Musical violin and book captured by Fred Shively in Granada. With thanks as always to you and your camera.
12 seconds of Bubbles or Lip Trills
two minutes and a half in a Kiu
I move on to Ning, Nay say and
Then sing to Moi and Mah Mah. Halfway through.
Run upscale then downhill on Goog
Still panting I slog through a Gug
There’s a yowling Nyea
That goes one note too far
Before coming to rest on Hung Young
That was today’s vocal scales practice. For the audition. I found one on YouTube for tenors since I don’t know what key I should sing in. For the audition.
Oh didn’t I say? I’ve got an audition on Wednesday evening, along with two girlfriends who live here in Málaga. We are trying to get into Coro Nostro Tempo, an a capella choir with around 40 singers, based at the Conservatoire Eduardo Ocón. Founded in 1990, its repertoire ranges across the centuries from mediaeval polyphony to pop-rock and gospel. Just like mine.
The audition is forty minutes for each of us. FORTY MINUTES! What can they possibly want with us for forty minutes? It will only take them 30 seconds to discover that I don’t read music (yet), I don’t know half the Spanish musical terms, that I squint and tilt my head to one side when I’m trying to hit a note. That leaves 39.5 minutes for a lecture about wasting serious musicians’ time and a weary admonition to go away and think about our audacity in auditioning at all.
Moving on. For my triumphant solo effort, I am going to sing that English folk classic ‘Early One Morning’. I remember Mary Bennett sings it very badly in the 1980 movie of ‘Pride and Prejudice‘. I can only aspire to that true 18th century amateurism in my own performance. Remember, ‘amateur’ means ‘lover of’, and I really, really love singing in a choir and want to get into this one.
Don’t worry about wishing that I might ‘break a leg’. In this summer of The Broken Ankle, I shouldn’t be worrying about performer’s luck.
I’ll keep you updated…
Elegant Variations 