You can't go home
It seems you really can't return home.
MUCS was my home for eight years or more - from 1997 until around Melbourne IV; call it 2005. Deep in my mind, I loved the wall of sound that rose from the hundred voices of MUCSters.
MUCS was the first choir I loved, my sole social group for many years. It seems more like my “old home” than my parents' house, which is not that surprising, considering I spent fewer years where my parents reside now.
Nowadays, I am a Monash student. Many here would know of the difficulties that I have recently had within the Monash choir, upon which I shall not elaborate at this time. Although most of my closest friends are, or have recently been called MonUCS, these difficulties have led me to consider my options. I was -extremely- pleasantly surprised last week, by how many people so warmly welcomed me back to MonUCS, especially following some of the less than pleasant kerfuffles that happened towards the end of last year. Of course, a couple of people kept to themselves, but for the most part, it was the sort of welcome that one expects from home :)
It had been my plan to start examining some of the other choirs around, just to check if MonUCS still is the best place to call home, or whether it might be time to move on. Scots' is musically fantastic - many songs are performed completely unrehearsed (with many in the choir sightreading), but nonetheless sounding better than many choirs. I'd say the performance standard is not generally quite as high as that of Gloriana, but that's hardly surprising, given that most 16th century works are considered “easy”, and therefore performed on two hours' notice. Unfortunately, however, Scots' social dynamic is nothing like what I'd come to expect from a choir. It's more like the dynamic of a workplace, where you see your colleagues for a few hours every week (funny, that). Other Scots' choristers attest to not knowing many of the names of the colleagues with whom they have been performing for over a year.
Unfortunately, being comfortable with a musical standard that high has also been devastating on my experience of MUCS. Although I expected to find Foetus talking with unnecessary verbosity, and the teaching of the incorrect pronunciation of Nkosi and so on, I also remembered that the great thing about Foetus's rehearsal style was that he let the choir face tricky music full on, and would only then notebash the sections that weren't sounding right. Unfortunately, that mode of practice seems to have disappeared. I also didn't expect to find warmups until 7:45. And since RMPS has recently had a purge, MUCS is looking more like a retirement village than ever, with a sound to match.
(cont) Actually, the sound was a crucial part of the experience. For the first half, I sat at the back, and the sound was disappointingly weak, off, raucous - all very unsatisfying. For the second half, I moved right into the middle, and the sound-experience was far far better. Although the sound wasn't good, at least it was full. Without that, I probably would have been rather depressed at the loss of a capacity-to-experience. As it was, I was only disappointed at MUCS's capacity to deliver. I did find it curious, though, that in MonUCS, I now find I "need" to sit at the back, so as not to hear individual voices' mistakes, whereas in MUCS, I found I needed to be in the middle, so that the different rough voices could blast each other into an acceptable wash.
Elipsis
Consequently, I won't be heading to MUCS this week.
MUCS was my home for eight years or more - from 1997 until around Melbourne IV; call it 2005. Deep in my mind, I loved the wall of sound that rose from the hundred voices of MUCSters.
MUCS was the first choir I loved, my sole social group for many years. It seems more like my “old home” than my parents' house, which is not that surprising, considering I spent fewer years where my parents reside now.
Nowadays, I am a Monash student. Many here would know of the difficulties that I have recently had within the Monash choir, upon which I shall not elaborate at this time. Although most of my closest friends are, or have recently been called MonUCS, these difficulties have led me to consider my options. I was -extremely- pleasantly surprised last week, by how many people so warmly welcomed me back to MonUCS, especially following some of the less than pleasant kerfuffles that happened towards the end of last year. Of course, a couple of people kept to themselves, but for the most part, it was the sort of welcome that one expects from home :)
It had been my plan to start examining some of the other choirs around, just to check if MonUCS still is the best place to call home, or whether it might be time to move on. Scots' is musically fantastic - many songs are performed completely unrehearsed (with many in the choir sightreading), but nonetheless sounding better than many choirs. I'd say the performance standard is not generally quite as high as that of Gloriana, but that's hardly surprising, given that most 16th century works are considered “easy”, and therefore performed on two hours' notice. Unfortunately, however, Scots' social dynamic is nothing like what I'd come to expect from a choir. It's more like the dynamic of a workplace, where you see your colleagues for a few hours every week (funny, that). Other Scots' choristers attest to not knowing many of the names of the colleagues with whom they have been performing for over a year.
Unfortunately, being comfortable with a musical standard that high has also been devastating on my experience of MUCS. Although I expected to find Foetus talking with unnecessary verbosity, and the teaching of the incorrect pronunciation of Nkosi and so on, I also remembered that the great thing about Foetus's rehearsal style was that he let the choir face tricky music full on, and would only then notebash the sections that weren't sounding right. Unfortunately, that mode of practice seems to have disappeared. I also didn't expect to find warmups until 7:45. And since RMPS has recently had a purge, MUCS is looking more like a retirement village than ever, with a sound to match.
(cont) Actually, the sound was a crucial part of the experience. For the first half, I sat at the back, and the sound was disappointingly weak, off, raucous - all very unsatisfying. For the second half, I moved right into the middle, and the sound-experience was far far better. Although the sound wasn't good, at least it was full. Without that, I probably would have been rather depressed at the loss of a capacity-to-experience. As it was, I was only disappointed at MUCS's capacity to deliver. I did find it curious, though, that in MonUCS, I now find I "need" to sit at the back, so as not to hear individual voices' mistakes, whereas in MUCS, I found I needed to be in the middle, so that the different rough voices could blast each other into an acceptable wash.
Elipsis
Consequently, I won't be heading to MUCS this week.