Thoughts from the 10%
The 10% is the T2 section. Well, maybe it should be “Thoughts from 1/12 (8.3%) of the 10%” since I’m the only T2 writing. (Blame Barbara for my crazy math. She started it all.)
There were some people out for vacation and some people out sick (i.e., my neighboring tenors who left me adrift, ha), but it was still a pretty full night and a very social crowd. Tons of conversations around the room, but the thing that stuck out for me was how many people were wondering when they’d ever get the hang of the French or the Italian or the Jai Ho. (Yes, that’s a language.)
The other curiosity of the evening was tha
t it was the first of the last seven rehearsals … the start of the second half of the rehearsal process. In celebration(?), we ran the entire program, which was kind of fun and a lot disorienting. Fun, because it’s always nice to finally get to (mostly) sing through songs in their entirety. Disorienting, because OMG what are those sounds! Am I supposed to be on that note? Are they supposed to be on my note? Are we supposed to be in unison with the sopranos there? (Let me check. Oh, good grief. How many measures behind am I now?) Why is she looking at me? Am I supposed to be singing?
Like I said, fun and disorienting.
Power Language-Learning Through Music
While listening to people talk about getting the hang of the languages, I realized that over the last three years the chorale has made us fluent in lots of languages: Latin, Yiddish, French, Yoruba, Zulu, Italian Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. (The last three I call Jai Ho since they’re all in one song. And by fluent, I mean able to say more than two words in a language whether or not I know what they mean.)
When Is Pop-Culture Avoidance too Much?
While the Wikipedia entry says, ‘”Jai Ho” was, at the time of its release, “the toast of the town in almost every part of the world,”‘ I say, “I’d never heard of the song until it showed up in my packet to sing this semester.” I’d never seen the film. I had no idea that it was a love story. I’d never heard the Pussycat Dolls cover of the song either, which was supposedly very popular. (I’d also never heard “Circle of Life.”)
So this week my goal is to meet some young people to tell me about pop culture. It might be a good idea for me to come in from the cold.
– Curtis Balom