So, I have taught my
last pupil, and played my last three performances of the year this
weekend!!!!!! Am now officially on holiday!!!!!!!!!!!
My first performance
this weekend was with my children's choir at a nursing home. The
children all turned up looking beautiful and Christmassy – except
for my two who had just been for a sleepover and looked crumpled and
hungover, oh what a proud parent I am – and we took the lift up to
the sitting room where we were to perform. It was a large, bright
room with comfortable chairs arranged in a semi circle in front of
the television and, though a few of the chairs were occupied, you
could have heard a pin drop. Five or six women were sitting, hands
folded in their laps, gazing silently at us as we set up, heads
nodding forward, eyes rheumy and bored. But, as usual, the kids stood
beautifully and, heads up, sang their best. We sang a few folk songs
from around the world, before launching into some Christmas music, by
which time the audience had grown to about fifteen and it only took
Silent Night to get them all singing with much gusto. Unfortunately,
half the kids were on a tight schedule and they were all exhausted,
so I had to bring the performance to an early close. By the time we
left, the sitting room was crowded with old people all singing their
heads off. But, to quote Bill Bryson – Here's the Thing. The
nursing home, though clean and beautifully presented and obviously
not too short of a bob or two, does not own a piano - and I want to
know why not? When I get back from England, it will be my first
priority to find out how many of these places don't own pianos and
see if we can somehow remedy that. And my second priority will be to
organise some groups to go round some of these places on a regular
basis - weekly or monthly - to do some sing-songs. Just on the off
chance that any musicians are reading this – if you're interested,
please let me know....
Saturday and Sunday
night were Messiahs, with the Brisbane Baptist Tabernacle choir under
the baton of Fiona Gough. Every performance of the Messiah is very
different, but these two were not bad, though I say it myself. We had
lovely soloists – in spite of the fact that the tenor didn't look
old enough to have broken his voice, he sang beautifully and the Bass
was glorious and the counter tenor gorgeous, though I felt sorry for
him. It is always interesting to see the audience reaction when he
starts to sing. There is an instant craning of necks, as people make
sure that it really is that big bloke over there with the beard who
is singing in that high pitched - though beautiful – voice and
quite often people even get the giggles, though they always do their
best to hide it – because of course, one must never giggle during
the Messiah. And that's one thing I just don't understand. Why do
people take the Messiah so seriously? I'm sorry, but you can't
convince me that a man who must have set literally hundreds of
thousands of words to music, did not know what he was doing when he
wrote a whole chorus with the line “All we like sheep,” sung over
and over again. (The phrase in full is: “All we like sheep do
follow”, but did he emphasise the “following”? Not a bit of
it!) Ditto the baritone solo “ And I do sha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-etc-ke”.
Anyway, it's been a
huge and exhausting, though rewarding year. I have been working quite
a bit as well as homeschooling Juliette – middle daughter – which
has been, at times, frustrating and scary, but also a wonderful,
wonderful chance to spend time with her before she sets off to High
school next year. But I'm knackered, so as far as I'm concerned -
bring on that plane flight! 36 hours of having meals cooked, no
washing up, no cleaning, no having to drive anywhere or yell at kids
– bliss! Now off to make Mince pies!!!!
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