To laugh at onesself
Last week Pacific Women's Chorus had solo auditions. I was recovering from being ill and was hanging on to what remained of my voice for dear life and fighting through congested brain. I felt that I did reasonably well, considering.
The big work that everybody wanted a piece of was Franz Biebl's incandescent Ave Maria, which has three solos (alto, low soprano, high soprano) as well as a solo trio that sings throughout. I've performed the first soprano part of the trio before and love it dearly, so that's what I was shooting for, though I also auditioned for the high soprano solo and an alto solo in another piece, just for fun.
Last night, when we got to the Biebl, the director named the trio, and I wasn't in it. The gal who was selected did a beautiful job- really, the other two first sopranos are awesome, and any of us could have done it and done it well. However, I was a mite surprised when I wasn't given either of the two other soprano solos (the high one went to the other S1, which wasn't surprising, but the lower one went to someone that didn't even know it). At the risk of sounding a bit snotty, I have a good voice, am a strong musician, and have no shame, so it is unusual for me not to receive a solo when I'm confident enough in my ability to sing it well to actually audition. I had moment of amused self doubt when I thought, "I didn't sound _that_ bad last week, did I?"
It turns out that I have been assigned a solo- the R&B gospel-flavored alto solo that I tried for on a lark. In retrospect, none of the altos that I expected to try for it did, so perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised. Still, it's about as far from my usual stylistic fare as one can get, and it's going to be so much fun to sing. I'm still laughing at myself, though. I wonder if I can request that the program read,"Mundungus42, soprano(??) solo" for the piece?
In other news, I had a crazy dream that was sort of a mix of Deathly Hallows, Bones (which I've never actually watched, but it featured grinning David Boreanaz, so "Angel" it wasn't), and Pushing Daisies. I woke up wanting to write a Harry Potter/Pushing Daisies crossover about Charles Charles, Dwight Dixon, and Ned's Dad as peacekeepers a'la the Tale of the Three Brothers to explain the mysterious watches, Ned's magical ability, what happened to the Resurrection Stone all in one fell swoop. Because really, HP and PD already have Jim Dale in common, for goodness sakes. Not that I'm writing fanfiction right now. I have three open o-fic stories that need to be finished and shopped. So if anybody likes the bunny, hop on it. I'm now thanking the powers that be that I didn't sign up for Yuletide :D
As for reading, I didn't touch "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" yesterday (I would have gotten purple paint on it) but picked it up again on the bus this morning. I really like it. It's rather whimsically structured, and I like the writing. I don't yet have a sense of why the omniscient but character-ful narrator is narrating, but I'm not going to let a minor quibble like that keep me from reading.
Right! Work!
Love to All,
Lib
Mun42
PS If anyone comes across a current news item on the subject of body hair, please link me. I promise to tell you why once I find one.
The big work that everybody wanted a piece of was Franz Biebl's incandescent Ave Maria, which has three solos (alto, low soprano, high soprano) as well as a solo trio that sings throughout. I've performed the first soprano part of the trio before and love it dearly, so that's what I was shooting for, though I also auditioned for the high soprano solo and an alto solo in another piece, just for fun.
Last night, when we got to the Biebl, the director named the trio, and I wasn't in it. The gal who was selected did a beautiful job- really, the other two first sopranos are awesome, and any of us could have done it and done it well. However, I was a mite surprised when I wasn't given either of the two other soprano solos (the high one went to the other S1, which wasn't surprising, but the lower one went to someone that didn't even know it). At the risk of sounding a bit snotty, I have a good voice, am a strong musician, and have no shame, so it is unusual for me not to receive a solo when I'm confident enough in my ability to sing it well to actually audition. I had moment of amused self doubt when I thought, "I didn't sound _that_ bad last week, did I?"
It turns out that I have been assigned a solo- the R&B gospel-flavored alto solo that I tried for on a lark. In retrospect, none of the altos that I expected to try for it did, so perhaps I shouldn't have been so surprised. Still, it's about as far from my usual stylistic fare as one can get, and it's going to be so much fun to sing. I'm still laughing at myself, though. I wonder if I can request that the program read,"Mundungus42, soprano(??) solo" for the piece?
In other news, I had a crazy dream that was sort of a mix of Deathly Hallows, Bones (which I've never actually watched, but it featured grinning David Boreanaz, so "Angel" it wasn't), and Pushing Daisies. I woke up wanting to write a Harry Potter/Pushing Daisies crossover about Charles Charles, Dwight Dixon, and Ned's Dad as peacekeepers a'la the Tale of the Three Brothers to explain the mysterious watches, Ned's magical ability, what happened to the Resurrection Stone all in one fell swoop. Because really, HP and PD already have Jim Dale in common, for goodness sakes. Not that I'm writing fanfiction right now. I have three open o-fic stories that need to be finished and shopped. So if anybody likes the bunny, hop on it. I'm now thanking the powers that be that I didn't sign up for Yuletide :D
As for reading, I didn't touch "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" yesterday (I would have gotten purple paint on it) but picked it up again on the bus this morning. I really like it. It's rather whimsically structured, and I like the writing. I don't yet have a sense of why the omniscient but character-ful narrator is narrating, but I'm not going to let a minor quibble like that keep me from reading.
Right! Work!
Love to All,
Lib
Mun42
PS If anyone comes across a current news item on the subject of body hair, please link me. I promise to tell you why once I find one.