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jaalaMy favourite (and pretty well everybody else's) music professor, Dr. E, gave me a compliment of sorts after Choral Society tonight. He's a very demanding, perfectionistic director (but in a good way!), so this is highly unusual. He will praise the performance of ensembles on occasion, but mostly after the fact. During rehearsals the best we will usually get is "that wasn't too bad". (On two--two!--occasions this past semester, he praised the performance of his favourite piece with, "Gorgeous!" We were all amazed.) He's still more reserved about individual compliments, at least to a person's face, I think to avoid inflating egos and inspiring complacency. (I've heard him compliment students many times when they weren't there.)
It has become quite evident in the first three rehearsals of Brahms's German Requiem that the alto tessitura is quite a bit higher than is usual. (It's basically a mezzo-soprano part most of the time.) It's also a piece in which it is rather difficult to find the notes at first, and there's a lot of breath control required. Well, I sit right in front of the director so I know he can hear every mistake I make. I apologized, tongue in cheek, for my "unfortunate attempts at E[flat]'s" which were blasting at him from my chair tonight. His reply, said with a smile and in a kindly tone of voice: "That more of them were that close!" I don't know if I'd call my reaction "gobsmacked" but I think I froze for a couple seconds then walked silently to the door smilingly faintly.
Now, I do not fall worshipping at the feet of this man (in admiration or fear, according to the situation), nor have I adopted all his views on music and music education as many other students do--I've criticized his opinions on several occasions--but I admire him a great deal. In fact, I cried once (a vast overreaction, I know) when he made fun of me. So I felt quite a bit better when before I had been feeling insecure and defensive about my singing ability. It was nice to feel that my time spent practicing was worth something, too.
* * *
I might actually be able to gain some small amount of control over my upper range as a result of working on this piece. Bonus. I generally wish I had more control over my voice, especially since these days I'm doing a lot more singing than flute playing. It took me about four months last year to develop a passable, quiet, non-classical and vibrato-less sound for vocal jazz ensemble, but I still can't belt, control the effects of nerves, sing with a decent sound appropriate to folk/rock/pop music, or produce a consistent enough tone quality to even consider auditioning for solos or roles in amateur musicals.
It has become quite evident in the first three rehearsals of Brahms's German Requiem that the alto tessitura is quite a bit higher than is usual. (It's basically a mezzo-soprano part most of the time.) It's also a piece in which it is rather difficult to find the notes at first, and there's a lot of breath control required. Well, I sit right in front of the director so I know he can hear every mistake I make. I apologized, tongue in cheek, for my "unfortunate attempts at E[flat]'s" which were blasting at him from my chair tonight. His reply, said with a smile and in a kindly tone of voice: "That more of them were that close!" I don't know if I'd call my reaction "gobsmacked" but I think I froze for a couple seconds then walked silently to the door smilingly faintly.
Now, I do not fall worshipping at the feet of this man (in admiration or fear, according to the situation), nor have I adopted all his views on music and music education as many other students do--I've criticized his opinions on several occasions--but I admire him a great deal. In fact, I cried once (a vast overreaction, I know) when he made fun of me. So I felt quite a bit better when before I had been feeling insecure and defensive about my singing ability. It was nice to feel that my time spent practicing was worth something, too.
* * *
I might actually be able to gain some small amount of control over my upper range as a result of working on this piece. Bonus. I generally wish I had more control over my voice, especially since these days I'm doing a lot more singing than flute playing. It took me about four months last year to develop a passable, quiet, non-classical and vibrato-less sound for vocal jazz ensemble, but I still can't belt, control the effects of nerves, sing with a decent sound appropriate to folk/rock/pop music, or produce a consistent enough tone quality to even consider auditioning for solos or roles in amateur musicals.
