(Note: This post was supposed to go up yesterday, but I ran out of time to post it before I had to leave for the concert.)
Today I had my final tutorial, which means that my academic work for this semester is now officially over. As part of the residency requirement for the program, I have to stay in Oxford until the 3rd, but for the next few days I’ll mostly just be able to relax. After that we have time to travel before going home. I’ll be flying back to the US on the 14th, which is almost hard to believe in a way – the time has gone very fast.
Tonight the Wykeham Singers, New College’s informal choir, are having their concert for the term. I’ve had a cold for the last week and a half, so I missed two practice sessions. That means I have literally been over some of the songs we’re singing only once, in rehearsal this afternoon, so I’m a bit nervous. Thankfully there are lots of other altos (five of us total), so I’ll just do my best to follow one of them.
It’s odd to have tenors now. For some reason, we had absolutely no tenors at the beginning of the term. The choir director sent out an email, asking anyone who could sing tenor to please join. Instead we got three new basses (for a total of five), which didn’t help matters much. One of the two student directors can sing tenor, but only when he’s not conducting; the other is a soprano. So now we have a sixth alto singing tenor, and one actual tenor who has been to about two of the practices. It’s a good thing he can sing loudly, and that none of the tenors seem to have been afflicted with whatever nasty cold is going around. Two of the other altos and one of the sopranos are all in the same boat as I am: we can sing, just not very loudly, and we’re all trying as hard as we can not to cough.
We also now have accompanists (apart from the piano, which we’ve been practicing with all term). Some of the songs are a cappella, but others are intended to be accompanied by piano and double bass, and the rest by piano, double bass and drums. The drummer showed up at rehearsal today and discovered that there was no music for him. (We have plenty of extra books, but the composer didn’t actually bother to write out a percussion accompaniment. The instructions pretty much amount to “ad lib, and have fun.”)
So, in other words…should be exciting.
Today I had my final tutorial, which means that my academic work for this semester is now officially over. As part of the residency requirement for the program, I have to stay in Oxford until the 3rd, but for the next few days I’ll mostly just be able to relax. After that we have time to travel before going home. I’ll be flying back to the US on the 14th, which is almost hard to believe in a way – the time has gone very fast.
Tonight the Wykeham Singers, New College’s informal choir, are having their concert for the term. I’ve had a cold for the last week and a half, so I missed two practice sessions. That means I have literally been over some of the songs we’re singing only once, in rehearsal this afternoon, so I’m a bit nervous. Thankfully there are lots of other altos (five of us total), so I’ll just do my best to follow one of them.
It’s odd to have tenors now. For some reason, we had absolutely no tenors at the beginning of the term. The choir director sent out an email, asking anyone who could sing tenor to please join. Instead we got three new basses (for a total of five), which didn’t help matters much. One of the two student directors can sing tenor, but only when he’s not conducting; the other is a soprano. So now we have a sixth alto singing tenor, and one actual tenor who has been to about two of the practices. It’s a good thing he can sing loudly, and that none of the tenors seem to have been afflicted with whatever nasty cold is going around. Two of the other altos and one of the sopranos are all in the same boat as I am: we can sing, just not very loudly, and we’re all trying as hard as we can not to cough.
We also now have accompanists (apart from the piano, which we’ve been practicing with all term). Some of the songs are a cappella, but others are intended to be accompanied by piano and double bass, and the rest by piano, double bass and drums. The drummer showed up at rehearsal today and discovered that there was no music for him. (We have plenty of extra books, but the composer didn’t actually bother to write out a percussion accompaniment. The instructions pretty much amount to “ad lib, and have fun.”)
So, in other words…should be exciting.
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