Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Part the Second: Lent is nigh

We had a month away from Handel as we tackled Menotti's "Amahl and the Night Visitors." With that performance concluded, and Lent a few weeks away, we opened our scores to Part Two tonight.

Some members of the choir expressed surprise that there was anything between Christmas and the Hallelujah Chorus. I really thought I was in for it.However, tonight's rehearsal turned out pretty well! We started with #22 "Behold the Lamb of God." After one false start, and a little demonstration of the slow tempo and the difference between eight note pickups and sixteenth notes, they dove right in and did well. So well that I moved on to #24 "Surely He Has Borne Our Grief." Again, it took them a moment to acclimate to the rapid dotted figures within the slow tempo. A few measures in, however, they gained confidence.

Something I have been thinking about lately (and I said this to the choir at the end of rehearsal...) : Most of these adult singers did not know these choruses. Having lived on Earth for a number of years, they probably heard them a few times, but they do not know them nearly as well as the Christmas choruses. Regardless, these musicians plunged ahead, made mistakes, corrected them on thefly, and obtained a somewhat musical result. My high schoolers, on the other hand, are so terrified of failing that they often bail out- or fail to try to begin with. The students seem to need this womb of security around them all the time, whereas the adults know that trying and failing leads to learning. The high schoolers can be exhausting in this regard- so much energy goes into encouraging them to to take a risk and try even if they are going to make mistakes. It is refreshing that the adult singers will meet me halfway.