Messiah concert Sydney Town Hall December 2012
This year’s Messiah at Sydney Town Hall was the best I have performed in. The choir was spectacular.
I’ve been singing with Combined Churches Community Chest choir’s annual performance of Messiah for quite a few years. This was the best yet. The audience thought so too and gave us a standing ovation.
A full house. (I counted six empty seats.) The video above was shot at our orchestral rehearsal.
Tim Chung, our conductor, has done wonders again with the choir – with spectacular results. This year he had us work on just three things:
- Achieving a metallic edge to our voices
- Breathing – with the lower abs (I’m beginning to think with the butt cheeks)
- Vowels – just the five – eh (egg), ee, ah (father), oh(frog), oo (no diphthongs)
The choir now sounds much richer and stronger. For many years, my voice stood out as one of the very strong basses. Not any more. Most of the basses are now singing with that strength and intensity.
Just between us, I think that Tuesday’s orchestral rehearsal was our best effort – most energy and intensity. Wednesday’s performance was a little less intense and Sunday’s a bit less again. We peaked a bit early. However, the audience loved it.
A very good effort from the 400 member SATB choir. Our organist, Peter Kneeshaw, is outstanding for his timing, anticipation and knowing when and where we need a bit of help. He is extremely reliable.
In the video above, you can see me just under Tim’s right elbow or armpit. Short bald fellow in a grey shirt.
This is the building process that I like so much. I’m one voice in this choir. An important voice, maybe. But, the choir would do very well without me. We help each other, build with each other, stand with each other.
One analogy for a choir could be a wooden floor. Strong beams support strong joists which support floor boards. When I began singing in choirs, I was a floor board depending for support on stronger voices who knew what they were doing. Now, I might occasionally be a joist that others can rely on. Over the last year or so, I have been able to feel when we were getting out of tune or timing or rhythm and do my best to bring the others back. If I’m now occasionally a joist, I rely on the real strength and solidity (the beams) of the conductor and accompanist. We all have to work together each relying on the more able members – and who are the reliable members can change by the day and by the song. No one of us can do it by ourselves – or even very much of it. That is what I like about choral singing.
A bit now about singing in tune. ‘Voice’ is almost certainly the most difficult instrument to play. In the Messiah performance, I sit just below Peter Kneeshaw at the organ. When Peter plays an F on the organ, he can be confident that it will be consistent every time. It does not depend on how he holds his mouth, or his posture, or the note that he played immediately before it, or how he feels on the day, or the vowel that goes with the note, or the note that another instrument is playing, or how long it is since he played the last note. The person playing ‘voice’ has all that to contend with for every note.
