Singing Choruses in Public

There was a children's chorus on The Today Show this morning.

 

It made me think of the choruses I have sung in, over my life, until my voice decided to leave me (I now have a vocal range of about 3 notes)

I specifically remembered a concert we performed, on TV, when I was in high school.  I went to a Catholic school which was also associated with a home for unwed mothers and the local TV station was doing a Christmas show from that home.  Only they couldn't show any of the actual girls who were there, so they had our choir go in to be them.

I remember how strange it felt to wear a maternity smock (little did I know I would live in them for about ten years!)

The house was rather nondescript.  Nothing outside to indicate what was behind the doors and I remember how "naughty" I felt going and mingling with those "bad girls."  Oh how naive we were in those days!

In grammar school, we gave a concert as we marched through an old folks home (again, how little did I know I would spend so much time in one later!).  There was some object--maybe a statue?--from the Vatican that was touring the United States and was spending time in this facility.  I was terrified seeing all those old people (how little did I realize I would one day be one of them!) and just didn't look if I could avoid it until we left the facility (which was across the street from our grammar school).

I loved my years in choirs and especially loved the chances I had to stand in a choir stall above a church, the vibration of the organ rumbling through my body.  This was especially true when I was in grammar school and sang in the choir for St. Brigid church, standing next to the organ under that big stained glass window.

 

In high school, I sang with the choir all four years and there, as an alto, I learned all the alto parts to Christmas songs. I still l can't hear a Christmas song without mentally humming the alto harmony to myself.  I miss singing.

One of the most fun times I remember caroling was when we were active with the Lamplighters.  We sang Christmas carols on the cable car in San Francisco from Market Street to Fisherman's Wharf.  There is nothing like joining with a bunch of professional singers singing songs that you know.  You sound so much better!

When we got to the end of the line there was the Buena Vista.

 

The Buena Vista is where Irish Coffee was invented and so after all that singing, we had to wet our whistles with a glass or two

 

The last time I went Christmas caroling was a few years ago.  We had gone to dinner on Christmas eve at the home of Marta's parents and after our burrito dinner her step mother passed out kazoos and we all went marching along accompanying ourselves on the kazoo to the house of a mutual friend a couple of blocks away.  I have to admit that was really fun.  

I don't think I've sung Christmas carols since, though I love to listen to them, but this damn voice just won't cooperate any more.

Singing Choruses in Public

I always wanted to be a singer, ever since I saw Interrupted Melody about Australian soprano Marjorie Lawrence.  The only problem was that I never had the voice to be a singer.

I was in grammar school when I saw the movie about the opera star who battled polio. I spent hours trying to sing operatic soprano (I am an alto).  Looking back, I pity my poor mother, as I warbled notes way above my vocal range while I did the dishes.  Many's the time she would gently ask me if I could please shut up (she said it nicer)

Whenever we sang in class and Sister Mary What's Her Name would walk around the room to listen to us, to see if we were on key, I always sang louder when she got near me, hoping she would see what a beautiful voice I had.  Somehow she never noticed.

When I moved to high school, I was able to take choir as a regular class.  I was still waiting to be discovered for my beautiful voice, but while waiting, I blended with my fellow choir members.

I loved singing Christmas carols.  It was in high school where I learned about harmony and the glory of making that wonderfully blended sound.  By now, I knew I was an alto, so learned the alto lines of all the familiar Christmas carols.

To this day, it's difficult for me to sing the tune, because I want so badly to make the harmony for each of the carols.

The most memorable concert we gave was at a home for unwed mothers.  Our local PBS station was doing a special on the home, but they could not show the faces of the girls so our choir went and donned maternity smocks (never did I realize I would live in them for about 10 years later in life!), and the finale of the show was all of us, fauxly pregnant, singing Christmas carols on the altar of the home's chapel.

When I started at UC Berkeley, I joined the Newman Hall choir and we performed some of the most glorious music I have ever sung.  We always pulled out all the stops at Christmas, singing in that beautiful wood paneled chapel, with the poinsettias decorating the altar and the gold baby Jesus beneath it.

Oh come let us adore him!

It was a real step backwards when Walt and I married and moved out of Berkeley and started attending parish churches. I always joined the choir, but they were never on a par with the Newman Hall choir.  Still, Christmas was always my favorite time to sing all the beloved Christmas carols and dust off my alto rendition.

When we were with The Lamplighters Musical Theater, we went caroling on the cable cars in San Francisco.  Singing with a group of professional singers while hanging on the outside of a cable car is an experience I will always remember fondly.  We ended our carols at the Buena Vista, the bar that invented Irish Coffee, and we would warm our hands around a nice cup of the stuff.

I never joined the choir here in Davis. I listened to them and was never inspired, though I did sing along heartily when Christmas rolled around and everyone in the church was invited to join in the choir with singing the familiar carols.  Something about a darkened church, lit only with candles, smelling the wax mixed with incense and crooning "Silent Night" with a hundred or more of the faithful.

We've been caroling a couple of times, the first time with the Davis Comic Opera Company, who routinely wandered the streets of Davis singing Christmas carols.  I think we learned of this the last year they did it.  It was not quite the experience of singing with the Lamplighters, but any time I could lend my voice with a professional one, I fooled myself into thinking, again, that I had a pretty good voice.

The last time I hit the streets caroling was more on a par with my talents.  We had dinner with Ned's in-laws and then we all picked up kazoos and either played or sang carols as we wandered around the neighborhood.  (I am a virtuoso on the kazoo.)

There's something special about joining with others and sharing Christmas carols with other people. There is a real sense of camaraderie that you may not achieve at any other time.

Now a days, my voice is very bad.  The older I get the tighter my throat becomes and my vocal range is now very limited, but I still can't resist joining others and trying to croak out a chorus of "Silver Bells" again.