Music Sunday
Dec. 9th, 2018 10:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kayrePart of my job is setting up a special Music Sunday during Advent. The children's pageant is always on the 'best' Sunday schedule-wise; not too close to Christmas but with maximum practice time. This year that's next week, and a lot of my musicians will be gone on the 23rd, so today was Music Sunday. Here's what my morning was like.
8:15 to 8:45 Personal warmup
8:45 to 9:15 Handbells warmup . I snarled at them about not following my tempos; after that they did really well on a very difficult piece (and I made nice and had them smiling by the end)
9:15 to 9:45 Choir warmup , including one piece with three bell ringers and one with flute. Miraculously I found the words to help them fully invest in the music. I chose easy choir anthems because of limited rehearsal time, and they elevated them today.
9:50 suddenly realized that the Kawai electronic piano wasn't patched into the sound system. Frantic deployment of cables followed.
9:57 Commenced prelude (our outside carillon plays until 9:55 so I don't do extended preludes.
10:00 Service begins. Introit is the choir/bells piece, and goes very well. That's in the front of the church; fast walk down the side aisle to the organ in back for the opening hymn and a sung response. Forward with my guitar for children's time; I play their 'exit music' on guitar and walk to the back with them. Forward again for the choir an flute piece, which was *amazing*.
Sermon time provides a brief break. Unfortunately my brain is too busy to listen to much of it. Hymn after the sermon. Another break for prayers, then offertory played by the handbell choir. It's the hardest piece we've done in quite a while. Someone told me later that I looked "even more like a conductor" today, I think because I was detail-directing, giving lots of individual cues, rather than mostly marking tempo. Race to organ for offertory response, final hymn and postlude.
About 20 minutes of social time after the service, much of it spent recruiting and coordinating music for the coming weeks.
Home for a 2 hour NAP!
8:15 to 8:45 Personal warmup
8:45 to 9:15 Handbells warmup . I snarled at them about not following my tempos; after that they did really well on a very difficult piece (and I made nice and had them smiling by the end)
9:15 to 9:45 Choir warmup , including one piece with three bell ringers and one with flute. Miraculously I found the words to help them fully invest in the music. I chose easy choir anthems because of limited rehearsal time, and they elevated them today.
9:50 suddenly realized that the Kawai electronic piano wasn't patched into the sound system. Frantic deployment of cables followed.
9:57 Commenced prelude (our outside carillon plays until 9:55 so I don't do extended preludes.
10:00 Service begins. Introit is the choir/bells piece, and goes very well. That's in the front of the church; fast walk down the side aisle to the organ in back for the opening hymn and a sung response. Forward with my guitar for children's time; I play their 'exit music' on guitar and walk to the back with them. Forward again for the choir an flute piece, which was *amazing*.
Sermon time provides a brief break. Unfortunately my brain is too busy to listen to much of it. Hymn after the sermon. Another break for prayers, then offertory played by the handbell choir. It's the hardest piece we've done in quite a while. Someone told me later that I looked "even more like a conductor" today, I think because I was detail-directing, giving lots of individual cues, rather than mostly marking tempo. Race to organ for offertory response, final hymn and postlude.
About 20 minutes of social time after the service, much of it spent recruiting and coordinating music for the coming weeks.
Home for a 2 hour NAP!
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Date: 2018-12-10 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-12-21 03:52 am (UTC)