We've Got More Trouble Than River City

I spent the (very long) drive home listening to my dad on the cell phone trying to work out a rather huge problem at OBC. While he was driving (with a headset, but still). Somewhere in there, he was running through a scenario, and then said "and if that's not it then we've got more trouble than River City." That song has been in my head all friggin evening!

I've never been in The Music Man, but "Goodnight, My Someone," one of my favorites, was the song I sang when I auditioned for the Maryland Camerata in college. That was a small, exclusive chamber choir with two performances a year. I sang with them for two years. We did some wonderful pieces. In the first concert, I remember a truly gorgeous piece of music titled "O Magnum Mysterium," sang in Latin (as the title implies). I wish I still had that music, actually. The piece has been done and done over by many composers and artists, but this version that we sang was just beautiful. I don't know who arranged it.

My first year in college, before I joined the Camerata, I was in the Concert Choir. That Spring, we sang Mozart's Requiem, that became and remains my favorite piece of choral music. Even when I hear it now, it just amazes me that my voice was once a part of that.

Joining the Concert Choir was a last minute thing for me. One of my new friends was in it, and had mentioned that the Alto section that she sang in was lacking strong singers. She spoke with the director on my behalf because she had heard me sing before. The director told me to come down and join in a rehearsal, and that was it. Without an audition, I found myself for the first time ever singing in the Alto section. Luckily, I have a good range. There's a joke that an Alto is simply a Soprano who can read music. Laugh, you know you want to!

I've found that Sopranos tend to be a whiny, snobbish bunch anyway. (No offence to any Sopranos reading this, that's where my voice is more comfortable as it is.) But really, Mozart loved Altos. In almost any of his choral pieces, you can tell that section has all the best parts.

When I was in sixth grade, I performed at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with the Southern Maryland Honors Chorus. I remember that audition too. They had all of us sing "Happy Birthday." It must have counted for something, because me and one other sixth grader were accepted. I sang Soprano in the group. My favorite song that we sang was called "Contante Domino," again with the Latin. I remember talking with someone in the Alto section about a cool part they had in that piece, and how envious she was of a cool part in my section.

Isn't it funny how music can stay with you? I don't remember all of that song, but I remember that part that my fellow chorus member had liked. It's been almost seventeen years.

I don't sing as much now as I used to. I suppose that's because I never have any time alone and I don't want to annoy whoever is around. I'd sing in the house, except I live with mom and dad. I'd sing in the car, except I drive with dad. I'm terribly out of practice. Yet another reason to move out sooner rather than later.

I didn't think this would end up being a post about past vocal pieces, nor transition to a "time to move out" thing! It's funny the way thoughts progress sometimes, isn't it?

Sweet dreams be yours, dear, if dreams there be.