![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(Previously posted to my news as "Catching up re singing/performance stuff...")
Did also have a rather photogenic case of bedhead that morning due to showering the night before and not being able to find a bloody comb between then and services....but hey, it worked.... B-)
(Further updating erratica to come soon, here and/or sites elsewhere....I'm feeling in a dangerously showmanly mood....)
_
So....last Sunday I sang for services at Unity Northwest Church, which is my mother's parish -- the two weekends before that, she and I and my best friend Nick had been the mainstays (really!) of a concert run called "Peace and All Good Things" (more on that in a subsequent post, perhaps, as there's much to say about it and such things, whether "good" or not....).
But anyhow, I'd been put on the schedule to sing for that Sunday just before the recent music director left (can't really summarize the
situation), and the current music director had never had me sing for services before. Actually, the only time before that that I'd sung solo within the context of that church's services was about 3-4 music directors ago. Shows how fast things can change over a few years' time. :-|
As planned, I recycled one of the pieces that I'd sung then, a piece by Sister Kathy Sherman called "The Hungers of the Heart" (this time
transposed up slightly higher from its former performance key which we hadn't written out in full), and instead of reprising the other song I'd previously done, which is one of my own songs called "From the Springtime of My Life", I did the tenor aria "If With All Your Hearts" from Mendelssohn's 'Elijah' -- omitting the thoroughly outdated recitative, with all its railing and exhorting against the worshippers of Baal, of course.......instead of going chronologically and doing the more 'classical' sacred repertoire first (w/ the modern music as relief from it?), as many performers would do, I figured that the more intimate and contemporary piece would add deeper meaning to the traditional aria when it came up, and link them both on the same plane of spiritual interpretation.
("From the Springtime of My Life" was not ignored this year, btw, as I sang it for all five performances of our eclectic little concert, totally from memory and totally sans accompaniment)
Now, at this church it is customary to record the first service while in progress and make CDs immediately, so that the music, meditations
and lessons may be revisited by the parishioners should they desire it. These CDs are for sale for $5 apiece in the Heartland A.R.E.
(Association for Research and Enlightenment, Edgar Cayce's scion organization) bookstore across the hall from the Fellowship Room
(otherwise known as the place where one gets coffee between/after services).
I don't know how many CDs they had made this time, but they had all sold out before we left the building.
Todd (the music director) was going to make a bunch more, so I should hopefully be getting a copy within the next week, and when I do I'll
see about getting the music ganked and uploaded as files to my portfolio/career news+feedback group, along with the songs from the concert CDs (the last Friday and Saturday performances) that my fiancee is editing up for demo- and Internet-readiness. Needless to say, I'm currently feeling rather sanguine about my chances with a recording career.
But anyhow, I'd been put on the schedule to sing for that Sunday just before the recent music director left (can't really summarize the
situation), and the current music director had never had me sing for services before. Actually, the only time before that that I'd sung solo within the context of that church's services was about 3-4 music directors ago. Shows how fast things can change over a few years' time. :-|
As planned, I recycled one of the pieces that I'd sung then, a piece by Sister Kathy Sherman called "The Hungers of the Heart" (this time
transposed up slightly higher from its former performance key which we hadn't written out in full), and instead of reprising the other song I'd previously done, which is one of my own songs called "From the Springtime of My Life", I did the tenor aria "If With All Your Hearts" from Mendelssohn's 'Elijah' -- omitting the thoroughly outdated recitative, with all its railing and exhorting against the worshippers of Baal, of course.......instead of going chronologically and doing the more 'classical' sacred repertoire first (w/ the modern music as relief from it?), as many performers would do, I figured that the more intimate and contemporary piece would add deeper meaning to the traditional aria when it came up, and link them both on the same plane of spiritual interpretation.
("From the Springtime of My Life" was not ignored this year, btw, as I sang it for all five performances of our eclectic little concert, totally from memory and totally sans accompaniment)
Now, at this church it is customary to record the first service while in progress and make CDs immediately, so that the music, meditations
and lessons may be revisited by the parishioners should they desire it. These CDs are for sale for $5 apiece in the Heartland A.R.E.
(Association for Research and Enlightenment, Edgar Cayce's scion organization) bookstore across the hall from the Fellowship Room
(otherwise known as the place where one gets coffee between/after services).
I don't know how many CDs they had made this time, but they had all sold out before we left the building.
Todd (the music director) was going to make a bunch more, so I should hopefully be getting a copy within the next week, and when I do I'll
see about getting the music ganked and uploaded as files to my portfolio/career news+feedback group, along with the songs from the concert CDs (the last Friday and Saturday performances) that my fiancee is editing up for demo- and Internet-readiness. Needless to say, I'm currently feeling rather sanguine about my chances with a recording career.
Did also have a rather photogenic case of bedhead that morning due to showering the night before and not being able to find a bloody comb between then and services....but hey, it worked.... B-)
(Further updating erratica to come soon, here and/or sites elsewhere....I'm feeling in a dangerously showmanly mood....)
_
Tags:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
Unity
I've had a couple of acquaintances who went to Unity Church and they enjoyed it. Refreshing also was that the congregation (if that is the correct word?) was welcoming and affirming of g.l.b.t.i.q. in their midst.
spike
From:
Re: Unity
(Plus, seeing as I sing a good tenor and dress up well, I get read as male pretty consistently there anyhow...B-))