Michael
Lockdown, cakes and hope…
Well it’s my turn to write something for the blog. It’s a little daunting following on from the excellent pieces written so far, but I’ll have a go. So, lockdown, social distancing, self-isolation, all terms that have come into common usage during this surreal time, which alongside their introduction has meant for many life has become very different: working from home, home schooling, queueing for supermarket shopping and perhaps the most trying restriction, not meeting with other people. Annoyingly, my i-calendar with heartless persistence keeps informing me of events that I would have been attending under normal circumstances – the theatre visits, the rehearsals, trips away, the catch-ups, all now sadly cancelled. I suppose I could delete the events from the calendar but somehow that would make it more real, more finite and there’s a part of me holding on to the hope that these things will still be possible in the not too distant future.
That said, being retired means life hasn’t changed a great deal for us in the Bailey family. There is even an upside in that our son has been home since the end of March working from our dining room. It’s lovely being able to spend so much time with him despite the food bill soaring to new heights. This leads me to the one area that has caused me anxiety - shopping, especially with this increased demand for food. Online shopping slots have become as rare as hen’s teeth and then there are the products that have disappeared from shop shelves: toilet paper, flour, eggs, pasta, tinned tomatoes to name but a few. What creations people are devising baffles me – toilet paper souffle? But we’re managing.
I’ve even taken the time to practise one of Harborough Singers’ essential skills – baking. My family and I have taken it upon ourselves to check out future Saturday offerings. I know it’s an onerous task but we are willing to make the sacrifice for the benefit of the choir. Here are some of those ‘tested’ so far. Perhaps you could let me know which is your favourite. I’m also currently working on a Bakewell Tart. Any suggestions would be gratefully received.
One of the remarkable features of this lockdown has been the weather. (Oh, come on, I’m British it’s obligatory to mention the weather.) But seriously, I can’t remember a spring like it. Consequently, we have been doing a lot of walking and in doing so discovering the wealth of footpaths around our village. There’s a whole network, including the Jurassic Way and during our walks we’ve really enjoyed watching spring, in all its fecundity, emerge from winter’s barren landscape. I can’t believe that we have lived here for over twenty-six years and only just discovered them - along with many others! I’ve never seen so many dog walkers, runners and cyclists. We even came upon a local landmark, the Judith Stone, in a local field. Apparently, it’s an ancient boundary marker from the 12thC
I expect like me you are missing making music together. Watching and listening to others perform is wonderful but it’s not the same as doing it yourself. It doesn’t provide that sense of shared involvement in the creation of a unique performance; the joy and the excitement of standing shoulder to shoulder with like-minded individuals supporting and encouraging one another to aspire to their best, becoming one in body and spirit. But let us remember that the flame has not been extinguished. It’s still there burning like a beacon in the distance drawing us home. Let us focus our eyes on that beacon knowing that every day it draws closer and eventually it will be reached. We will be reunited. Then let us unleash all our frustration and emotion into making great music together, to rekindling our love of choral singing. Maybe at the end of this difficult time, this time of deprivation, we will value more highly that which was so close to being lost.
Keep safe till we meet again. Michael
Maestro’s Musings
Charlie’s Fortnightly Spotlight
No British Choir Blog…
...would be complete without at least some discussion of the weather! Goodness me, it’s hot isn’t it?! It’s that one time a year where I find myself furiously googling portable air conditioner units, and trying to weigh up whether several hundred pounds is a reasonable investment for something which is going to spend about 51 weeks of the year in a cupboard. (Although right now I would probably pay several thousand, and offer my arm, leg, and first born to cool this office down by a few degrees!!)
As we get towards the end of the term, and into the thick of what would normally be summer concert season, I’ve had several moments in the last couple of weeks where I’ve spotted an event in my diary and thought “oh wow, we’re into that week now are we? I remember planning that week months ago”! Time seems to pass in strange and unquantifiable ways at the moment, but these serve as a jolt (not always welcome, and often tinged with sadness) of reality and what might/should have been.
Head’s up - time to sing again…
After various discussions and lots of trial and error, alongside collating the experiences from colleagues of mine, I’d like to try something along the lines of a “sing-along podcast rehearsal” with you all. Because we work at a higher level than a lot of groups, and because sound streaming on any platform such as Zoom is just so poor and unreliable, the more efficient and effective use of our time seems to me to be a recorded session which can be downloaded and worked through.
To try this out, I’m going to create an ‘audio session’ in the coming weeks for everyone to take part in, and hopefully feed back your thoughts, with a view to continuing these in the autumn (if we aren’t able to meet as we would like). There are lots of variables and things will change depending on the piece etc. but as a rough idea of what it might look like; there would be a 25-30 minute track for Sopranos & Altos, and a corresponding track for Tenors & Basses, and this would cover something like a movement of a major work, or a standalone piece, or possibly a whole work where we’ve already started learning notes previously. You will have the actual music in front of you (we’ll provide it) and then follow through with me as I break it up into sections, and cover things like where to find your notes, breathing and so on.
The aim is that after working through it a couple of times, you would then feel confident enough in your part to try singing along to a recording of the piece (again, I’ll signpost a good version we can all use). Hopefully this will then give us a huge boost when we can finally meet together, as everyone will know their part and have a good idea of how the piece(s) work. Keep a look out for the first one of these in the near future, and do let me know how you find it!