Long time no see! Yes, I apologize for going radio silent just as I've entered the Home Stretch of pregnancy. No, Dante hasn't been born yet. He's much too comfortable in there! My Mac Mini decided it had had enough (force feeding, I guess) and refused to start up. I took it to the Apple Hospital and they got it to work again. Unfortunately, there are random bits of software which are missing, so random programs don't work properly. I'm clueless about these things, so I think it'll probably be about 18 years before I stop getting random error messages. My friend, Meredith, formerly of the CtK choir in Frankfurt suggested a Big Mac might help. Maybe it's worth a try? ANYWAY...
I have a couple of things to report on:
The Final Wedding Performance
My friends Isabel and Jens asked me to sing for their wedding on 5 September. They chose Laudate Dominum from Mozart's Vespers. We had agreed that if I really wasn't up to it, I could cancel. I felt fine, and my voice was fine, but breath management was weird. I was concerned, because I needed more oxygen than I needed air to sing this piece and my body would get all stressed out by the end of it. Luckily the church was big and the balance with the organ was such that I could sing louder. Strangely, that seemed to help. I "wasted" the air I needed for oxygen's sake and the whole process was more efficient. There wasn't quite the dynamic variation that Mozart suggests, but you know what? I sang well, the bridal couple and several guests were moved, and that's what counts, no?
StarShipSofa Stories Volume 1
The first official Anthology of StarShipSofa's Aural Delights Audio Magazine is available for purchase at Lulu, a print on demand publishing house. You can also download a free ebook version of this fantastic collection of stories. Have a look at the book, which is styled after those wonderfully campy 50's pulp Science Fiction paperbacks, complete with advertisements from 50's magazines interspersed between the stories and original artwork for select stories. Click here. From there you can decide whether you'd like to purchase the book from Lulu or download. In any case, you can also donate to the StarShipSofa. As I've mentioned before, I've narrated countless stories and poetry for the SSS and Tony Smith has become a friend. Three of the stories I narrated for the podcast are appearing in the Anthology. If you listened and liked those stories or narrations you might like to have them in print and you can help out by purchasing the book. All proceeds will go toward production costs of the podcast.
Pregnancy
Officially the due date is 13 October. My doctor has gone back and forth a couple of times whether it should be the 6th or the 13th. She's now convinced it should be earlier than the 13th anyway. She declared that from 22 September she'd no longer consider it a premature birth and Dante is welcome to make his appearance. Being pregnant is definitely getting tedious and I'm so curious to meet my little boy. I've been remarkably free of problems worse than elephant feet and cankles due to water retention. I've started with acupuncture to ease the birth and next week the doc will set some needles to help with the swollen legs and feet. I wouldn't have thought, but these needles are much more uncomfortable than the ones they stick in your face for hayfever! I'm trying to rest a lot, and not over-do it. Not sleeping too well these days. Tomorrow we'll have another consultation and ultrasound at the hospital and perhaps set a last date when they'll induce if he's gotten too comfortable in there. Magnus and I will have birthing class on Saturday. Next week some friends have organized a baby shower for me. I think we are pretty much organized and anything we don't have yet won't be tragic.
That's it for now. I'm planning on reviewing a wonderful Dance production I went to recently, but I'll do that in a separate post.
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Showing posts with label Mozart Laudate Dominum Vespers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mozart Laudate Dominum Vespers. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Monday, August 31, 2009
More weddings - and singing for them too
I apologize for not having posted in a while. To be honest, I've entered the nesting stage, I think, and don't have a ton to post about. I really must figure out what I can post about when I take my baby break from teaching and singing, which will likely be from October through the end of the year.
Anyway, what I have been doing lately is singing at weddings. A couple of friends here in Hanover got married recently and asked me to sing at their weddings.
The first was in a beautiful church in a convent outside of Hanover. I was worried about this one, honestly, because the organist didn't arrive back from her vacation until 2 days prior to the event and hadn't received the music. We were doing Schubert's Ave Maria, which is no big deal for anyone worth their salt. But the other song was a German pop song made famous by Yvonne Catterfeld: Für Dich, written by Dieter Bohlen (who else?!?) of the German Pop Idol series "Deutschland sucht den Superstar". I believe there is even an English version of it. The music the couple provided us with was sparse and when playing what was written gave no indication of what the song should actually sound like. The rehearsal with the organist was a disaster. It sounded strange on an organ and she'd never actually heard Catterfeld's recording. I suggested we might actually use a Karaoke version I'd found on iTunes (for rehearsal purposes), if we could get a decent sound system. We organized that contingency plan, just in case the organist didn't manage to arrange the accompaniment well. As luck would have it, she had listened to the recording I gave her and practiced the shit out of it, so it sounded decent enough. The difference between everything being played on the organ and the one song a recording was actually worse than doing this pop song on the organ. The bride and groom were over the moon with how it turned out, so a win in the end. The organist was actually good and a nice person, so that if anyone hires me to sing and needs an organist I have someone I can recommend.
The next wedding is Saturday, Sept. 5 for a good friend of mine. They were initially reluctant to ask me to sing considering my state (9 months pregnant), but in the end we decided we'd choose a song and if I don't feel up to it, then I just won't sing. Luckily, I've been spared much difficulty with singing this pregnant. I have a VERY long waist, which means there is lots of room, UNDER my diaphragm for baby. I just don't have an abdominal muscles for emergency support at the end of phrases. All that means is that I have to breathe a bit deeper or more often and make sure I'm not tempted to have to eek out that last drop of air in my lungs, 'cause it just ain't happening. So far, I feel fine and my voice is shaping up after the long bout with a throat I had in August. I will sing Mozart's Laudate Dominum from the Vespers, which is just a lovely piece. The organist knows the version with choir, but I have a version with violin obligato, so he will work out a hybrid of the two. We'll rehearse the day of and so we'll just have to assume it will go well. :-)
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Anyway, what I have been doing lately is singing at weddings. A couple of friends here in Hanover got married recently and asked me to sing at their weddings.
The first was in a beautiful church in a convent outside of Hanover. I was worried about this one, honestly, because the organist didn't arrive back from her vacation until 2 days prior to the event and hadn't received the music. We were doing Schubert's Ave Maria, which is no big deal for anyone worth their salt. But the other song was a German pop song made famous by Yvonne Catterfeld: Für Dich, written by Dieter Bohlen (who else?!?) of the German Pop Idol series "Deutschland sucht den Superstar". I believe there is even an English version of it. The music the couple provided us with was sparse and when playing what was written gave no indication of what the song should actually sound like. The rehearsal with the organist was a disaster. It sounded strange on an organ and she'd never actually heard Catterfeld's recording. I suggested we might actually use a Karaoke version I'd found on iTunes (for rehearsal purposes), if we could get a decent sound system. We organized that contingency plan, just in case the organist didn't manage to arrange the accompaniment well. As luck would have it, she had listened to the recording I gave her and practiced the shit out of it, so it sounded decent enough. The difference between everything being played on the organ and the one song a recording was actually worse than doing this pop song on the organ. The bride and groom were over the moon with how it turned out, so a win in the end. The organist was actually good and a nice person, so that if anyone hires me to sing and needs an organist I have someone I can recommend.
The next wedding is Saturday, Sept. 5 for a good friend of mine. They were initially reluctant to ask me to sing considering my state (9 months pregnant), but in the end we decided we'd choose a song and if I don't feel up to it, then I just won't sing. Luckily, I've been spared much difficulty with singing this pregnant. I have a VERY long waist, which means there is lots of room, UNDER my diaphragm for baby. I just don't have an abdominal muscles for emergency support at the end of phrases. All that means is that I have to breathe a bit deeper or more often and make sure I'm not tempted to have to eek out that last drop of air in my lungs, 'cause it just ain't happening. So far, I feel fine and my voice is shaping up after the long bout with a throat I had in August. I will sing Mozart's Laudate Dominum from the Vespers, which is just a lovely piece. The organist knows the version with choir, but I have a version with violin obligato, so he will work out a hybrid of the two. We'll rehearse the day of and so we'll just have to assume it will go well. :-)
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