We'd Like to Name our Christmas CD "John Rutter," But Then We'd Probably Have to Pay Him
Sometimes, in this room,
Through the muffling panes of glass
I hear bells ringing.
Just a little haiku I thought up on the way to work. It's true--I work across the street from the cathedral. I can't hear the bells from my desk, but if I'm in one of the rooms along the outer wall, I can hear them.
I was thinking of haiku because I pulled out Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass this morning to read a little from it on the way to work. I'm at a section where it's a lot of little poems, 3-4 lines each. They remind me a lot of haiku: not necessarily in strict form (since the lines are too long), but in style and sentiment--in the way they evoke an idea very strongly by sketching a simple scene in a few lines. Pretty cool, Mr. Whitman! Pretty cool.
In other news, I had a fun time at choir last night. Don, our director, had us blitz through our Christmas repertoire in preparation for recording this Christmas CD we're doing in a few weeks. As a result, he was having one of his "spastic" nights, and the singing was very stop-and-start. Rather than having us sing a song through and then going back and taking time to look at the wrinkles, he'd stop us the moment he heard something he wanted to be fixed, and we'd hammer at it till we got it right, then move on.
So there we are, pulling out John Rutter's "Christmas Lullaby." Rutter, as you've probably read before in this blog, is among my favorite modern composers of sacred music, and his "Christmas Lullaby" is very pretty, and among the favorites of the choir. We start singing, and manage to get through the first phrase, "Clear in the darkness, a light shines in Bethlehem." Then Don cuts us off, and when we express confusion he says, tapping his sheet music, "I have a reason. This . . . I've decided this is going to be the name of the CD."
And since he is slightly discombobulated, he takes a minute to gather his thoughts to explain. In that minute's pause, we're all asking, "What's going to be the name of the CD? Christmas Lullaby?" "Bethlehem?" "Clear in the Darkness?"
Then Andrew, one of the tenors, pipes up in a perfect imitation of confused sincerity, "John Rutter?"
Cue about three minutes of laughter.
Later, as the evening is winding down, we start singing "Where Shepherds Lately Knelt," as the last song of rehearsal before we break for snacks. It, too, is a lullaby, and we usually sing it soft and slow. But we must've been rushing the tempo, because about halfway through the second verse, Don stops us again, looks around and asks, "What's your hurry?"
Into the silence that follows, another tenor pipes up, "Snacks!"
Cue another three minutes of laughter :)
I would have also accepted, of course, "Manger's on fire!"
Yeah, we're all nuts :) But we have fun!
Through the muffling panes of glass
I hear bells ringing.
Just a little haiku I thought up on the way to work. It's true--I work across the street from the cathedral. I can't hear the bells from my desk, but if I'm in one of the rooms along the outer wall, I can hear them.
I was thinking of haiku because I pulled out Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass this morning to read a little from it on the way to work. I'm at a section where it's a lot of little poems, 3-4 lines each. They remind me a lot of haiku: not necessarily in strict form (since the lines are too long), but in style and sentiment--in the way they evoke an idea very strongly by sketching a simple scene in a few lines. Pretty cool, Mr. Whitman! Pretty cool.
In other news, I had a fun time at choir last night. Don, our director, had us blitz through our Christmas repertoire in preparation for recording this Christmas CD we're doing in a few weeks. As a result, he was having one of his "spastic" nights, and the singing was very stop-and-start. Rather than having us sing a song through and then going back and taking time to look at the wrinkles, he'd stop us the moment he heard something he wanted to be fixed, and we'd hammer at it till we got it right, then move on.
So there we are, pulling out John Rutter's "Christmas Lullaby." Rutter, as you've probably read before in this blog, is among my favorite modern composers of sacred music, and his "Christmas Lullaby" is very pretty, and among the favorites of the choir. We start singing, and manage to get through the first phrase, "Clear in the darkness, a light shines in Bethlehem." Then Don cuts us off, and when we express confusion he says, tapping his sheet music, "I have a reason. This . . . I've decided this is going to be the name of the CD."
And since he is slightly discombobulated, he takes a minute to gather his thoughts to explain. In that minute's pause, we're all asking, "What's going to be the name of the CD? Christmas Lullaby?" "Bethlehem?" "Clear in the Darkness?"
Then Andrew, one of the tenors, pipes up in a perfect imitation of confused sincerity, "John Rutter?"
Cue about three minutes of laughter.
Later, as the evening is winding down, we start singing "Where Shepherds Lately Knelt," as the last song of rehearsal before we break for snacks. It, too, is a lullaby, and we usually sing it soft and slow. But we must've been rushing the tempo, because about halfway through the second verse, Don stops us again, looks around and asks, "What's your hurry?"
Into the silence that follows, another tenor pipes up, "Snacks!"
Cue another three minutes of laughter :)
I would have also accepted, of course, "Manger's on fire!"
Yeah, we're all nuts :) But we have fun!