once in royal David's city

[fox]

DCfolk (and anyone else who may be in town next weekend):

This is to let you know that perseverance has paid off, and I am singing a solo in next weekend's Christmas concert. And a good one, as well - not "Once in Royal David's City", alas, because we're nothing like that traditional, but mine is in fact the first voice you'll hear, as I stand John-the-Baptist-like on the stage and the whole choir processes towards me. (My parents will flip; I'm not going to tell them, but they'll see my name by itself with "soprano" under it in the program and figure it out for themselves before they see or hear me.) Let me know if you'd like ticket information. ;-)

Comments

[thalia]

Which weekend is this? Because I'm going to be in DC the 9th through the 12th.

[fox]

That's the one! (With one more on the 20th, but who cares?) The site you want is cathedralchoralsociety.org, and avoid the Saturday family matinee, which has more talking and much less music.

[thalia]

Yay! I will buy a ticket!

[cordelia_v]

Congrats on the solo! What fun for your parents.

We are indeed just that traditional, and are thus opening with "Once in Royal David's City." As we process towards the soloist, who stands in front and sings the first verse alone. I'm sure that you would have sung it even better. :-)

[fox]

When I sang it at Wadham, it was from the organ loft, so as the second verse began I really did come down to earth from heaven. :-)

Fun story about that, actually; there were two iterations of the service, and I sang the thing at one of them, but the son of some fellow of the college sang it at the other. And being every bit that traditional, you know, the soloist sings the first verse unaccompanied, and then the choir sings the second verse in parts also unaccompanied, and then the organ only comes in on the third verse. I'm pleased to report that when I sang the first verse, I was bang on every pitch so the choir came in for the second verse in the same key I'd begun in; and the choir, thankfully, stayed in that key for the duration of the second verse, so when the organ came in it was in the same key we'd been singing in all that time. :-) (Not after some missteps in rehearsal, I'll tell you what, because choirs do tend to sag, don't they.) When the boy sang the first verse - well, when he practiced it, he went badly flat, poor thing, but in the service, he went juuust ever so slightly south, probably sounded fine, but by the time the choir came in we were hanging onto the key by our very fingernails - but we brought that pitch back up to where it belonged, by god, and when the organ came in, the pitches matched. Victory! :-D