Requiem

This weekend was busy. I had three choir concerts and a rehearsal. The choir I currently sing in just preformed Mozart's Requiem. I hadn't ever sung the Requiem, so this was a fun learning experience for me. Although our choir did not sound terrific on every single note, we greatly enjoyed creating some beautiful sounds. I was particularly excited to sing in a quartet featured in one of the movements of the requiem. It is actually my favorite movement, and not because my quartet was singing it. I think the Benedictus is a beautiful piece of music with great potential for phrasing. The voices weave in and out of one another and through the instruments of the orchestra. Interestingly enough, Mozart did not write a great deal of his own Requiem (due to the fact that he died first) and he didn't write any of the Benedictus, which in my opinion is probably the greatest treasure of the whole work.

During such an intense musical weekend it was fun to get to know some of the other people in the choir. There are several younger altos that joined the choir this spring: a third grade teacher who is sprite, bright, kind and quiet, yet somewhat nervous constantly. I really like her. There is also a physcian's assistant who is very down to earth and friendly, and happens to get nervous when her friend's five year old daughter comes over to her house and checks under her couch for cobwebs. (This would unnerve me as well). There is the friendly lactation consultant who I conversed with at length regarding infant nutrition, baby buggies in Norway (her daughter teaches Montessori in Norway and is about to have her first baby). There was the lawyer who has two sons who play string bass in elementary school orchestra and who was looking at getting a new car but needed to make sure it would transport two very large stringed instruments. There was the overzealous nearly elderly lady with an obtrusively loud voice who just brought an abused dog into her home and couldn't help worrying about it causing mayhem and destruction while she was away, even though she hired a babysitter to watch the dog during the concerts. People are such interesting creatures.