2023, Gatherings, holidays, Music, Songs, Uncategorized

Sitting Next to Eileen

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I have been a member of our church choir for about 20 years, most of them seated next to Eileen, a retired college librarian. She and I are both Altos, and are used to following one another through the music for pitch and rhythm.

For Christmas this year we are singing Morten Lauridsen’s Oh Magnum Mysterium, a beautiful piece that has parts for Soprano I and II, Alto I and II, Tenor I and II, as well as Baritone and Bass. Here is a recording of it>

Our choir is small right now, with only two tenors and two basses. We have four altos. The Tenor I part in the piece is quite high, so I and one other low Alto are singing Tenor I. Both Tenors will sing Tenor II, and the two basses will split the low men’s parts. Eileen will stay as a First Alto. Eileen and I decided after rehearsal of the piece last week that we just can’t sit next to each other while learning the Lauridsen piece because I was following her and she was following me and neither of us was getting our parts right. Neither of us realized how much we depended on one another. It will be better being in the row with the Tenors.

Who are your favorite choral composers? Who have you led astray?

38 thoughts on “Sitting Next to Eileen”

  1. I haven’t joined a choir for a long time. When I do, however, I introduce myself as a “follow tenor”, meaning “put me next to a strong singer and I’ll follow along.”

    I think I’ve been a “follow tenor” since I was 20. That’s a LOT of decades.

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  3. That is a Follow Me car in the photo isn’t it? Reminds me of visiting our daughter in Rhame and Bowman. southwest of you. They were doing road construction. No parallel roads so they did construction on one lane and you followed the Follow Me car. 21 years ago this December 25 our granddaughter Lily was born in Dickinson.. Fortunately no Follow Me cars then.

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  4. Rise and SHine, Baboons,

    I don’t have enough knowlege of vocal composers to answer the question–such a large pool to choose from which is why we had so many rainbow songs posted yesterday.

    Who have I led astray? Not revealing that!

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  6. Argo Part. Contemporary Estonian composer my son introduced me to. Otherwise Bach. Mozart. If I were home,I could name some I have on Amazon music and CD I cannot recall, not listening to music these days.
    Clyde

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  7. I have been in the alto section nearly all my choir career -church choirs from Cherub to Senior, school choirs from elementary through high school. If I wasn’t so busy with accompanying, I’d love to be in the Twin Cities Women’s Choir. As a note reader and good sight reader, I have never been the follower. My church choir is large (about 60) and many are not note readers. So even though I am short, my fellow altos want me in the back row so they can hear me and get the right notes. That said, I don’t consider myself to have a pretty singing voice – would never sing a solo. And as I get older, my “break” (where I have to switch from chest voice to head voice) gets lower and lower. I could easily sing with the tenors now.

    Favorite choral composer – too many to list but John Rutter is near the top. And I love Lauridsen’s “O Magnum Mysterium”.

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  8. I am easily led astray by folks singing other parts until I know my part down-pat. I’m a first soprano and usually sit in the middle of the other firsts, so not usually a problem for me.

    I quit choir in 2017 – for a few reasons – and left the church at about the same time. Figured eventually I would find my way back but not so far….

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  12. I once sang a few notes for my Uncle John Greene Dyer II, voice coach and director of the Chattanooga girls choir, who told me I’m definitely a baritone, but there’s nothing he could do to make me better at it.

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  13. I have sung in only a couple of choirs in my life, and not for very long. I simply don’t enjoy rehearsing ad nauseam, so unless it’s a fun group of people, and music I enjoy, I don’t last long. I have participated a couple of times in singing Handel’s Messiah at Orchestra Hall, and that was fun.

    I have also twice been in the singing audience of Bobby McFerrin. It’s probably a bit of a stretch to call what he does choral music, but hey, Wes mentioned Freddie Mercury. McFerrin has an incredible talent for getting a large group of people to sound good when singing together.

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      2. I saw them once somewhere, and the details are hazy. I think it was at a Women’s Expo in downtown St. Paul. I think Maya Angelou was at the same event. Maybe it was the same year and they were traveling together….?

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  18. I loved singing in the massed choirs at St. Olaf. I was in Manitou Singers and was first soprano at the time. If I had stuck with it, I would have sung in the famous St. Olaf Choir.

    I really enjoyed singing F. Melius Christiansen’s “Psalm 50”. It always moved me deeply. I also like John Rutter and Handel.

    Not much time lately, I’m afraid. And still fighting with WP about my identity. I know who I am. I am, I said.

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