"So, I had a dream about the Chorale the other night." Dr. Melfi re-crossed her legs and tapped her notebook, "Hmmm, again?" I closed my eyes, "Yeah, we were backstage before a concert, the choir was huge, 400 singers and we were performing at Santa Monica High School, a really, really big school, at least in the dream. Singers were wandering all over the place, mingling with students, taking naps, the music director was skate boarding without a helmet, our accompanist was playing hacky sack outside. Some singers were in robes, some in black and white, some in board shorts and tee shirts, some in bathing suits. I was trying to get them lined up but it was total chaos. And then the principal ran up to me in a panic, "I just learned the FLOTUS and POTUS--Michelle and Barack--are going to be here for the concert, they're arriving any minute!" Someone was pulling my arm, "You have to help me find the restrooms." So we head off on the search and promptly get lost in some subterranean boiler room...." Dr. Melfi re-crossed her legs, "The end right? You woke up and you failed again, mission not accomplished, how your dreams always end." Her idea of confrontation I guess. Sometimes I wonder why I don't fire her and find a new shrink. Once again she had totally misunderstood my dream.
The other night, some 100 singers gathered at the rehearsal hall. There was lots of talking, loud laughter, people signing in, finding music, finding seats, a sea of electrons and neutrons bouncing around with no unifying force to pull them into some sort of order. And then, finally, we started singing, and in that moment it was as though a huge magnet was pulling that chaos of energy into a coherent atom of sound. They say matter is neither created nor destroyed (mostly). But in art, the final creation (if done right and done well) can be far greater than the sum of the parts. So, now we begin the journey, to take 100 voices, and make them all "pretty" in order to make the whole atom of the Bagaduce far more "pretty" than those 100 individual "pretty" voices. This be the choral excellence we pursue, let the voyage begin!

This Monday evening we are at the Blue Hill Congregational Church on Tenney Hill for sectional rehearsals. To prep for this please work on the following pieces:

• Hodie Christus Natus Est
  
• Ave Maris Stella
  
• Pilgrim's Hymn
  
• Angel Breathing Out
  

Also, whether you have been a member for 40 years or 1 week, please take a few moments to read the insert in your music envelope that includes Bronwyn's crash course in SINGLISH. Singlish, this is what we sing in when we practice in the shower, when we practice in rehearsals, and of course when we sing in concert.

As part of our campaign to make Chorale rehearsals more fun, Bronwyn is hoping she doesn't have to stop us, and stop us, and stop us to remind us, and remind us, and remind us, how make some of the basic vowel sounds etc. that we should all be working to make second nature. I would recommend you listen closely to the recording of Pilgrim's Hymn on the What Are We Singing page. That is how we should sing and sound. That recording is by the Dale Warland singers who practically invented Singlish and who Bronwyn considers the yardstick by which all other choruses are measured.

So please leave your Americanized English at the door with the language check person (no tipping please) and enter rehearsals in your altogether Singlish sound. Make the Bagaduce Great Again! Only Singlish sung here! (Note: no wall was built during the creation of this communication)

Inquiring singers want to know: are Bagaduce Chorale rehearsals fun?
With the season's first rehearsal just days away, I am reminded of a conversation I had with someone who was thinking about auditioning. I was giving them the old gung-ho about how much fun Chorale is. She looked at me skeptically and said "I've sung in choirs, rehearsals are not fun." Undaunted, I continued the sales pitch, "Oh, the Bagaduce is way different, rehearsals are great, practically the best thing about the Chorale, etc. etc.
But are they really fun, and if they really are fun, could they be funner? (yes, this is a real word, though to be avoided in formal writing, which this ain't). Well, ask yourself this question: have you ever come into a Monday night Bagaduce rehearsal after a wholly hellacious day at the office, and then we all started making music together. And by the time you walk out of the rehearsal hall, the cares of the day have been replaced by a song or two or three in your heart.
"But", you say, this is just anecdotal evidence, is there hard data to support this?Yes, by golly there is! The survey results are in and this is what the membership of the Chorale says. Forty percent (40%) say rehearsals are the funnest (yes, this too is a word!) part of the whole Bagaduce experience. And sixty percent (60%) say rehearsals are among the most important parts of their entire Chorale experience.
"But" you say, "doesn't that mean that 40% think that rehearsals are not fun? Not necessarily Watson, the survey indicates that 19% think that performances are the most important part of the experience (but is it possible the second most important aspect to this 19% is rehearsals), 22% think that improving their vocal technique is the most important part of the experience (And my dear Watson, one could plausibly argue that most of that improvement occurs in rehearsals, which means they find rehearsals beneficial, and, one can speculate, even fun), and finally, 3% think socializing is the most important part of their experience (and my good Doctor, does not most of this socializing occur during rehearsals?). By my count Watson, that means 104% of the membership think that rehearsals are fun. That number is....HUUUGE!
So there you have it, Bagaduce rehearsals are empirically fun! But we are not an organization to rest on our laurels (whatever they are and however one rests on them). Therefore, we will be leaving no stone unturned (figuratively speaking) in pursuit of making rehearsals even more funner this season. The Board of the Chorale has thrown down the gauntlet (after first defining and then locating a gauntlet to throw) and already, change is in the air (so to speak).

Food for thought: "I prepare myself for rehearsals like I would for marriage" Maria Callas (somewhat cryptic, but sounds like she spent a lot of time prepping (a very good thing indeed) and that maybe she felt she needed a lot of practice for the marriage thing, sort of like "Sex in the City"?)