Doing “Do Re Mi”

Conductor Eduardo Garcia-Novelli is really making things happen with the Carthage Choir . . . and it is really exciting to see and especially to hear the fruits of his labor from my perch on the piano bench.   He is very different from Weston Noble in some respects,  and in other ways the two are very similar. . .  particularly in how intense rehearsals are.  We get so much done and not a moment is wasted- but rehearsals are also fun. . . and that, in and of itself, has to be one of the toughest balancing acts in all of music.  He is a master of that.

One steep challenge for many of the choir members is that he is insisting that they use solfeggio syllables  . . . those fun-sounding, friendly-sounding “Do Re Mi” syllables which Julie Andrews taught to the bratty kids of the Baron in “The Sound of Music.”   When one is just singing a major scale, one step after another,  it’s easy as pie.  But to use those syllables in an intricate, fast-moving melody jumping all over the place is – at least to me – mind-boggling.  Then again,  I have never been a part of a choir that used them,  so that part of my musical brain is rather flabby.   And I know there are plenty of members of the choir who are at a similar sort of disadvantage as I would be – but they are accepting the challenge and doing an amazing job,  and it is paying some handsome dividends.

And by the way,  there was an especially delicious moment the day before yesterday when one of our freshman basses, Michael Chase,  volunteered to sing a long and fiendishly difficult run of sixteenth notes in Handel’s “Zadok the Priest” on solfeggio syllables- and did most of it perfectly!   As he finished and earned warm words of praise from the conductor,  Michael and I exchanged a smile, and I’m pretty sure we were thinking the same thing:   “Thank God for Mrs. Amborn and any other choir directors who make their students do Solfeggio Syllables.”  It is the musical equivalent of making your kids eat broccoli – it might be a tough sell in the beginning but it’s so worth the effort and undeniably for their own good because it makes it possible for those students to know their way around the musical staff with so much more assurance, as opposed to the more typical young singer who sings with a sort of “huntin’ and hopin’ “ approach.

The worth of this was evident in how well the students were managing to learn a very tough piece by a contemporary composer named Eric Whitacre. . . “Water Night” I think might be the name of it.   The photo above captures just one of the fascinating moments in the score when the choir is called upon to sing an incredibly dense and complex chord. In fact, just to look at this tall pile of notes,  it looks like one would play it on the piano by just taking a ruler and pressing down on a bunch of keys at once.   That would be a fairly easy matter- – – but getting a roomful of singers to sing that kind of chord accurately – let alone beautifully – is about as tough as it gets.   But darned if the choir wasn’t singing that chord almost perfectly on its second day with the piece – something which not long ago I would have thought impossible.  And it is so cool to see a choir rise to a certain level of skill and especially when that level of skill might at one point have seemed to be just beyond their grasp.  The first lesson here is that there is a huge amount of potential is that roomful of singers-  and the second lesson is that Eduard Garcia-Novelli is bound and determined to see this choir achieve its full potential,  or something very close to it.  Not that this is achieved quickly or easily . . .  and more than a few firm words have been spoken about what it means to be a truly committed member of  the choir.   But it’s my sense that more and more of the choir members are figuring out what it takes to achieve excellence – – – and I’m pretty sure that most of them want to achieve that excellence, even if they might still be struggling with how to do what is being demanded of them.   But then there will be moments like when they sing an incredibly tough moment from a challenging new piece . . .  and together all of us in the room are realizing, (I hope)   THIS IS WHAT EXCELLENCE SOUNDS LIKE.  AND THIS IS WHAT EXCELLENCE FEELS LIKE.  AND THERE IS NO BETTER FEELING IN THE WORLD.