For he is like a refiner's fire.
I'm tired but happy, and so am sitting at home resting, dahling.
The Brickhills Messiah went astonishingly well, and it's been recorded, and I've been told I get to play with the .wavs before anyone else. Anyone care to help me find a decent freeware editing suite? I'm going to edit it, isolate the good bits, stick them up on a corner of my webspace, and LJ them.
This year, my aim was to concentrate particularly hard on light and shade, and getting the sentiments of each individual piece across; the Baroque aria, after all, is essentially the depiction of one specific emotional state. So But who may abide was understated in the siciliana bits, and then went to full afterburner for the double-time For he is like a refiner's fire and my usual extended visit to the top line of the treble stave in the cadenza. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion bounced along optimistically, and Rupert and I played off each other appropriately in the alto/tenor duet O Death, where is thy sting?.
But the solo I was happiest with was He was despised. As the quondam Selwyn organ scholar who played organ for us said, you have to keep this simple. The simpler it is, the more heart-rending. Sure, a bit of Sturm und Drang is needed for the shame and spitting (PTUI!) in the middle. But in order to avoid being unAffekted, the A section needs to be unaffected and ornamentation kept to an absolute minimum. Judging by the comments, it worked. I hope to have a recording in due course.
Generally, the quality of the solo singing (and, in fact, the choral singing) was noticeably higher than last year; there was a fine and very rapid one-in-a-bar The trumpet shall sound, and one tenor in particular is blessed with a beautiful natural instrument and the intelligence to use it. The contrast in Affekt between Comfort ye, my people and Thou shalt break them made this particularly clear. We also had the services of a professional soprano for Rejoice greatly, Thou art gone up on high and I know that my Redeemer liveth. Some breath control lessons there, methinks.
People afterwards told me I was the best voice there. "Better than Cheryl (the professional)?" "Yes." I don't believe that, by the way. There are things she was doing, particularly structuring phrases and breath control, that I don't think non-singers would have fully appreciated or understood. But that comment still makes me happy.
There was a dodgy bit last night - driving home at 12am. The tiredness hit me somewhere near Dunstable. But I did get home. I must ask Jerry to give me the brand of the Cosecha I had a glass of at the post-concert party. It was truly stunning; the best sort of soft, caramelly, rich Spanish red.
Yesterday was eventful - taking Dad from Mum's back home via a shopping trip to a large, lumpenproletarian and soulless Asda. He got back in one piece and went *flop* on his sofa, bless him. On the way back I relieved some of the pressure by stopping off at the Pembury to pick up some beer from oscarhocklee and to attend a meet called by CTony, graced among others by CTony's fiancée Kathleen, ccooke, ruthi, AdrianO, Jos, Kim, Eric, SimonW (so a quorate afpmeet), and some of Tony's Exeter geek friends. The perfect opportunity for cc to pull out his game of Tsuro, as seen as DWCon. Like Pipe-Dream combined with chaos theory and Machiavellian evil (and pretty patterns), as you direct yourself and your friends down pipes of your own making and off the edge of the board. Lovely.
Finally, happy birthday pellegrina and emperor. See you both this weekend.
The Brickhills Messiah went astonishingly well, and it's been recorded, and I've been told I get to play with the .wavs before anyone else. Anyone care to help me find a decent freeware editing suite? I'm going to edit it, isolate the good bits, stick them up on a corner of my webspace, and LJ them.
This year, my aim was to concentrate particularly hard on light and shade, and getting the sentiments of each individual piece across; the Baroque aria, after all, is essentially the depiction of one specific emotional state. So But who may abide was understated in the siciliana bits, and then went to full afterburner for the double-time For he is like a refiner's fire and my usual extended visit to the top line of the treble stave in the cadenza. O thou that tellest good tidings to Zion bounced along optimistically, and Rupert and I played off each other appropriately in the alto/tenor duet O Death, where is thy sting?.
But the solo I was happiest with was He was despised. As the quondam Selwyn organ scholar who played organ for us said, you have to keep this simple. The simpler it is, the more heart-rending. Sure, a bit of Sturm und Drang is needed for the shame and spitting (PTUI!) in the middle. But in order to avoid being unAffekted, the A section needs to be unaffected and ornamentation kept to an absolute minimum. Judging by the comments, it worked. I hope to have a recording in due course.
Generally, the quality of the solo singing (and, in fact, the choral singing) was noticeably higher than last year; there was a fine and very rapid one-in-a-bar The trumpet shall sound, and one tenor in particular is blessed with a beautiful natural instrument and the intelligence to use it. The contrast in Affekt between Comfort ye, my people and Thou shalt break them made this particularly clear. We also had the services of a professional soprano for Rejoice greatly, Thou art gone up on high and I know that my Redeemer liveth. Some breath control lessons there, methinks.
People afterwards told me I was the best voice there. "Better than Cheryl (the professional)?" "Yes." I don't believe that, by the way. There are things she was doing, particularly structuring phrases and breath control, that I don't think non-singers would have fully appreciated or understood. But that comment still makes me happy.
There was a dodgy bit last night - driving home at 12am. The tiredness hit me somewhere near Dunstable. But I did get home. I must ask Jerry to give me the brand of the Cosecha I had a glass of at the post-concert party. It was truly stunning; the best sort of soft, caramelly, rich Spanish red.
Yesterday was eventful - taking Dad from Mum's back home via a shopping trip to a large, lumpenproletarian and soulless Asda. He got back in one piece and went *flop* on his sofa, bless him. On the way back I relieved some of the pressure by stopping off at the Pembury to pick up some beer from oscarhocklee and to attend a meet called by CTony, graced among others by CTony's fiancée Kathleen, ccooke, ruthi, AdrianO, Jos, Kim, Eric, SimonW (so a quorate afpmeet), and some of Tony's Exeter geek friends. The perfect opportunity for cc to pull out his game of Tsuro, as seen as DWCon. Like Pipe-Dream combined with chaos theory and Machiavellian evil (and pretty patterns), as you direct yourself and your friends down pipes of your own making and off the edge of the board. Lovely.
Finally, happy birthday pellegrina and emperor. See you both this weekend.