Any old question meme - less popular. :)

[kitchen_kink]

It's ask a question month on LJ, and I have an ask-me-anything post up in addition to the kinky question post. It's here.

So far, only one person's made use of it. If you comment, your question will be screened, and I'll do my best to answer it as honestly as I can, in a separate post.


What is a love of yours that other people seem to have a hard time understanding what the big deal is about? It could be anything from food, to a pastime, to a movie star...

This is going to sound untrue, but choral singing. I have been a choral singer since I was 12, and I have always loved it almost unreasonably. I love the experience of singing in a big group (or a smaller one), feeling it when the harmonies come together just right, being exposed to music that I probably wouldn't be in any other way. Being challenged. And especially, working with a great conductor - in this case, Scott Allen Jarrett. The last conductor I felt this strongly about was Garyth Nair of my Drew University undergraduate days, and the feeling of working under conductors like them is incredible. I feel incredibly driven to do well in such healthy choral environments: these conductors are powerful, talented, gentle but strong, and utterly devoted to beauty. They will accept nothing less than your best. And they will get it out of you in the most joyful and playful way possible. I don't know how to explain it except to say that I long to *please* these men - and I say men because unfortunately, I've not yet encountered a female conductor that evokes the same response from me. (Sorry, wavyarms - you're immensely talented and I love singing for you, but for me this quality seems to be contained chiefly in men. Go figure, and psychoanalyze that as you will - I know I have.) I love the feeling I get when we do something really right, especially in performance, and the conductor smiles in that particular way. I love when the chorus is so in tune that harmonics ring off the rafters. I love it when a movement dances and the choir figures that out and dances it. I love the way some music hurts. There are pieces ("Sure on this Shining Night" by Barber and "Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing" by Herbert Howells are two recent ones that come to mind) that seem to have a direct line to my tear ducts, and when I first encounter such things in rehearsal, I sometimes actually have trouble getting through them because of being choked with emotion. Then there are movements like the "Qui Tollis" in Mozart's Great Mass which are so powerful and intense that I blow out my vocal chords singing them when I still have half the mass left to sing. (Oops.) That's how I am about these things.

I have loved ones who come and see my concerts. I even have some friends (none super-close) who know music well. But I feel like I rarely encounter someone who really understands this passion of mine in the same way than I do. (Probably fanw comes closest, but she's so busy, well, singing a bunch of choral music that I rarely see her these days. ;)

Comments

[rigel.livejournal.com]

I rather like (and enjoyed singing) "Sure on this Shining Night" too.

[unknownrockstar.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean, about the magic of making music with others, unless you do it, it's impossible to really understand, it IS like magic, you're creating this intangible thing out of the air, quite literally, just vibrating air molecules, and if anyone drops out or screws up, the whole thing can come down like a house of cards, theoretically. and when it stops, the thing you created vanishes. art is ephemeral, music moreso, it isn't a constant feeling for me, but when that magic feeling arrives, there is nothing like it. when you're really grooving, basically, regardless of genre or instrumentation, its unparalleled as experiences go. I'm glad you get to know that joy.

[wavyarms.livejournal.com]

Hey, no offense taken, I know I'm not there yet. Check back with me in 20-30 years, and see what kind of responses I'm able to get then - by that time, I should hopefully have developed those skillz. :) (It's not exactly a gender-balanced field - I'm not sure you need psychoanalysis yet.)