Tonight we sat in on the rehearsal for the Holst singers at Temple Church. I loved the architecture. This simple gothic design is just so beautiful and gothic stained glass is my favorite. The colors are so rich and vibrant. I was soooo ready for beautiful music. We talked in class about how the Holst singers are probably the group that we, as BYU students, could relate to the most. They are not considered a professional choir and most of them work in careers other than singing or so I was told by members of the choir. As I was sitting there listening I had a thought about acoustics and physics really playing a role for a choir. Something as simple as elevating the men on chairs behind the women drastically changed the sound for the rehearsal.
In regards to the singers, I felt that their sight reading was pretty decent but I'm wondering how they pull of coming together for so few rehearsals and sight read their music and manage to polish it in time for a concert? I could see how connected these singers are to their conductor though. This is something I haven't noticed as much with other groups. There intonation was pretty great and I was particularly impressed with the sopranos hitting large interval jumps with such accuracy. It sounded to me like they were singing right in the center of the pitch and I was highly impressed. In "Praise Ye the Lord" I lost their consonants a little bit but, I think they made up for it in "Come Jesus Come". What a moving piece.
-lunch of pasta at my flat
-little Venice
*chatting with this random couple
*walking, getting on bus, going back
*looking for cool stuff, the zoo the market...nothing
-we tried to find the puppet museum but it turns out to be like 12 pounds for adult tix
-took a nap in the park
-boarded the tube and went to Temple church
*we were there like 5 min late and everyone was already gone from the appointed meeting spot
-arrived in the church where the Da Vinci code was filmed, georgeous stained glass windows
*director directed polyphony also
*chatted with members of the choir
*got a ride to the grocery store from a member of the choir
*talked with the casheer from France
-we tried to find the puppet museum but it turns out to be like 12 pounds for adult tix
-took a nap in the park
-boarded the tube and went to Temple church
*we were there like 5 min late and everyone was already gone from the appointed meeting spot
-arrived in the church where the Da Vinci code was filmed, georgeous stained glass windows
*director directed polyphony also
*chatted with members of the choir
*got a ride to the grocery store from a member of the choir
*talked with the casheer from France
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