An Orffawlly big adventure!
Posted by:
Jazz_Sue (---.in-addr.btopenworld.com)
Date: September 07, 2007 12:43PM
So there I was, Redhill Town centre just after my dad's funeral in June, when I saw an invitation for singers to rehearse with the English Arts Chorale, a professional outfit whose leader also runs the Reigate Music Ffestival every year. This was to culminate in a performance of the full version of Carl Orff's 'Carmina Burana' in Latin, Old German, and Old French. As well as Bernstein's 'The Chichester psalms.' In Hebrew.
A month of rehearsals later, and I am pleased to say, peeps, that I DID IT! Dad must have been with me that day, because may I bring your attention to the following:
1) I sing - quite well - but mainly at karaoke or open mic sessions, mainly jazz and soul and ALWAYS in English. The other applicants all sang classical choral music in church, etc, and had fully trained voices. Mine is (mainly) self taught and no, I don't 'do' breathing exercises. Or any other kind of vocal exercise, come to think of it. I also don't 'do' operatic, unlike the people I was surrounded by.
2) I also don't do foreign languages - they all did, being used to such things as Brahms requiem and Beethoven's Ninth.
3) ditto, I don't read music. It was expected you didn't bother turning up to first rehearsal unless you could - and fluently.
4) I can't sing from memory either, as I tend not to listen to this stuff at home. Ever.
5) In other words, I was the only person present with my, ahem, unique experience - or lack of it.
6) Which, at least, gave me something to write about.
7) But I DID get a great buzz from the whole thing, the music, the way my voice 'suddenly' worked itself into the rest of the first alto section, the camaraderie and the professionalism. Especially doing the church production in front of a full audience - amazing sense of pride and achievement AND at £15 all in, the best value singing lessons I've ever had!
Why do I bring this up here? well, do you know what 'Carmina burana' is all about - including that famous opener and closer, 'O Ffortuna?' Double 'F' is deliberate, because the subject does fit in with this site rather well. Because it's THOSE verses, written in the 13th century by some randy old monk in Bavaria (supposedly) and entirely devoted to boozing ('In Taberna') Gambling ('O Fortuna') and sex (most of the rest of it) Orff even did a follow up, where the REALLY naughty stuff got written down!!!
Why is it an 'on topic' discussion? Well, what about the patron saint of Swindon, and his shennanigans two books back? (forget the name, you know who I mean) Boozing, womanising and gambling? He could have written the whole thing. In fact, thinking about it, I reckon he did. I mean, come on, I've got the English translation. Did they REALLY write verses that literally spoke of 'losing the shirt off one's back' all that time ago? Was the phrase even in use?
In the meantime, I reckon we could take this further, and rewrite 'Burana' exclusively for the Jasper FForde generation. You could leave out swans bemoaning the fact they're turning black whilst roasting nicely, and bring in such modern inventions as the motor car 'O Lagunaahh, velour inter-ee-aahhhh ....' It even scans!
We could put on a show at Swindon. Come on, everybody, on to that second song:
'Jasper Ffordus, bookus signus
Thursday Nextus Reading bound ...'