Sunday, December 21, 2008

Singing Messiah and getting paid for the privilege!

When my voice teacher asked if I'd be interested in helping swell the numbers of her church choir when they sang pt. 1 of "The Messiah" for the 4th Sunday in Advent, I agreed almost before she'd finished telling me any details. I haven't sung any Messiah in years and jumped at the chance; and she was going to let me sing a solo too? Where do I sign! Then came the kicker - she planned to pay me for something I'd happily do for free. After all, while I know plenty of people with paying church jobs, I'm not one of them. In fact, the running joke in my church choir when someone is late to practice or makes a mistake is to threaten to dock their salary (of $0).

Yesterday was our Sitzprobe, if you will - our sole rehearsal with the full complement of instrumentalists (violins 1&2, a viola, and a cello in addition to the organ). We'd been rehearsing with the organ all along, and the 1st violin (the organist's husband) had joined us Thursday, but having all 4 strings really made a difference! And it was SO cool to stand up there and sing "He shall feed His flock" with them right off my left hip (it's a very small chancel)!

I found the service a little disorienting. It's a Methodist church (I'm Catholic), and this was a special service, I was sightreading 2 of the 3 non-Messiah hymns, and I was relieved when they put me at the end of the processional line. Not a problem - I knew it would be unfamiliar, so I just watched everyone else - but as I joked with Mom later on the phone, it can't have been hard for the congregation to figure out that I was a visitor. The Messiah, however, generally went quite well. The first soloist had to clear his throat a few bars into his first solo but recovered nicely and sounded quite good thereafter. The first chorus got a little off track when one section made an entrance in the wrong place, but we recovered within a few bars and after that, the choruses were probably the best I'd heard us do. I felt good about how my solo went, got some nice compliments on it, and was able to sincerely compliment the others. It felt a little weird to go to someone else's denomination of a Sunday morning, but somehow I don't think God will mind overmuch if my prayers occasionally emanate from a church with a different "brand" out front. ;-)

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