In the Miserable Rain
They had to cancel the procession down Main Street to the inn last night. I was dreadfully rainy, cold, and beyond miserable. So the entire pagneant was held inside the church during the service.
There would be a short Bible reading of the Christmas story, two musical pieces illustrating the story, and during the music, the varied members--Mary, Joseph, Angels, Shepherds, and Kings walked down the aisle to the front of the sanctuary to pose in the nativity. It's always a touch corny in that nice, warm Christmasy way. I get all choked up at points.
The chorale/choir sang five numbers this year. The brass ensemble played several, the bells played several, and the children's choir sang two pieces. The whole service took just over an hour.
We were quite pleased with our choir performance overall, though, as ususal, there were a few little "not quite" right moments. Nothing serious and all the songs sounded great. My solo part in the second to last number was totally on target, which pleased me no end. There had been a couple places were I had made some repeated mistakes, but once I figured out what I'd done wrong in the past, I made the corrections and did it just right in performance. It's a bouncy, yet dramatic piece--sort of a spiritual with a beat--and at the end I have a descant that adds some real power to it. There were two short solo verse parts too, nothing big, but that kind of vocal variation adds a lot to a musical number and I was happy to have been able to do it so we had the full effect.
After the service, we went to the choir director's house for our annual get together and I guess I stayed until around 9 PM. (service started at 4 PM with a 3:15 rehearsal prior) By the time a friend drove me home, I was exhausted. And, to my surprise quite sore. I was in bed within the hour and found that an ice pack was the biggest help with another dose of painkiller. Guess all the extra effort of the evening was more than I thought.
But I had a great time and really enjoyed myself. Now I feel Christmas is really on the way.
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Ice is great stuff - except it's hard to use when it's so cold outside! Sounds like you had a great time, though!
ReplyDeleteIt all sounds like such a lovely service.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you got to participate but sorry to hear you were a little sore afterwards. Hope you're feeling better and resting today.
It sounds beautiful. I love the addition of descant. That makes me think of Hymns at school in England. We always had a procession with the whole school parading in song, first quiet, then louder as the auditorium filled up. "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" was a good one. I was always better off when it got louder as my voice is "untrained" to say the least. I know all the words still.
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