So this month everything went online again. No physical rehearsals and indeed after some debate we have stopped our church services as well. But I still spend several evenings a week in choral activities.
Gloucester Choral Society has now dipped its toes into the world of Zoom rehearsals which at least gives us the advantage of meeting together without having to experience the cold of the Cathedral in winter. The choir has actually managed live performances this season: its traditional Boxing Day carol concerts. (As I was not near Gloucester on Boxing Day I couldn’t sing in either of these, but I did watch one on YouTube.)
Bristol Choral Society is also holding Zoom rehearsals. This term our repertoire includes some of what I think of as standard church music favourites (of many people, not necessarily me!) but which are clearly new to almost everyone else. It shows just how disjunct the worlds of symphony choruses can be from that of church and chamber choirs. We are also learning a recently rediscovered piece by Elizabeth Poston which I find quite challenging; rhythms which wrong-foot you and a liking for major sevenths. Of course I can’t tell how others in the choir are getting on with it.
And meanwhile at church we are back to recording our individual lines which will be stitched together for videos accompanying services. I fluctuate between a perfectionist approach, doing many takes for even a simple hymn, and singing through a familiar piece just once and, having decided it is no better and no worse than what I’d do on a Sunday morning, sending it in ‘as is’.