Voice Lessons

So the song I'm singing now is a song of spring. Like a bird, I can attempt to slide up and down the scale, or chirp the same note on consecutive phrases.  What tune might this be, you would ask? None other than "Mi chiamano Mimi" from La Boheme by Puccini. Specifically, the lyrics midway are:

guardo sui tetti e in cielo;

ma quando vien lo sgelo il primo sole e mio

il primo bacio dell'aprile e mio!

il primo sole e mio!

I look over the roofs and into the sky,

but when comes the thaw the first sun is mine

the first kiss of April is mine!

the first sun is mine!

Sounds a little like me, me, and mine, but I guess that's why they call her Mimi.  Still, I like the poetic concept.  The birds now are greeting the dawn an hour in advance with their songs, and I've spotted many a one singing their little hearts out perched on the highest branch of a tree. Their repertoires are complex and gloriously uplifting, and like a opera, generally about love and boundaries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxojMn3lck4

Not content to be a passive listener to these arias,  a few years ago I thought I would give it a go of trying it out myself.  The idea of finding my authentic voice was appealing, as it was with my first cry when born. Unfortunately, this primordial pleasure is frequently corrupted by self-consciousness and shame as one leaves childhood behind. 

Taking time to twitter is as vital to one's soul as any art.  The ultimate in luxury is a private voice lesson, when your very own teacher focuses exclusively on your vocal folds as if under a microscope. With a piano accompaniment,  a beautiful melody, and personal participation, where is there more bliss?

Listen in to a talented soprano being coached "Mi chiamano Mimi" by Maria Callas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB5poss4d9k

Great singers make it seem effortless, and my operatic career will have to wait for another reincarnation. Still, I fantasize about groups of friends sharing song together as was common years ago for entertainment, simply for the fun of it. As a true amateur (translates as lover), I do it for love rather than for money.

Sidewalk Symphony

I made a serious dog-walking miscalculation the other night.  A fierce thunderstorm had just passed through, and I thought that was the end of it .  I hitched up Chewy and we prepared to puddle-jump around the block.  Half-way, another deluge dumped, and we were soaked in seconds.  I managed to get to a shop canopy to wait it out.  It's times like this that I can practice singing, and indeed I was singing in the rain!  After it ended, I passed a fellow under an adjacent canopy...guess he got an earful whether he wanted to or not! 

Then fireflies flickered on and off, signalling that the real concert was about to begin.  Cicadas whirred, the percussion of sycamore bark crunched under my feet, and an owl hooted an aria. Living in the city doesn't get much better than this! 

Renewal

With spring but a week away, a concert of song at Christ Church Cathedral featuring Jessica Heuser seemed the right thing to do. Jessica had the audience sing a single tone as background to her first song. This was a gift from her to allow us to each experience what it was to chant. Singing the tone helped to clear our minds and was an exciting way to start the concert.

Jessica walked the labyrinth while singing the first song. In the program notes, she wrote, " I feel the turning of the year now, a human need to reinvent our wheel and address our impact, and the completion of a Full Circle. Some themes that run through the concert include the images of flowers blooming, birdsongs, trees and the passage of time."

Jessica has purified the sound waves at the Stone Circle of Avebury, Echo Valley, the Meramec River bluffs, tiny churches and cobbled alleyways in England and France, and the inside of the Glastonbury Tor.