*headdesk*

[aliothsan]

We had our *final* chorus rehearsal for the Broadway Review, which is *tomorrow*. And we don't have any idea what we're doing. People are all over the place, unfocused, and incapable of even basic music-reading. Every time we have a song that has a repeating pattern with small, unpredictable, seemingly-inconsequential-but-actually-making-a-

Comments

[candrodor]

The problem with these repeated phrases with minor differences is that different people do music differently. I kind of thought it wouldn't be so much of a problem by your age group, but even so. I bet you, eventually, it will just click, if your conductor is persistent enough, but it is painful. I can also sympathise with them though, because it is frustrating if you're really putting in an effort to get it right and it just isn't happening.

By totally plausible, do you mean, it might fit in with Vaughan Williams's experience, or just that the words could do for anything including homosexuality-shame?

[aliothsan]

The poem was actually written by George Herbert in the 14th century (Vaughan Williams just set it to music). And I don't know anything about Herbert's life. But seriously...get in a gutter frame of mind and then Google the words. Here's a taster: "You must sit down", says Love, "and taste my meat."

And by "totally plausible" I meant "you don't have to have that much of a dirty mind to find that angle".

[fafner88]

I like how that one poem was included in an anthology by Herbert named "The Temple: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations".

*immature laughter*

[lightflake]

The ones who are incapable of reading music... have they ever even been taught? I only ever had one music teacher who thought it was actually worth the time to teach singers to read music--the rest just figured we could learn it by ear. That attitude carried on to several of the people they were taught by, a few of which refuse to learn it to this day. The rest of us? Well, we sure can't read it quickly.

[aliothsan]

We've been doing sight-reading exercises all year. They're not hard ones. But people just relied on trickery, and got really good at following the people who could already read, instead of learning it properly.

There's supposedly a sight-reading requirement in the audition, but I don't know if there are even auditions any more. What with the quality of people coming in, I'm guessing that the 'audition' consists of muddling your way through one song so Mrs. Jordan can see you're not utterly tone-deaf. Then you get a congratulations, that's a lovely voice.

It's not like we don't have good singers, but the bad singers are so bad...

[emmylia]

for my audition oh-so-long ago, she did make me sightread from a sightreading book or workbook or something. i know i messed up 2 of the notes (i thought it was a different key), and i was going to ask if i could repeat it, but mrs. jordan looked at me and exclaimed that i was a brilliant sightreader. (i'm REALLY not.) wtf.

[aliothsan]

Yeah, exactly. I think you get in if you go up and down in the right places, and that's about it. :P