(no subject)
Aug. 10th, 2004 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phineasjones::peeks around corner::
i said i was allowed to post about tonight's lotr symphony rehearsal, so here i am. 2 things first:
congrats to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
starbuckle on her well-deserved new job. they'd have been crazy not to give it to you.
and ♥ tojjtaylor for the hilarious text this evening. heehee.
briefly, i will say that being away from lj is every bit as hard as i thought it would be. and there is good and bad that goes with that. to be hashed out at a later date.
because this post is about the rehearsal.
which kind of sucked.
i don't like to think of myself as a negative person, so i hope that's not what this is. there were several things that bugged me about the rehearsal. one is my own issue: i should not join any more large community choruses. i get thoroughly bored by all the note-teaching and hand-holding.
the other things came from the director - and a few fellow choristers. the director doesn't know shit about the music or the movies or, it seems, the books. nada. this is a direct quote, "i imagine there's a recording of the movie music but i have no idea how it relates to this." ok, i can see maybe he lives in a bubble and doesn't know the movies, but wouldn't you find out before prepping the chorus?
when we were waiting to begin, the accompanist made his little joke by playing some of the main theme from star wars and then stopping and turning his music right-side up and making a little oops gesture. cute. and then the director made an attempt at humor with, 'the elvish has left the building.' after which he proceeded to call it 'elven' for the rest of the night.
which, among many other things, led me to contemplate the nature of my feelings about this music and its source. i am a geek and there's no denying it. there were so many times this evening i wanted to stand up and correct him or provide some context or... something. i could barely contain myself. it was just so painful because it means so much to me and it clearly doesn't to him or to anyone else in the chorus as far as i could tell.
a shout out to the gals from trilogy tuesday: at the end of the first movement, we sing, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne/In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie and the director was saying something about the place and he said, "i don't know if we're in elven or dwarvish here or what" and i thought, it's in the language of mordor! hee.
so yes. aside from the annoyances, the music! we rehearsed the first movement and the third. the first features lots of harsh clusters and some screechy high singing. mr. shore doesn't really write terribly well for chorus. it's not bad, really, it's just that he uses it for effect more than anything else. it's not good choral writing specifically, because he's not using it the way he could. it works, for what he wants it to do. but it's not incredibly fun singing. except that i find it fun to sing this, so no complaints here.
but looking through and finding all the places i'm excited to sing is so... exciting. i'm especially excited about the death of boromir, rivendell, the call, anduril, the destruction of the ring, the mountain of fire, into the west (of course) etc etc. and parts that i don't even sing (children's choir etc) - leaving moria, the white rider, in dreams. yes, so many swoony places. i can't wait to get beyond the initial, note-learning rehearsal.
oh! yes, because howard shore will conduct our last choir rehearsal. eee! oh so happy.
oh and also, if there are people around these parts who are wanting to go, i can get a 25% discount on tickets. i'll hook you up, yo.
and that must be all as i need sleep and there's work and all that blah.
so much love to you all. so much!
i said i was allowed to post about tonight's lotr symphony rehearsal, so here i am. 2 things first:
congrats to
starbuckle on her well-deserved new job. they'd have been crazy not to give it to you.and ♥ to
jjtaylor for the hilarious text this evening. heehee.briefly, i will say that being away from lj is every bit as hard as i thought it would be. and there is good and bad that goes with that. to be hashed out at a later date.
because this post is about the rehearsal.
which kind of sucked.
i don't like to think of myself as a negative person, so i hope that's not what this is. there were several things that bugged me about the rehearsal. one is my own issue: i should not join any more large community choruses. i get thoroughly bored by all the note-teaching and hand-holding.
the other things came from the director - and a few fellow choristers. the director doesn't know shit about the music or the movies or, it seems, the books. nada. this is a direct quote, "i imagine there's a recording of the movie music but i have no idea how it relates to this." ok, i can see maybe he lives in a bubble and doesn't know the movies, but wouldn't you find out before prepping the chorus?
when we were waiting to begin, the accompanist made his little joke by playing some of the main theme from star wars and then stopping and turning his music right-side up and making a little oops gesture. cute. and then the director made an attempt at humor with, 'the elvish has left the building.' after which he proceeded to call it 'elven' for the rest of the night.
which, among many other things, led me to contemplate the nature of my feelings about this music and its source. i am a geek and there's no denying it. there were so many times this evening i wanted to stand up and correct him or provide some context or... something. i could barely contain myself. it was just so painful because it means so much to me and it clearly doesn't to him or to anyone else in the chorus as far as i could tell.
a shout out to the gals from trilogy tuesday: at the end of the first movement, we sing, One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne/In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie and the director was saying something about the place and he said, "i don't know if we're in elven or dwarvish here or what" and i thought, it's in the language of mordor! hee.
so yes. aside from the annoyances, the music! we rehearsed the first movement and the third. the first features lots of harsh clusters and some screechy high singing. mr. shore doesn't really write terribly well for chorus. it's not bad, really, it's just that he uses it for effect more than anything else. it's not good choral writing specifically, because he's not using it the way he could. it works, for what he wants it to do. but it's not incredibly fun singing. except that i find it fun to sing this, so no complaints here.
but looking through and finding all the places i'm excited to sing is so... exciting. i'm especially excited about the death of boromir, rivendell, the call, anduril, the destruction of the ring, the mountain of fire, into the west (of course) etc etc. and parts that i don't even sing (children's choir etc) - leaving moria, the white rider, in dreams. yes, so many swoony places. i can't wait to get beyond the initial, note-learning rehearsal.
oh! yes, because howard shore will conduct our last choir rehearsal. eee! oh so happy.
oh and also, if there are people around these parts who are wanting to go, i can get a 25% discount on tickets. i'll hook you up, yo.
and that must be all as i need sleep and there's work and all that blah.
so much love to you all. so much!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-10 03:34 am (UTC)otoh, am sorry about the lack of understanding passion around you. i think, though, that that officially gives you permission to geek it up around mr shore when he comes into town because he, above all other people, will get it. meep!
omg i have had so much coffee.
p.s. speaking of thrilled, thanks about the job. eee! see you tonight --
(no subject)
From:cool
Date: 2004-08-10 08:54 pm (UTC)Re: cool
From:(no subject)
Date: 2004-08-11 12:11 pm (UTC)Language of Mordor!! ahahahaha!!
Maybe you could take him aside before the next rehearsal and tell him that you would be happy to tell people a little about the music and provide some context and whatnot. You'd be revealing yourself as a huge geek, of course, but maybe people would appreciate it - it's more fun to sing something weird (as they might think it is) if you have some clue about what makes it cool.
Wait, 25% discount?! Bastards! I've been robbed! ::grumbles:: Maybe I should come to Saturday's show too. Hm.
Wait, and I haven't called you this week. Dammit. Bc I've been crazy busy with wedding/San Diego prep stuff and my mom was here last night... I'll see how tomorrow goes, but otherwise when I get back. I miss you!!!! Email me and tell me what you're doing! or something.
::loves muchly as always::
(no subject)
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