Consider yourselves extras on “Hogan’s Heros” for this weekend.

Movement 1:

You feel happy knowing there are still eighth notes in the world.
You know what I mean, right? Good. Don't make me say that again, because I have no idea what I meant.
Don't squat on top of a whole note; it's not polite.
Neither you nor I would have thought of that; only Brahms is that smart.

Movement 2:

To my knowledge, this is the only funeral dirge written in waltz time.
It's like finding out there's a crack in Hoover Dam, and you're standing at the bottom of the dam.
That's just a greased slide to hell.
It shows all our shortcomings; so let's not be so short in our comings.
Vitamins, guys, blood transfusions, I don't care what it takes, legal or otherwise.
Everything else was so calm, and that one was off its meds there. So get it back in the bottle.
Head voice, chest voice, splat. It sounds like yodeling. Bad yodeling.
There can’t be any kind of seeping under the carpet with that.
You all obeyed the comma, but you did not love the comma. I want it to be a meaningful comma.

Movement 3:

It’s the metronome of the Grim Reaper: Death does scales.
I knew it was coming and I still kinda flinched.
I can see the horsehair coming off the bows, fragments flying!
In the Pentecostal church, I believe that’s knows as speaking in an unknown tongue.
It’s like you’re strapped onto something moving.
Fugues, right? Where voices come in one by one…and the audience leaves, two by two…
Don’t beat yourselves up, I’ll do that for you.
You all can be my whipping boy, doesn’t that sound like fun?
Make it obvious to even the most dull of our listeners that something is going on here.

Movement 4:

The hairpin is so much more fun if you sneak up on it.

Movement 5:

It heightens the dissonance that the sopranos are sort of scrubbing with.

Movement 6:

Sopranos, I want you to make a crescendo without getting any louder. You can use any part of your bodies you wish. Men, cast your eyes away.
You were standing right in the middle of the track—where else would the train be?
There’s somebody in the alto section who’s harmonizing with Death, and it’s not becoming; Death likes to sing in unison.
Your kill ratio is really good!

My contact lens, incidentally popped out during the concert. Both nights. In the exact same spot in the second movement, both times.

Luckily, I was able to pick it off my eyelid, tuck it into my music cover, and keep singing. Never missed a beat. I'm rather proud of that.

"Siehe, ein Ackerman wartet, auf die kõstliche Frucht, auf die kõstliche Frucht der Erde. Und ist geduldig darüber, bis er empfahe den Morgenregen, und Abendregen. So seid geduldig."

Patience, indeed. :P I'm starting to look forward to that bloody surgery.

"When he lowers his magic wand on the masses of choir and orchestra whose powers endow him with strength, we shall await the glimpses in to the world of the spirit."

This quote by Robert Schumann, printed in our program this weekend, gave me pause. I hadn't really thought of it before, but of course Brahms wasn't just a composer; he conducted his own works. How wonderful, I thought, to have been on stage performing a masterful work of music, for the very first time, conducted by the very same brilliant mind who conceived it.

Oh. I've done that.

I and the 19th century alto...we are not so different, after all.

A very creditable concert tonight. Not perfect, but damn fine, nonetheless. Mom and Sid were there, in the third row, and vatavian and rslatkin showed up. radiantbaby was there too, to see justben, who had his mom in the audience, as well. So it's a good thing we didn't screw up!

Tonight we had our first rehearsal with the other choir and the orchestra. It was...not bad for the first one, but man, we still have a lot of work to do. We missed all kinds of cues, just out of confusion at having the conductor so far away, and having all those new sounds added in. The middle dropped out of a lot of segments. Luckily, we still have tomorrow night...

Driving to Kennesaw four times in one week is not my idea of a good time. I love the Cobb Symphony Orchestra, but you know, we're the Dekalb Choral Guild, and I'd kind of like to sing in, you know, Dekalb?

Since we're singing with the Cobb Symphony Orchestra, who are a whole lot more la-di-da than we are, tickets to the November Brahms concert are rather expensive. I know how many of you are just dying to come hear us sing some badass Brahms, though, so contact me for the Sooper Sekrit Discount Code to get half-price tickets!

The miracle happened last night.

About this point in any choir season--about four rehearsals in--the music lifts off the page and starts sounding like music. It's like this every season: slog, slog, slog...miracle!

And yes, after all my whining about stress and busy-ness and such, I was actually alert and singing well last night. It was nice to be awake for the miracle.

"There's an alto somewhere who's harmonizing with Death, and it's not becoming. Death likes to sing in unison."

Tonight's Bryanism:

"Sopranos, I want you to crescendo without getting louder. You may use any part of your bodies you wish. Men, cast your eyes away."

Oh, and last week I got the ultimate alto rush. There's a ledger-line F in one of the Brahms movements. That's F-below-middle-C, i.e., very very low, but not the bottom of my range, which means I can grab that note and wrassle it to the bar line and make it beg sweetly for mercy. And the tenor next to me muttered, "day-um." Heh. Yeah.

"This just shows off all of our shortcomings...so let's not be so short in our comings."

Welcome to our new tenor, justben!

We're doing Brahms' Requiem this fall. Concerts are Saturday evening, 11/18, and Sunday afternoon, 11/19.