why I avoid Spem

2017 began with an unexpected (I was replacing someone who had to work that day) trip to St Cuthbert’s, Wells, to join a choir specially convened to rehearse sing Tallis’ Spem in Alium informally as a birthday celebration. I have sung this piece five times but this was only the second which was strictly one to a part, and as in the other I was the soprano in choir 5. I missed a trick as I should have been less honest about which parts I’d sung before, then I might have got a new part to try!

There is something about this piece, especially when done with small numbers…. it doesn’t bring out the best behaviour in singers. Perhaps it is that everyone becomes a prima donna, wanting to demonstrate that they sing more beautifully and in tune/time than the other 39 (or 36 in this case). And so you get people who are unapologetically late arriving (even though there is no one else to cover their part in rehearsal) or who assume that anyone they don’t know cannot possibly know what they are doing. (This performance was item no. 5000 on my spreadsheet of things I’ve sung, so I’ve done a fair bit of singing.) I don’t exclude myself; I recall one performance where I (and my fellow choir 1 soprano) fumed as we shared our line while another, less competent, soprano struggled to hold hers alone in one of the other choirs. And another where I growled resentfully as I’d been forced down into Alto 6 in a performance which had been transposed up a tone. And another where we doubled-up sopranos waited patiently while solo-lined lower parts were taught their notes.

Perhaps this is why I don’t really seek out performances of Spem; the last one I sang was in 2007. There might be something to be said for doing something I’ve hitherto avoided and joining a come’n’sing type performance with a large number of singers. That way I can experience the soprano line in choirs 2,3,4,6 and 7.

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1 Response to why I avoid Spem

  1. Anon says:

    I should let you into a secret – you and the other late replacement singer were put in a choir with some of the let us say more awkward characters. Don’t judge the rest of us by them!

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