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prusikThis week has turned out to be busier than I'd expected. The way things turned out, I'm doing something just about every day this week. (Of course, what I want to do, go climbing, I don't get to do this week...)
I'm spending most of today waiting for the guy from the gas company to show up and replace my gas meter. (There's nothing wrong with the meter, as far as I know. They need to do this every so often as a matter of state law.) Right now, I'm wondering if I can work from home more often.
Wednesday is the D&D game that I'm now in. (Meets weekly.) Thursday is the writing group I'm now in. (Meets monthly.) Nothing on Friday (but climbing partner is busy).
Last night, I spent at choir rehearsal. A bunch of us are going caroling at the airport in mixed quintets. (Yes, the choir is being paid for this.) So, we figured it'd be nice if we at least practiced once in our quintets. Unwary travelers deserve better than to have unrehearsed mixed quintets inflicted on them. (Why it's mixed quintets when it's all 4 part chorale style arrangements? I have no idea. I didn't put this together.)
Anyway, my quintet was the only one who happened to have a pitch pipe at rehearsal, so I practiced giving pitch. (Why, of course, I have my pitch pipe with me at all times. It's on my key chain. I mean, where do you keep yours?) Who knew there would be a dispute over what pitch to give?
Ok, maybe I'd underestimated my quintet when I played tonic on my pipe pitch, then sang everyone's starting pitches. However, that's what our choir director does most of the time. The soprano of one of the other quintets suggested that I give only one pitch. I'm ok with that. That's what I would have done in college, singing with the music majors. (If they couldn't find their starting pitch from the root of the chord, they shouldn't be music majors.)
At that point, we, of course, had to have the discussion about which pitch I should give. I hadn't actually realized there was anything to discuss. Maybe it's an article of faith for me, but if you give just one pitch, you give tonic. (i.e., the key the piece is in.) Given that for every carol we're doing, everyone starts on some note in the tonic chord, it's actually the most convenient pitch reference for everyone. (Also, this is what our choir director does on those occasions when he trusts us to find our own pitch. This is also what I've been doing for years.) The tenor thought I should give the starting note of the melody. I guess the rationale is that, at least, the soprano was on pitch. (He didn't actually say that.)
When I insisted that, if I give only one pitch, it should be tonic, his response was, "What is tonic?" Ok, it's not exactly common jargon, and my mere two years of Harmony and Counterpoint in college means I, sadly, know more music theory than most. However, I shouldn't know more music theory than someone in an auditioned choir. (e.g., you do have to show that you can sightread before you get to join.) Apparently, I'm wrong about this.
This is a rehearsal, not a group discussion, so I give tonic. Since we're in the key of D, I state at the same time, "This is a D." I end up doing this several times before everyone realizes that I've given them a D. Unfortunately, I have the patience, and sometimes, the attention span, of your average puppy. So, after a couple rounds of this, I go back to doing what I wanted to do in the first place. I give myself tonic, and I sing everyone's pitches. I do this reflexively. (Everything we do starts with a tonic chord. I've given myself tonic. There are only two other possible pitches. If these carols are hard, it's because they sound stupid unless you nail them. They're not hard because opening pitches are tricky to find.)
Of course, because I'm not thinking about it, I sing the free, and easy high F# that I never manage to sing when it would actually be useful. *sigh* (If honor demands that the only pitch I take from the pitch pipe is tonic, it apparently also demands that I give everyone their exact pitch, not just the correct pitch class. Why doesn't honor warn me of these things ahead of time? Since my falsetto sucks, I may not go there for some of the soprano pitches. I don't think honor absolutely demands that I thoroughly humiliate myself for no reason.)
The good news is that this past weekend's choir Christmas concert and Monday's rehearsal has turned into a writing prompt. It's still stewing in my head. I hope to get a story out of it...
I'm spending most of today waiting for the guy from the gas company to show up and replace my gas meter. (There's nothing wrong with the meter, as far as I know. They need to do this every so often as a matter of state law.) Right now, I'm wondering if I can work from home more often.
Wednesday is the D&D game that I'm now in. (Meets weekly.) Thursday is the writing group I'm now in. (Meets monthly.) Nothing on Friday (but climbing partner is busy).
Last night, I spent at choir rehearsal. A bunch of us are going caroling at the airport in mixed quintets. (Yes, the choir is being paid for this.) So, we figured it'd be nice if we at least practiced once in our quintets. Unwary travelers deserve better than to have unrehearsed mixed quintets inflicted on them. (Why it's mixed quintets when it's all 4 part chorale style arrangements? I have no idea. I didn't put this together.)
Anyway, my quintet was the only one who happened to have a pitch pipe at rehearsal, so I practiced giving pitch. (Why, of course, I have my pitch pipe with me at all times. It's on my key chain. I mean, where do you keep yours?) Who knew there would be a dispute over what pitch to give?
Ok, maybe I'd underestimated my quintet when I played tonic on my pipe pitch, then sang everyone's starting pitches. However, that's what our choir director does most of the time. The soprano of one of the other quintets suggested that I give only one pitch. I'm ok with that. That's what I would have done in college, singing with the music majors. (If they couldn't find their starting pitch from the root of the chord, they shouldn't be music majors.)
At that point, we, of course, had to have the discussion about which pitch I should give. I hadn't actually realized there was anything to discuss. Maybe it's an article of faith for me, but if you give just one pitch, you give tonic. (i.e., the key the piece is in.) Given that for every carol we're doing, everyone starts on some note in the tonic chord, it's actually the most convenient pitch reference for everyone. (Also, this is what our choir director does on those occasions when he trusts us to find our own pitch. This is also what I've been doing for years.) The tenor thought I should give the starting note of the melody. I guess the rationale is that, at least, the soprano was on pitch. (He didn't actually say that.)
When I insisted that, if I give only one pitch, it should be tonic, his response was, "What is tonic?" Ok, it's not exactly common jargon, and my mere two years of Harmony and Counterpoint in college means I, sadly, know more music theory than most. However, I shouldn't know more music theory than someone in an auditioned choir. (e.g., you do have to show that you can sightread before you get to join.) Apparently, I'm wrong about this.
This is a rehearsal, not a group discussion, so I give tonic. Since we're in the key of D, I state at the same time, "This is a D." I end up doing this several times before everyone realizes that I've given them a D. Unfortunately, I have the patience, and sometimes, the attention span, of your average puppy. So, after a couple rounds of this, I go back to doing what I wanted to do in the first place. I give myself tonic, and I sing everyone's pitches. I do this reflexively. (Everything we do starts with a tonic chord. I've given myself tonic. There are only two other possible pitches. If these carols are hard, it's because they sound stupid unless you nail them. They're not hard because opening pitches are tricky to find.)
Of course, because I'm not thinking about it, I sing the free, and easy high F# that I never manage to sing when it would actually be useful. *sigh* (If honor demands that the only pitch I take from the pitch pipe is tonic, it apparently also demands that I give everyone their exact pitch, not just the correct pitch class. Why doesn't honor warn me of these things ahead of time? Since my falsetto sucks, I may not go there for some of the soprano pitches. I don't think honor absolutely demands that I thoroughly humiliate myself for no reason.)
The good news is that this past weekend's choir Christmas concert and Monday's rehearsal has turned into a writing prompt. It's still stewing in my head. I hope to get a story out of it...
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no subject
Date: 2007-12-18 05:23 pm (UTC)I’m guessing that there weren’t nearly as many men as women. But before you said this, I was wondering if maybe you had SSATB arrangements or something. I’d expect the sound to be unbalanced unless your director was able to put one weaker singer in each mix as the fifth wheel.
>> Why, of course, I have my pitch pipe with me at all times. It's on my key chain. I mean, where do you keep yours?
A-440 tuning fork. Pitch pipes are for wimps. ;) Okay, pitch pipes seemed universally preferred by the barbershoppers I knew, but the school choir directors I had used tuning forks if there wasn’t a piano around. A tuning fork is probably fine for the concert stage, but a single (tonic) pitch on a pitch pipe should be audible by the whole ensemble in, say, a busy airport.
Having said that, I think my tuning fork is in my kitchen junk drawer. Can't remember the last time I had to use it.
>> Maybe it's an article of faith for me, but if you give just one pitch, you give tonic.
Agreed, unless you’re singing something that makes one other pitch much more practical. In this case, you aren’t.
>> However, I shouldn't know more music theory than someone in an auditioned choir. (e.g., you do have to show that you can sightread before you get to join.) Apparently, I'm wrong about this.
A lot of music terminology isn’t necessary to sightread. I wasn’t quizzed on terminology when I auditioned for choir in college. They were interested in what my voice sounded like, whether I could match pitch, whether I could remember and duplicate a series of pitches, and how well I could sightread, but they didn't ask me about music theory.
This sort of thing also wasn’t taught very much in the process of singing in the choir. I learned a lot of practical skills, music history, and even some music theory in passing, but most of my music theory knowledge comes from playing the piano or other instruments, or from reading on my own.
This fellow’s high school choir director might have used solfege (as mine did), or roman numerals (the I chord, the V chord, etc.), or "the key this is written in is D" or even "two sharps."
>> Since we're in the key of D, I state at the same time, "This is a D." I end up doing this several times before everyone realizes that I've given them a D. ….[A]fter a couple rounds of this…
These people must depend a lot on the competence of the other singers around them in the full choir. Not because of the need to find their pitches, but because they aren’t thinking about what they’re doing. Most people wouldn’t believe this would happen in an audition-only choir, but it does.
Some singers use their skull for thinking. Others use it for resonant space.
>> I hope to get a story out of it...
I’m looking forward to it. There’s always next year’s December issue of Asimov’s, if Connie Willis hasn’t already filled the spot.
no subject
Date: 2007-12-18 05:56 pm (UTC)As for the story, it's actually not a Christmas themed story yet. It may be by the time I'm done with it, for all I know. So, for now, I'm safely out of Connie Willis's way, not to mention Mur's. (I suspect at least as many people hear her Christmas story at EscapePod as people read Connie Willis's at Asimov's.)
I forget which a cappella group, but all their members wear in ear monitors. So their sound guy gives them their pitch, when necessary, over the monitor. This means when they start to sing, they just start to sing. The audience never hears the pitch reference. Really impressive.
Of course, no one in the group ever openly admits to needing the pitch reference. To get the sound guy to play the pitch over the monitor, they say something that James Brown would say during the patter to the audience.
I've known a few people with perfect pitch whom I'd trust to give a pitch reference. Unfortunately, none of them will be singing with me at the airport. The professional standard, of course, is someone gives tonic at the start. We all start singing. We go from one song to the next, because we understand all the key relationships to find the next starting pitch, and we've stayed in tune.
In reality, my expectations are a bit lower.