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Intellectual Elocutionist
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 Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2008 11:32 am
Man is condemned to be free. ~Jean-Paul Sartre No guild about music could possibly be complete without a thread about choirs - I'm a self-proclaimed choir geek myself, and I know there are others out there. Share your stories, favourite songs, best and worst moments, and anything else related to the awesomeness of choir. Maybe we'll even trade recordings! Haha.
I'll start, then. I just graduated from the Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus, which is pretty much Hawaii's biggest, oldest, and most accomplished children's choir. I'll spare you the complete history, but it actually started as a place to train kids for the children's roles in opera productions; while one ensemble still performs with the opera, we've branched out into our own world of music education. Recently one of the focuses of the choir is to help provide quality music education for kids in public schools. Many schools have cut or reduced music programs because they need to meet the standards of No Child Left Behind and other standardized programs. A lot of schools don't even have a general music teacher. Since we all know music is awesome, one of the big initiatives is to go to schools and spend time teaching music that was cut from the actual curriculum. We even got a grant to do four neighbour-island tours to visit schools; I had the privilege to participate in two of those. At any rate, I'll stop rambling about my choir. I have plenty of stories, as well - like I said, I've participated in neighbour-island tours; I've also participated in several mainland and international tours, and each trip has its own set of memories.
I also had the chance to sing in all four years of Hawaii All-State High School Honour Choir, which was a great experience. Part of the awesome thing about living in a place like Hawaii is that the musicians are pretty well-connected. Honour Choir was a great example; pretty much all the major players in the choral world either ran rehearsals or chaperoned the actual Honour Choir camp, which gives motivated singers a chance to get to know the staff pretty well. Fun stuff. Well, that and it's a rare opportunity to sing with conductors from the mainland (although in an interesting turn, one actually was a former UH teacher who had moved to the mainland the previous year).
Eeep. that was a lot of rambling. Sorry about that! Feel free to share your thoughts, though. The only thing I ask is that people try to avoid bragging too much. I know I did a little, here, but...really, I want this to be a friendly discussion, not a competition for how many honours your choir has had. A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic. ~George Bernard Shaw
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 7:41 am
heart ... Autumn leaves fall and are swept out of sight ...
Shall the rambler start? XD
My first choir was one that was actually formed during my last year' of primary school ((apparently the choir was formed because of me ... awkward)). Even when I hit 13 and moved on to high school I performed with my primary school's choir at their annual Christmas Concert.
Before that second - and last - performance with my first choir the woman who was teaching us invited me into the town's Community Choir and I've been there ever since. It's a mixed choir filled mainly with people 50 and older - with just the odd exception - and we perform every year' at our town's Carols by Candlelight, occasionally at one-time events that may occur during a year', and bi-annually at Music on the Murray. For MotN we actually become part of a 200 voice combined choir, joining with a choir up river ((meaning a choir from a town that's about a half hour' away from us)) as well as the Adelaide Philharmonic. MotN has been my favourite event every time.
As we mainly sing for Carols by Candlelight though most of our repertoire are - obviously - carols. Last year' we did a lovely rendition of Silent Night that had just been published ((I forgot who by, I'll see if I can find out)). We've done works by Wagner ((there's a joke running through the choir that makes some people refer to him as "d**k Wang")) and other popular composers, but a lot of it is a bit too "obscure" for country town hicks. >}_< It's not all carols though, that'd be mad. My vocal teacher and her husband - our director - are in a folk group so we've done some backing for them ... I know we've covered ragtime, music theatre, opera, blues and seem to put a "classical spin" on it ((at least that's what whoever wrote a certain newspaper article wrote)).
Hmm. That should just about cover it, really. I do love being in the choir but sometimes it has its downsides - like always being chosen to sing the solo parts that other 1st Sopranos refuse to touch - but you get over those in the long run.
... So are the memories of love that we knew ... heart
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 2:40 pm
Hokay, so I'm a relative choir newbie. I sang with my middle school mixed choir (3 years), continued with my high school mixed choir (3 years, best we got was silver in competition), and then was blasted into awesomeness by being a part of my university's Chamber Chorale (our most select ^^x).
We tour a lot ^^x. We just did an enormous tour to (and through) China about a month ago. Last year, we went to England, next year we're in Hawai'i and the year after, either Japan or Australia, which just goes to show: join a choir, see the world!
At any rate, I could go on about choir forever and will probably do so the longer I am in this guild, but YAY for mixed voices, and YAY for altos! I sing lower then our tenors, on occasion (our composers like voice crossing). <3
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 11:37 pm
Man is condemned to be free. ~Jean-Paul Sartre When are you coming to Hawaii? I'd love to see your choir, if it's on my island...and within my budget. xD Yeah, it's definitely true that choir is a great way to see the world - probably the majority of the travelling I've done in my life was choir-related, although I've only done one international tour. I can't wait until I go to college and do the whole university thing; it's actually a possibility right now that I go into choral conducting/music ed, although I'd really like to major in theory...
Anyway, sounds like a lot of fun, both of you! xD A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic. ~George Bernard Shaw
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Intellectual Elocutionist
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Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 10:34 am
Keakealani Man is condemned to be free. ~Jean-Paul Sartre When are you coming to Hawaii? I'd love to see your choir, if it's on my island...and within my budget. xD Yeah, it's definitely true that choir is a great way to see the world - probably the majority of the travelling I've done in my life was choir-related, although I've only done one international tour. I can't wait until I go to college and do the whole university thing; it's actually a possibility right now that I go into choral conducting/music ed, although I'd really like to major in theory...
Anyway, sounds like a lot of fun, both of you! xD A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic. ~George Bernard Shaw Well, if we make it (we're still fundraising, but it should happen ^^x) we'll be in Hawai'i during next year's Spring Break (so... late April-ish, usually). I'll have to ask my conductor about where we'll be going, but knowing my choir, we'll probably be visiting multiple islands. My director visits Hawai'i often and is always telling us about the amazing choral tradition the islands have, so there's a great chance we'll be hearing some choirs as well! Which universities are you looking to attend? I highly recommend private, because those really tend to give you the freedom to study everything you like. I'm a Music major at Stanford (go figure, our department is small but really family-like), and I love every minute of it. I'm concentrating on Vocal Performance and History and Theory (with more History, since I kinda suck at theory). If you major in theory, does that mean you want to look at composition? We have quite a few comp. majors who focus in theory, and they're pretty cool. I really recommend branching out in music to find what you really love -- I'm also going to start taking conducting next school year! Go for your dreams! I did and I'm sooo happy ^^x.
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Posted: Tue Aug 12, 2008 12:32 pm
Man is condemned to be free. ~Jean-Paul Sartre Mm, yes. There is a really awesome and close-knit choir circle here, it's fantastic. Well, I'm sure you guys will come to Oahu, since this is kinda the main island. But interisland tours are always fun, I've done several and it's a great experience to be away from tho city life a bit. Not that the other islands are rural, but their cities are 900k people, either. xD
Yeah, I'm actually in the process of looking at universities right now - I'm taking a year off and then planning to go away. I haven't exactly struck upon my "dream school" yet, but I'm hopeful. xD
I actually would love to go into choral conducting, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be a very good teacher, and I'm not sure if I'm willing to go the path of music education. The other problem is that I really can't play the piano or any other instrument, and I think that will become a big problem. I've recently started trying to teach myself stuff, but it's not working out as well as I would have liked... xD
Otherwise, I'd really love to do a sort of theory/history concentration. I don't care that much for composing, but I love figuring out the intricacies of different musical styles and eras, which fits into my history buff nature (even outside of music!). I kind of figure once I get to school I can figure out more clearly what I want to do, as long as I get a good foundation. A fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic. ~George Bernard Shaw
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Intellectual Elocutionist
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Posted: Wed Oct 22, 2008 4:55 pm
Let's see. I really didn't start majorly singing til I was in the youth choir at my church. In middle school I was in the Mixed choir, the bottom one, because I didn't audition. I just said, "I feel like being in choir." The next year I was in Concert Choir, the top one. Both years i was a sop. 1. My freshman year, I was in the men's choir. I was a tenor 1. I then auditioned for Rhapsody, the top choir and best choir in the city, and I made it! Now I'm a bass 1 in Rhapsody. This January we are going to Washington D.C. and we will sing at the inaguration. I'm so excited!
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Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:55 pm
I sang in church choir all through my childhood. while I was living in new jersey I sang in choir festivals all over new york city. I didn't start getting seriously involved in choir till high school when I moved to iowa and got involved in the Heartland Youth Choir. we traveled to california and austria (for Mozart's 250th birthday. It was amazing). In college I have been in the top choir all three years, and this year I also joined the chamber choir which is smaller and focuses on renaissance music. We are doing a madrigal dinner in February. If anyone happens to be in North east missouri on valentines day you should come it is going to be bunches of fun!
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Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:15 am
I used to sing in a children's choir which was formed to teach children how to sing. I started the first year it was made, which in my opinion was the best year, but had to quit, because I was no longer youg enough to participate. We sang a lot of good music there, and when I'm in college I would like to look into singing again. Our choir didn't do much traveling, although there was talk of going to England. Your choirs all sound much better though.
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Posted: Wed Jun 03, 2009 9:54 am
Oh wow, choir. I only have a little experience there but it still sticks in my head and makes me laugh to remember. So I tried out in choir in the 6th grade and much to the choir director's disdain, was thrust into the otherwise all girl sopranos section. Over the next two years as my voice changed through puberty, I went to baritone, tenor, and then finally was asked to step down because my finalized vocal range was far too narrow to be of much use to anybody. Oh well!
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Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 5:19 pm
No offence, but choir is for real idiots who wished they could play music. I would rather play an instrument than to be in choir, because choir sucks! No offfence.
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Posted: Thu Oct 15, 2009 4:19 pm
flamingrice No offence, but choir is for real idiots who wished they could play music. I would rather play an instrument than to be in choir, because choir sucks! No offfence. That is really offensive. Choir is NOT for idiots. Over half of the people in my high school choir were also in orchestra!
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Posted: Tue Oct 27, 2009 6:42 pm
I take offence
Has anyone had to sing a song called Cantante Domino? There is a story behind this...
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Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:01 am
Anyone who thinks singing is easy, has never really tried to do it! I'm not a vocalist - I'm an accompanist, and I am amazed at what good vocalists can do!
They can be as rhythmically accurate as any instrumentalist, they hit the right pitch....IN TUNE....without pushing down any keys, they are expressive, have wonderful tone quality and control....AND THEY DO ALL OF THIS on an instrument that can't be seen or touched!
Obviously, I'm lucky enough to be playing for some excellent MUSICIANS! And they deserve respect for working hard to be the best they can be!
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Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:58 am
I was in a choir and loved it then my choir director kept changing the day and put it on a day I couldn't go .ANNOYING!!!
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