Yesterday was a very good teaching day. One of my ladies, E, is somewhat perturbed because the aria from the Magnificat by Bach - Quia Respexit , is causing her some difficulties! This aria is a glorious three page piece of heaven, incredibly complex, melodically sublime and very very tricky. Any professional singer will tell you that Bach is their 'waterloo'. It takes a great deal of bedding in, and much concentration on the interval leaps. Bach notoriously uses the voice as another instrument of the orchestra, the difference being that unless the singer has perfect pitch we have nothing to press or touch to make the note happen. We pull the notes out of the air, with only our ear to rely upon. This makes the complexity of notes and harmonic changes 20 times more difficult ! .............and dont let any oboeist or violinist tell you otherwise !
After twenty minutes of hard graft and much brain work, E believed me, and accepted that it may take weeks or months before these melodic phrases finally become comfortable and second nature. Well done E, you are doing brilliantly, now you just need to accept it is a long journey !
My Little Sweep girls came and have been working like trojans on their own set of difficulties, and today we have out first rehearsal ! They are still as excited as ever, and I can't wait to hear them altogether. We also had an invitation to perform the opera a third time ar the theatre in Portree - now that was a lovely surprise - and will make the hard work even more worth it !
Today's teaching begins in 15 minutes, so I had better bring this post to a close and wind myself up for the enslaught !
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