This post's purpose is to collect my common tags in one place, so readers (and I!) can easily access entries on several subjects.

500 words of smut, written yesterday at lunch.

We had our first rehearsal with the orchestra last night, on stage (no room for us all anywhere else!). We did a lot of learning the room and figuring out balances between us and the orchestra, mostly them softer and us louder and projecting to the back more. The theater is small, so even though it's much more "dry" acoustically than the big hall, it's not hard to fill with sound.

Hazards of being short and usually in the front row: I'm sitting right behind the third French horn. He apologized that his bell was aimed right at my face, but I know nothing can be done, and was able to reassure him that I was a brass player and don't mind. At a few of the loud bits, I feel like I'm duetting with the French horn, all the other singers are so obscured by it. It's still a million times better than when, for five performances of Alexander Nevsky, I sat right behind the guy who was banging on the sheet metal.

Overall, once the balance started to settle, it felt really good, really easy and flowing. I've adjusted to a faster first movement than I'd been expecting, and more majestic speeds for the fugues. (With Matt, we sang some of those fugues like bats out of hell.)

Tutti tonight, soloists and all. Woo!

Might not report on the rest of it, as I have dress rehearsal Friday morning and performance Friday night. I thought about writing and checking internet Friday afternoon, but I will likely nap instead. The second performance is Sunday afternoon--going out to dinner with Tom Purdom and camille_is_here afterwards. jen_sous_chef and nifwich, which performance are you attending? I heard Friday night was almost sold out, so it's a good thing you have tickets already!

Maestro Ignat said the choir was "beautifully prepared." Go us!

Finally, we know what he wants on those cutoffs in the first movement--full value. Also, he gave us some breaths. More erasing old breaths and adding new breaths--eventually this score is going to have holes worn through it from different interpretations. I've used it with three different conductors.

I really liked Ignat's explanations of Brahms' use of dolce and espressivo, which made a lot of sense. Probably no one will care except yhlee, but his opinion is that in this piece, dolce is meant as a more "innocent" unaffected sound and espressivo as a marker of more intensity and color. Which totally matches the feel of the music when Brahms uses those words.

Rehearsals begin tonight in the Death March to Brahms, or so I have titled it. My choir has a paid gig with the Chamber Orchestra for Brahms' Requiem.

I have rehearsals tonight, Friday night, Saturday morning, next Wednesday and Thursday nights, and Friday morning, with performances next Friday night and Sunday afternoon. At least the night rehearsals end at 9:30 pm instead of 10 pm like my normal rehearsals!

Writing? We'll...see. I'm not ruling it out. I'm considering carrying the netbook to work for some lunchtime writing. And my weekends aren't too bad, except for this Saturday; rehearsal is right on top of my usual prime writing time that day.

Last night was the final rehearsal in the wee church. It was not freezing because someone turned on the heat before 5 pm. Still cold, though.

I wore gloves the whole time; I had forgotten my Ibuprofren, and my left thumb hurt every time I moved it, but warmth helps a little. Someone had a single Ibuprofren, which I took to be nice, but really it usually takes four when the osteo is hurting. I'm glad my Brahms score is well-loved, as it stays open easily on my open hand, no grasping required, and the pages are soft enough to turn pages with gloves on. Pain is gone today, and there is only a little stiffness. Not sure why it waxes and wanes.

We ran most of the piece, "Selig sind, die da Leid tragen, denn sie sollen getröstet werden" to "Ja, der Geist spricht, daß sie ruhen von ihrer Arbeit; denn ihre Werke folgen ihnen nach." Still some messy cutoffs in certain spots, which I hope get fixed quickly once we start rehearsals with Maestro Ignat next week. Otherwise, so far as I could tell, it sounded excellent. It felt excellent as I sang, flowing out of a sense of heightened concentration. Having sung a piece several times adds a vocal ease, for me, that is never quite the same with something newer, even if I've learned the newer piece quite well. Somethng to do with long-term memory, I suspect, and also somatic memory.

We're at the Kimmel Center for the rest of the Death March to Brahms rehearsals, so hopefully no more gloves required!

The wee church was bitter cold inside last night for rehearsal. My feet started out cold and the temperature didn't improve over the next three hours. I wore a woll hat and scarf the whole time, and sat on my coat with it pulled over my legs. I had to switch from half-gloves to my regular gloves eventually because the tips of my fingers were going numb. Luckily, my Brahms score is well used, so turning pages in gloves wasn't so bad.

On the break, a bunch of us huddled with our hands over the radiators, whose heat seemed to be going out the glass windows instead of into the church. Snacks included cheese, and I ate several bites, on the theory that they would serve the same purpose as eating blubber to warm up in the cold. It might even have worked a little.

The singing, however, was glorious. A small group, in a small church, filling it up with rich sounds. We worked on a couple of the big fugues, tossing the lines back and forth, flowing like water.

I wrote during lunch yesterday, on the netbook, and a tiny bit after work, since rehearsals have started up again, this time for a paid Brahms gig. The limited writing time was very productive, possibly because I knew exactly what I had to write before I started; I'd been thinking about it for days, as well.

For the next six weeks or so we're in a wee church near where I work, as our usual venue is being used for something else this month. The wee church was one of those whose interior is bare brick and concrete, with a few more traditional icons stashed around. Luckily, the pews were wood. It was still pretty chilly. I wore my scarf and my new half-gloves for the whole rehearsal; after the break, I draped my coat over my shoulders, and my feet were still cold. The bad thing about rehearsing near work is I don't get to go home and have a revivifying shower beforehand, and of course afterwards it takes longer to get home, so I get less sleep.

We ran several movements, and dealt with the usual pitch traps, stylistic issues, tricky bits, etcetera. We don't have notes from Maestro Solzhenitsyn yet, so we couldn't work on his interpretations.

Next month is the real Death March to Brahms--there are multiple rehearsals with the orchestra who is paying us, but, well, they're paying for them. And it's no hardship to sing Brahms' Requiem. It's one of the first pieces I ever sang with The Donald [former conductor], so there are memories there. More recently, we sang the two-handed piano version both because It Was There and because we couldn't afford a full orchestra, and that was an interesting experience as well. The only hardship is going to be a massive lack of sleep for me. This is one of the chief reasons I want to finish revisions on The Moonlight Mistress before those two weeks begin.