April 25th, 2007 - Choir Practice

The choir rehearsed two energetic spirituals tonight, Let Everything That Hath Breath and I'm gonna sing. Both are planned for a Sunday, May 13th; Mother's Day performance. After that choir will recess and return in the fall.

The practice increased our confidence on both pieces. We had one soprano and one tenor. Instead of calling by section Kelly requested by name when he wanted Jan and Peter to sing. This, of course, immediately flashed us all into The Brady Bunch territory. We recognized we had our Greg in the Bass section as well.

We listened to David's recording of the choir's April 4th rehearsal of Girolamo Savonarola's Jesus, Refuge of the Weary and Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. A humbling experience and no, not because of any problems with performance. Instead the microphone shifts perspective. Normally, as an example, the bass section sounds deep, full and powerful to me. In the recording it was one element in the overall sound of the choir. The viola and strings respectively were moving but the sound of the singing was a choir, not a section. Quite beautiful and quite different.

To keep things light and fun for practice, as always, Kelly regaled us with a story around a musial clip Geoff sent him of an organist flub on the Hallelujah Chorus. I think I found this same clip on YouTube later:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DBAoWr-imY

After practice Joel gave good tips on better ways to use the doors without bending the closing mechanism that is geared to prevent fires from spreading. It is a bit counter-intuitive in that the door needs to open past a certain point and most people don't open a door that far.

We closed, as customary, with prayer. Pastor Dayle led us first in thanking God for the sounds we are give to offer in praise, knowing we are God's children. The next part of the prayer ached; praying for the Hartungs. Hearing Pastor's prayer acknowledging that the end of Bethany's life was drawing moved us to the next part of this journey to support Bethany and the family.