Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Pregnant Pause

Today

During my singing weekend at Halsway, we sang a few sections of Guillaume de Machaut's Messe de Notre Dame which made me very happy.

For many this was dipping a toe into the uncharted waters of the 14th century but I was greeting an old friend.

In My Day

I was interested in early music from my teens and, probably bought my first recording of the Machaut about forty-five years ago. 


However I didn't sing it until Cantilena performed it in December 1994. Tony, our music director, had coupled it with Palestrina's Missa Papa Marcelli, making this a most challenging concert for choir and audience alike.

During the term we learnt how to sustain a single vowel sound through several pages; we learnt how to hocket; passing the melody from one line to another. 

While we were struggling with this, Tony's wife, Alice, struggled with what was, I think. her fourth or fifth pregnancy. She gamely turned up each week to rehearsals.The baby was due in late December and we all watched anxiously as Alice's girth grew.

On the night of the concert we were all well into some wonderful hocketting when Alice simply turned and walked out into the vestry. Tony continued to wave his baton about but completely lost eye contact with the choir, looking uncertainly after Alice. Was she having the baby all alone in the vestry? Should he simply stop the concert and go after her? Or should the show go on, regardless? While Tony vacillated and we gamely sang on, another soprano followed Alice, and he relaxed and we finished the concert.

In fact, it was simply a case of too much standing and David wasn't born until Christmas Eve. But listening to the Music inevitably conjures up that uncertain, tense moment.

I wouldn't mind a proper chance to sing it again, preferably without a pregnant dramatic interlude.

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