roundup

[fox]

• two BPALs to talk about today, because i didn't talk about one the other night (whenever that was).
  
  eclipse:

  All the glory, warmth and majesty of the sun -- darkened.  A delicious blend of bitter almond, vanilla, frankincense and heliotrope, with a drop of cinnamon.

  
  quite a lot more than a drop of cinnamon, actually, which is okay with me, but dude.  i can smell the almond and vanilla more in the vial, but they fade (as the almonds have been doing, after all) and before long it's kind of a cinnamon-vanilla thing happening, with mainly cinnamon.  i suppose there's another note in there that may be frankincense; i can't hardly smell any heliotrope at all, but that's okay with me.
  
  wrath:

  A scent aflame with rage, swirling in the red haze of hatred: dragon's blood spiked with black pepper, clove, and cinnamon.

  
  well -- i like black pepper, and i like clove, and i like cinnamon, so it must be the dragon's blood (whatever the hell that is) that turns me off, because damn, i did not like this scent at all.  it's not all that offensive in the jar (and it's bright red, which is nifty), but on my skin it almost immediately displeased me.  five minutes later i was so unhappy with it that i tried to wash it off, and was only partly successful; i could still smell it, so i layered on a little Eclipse and a little Tombstone to try to mask it or do something with it.  by itself, it was literally nauseating me.  (is dragon's blood possibly scented with marijuana?)
  
  tomorrow:  hellcat.  :-)  i'm looking forward to it.
  
  
• from the department of That's More Like It, i had a successful audition today for the Bach Choir, whose repertoire is much more in line with my experience than either of the other choirs i auditioned for (one of which, by the way, still hasn't got back to me, the tacky bastards, after saying they'd be in touch to let me know either way).  so, yay; it is not the case that my music-fu has suffered (much) since -- i was going to say since high school, but i think the carmina burana i did in cleveland was the summer after my freshman year of college.
  
  in fact i was kind of apprehensive, because the audition began with a few scales to warm up, but the guy had me doing scales down sort of around the F above middle C, which is a break for me, and not a useful place to warm up for the song i intended to sing, which went up to the G an octave above that (a note i have repeatedly insisted is not all that high, and it's not, but still, one wants to be in the right groove).  he looked at my form and asked if i was a first soprano^[1]; i said yes, usually, but i can sing in whatever section people put me in, i'm not the boss, etc.  and he sort of waved his hand and played the accompaniment and i sang the first verse of 'the sun, whose rays are all ablaze'^[2], and he said very nice, good tone, nice phrasing, yeah, definitely a first soprano.  hee.  so then he played a sort of weird melody and asked me to sing it back, and i did.
  
  and then came the sight-reading.  which, as we've seen, i hate, because i just don't do it that well.  and i may have sort of made a face, because Auditor Guy said don't worry, it's accompanied.  and here's the first pitch.  and take a minute to work it out before we begin.  so i hummed it out in my head, and he started to play the accompaniment, and i sang it, and i was going twice as fast as he was.  [eyeroll at self]  3/8 != 3/16, bright light.  so it began again, and i sang the whole thing, and he said it was the best he'd heard all morning.  and i said i bet he said that to all the sopranos, and he said no, really.
  
  and then he did another couple of scales for range-testing, and asked me if i'd done any church music.  and i said i had, and then!  he said "listen, i'm not actually affiliated with the bach choir -- i just stepped in to do the auditions when they had a scheduling conflict.  but --" and he sort of looked at the door, guiltily -- "i probably shouldn't say this, it's very wrong of me, but i direct another group', and this is the name and we practice on these days, if you're interested, blah blah blah.
  
  i think i've been poached!
  
  okay, not precisely poached, because the thing he was talking about doesn't conflict with the thing he was auditioning me for.  but, but, yay?  choirs, especially small ones, do not in my experience tend to hurt for sopranos -- so if i'm being invited to join (or at least audition for) another group on the strength of my audition for this one?  then i suppose i must have done something right?  it may not work out, who knows, but the fact that i was proto-poached and also told on the spot that i'd be a valuable sop1 in the Bach Choir made my day a lot better.
  
  
• and then i saw cannons_at_dawn and (briefly) anariel_di_gaia and foulds before hurrying off to chapel choir -- where i had to sing Utility Tenor, but i didn't mind so much!, because i'd had a good day.

[1]people keep on seeming surprised when i tell them i'm a first soprano.  i think they may be thrown off by my speaking voice?, which i've never thought was that low, but is apparently not like the speaking voices of (most?) women who sing soprano around here.  [shrug]

[2]the second-act soprano aria (actually, okay, in the score it's just called 'song') from the mikado:

the sun, whose rays are all ablaze with ever-living glory,
does not deny his majesty; he scorns to tell a story.
he don't exclaim, 'i blush for shame, so kindly be indulgent',
but, fierce and bold in fiery gold, he glories all effulgent.
i mean to rule the earth, as he the sky;
we really know our worth, the sun and i.

i was v. lucky to be able to borrow a score from the gilbert & sullivan society, bless them.  otherwise i'd have had to sing unaccompanied, which would have made me more nervous, etc.

Comments

[misia.livejournal.com]

I hate the scent of dragon's blood (it's a plant resin, in case you were wondering). Like patchouli, it turns into bug poison smell on me. ECCH.

Yay for the good audition!

[the-star-fish.livejournal.com]

There's no better feeling than being asked to join something like that. (Well, okay, orgasms are nice too, I suppose.) Yay for you!

[decarnin.livejournal.com]

You've been headhunted! Congratulations!

I don't know those scents. My fave is black coconut, which is an essential oil so it doesn't have ingredients as far as I know. I've got no idea what actual plant it's made from though. I've never bothered to look up black coconut and see what it *is*.