BWV 248
Bach Werke Verzeichnis, aka the Weinachtsoratorium by JS Bach - this will be my buddy during the next two months of vacation.
Let me explain: last year, I stopped going to the girls' choir because they rehearse on Saturday afternoons and I just couldn't make it on time. But I really miss it - learning and working hard and singing pretty difficult pieces. The choir I'm still in mainly consists of people who've had very little musical training, and sometimes rehearsals can be a tad slow. So I started looking for a new challenge - and I found it a couple of weeks ago. One of the basses at choir 1 invited me to attend a rehearsal at his other choir, where they were a bit short on altos. And last Monday, I went there... and I loved it!
First, they made me do a voice test and I had to sing a bit straight from the page. Turns out I have a very lovely soprano voice (or so the conductor said - I managed to hit a high B flat without any problems), even if I've always sung alto. But because they've already got too many sopranos, I can still sing the difficult part - yay!
They're rehearsing for their interpretation of the Weinachtsoratorium, which will be performed around Christmas. You can imagine that, with only five months to go, they've already learned a lot and I have a lot of catching up to do. But I don't mind at all - I just sat there at the rehearsal and took it one note at a time. I absolutely adore Bach (I used to loathe him when I played his music on the piano, but the sheer clarity and complexity of it has grown on me) and they seem like a fun bunch, so I don't mind locking myself in a room with my piano and my sheet music for the best part of this summer. I'm really looking forward to the concerts!
And because it's all everybody can talk about these days: 23 hours until I get to see OotP!