Take two: A reflection of IV - and by the way? I *love* choristers
Preable:
I hate LJ. HATE HATE HATE it. It is FREAKIN BUGGY. I wrote a blog on BIV on my MySpace blog and I decided to duplicate it here. And I formatted it using my virtually non-existant knowledge of html to make it look pretty and get the picture to work...
And then I lost it because I clicked on the 'Tagging' option not realising that I would not be able to go back to my blog - grrrrrrr.
So. Here it is again for the benefit of the choristers that are not on MySpace. [Or Facebook]. But I am not reformatting all of it, and I am not re-posting the photo, so go to MySpace or Facebook to see it. =p
Oh fine I'll try.
---
So. After being destined to be a musician since before birth (yes there is a story there). After being a singer my entire life. After being involved in Sydney University choirs since 2002, being affiliated with an AICSA choir (SUMS) for the past five years and singing in four SUMS concerts and many a pub (-licity) sing, I finally made it to an IV. BIV 2007 to be specific. And I had a wonderful time.
I'd been aware of IV for some years now and was always curious as to what the fuss was about. Now I almost regret being so slow to jump on the band wagon, except that I don't think I would have changed this experience, which includes being an IV fresher.
What did I love about IV? This in't in preference order by the way:
It is another reality in and unto itself
IV is not real life (except possibly if you're on committee). It is incredibly removed from the rest of the world, family, work, school, non-chorister friends…it is very much an escape and it's incredible.
For the first week we were at camp and that was our little microcosm. Yes there were shops down the street down one end and the beach down the other, but we had our little world and little reason to leave it.
For the second week I was billeted in the 'House of Doom', along which a changing number of bodies (usually around 15). I never thought of myself as a share-house kinda person. I'm very accustomed to having a LOT of personal space, and yet I loved it. Sleeping and waking up beside someone else, sharing a room with 5 other people…and yes, 15 people did manage to share 2 bathrooms in a very civilised and effective manner.
IV also has its own little culture, with its own rules and customs and traditions. I may not be into them all but they're certainly interesting from a sociological and anthropological perspective!
Music
There was singing. A lot of it. Three concerts (well, I sung in two), which mean rehearsal sings and performance sings, plus publicity sings and pub sings and random just-for-fun sings.
- Performing 'Carmina Burana' after singing it through maybe 6 times ever was *terrifying* but an unmissable experience. Some of the orchestration, particularly the rhythms and percussion in that piece is simply fabulous - rich and dynamic and engaging. Performing in the QPAC was a bonus.
- Singing in the world premiere of Paul Stanhope's 'Piramimma'? Once again, a bonus. I had a lot of fun in the rehearsals of this piece once I got it. Damnation to my inability to sight-read triplet rhythms but such is life. Overcoming the challenge of performing in an inappropriate acoustic/choral-formation was a task but we did our best, and only spectacularly stuffed up a few bits…
- Rachmaninoff's 'Liturgy of St John Chrysostom' was also a special experience. By the second day of camp I changed my facebook status to "in love with Rachmaninoff". Singing it the way we did, as part of a mass, in St John's Cathedral, was perfect. I wouldn't have wanted to do it any other way.
- Singing random pub-book songs and madrigals until 2am in the morning of camp night one: I can think of few better ways to spend a night.
- Singing through the entire first act of Les Mis until 3am in the morning of camp night two: now THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout! How often in my life will I be hanging in a group of people where someone can whip out the piano-conductor score to Les Mis?
- Singing a truncated Rach 'Bogoroditse Devo Raduysya' merged into a rearranged 'Rubber Duckie' on life radio, coupled with about 2 hours of sleep was also a *special* experience. This is an unusual sentiment from a Soprano but thank heavens there were no high notes. Well, thank Philip Legge more like it.
- Sight-singing (badly, on my part) bitsa of a Byrd mass, in alto, the morning after a concert (and a PCP - Post Concert Party) on minimal sleep was another memorable experience…
- Singing with a group of people that were passionate about singing, and capable: words do not capture what a joy that is. As said many a time that IV, that was probably the best Soprano section I've ever sung with to date.
People. People. People.
It is the people that make most experiences, including this one, great. I experienced BIV with a few people that I already knew, and many who I had never encountered before. I left having fallen in love with an enormous number of people, and gained many a (Facebook! And LJ! hopefully genuine and lasting) friend.
Broadly speaking, choristers share many a characteristic that I love:
- Just about all of them are stupidly intelligent. Yes I register the oxymoron. Triple degree students, Advanced Maths students, Physics and Psychology PhD's, articulate, opinionated and sometimes intimidatingly bright people.
- They're unashamedly individual. Openly eccentric. Frequently geeky/nerdy. Idiosyncratic. Weird. "Special". WONDERFUL. FUN.
- Hand-in-hand with the above, choristers are open-minded. They accept and frequently share the individuality of others. They're cool with the weirdness (within reason - lets be fair, there are limits to everything). IV choristers may have their little cliques and groups formed from home choirs and previous IV's but they welcome the new, the freshers. I don't think I've ever felt so accepted and at home with such a large group of people in my life. My social circle was not limited to the people I already knew. I could sit with a different group at almost every meal and it was all good.
- Choristers are *affectionate*. That is a point unto itself! Expanded on below…
- IV choristers LOVE TO SING! If you think I am stating the obvious without adding anything new, then you don't know what it is like to want to sing ALL THE TIME, ALMOST EVERY WAKING MINUTE, not because you're happy, but because you *are*. And then to have to restrain yourself because hey, it just isn't normal/polite/socially acceptable to sing *all* the time. And then to be surrounded by people who love it as much as you? Who will let you sing without complaint even when it's 2am and their exhausted and you're interfering with their sleep?
- Choristers are enthusiastic! They do what they do with conviction, gusto, vigour. Gothic and medieval themed parties? Just about everyone is really into it with the dress code. (Unlike a certain work function which will remain unnamed.) Competitive sculling? Facebook tagging? Just watch 'em go.
- Choristers make *everything* inappropriate. Illustrative hand-actions partnered with traditionally sombre choral music. Songs about bestiality and buggery. Reading every possible sexual innuendo that can possibly be read into every word/phrase/sentence/context.
Sharing with the love
I am talking about all the warm, beaming smiles. The supportive actions. The hugs. The cuddles. The massages. The affectionate touches. The people-piles. The kisses. The snogging. Yes, there is a difference. And yes, the groping, and making out, and IV hook-ups.
There is a scale of affection from 1 to infinity, and at IV you can experience any level on that spectrum that you want. Some time in High School I turned from a pretty hands-off kinda gal (product of traditional Chinese upbringing) into a very physically affectionate person. I love a good hug. Make that plural. I received an abundance of affection at BIV and it was…running out of adjectives…really, really lovely.
Infinity is not for everyone. Not everyone is comfortable or wants to pash people from both genders, make out with someone that they've only briefly known, or join the incestuous group of people that have hooked up at IV. That's the beauty of hanging with an accepting bunch that will absolutely respect your limits. Ok, the odd person may try to seduce or persuade but hey, that's life.
The affection wasn't all physical of course. People will sincerely try to be there for you when they need it, offering sympathy, empathy, cheering up, support, help moving physical objects. Nor is it all transient - there are couples (and trios etc) of all types at IV, future, budding, dating, engaged, married with kids.
How I miss it, being surrounded by beautiful people, and beautiful music.
Rather than continuing to wax lyrical, I think I might conclude with a picture of a medium-sized people-pile.
If I can figure out how to post it…;-)
Katherine
I hate LJ. HATE HATE HATE it. It is FREAKIN BUGGY. I wrote a blog on BIV on my MySpace blog and I decided to duplicate it here. And I formatted it using my virtually non-existant knowledge of html to make it look pretty and get the picture to work...
And then I lost it because I clicked on the 'Tagging' option not realising that I would not be able to go back to my blog - grrrrrrr.
So. Here it is again for the benefit of the choristers that are not on MySpace. [Or Facebook]. But I am not reformatting all of it, and I am not re-posting the photo, so go to MySpace or Facebook to see it. =p
Oh fine I'll try.
---
So. After being destined to be a musician since before birth (yes there is a story there). After being a singer my entire life. After being involved in Sydney University choirs since 2002, being affiliated with an AICSA choir (SUMS) for the past five years and singing in four SUMS concerts and many a pub (-licity) sing, I finally made it to an IV. BIV 2007 to be specific. And I had a wonderful time.
I'd been aware of IV for some years now and was always curious as to what the fuss was about. Now I almost regret being so slow to jump on the band wagon, except that I don't think I would have changed this experience, which includes being an IV fresher.
What did I love about IV? This in't in preference order by the way:
It is another reality in and unto itself
IV is not real life (except possibly if you're on committee). It is incredibly removed from the rest of the world, family, work, school, non-chorister friends…it is very much an escape and it's incredible.
For the first week we were at camp and that was our little microcosm. Yes there were shops down the street down one end and the beach down the other, but we had our little world and little reason to leave it.
For the second week I was billeted in the 'House of Doom', along which a changing number of bodies (usually around 15). I never thought of myself as a share-house kinda person. I'm very accustomed to having a LOT of personal space, and yet I loved it. Sleeping and waking up beside someone else, sharing a room with 5 other people…and yes, 15 people did manage to share 2 bathrooms in a very civilised and effective manner.
IV also has its own little culture, with its own rules and customs and traditions. I may not be into them all but they're certainly interesting from a sociological and anthropological perspective!
Music
There was singing. A lot of it. Three concerts (well, I sung in two), which mean rehearsal sings and performance sings, plus publicity sings and pub sings and random just-for-fun sings.
- Performing 'Carmina Burana' after singing it through maybe 6 times ever was *terrifying* but an unmissable experience. Some of the orchestration, particularly the rhythms and percussion in that piece is simply fabulous - rich and dynamic and engaging. Performing in the QPAC was a bonus.
- Singing in the world premiere of Paul Stanhope's 'Piramimma'? Once again, a bonus. I had a lot of fun in the rehearsals of this piece once I got it. Damnation to my inability to sight-read triplet rhythms but such is life. Overcoming the challenge of performing in an inappropriate acoustic/choral-formation was a task but we did our best, and only spectacularly stuffed up a few bits…
- Rachmaninoff's 'Liturgy of St John Chrysostom' was also a special experience. By the second day of camp I changed my facebook status to "in love with Rachmaninoff". Singing it the way we did, as part of a mass, in St John's Cathedral, was perfect. I wouldn't have wanted to do it any other way.
- Singing random pub-book songs and madrigals until 2am in the morning of camp night one: I can think of few better ways to spend a night.
- Singing through the entire first act of Les Mis until 3am in the morning of camp night two: now THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout! How often in my life will I be hanging in a group of people where someone can whip out the piano-conductor score to Les Mis?
- Singing a truncated Rach 'Bogoroditse Devo Raduysya' merged into a rearranged 'Rubber Duckie' on life radio, coupled with about 2 hours of sleep was also a *special* experience. This is an unusual sentiment from a Soprano but thank heavens there were no high notes. Well, thank Philip Legge more like it.
- Sight-singing (badly, on my part) bitsa of a Byrd mass, in alto, the morning after a concert (and a PCP - Post Concert Party) on minimal sleep was another memorable experience…
- Singing with a group of people that were passionate about singing, and capable: words do not capture what a joy that is. As said many a time that IV, that was probably the best Soprano section I've ever sung with to date.
People. People. People.
It is the people that make most experiences, including this one, great. I experienced BIV with a few people that I already knew, and many who I had never encountered before. I left having fallen in love with an enormous number of people, and gained many a (Facebook! And LJ! hopefully genuine and lasting) friend.
Broadly speaking, choristers share many a characteristic that I love:
- Just about all of them are stupidly intelligent. Yes I register the oxymoron. Triple degree students, Advanced Maths students, Physics and Psychology PhD's, articulate, opinionated and sometimes intimidatingly bright people.
- They're unashamedly individual. Openly eccentric. Frequently geeky/nerdy. Idiosyncratic. Weird. "Special". WONDERFUL. FUN.
- Hand-in-hand with the above, choristers are open-minded. They accept and frequently share the individuality of others. They're cool with the weirdness (within reason - lets be fair, there are limits to everything). IV choristers may have their little cliques and groups formed from home choirs and previous IV's but they welcome the new, the freshers. I don't think I've ever felt so accepted and at home with such a large group of people in my life. My social circle was not limited to the people I already knew. I could sit with a different group at almost every meal and it was all good.
- Choristers are *affectionate*. That is a point unto itself! Expanded on below…
- IV choristers LOVE TO SING! If you think I am stating the obvious without adding anything new, then you don't know what it is like to want to sing ALL THE TIME, ALMOST EVERY WAKING MINUTE, not because you're happy, but because you *are*. And then to have to restrain yourself because hey, it just isn't normal/polite/socially acceptable to sing *all* the time. And then to be surrounded by people who love it as much as you? Who will let you sing without complaint even when it's 2am and their exhausted and you're interfering with their sleep?
- Choristers are enthusiastic! They do what they do with conviction, gusto, vigour. Gothic and medieval themed parties? Just about everyone is really into it with the dress code. (Unlike a certain work function which will remain unnamed.) Competitive sculling? Facebook tagging? Just watch 'em go.
- Choristers make *everything* inappropriate. Illustrative hand-actions partnered with traditionally sombre choral music. Songs about bestiality and buggery. Reading every possible sexual innuendo that can possibly be read into every word/phrase/sentence/context.
Sharing with the love
I am talking about all the warm, beaming smiles. The supportive actions. The hugs. The cuddles. The massages. The affectionate touches. The people-piles. The kisses. The snogging. Yes, there is a difference. And yes, the groping, and making out, and IV hook-ups.
There is a scale of affection from 1 to infinity, and at IV you can experience any level on that spectrum that you want. Some time in High School I turned from a pretty hands-off kinda gal (product of traditional Chinese upbringing) into a very physically affectionate person. I love a good hug. Make that plural. I received an abundance of affection at BIV and it was…running out of adjectives…really, really lovely.
Infinity is not for everyone. Not everyone is comfortable or wants to pash people from both genders, make out with someone that they've only briefly known, or join the incestuous group of people that have hooked up at IV. That's the beauty of hanging with an accepting bunch that will absolutely respect your limits. Ok, the odd person may try to seduce or persuade but hey, that's life.
The affection wasn't all physical of course. People will sincerely try to be there for you when they need it, offering sympathy, empathy, cheering up, support, help moving physical objects. Nor is it all transient - there are couples (and trios etc) of all types at IV, future, budding, dating, engaged, married with kids.
How I miss it, being surrounded by beautiful people, and beautiful music.
Rather than continuing to wax lyrical, I think I might conclude with a picture of a medium-sized people-pile.
If I can figure out how to post it…;-)
Katherine