I’m pretty sure it didn’t occur to very many people in the Carthage Choir – because it didn’t really occur to me until later – that yesterday’s rehearsal was basically the last official rehearsal of the Carthage Choir under Mr. Noble. True, there will be a short rehearsal of sorts in the TARC the day before commencement, but that’s really a sound check more than anything. Yesterday was the last time that the choir would gather with Mr. Noble in the choir room for a full fledged rehearsal. The end of an era- without anything even remotely resembling fanfare. One minute he was there, and the next he was on his way out the door so the choir could elect its officers for next year. No emotional words to mark the occasion. . . In fact, it was a fairly ordinary rehearsal – fruitful to be sure but essentially just another rehearsal, not THE LAST REHEARSAL. And it’s probably just as well; I don’t know that it would have served much purpose to get all emotional about it. I’m guessing that there will be plenty of emotion on that last day, when they are singing under him for the very last time at commencement. But actually, one of the weird things about commencement is that when the ceremony is over, people have a tendency to either scatter to the winds or get completely lost in the mob. So I’m hoping that one way or another there is going to be a chance for something to be said sometime that will tie up the emotional loose ends of it all and give some sense of final closure to this amazing year. But if that is destined not to happen, then I suppose it’s just as well that the choir’s final collective moment with Mr. Noble will be with the last measure of the last piece they sing with him. And what a moment that will be!
Caitlin Smulski – or “Miss Wisconsin” as Mr Noble likes to call her, because she is the reigning Miss Kenosha – is going to be conducting the Carthage Choir when they sing “The Blessing of Aaron” as the benediction for Baccalaureate, a week from Sunday. So today was the second time that she got to rehearse the piece with the choir and under Mr. Noble’s watchful eye. Seeing her direct with Mr. Noble hovering a couple feet away brought back such potent memories of taking choral conducting back at Luther. I was blessed that the semester I took the course, the enrollment was eight men . . . that’s right, eight men. And we were fairly well balanced between tenors and basses. So basically, every time one of us was up front conducting, Mr. Noble would slide into our seat and take our place in the double quartet. What fun we had – and how much we learned from this master conductor.
It was so fun to see how Mr. Noble worked with Caitlin- offering a bit of advice but not so intrusively as to make her feel self-conscious or intimidated. And his guiding principles remain exactly the same as they were all those years ago- that you want to convey the music as clearly and expressively as you can without clogging up the works with a lot of extraneous movement. And you want to make sure that you’re not doing anything, inadvertently or otherwise, which might get your singers to tense up. Mr. Noble firmly believes- and I agree with him – that singers tend to be very intuitive, sensitive people – and we pick up on everything we see and hear, including overly heavy pick up beats (which instead need to be conducted very lightly and delicately, so the choir sings them that way) and unnecessary tension in a conductor’s shoulders and arms. And if we are tense, then our singing will be tense. And yet, you can’t stand there completely loose like a cooked noodle; one must convey energy and engagement, but it has to be the kind that enhances the singing rather than detracts from it. One of the students in our conducting class at Luther, a really good tenor named Perry White (but no relation to the editor of the Daily Planet, at least as far as I know) struggled with this whole tension bit because he was not at all aware that he was even doing it. But once he realized that he could conduct energetically without being tense, it was as though the scales had fallen from the eyes of a blind man. Strangely enough, my single most vivid memory from that class 25 years ago was Perry’s breakthrough rather than anything that I did myself.
Of course, it’s the easiest thing in the world to be tense in front of a big group of singers who are your peers- and especially with one of the most famous choral conductors of the twentieth century standing three feet behind you, watching your every move. So it was to Caitlin’s credit that she kept her cool as well as she did today and managed to do some very respectable conducting. But even as I watched her assured work, it was impossible not to compare it with the effortless flow and ease with which Mr. Noble conducts. I am grateful that for whatever physical limitations Mr. Noble may be dealing with – he’s 85 years old, for pete’s sake – they do not seem to impair his actual conducting one iota. His arms and hands and, indeed, his whole body convey the music. . . and my fervent hope is that anyone in the Carthage Choir who will someday stand in front of a school or church choir of their own will remember what truly masterful conducting looks like and feels like.
Is there anything more beautiful?
pictured: Caitlin Smulski rehearsing “The Blessing of Aaron” with Mr Noble standing close by, ready to lend a hand.