SVC is fresh off of a wonderful weekend spent performing Bach's Mass in B Minor. Tonight we were already back in the trenches, learning new music for our upcoming Pops concert (first weekend in May).
The music for Pops is generally lighter, easier fare than anything else we sing all year, but is especially light in contrast to what we just finished learning and performing (I think I can honestly say the B Minor Mass is hardest thing I've ever sung. Period.).
Yet somehow tonight we were struggling a bit, especially on an arrangement of "The Shadow of Your Smile" that was set to a Bossa Nova kind of beat. About halfway through our fumbling initial read, Bill (our conductor) shouted out, "This is not rocket science, folks!" Then 10 seconds later, "This is not Bach!"
I was tempted to shout back, "No, it's even worse for white people - it's rhythm!"
I didn't give in to the urge.
But seriously, it always humors me that this is the least technically challenging music that we sing, yet it's sometimes what we struggle the most to learn, because as a group, we can't seem to master the backbeat or swing the rhythm. A few years ago the overarching theme for Pops was "The 60s" and half the concert was Beatles hits - the Beatles being THE popular music when the vast majority of Chorale members were young people - and yet some of our renditions were still painfully stilted.
I guess you can lead us honkies to rock and roll charts but you can't make us swing.
1 comment:
(giggle) Yep. Though, I've gotta say, my church choir is getting less and less inhibited about singing rhythmic, extra-continental music.
A certain amount of reminding is still necessary, tho. :-)
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