, please

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Jul 23 - 11:53 PM

This is your performance link. The Brahms Requiem. Nice sound in the video; did you like the acoustics? The camera pans the chorus at this point; do you see yourself? (You don't need to point yourself out.)

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 04 Jul 23 - 07:45 PM

I seem to have forgotten how to make blickies. However,

my amateur group, the Berkshire Lyric Chorus,
has its own YouTube channel,
where you can hear our concert this year
as well as videos of concerts from several previous years.


https://www.youtube.com/@berkshirelyric1600

---

Link added. ---mudelf

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 25 Jun 23 - 09:36 PM

I'll second that

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jun 23 - 09:26 PM

Too bad about that drummer! It sounds like a lot of work, but it also sounds like time well spent.

Let us know when the video is released, please!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Jun 23 - 07:15 PM

The chorus director and I see each other at least weekly,
he comes and provides music in the place where I am staying these days.

So he and I have reviewed the performance,
as people do who have been thick in the battle of it.
There were many things that pleased the director.

But he has some justified animus towards the tympani player.
The stage was so crowded that the tympani had to be positioned,
not on the same level as the rest of the orchestra,
but on a platform well above them, where the drums were clearly heard.

And in spite of the director's constant signals to play more softly,
the tympani player kept a big ****-eating grin on his face
and played as loudly as ever.
It was so bad that a flock of singers in the alto section,
unfortunately positioned right next to the tympani,
abandoned their posts in order to move back and center,
away from the drums, where they could hear themselves think if not sing.

I believe there will be a video online at some point of the concert,
but it is in production this month, if I heard right.

I miss those weekly chorus rehearsals,
but I am glad the performance is over!
The chorus does not meet again until September,
when we start rehearsing the annual Christmas concert.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 06 Jun 23 - 06:10 AM

as person with chronic lower back & leg pain, I salute you! In the 90s a friend sang in classical choir with an injured foot which she propped on a brick or something to lift it up.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: JennieG
Date: 06 Jun 23 - 12:29 AM

Well done, keberoxu - you certainly earned the hot chocolate and the collapse after that!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 05 Jun 23 - 06:40 PM

Well, the Brahms Requiem has been performed. It was yesterday.
The day was very cold for the first Sunday in June,
and some of us turned up wearing winter coats over our concert blacks.
But at least there was no rain, and the sun came out.

The performance went very well, I think.
It's hard to tell how it actually sounds when you are in the thick of it.
We choristers were behind the orchestra, and
the orchestra was facing away from us, toward the audience.
So we literally did not hear what the audience heard.
But what I could hear sounded good.

I can't say it was a transporting experience for me.
No, I was working hard the whole time,
more perspiration than inspiration, for certain.
Watching the conductor's baton, glancing at the musical score and turning pages,
taking deep breaths in the right places,
spitting out all that German diction . . .
in the meantime the soles of my feet went somewhat numb
from standing for the better part of forty-five minutes
before there was a place where the chorus could sit down for a time.

The hall had a few empty seats but it was largely filled, and it's a large hall.
So we had a good turnout, and we were warmly applauded,
you can't ask for more from the audience
(they listened very attentively, with no disruptions).

Afterwards I met up with a dear friend
and we went out for cups of hot chocolate at a nearby cafe.

Then I went home and collapsed!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 03 Jun 23 - 10:49 PM

I'm glad you got to hear the chorus with the orchestra - when there's an audience it will be more exhilarating. Enjoy the experience!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 03 Jun 23 - 06:46 PM

Last night we had our final rehearsal, which was long and tiring,
my energy flagging the whole time.

Then when rehearsal ended and we headed from the concert hall for our parked cars,
the heavens opened up and the rain absolutely poured down.
The rain was in the forecast, so I had come prepared (umbrella, waterproof footwear),
but many of my fellow chorus members were totally unprepared for rain.

It had been such a hot day -- triggering these thunderstorms --
and the road pavements were steaming in the rain, looked like fog.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 01 Jun 23 - 04:36 PM

We had our first rehearsal in the concert hall, with the orchestra.
Nobody warned us that the hall would have the air-conditioning and the fan going the whole time.
It was so cold and drafty in there!
I was thankful that I had brought a jacket and worn shoes and socks,
even though the daytime had had sandals temperatures.

The orchestra is in front of the chorus,
and the conductor is in front of the orchestra --
so there is a distance onstage between conductor and chorus.
That was enough to disorient some of the chorus members,
who are used to being up close and personal.

The Brahms Requiem sounds so beautiful with the orchestra!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 May 23 - 09:49 PM

Keb, a friend of mine in New York City loved to sing with groups. He was active with at least one barbershop quartet. We were both park rangers at Ellis Island, and one day he came out with his group and the stood on the balcony of the Great Hall and sang a couple of songs. The acoustics were amazing! Brooklyn has a robust Norwegian population and he also performed with a Norwegian male choir. In my part of the Puget Sound where many Scandinavians settled there were lots of these groups, and I heard a few as a kid. I went to a concert Joe performed in and it was like seeing all of my cousins and great uncles there on stage - tall, thin, pale Norwegian men. The fact that my friend was a fairly brown skinned, black haired Italian meant that he was the raisin in the oatmeal up there. And after the concert he said they surprised him by listing a song he hadn't practices, so he did the lip sync thing the whole time. We wouldn't have known if he didn't tell us.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Helen
Date: 25 May 23 - 07:22 PM

And keberoxu, I hope your performance goes well. Even the lip-syncing.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Helen
Date: 25 May 23 - 07:20 PM

Sandra, we recently bought a new musical washing machine too. It's kinda fun.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 May 23 - 07:13 PM

The same amateur chorus, with which I performed on the weekend of St. Patrick's Day with the Irish theme,
is performing in the next ten days.

This time it is "ein Deutsches Requiem" by Brahms, with soloists and a very full orchestra. So full, in fact, that the chorus director has a little anxiety about the chorus not being full enough to match. A bigger chorus would be more standard towards a performance of this piece. But we are going to attempt it anyway. The performance will be on a Sunday afternoon, the first Sunday in June, and although the performance is indoors, I am hoping that the weather will cooperate.

I'm having to pace myself carefully in rehearsing the Brahms and most probably in the performance to come.
For one thing, I don't have the high notes that I used to have, and I am singing second soprano.
There are places where I simply lip-sync and let the other second sopranos carry the line without me. It's a dirty trick, but it works.
The Brahms Requiem is seven movements long and lasts over one hour.
So I feel justified in doing whatever I have to in order to not burn out my singing voice.

This coming week, we will have a piano rehearsal on Memorial Day evening, and then there will be rehearsals every other day, two of them with the orchestra; the performance is two days after the last rehearsal.

I hope the experience is a happy one. There is good reason to be hopeful of this. It's still a big undertaking and if I am honest, I have a little fear about how all of us are going to get through it.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Mar 23 - 09:56 PM

Good on you Keb.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 08:38 AM

my washing machine just BEEPS, but as it's dying I might look for a new one that plays music!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,Mark
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 05:55 AM

I'm a little late to the party.

First, congratulations on finding some rewarding outlets for your talents. Long may it continue. I'm much the same age as you and rather frustrated at the moment that I don't have such an outlet.

Then two things about the "Trout".
1) Many years ago I took my eldest son to one of Hilary James' and Simon Mayor's "Musical Mystery Tour" shows, and after that all my children got great pleasure from their cassettes (I said it was many years ago). One cassette included this wonderful treatment of the "Trout Quintet" with non-Schubertian lyrics The Slippery Slimy Trout - hopefully some others will also enjoy it.

2) More recently we got a Samsung Washing Machine and also a Tumble Drier from the same manufacturer. When they finish a cycle, they play a short burst of the "Trout" which always makes me laugh and break into Simon's song...

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 20 Mar 23 - 03:29 AM

I'll second that!!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: leeneia
Date: 19 Mar 23 - 11:36 PM

It sounds like a wonderful concert, keb. We are all proud of you.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: JennieG
Date: 19 Mar 23 - 09:11 PM

Sounds like a great concert - well done you, and well done to all the performers!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Mar 23 - 09:03 PM

Sounds beautiful!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 19 Mar 23 - 06:06 PM

Well, both performances are over,
and both were sung to a packed house, with more people than seats,
some were standing along the wall.
The audience applauded warmly and participated in the singalong part.
The experience was fulfilling yet tiring.

Of interest to Mudcatters:
the teenage girls' chorus sang "The Parting Glass"
in an arrangement by the Wailin' Jennys (three-part harmony).

The skits and jokes went down well also.
One of the funny songs was
"Who Put the Overalls in Mrs. Murphy's Chowder?"
THe children's chorus sang that one,
along with the Unicorn song.

Good grief, I almost printed Unicron song -- pandemic misspelling.

Speaking of pandemic:
THis event would be considered a super-spreader,
packed to the walls as the hall was.
I don't know the auditorium's capacity,
it was of course on the small side.
Only a handful of people, mostly older people, wore facemasks;
the rest savored their liberty from facemasks, plainly.

The adult chorus sang:
Deep Peace
Salley Gardens
Danny Boy
Black is the Color of my True Love's Hair
A Gaelic Good Night (an Irish room blessing)

And the dance-school troupe of student Irish step-dancers
brought the house down.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Mar 23 - 10:58 PM

Please report back and tell us how it went. And if someone records for Facebook or posts it on YouTube, a link would be lovely!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 16 Mar 23 - 06:34 PM

you are living in Interesting Times ...

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,keberoxu
Date: 16 Mar 23 - 06:14 PM

The chorus which I joined is participating this weekend
in a variety show spotlighting all things Irish and Irish-American,
a matinee appropriate for the whole family.

That means there will be some groaners amongst the jokes and skits.
The chorus, however, will open and close the show.

In between are two other choruses, one a children's group,
and an Irish dancing troupe.

ON both Saturday and Sunday, the show begins at 3 pm.
And nobody knows, as yet,
how long the whole thing will take.

We'll find out when we perform it.

Saturday we have a 1:30 pm call, as we will be part of a final rehearsal.

I have a funny feeling it is going to be chaotic.
Better that than boring, I suppose . . .

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: JennieG
Date: 11 Feb 23 - 11:34 PM

Good for you, Keb! Keep us informed of progress.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,Beachcomber
Date: 11 Feb 23 - 06:15 PM

Delighted to hear that your rehearsals and the "Opening night" went so well Kerberoxu. I'm also not surprised to find that one of your obvious determination is a woman. Good luck to you.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Feb 23 - 10:56 AM

The rehearsal, regardless, went well enough and
the group sounds promising.

That's what any of us hopes for! You've landed in the right place at the right time.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Feb 23 - 09:28 AM

Thanks for asking.
I am a sixty-five-year-old woman.
The year I went off to university as a freshman was 1975.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,Beachcomber
Date: 10 Feb 23 - 08:02 PM

From your writing, Keberoxu, you sound like a remarkable man, and an accomplished musician. I wonder what age you are ?

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Mo the caller
Date: 10 Feb 23 - 12:49 PM

Not an easy piece. We sang it last year. Good when you get into it though. And never having learned German didn't help.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: GUEST,Dick Miles
Date: 10 Feb 23 - 02:29 AM

well done may you have many more

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Feb 23 - 12:47 AM

good on you! you have lots of time to get comfortable

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Feb 23 - 05:01 PM

Transition to: my first choral singing in forty-five years.

I just joined the Berkshire Lyric Chorus.
They are preparing Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem (German Requiem)
which is a big piece and they will need MANY voices.

Three days ago I attended the first rehearsal for the new year.
My anxiety and nerves were really intense, I surprised myself.
I did so much choral singing at university that I thought it would go easily.

The rehearsal, regardless, went well enough and
the group sounds promising.
The Brahms concert is scheduled for 4 June, it is now February.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: leeneia
Date: 01 Oct 20 - 01:52 PM

I'm glad to hear you are still playing. I, in the meantime, have got my dulcimer out of its case and started playing again. It's addictive; I tell myself it's time for bed, but it won't hurt me to play just one more song.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 30 Sep 20 - 03:12 PM

Actually, I am coming to think of
Movements I and V of the Trout Quintet
as the "bookend" movements,
which prop up
the most tuneful movements which happen in the middle.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 27 Sep 20 - 03:40 PM

The late pianist Emil Gilels, with the Amadeus Quartet,
in their Deutsche Grammophon studio recording of
the second and third movements of
Schubert's Trout Quintet --

the movements referenced in the previous post.


D. 667, movement II: Andante

D. 667, movement II: Scherzo and Trio

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Sep 20 - 06:22 PM

Before month's end, our Trout Trio reunited in a practice room
(with a spinet, not a grand piano --
the night was chilly, and that room was not as cold)
in order to read through some stuff together.

By this time I had actually ordered, and had delivered,
a decent edition score of Schubert's entire Trout Quintet.
I looked over the remaining four movements.
With a violin, as a Trout Quartet,
we could have faked our way through all five movements.
Without a violin, well ... actually
there were two additional movements that we could get away with.

The opening movement and the final (fifth) movement
absolutely require the violin part, so we left those alone.
But our Trout Trio, moving on from the Theme and Variations,
read through the
Scherzo with its attached Trio (the quickest and lightest of all the movements),
and Movement Two, an Andante something or other.
That second movement was the interesting thing.
The violin actually has relatively little to do;
I was able to play the violin part, where it was essential,
with my right hand at the piano keyboard.
In a couple of spots in the second movement,
the viola and the cello (the rest of the Trout Trio here)
have a soulful duet melody,
while the violin, the string bass, and the piano
turn into a rhythm section.

It was only a read-through, but it was a lot of fun.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 11:49 AM

I have opened a music thread for the
"Geistliches Wiegenlied" which is
Opus 91, no. 2, by Johannes Brahms.
It is of interest in itself because it is not
a typical art song/German 'Lied' with
a text by a German poet, set to music.

For this song, Brahms helped himself to two different traditions.
For the singer, he set to music a German translation of
a Spanish lyric, from about 1600 A.D.,
of a lullaby to be sung by the Virgin Mary;
it makes no mention of Joseph, but begs the winds in the trees
to stop making so much rustling noises,
that the baby Jesus may not be awakened from slumber.

Now, when Brahms encountered the German-language translated text,
it reminded him of a German Christmas carol, which DOES mention:
"Joseph, lieber Joseph mein ..."
and features the Virgin Mary asking Joseph
to help her rock the baby Jesus to sleep.
Rather than combine the two texts,
composer Brahms borrowed the melody at the beginning of the German carol,
which is played by the viola as a counterpart
to the singer's melody and text.

I thought the song merited its own thread.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 09 Sep 20 - 08:42 PM

This month we are moving on to Brahms.
We are now looking at Brahms' Opus 91,
in which two songs for voice and piano were in fact composed
to be performed with viola as well, hence informally
they are sometimes called the viola lieder.

The first song is a setting of Friedrich Rückert
describing a beautiful sunset/evening scene.
The second is a German translation of a Spanish lyric
which is for the infant Jesus,
a lullaby sung by the Blessed Mother.

Because Brahms uses a tune --
"Josef lieber Josef mein" -- from traditional music,
the lullaby is easier and more accessible.
The Rückert setting, while very beautiful,
really tests the viola player, as that part
is enormously complex and sophisticated --
it's murder for the violist to sight-read, which
my colleague was doing last night, poor thing.

But both songs are brief and tuneful, and if we ever get them
up to performance speed, and perform them for our fellow patients,
I suspect they will go over well.

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: JennieG
Date: 26 Aug 20 - 02:08 AM

I have been remiss in adding my congratulations - so, well done!

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: keberoxu
Date: 25 Aug 20 - 09:25 PM

About that Shostakovich prelude,
perhaps you would care to hear what the composer actually wrote.
The little piece is scored for
two violins and piano;

what we performed was a (re)arrangement
where the piano part is the same, but the strings are
viola and cello,
so in some places the melodies go an octave lower than in the original.

Shostakovich Prelude (by way of Macedonia -- good on them!)

Subject: RE: my first performance in thirty years
From: open mike
Date: 23 Aug 20 - 01:31 AM

the healing power of music!!! therapeutic for all!