I <3 NUS Choir

I *heart* NUS Choir!

I just came from the Varsity Voices Concert, and yey, the turn-up was good! But more importantly, we sang well too! But then again, I'm biased, so believe what you want. :)

We were practising like mad the past few days. Midterm break, supposedly for studes to prepare for our tests, was spent singing and singing. On Thursday, in fact, I remember going for Choir practice in the evening, rushing to KR for IRC (Int'l Relations Comm) meeting, then going for KR Choir practice till past midnight.. and I had class at 8am the next day + presentation at 11!

But I feel much much better now that NUS Choir's yearlong efforts (at least 6 hours/week excluding voice classes) have borne good fruit in the form of this concert. We were gathered at the Moot Court at NUS Law Fac at 11am, was at Victoria Concert Hall at 3pm to do a quick run-through, and performance was at 7:30pm.

I was worried a bit when they were finalizing the arrangement at around 5pm, since I was suddenly moved from the third row, in which I've been singing between Yi Yong (damn good bass newbie), and Kurien (haha what can I say Karen? ;P), to the second row, beside Bass SL (sectional leader) Ling Wei. Yi Yong is particularly good in catching this very low E flat in the Credo, and I almost always just follow him. I was worried a bit since I was singing beside the SL, so.. pressure! I didn't know if it was a demotion or promotion of sorts. :) The third row platform was too small apparently for five basses, so I was chosen to move forward because of height (which is quite not-too-convincing too hehe).

I discovered that Ling Wei made a couple of booboos! Yey, he's human too! And even when he tells basses to sing better, he also makes some mistakes, and admits to doing them! Yeyness. He dutifully tried to memorize the songs, see, and as scores were allowed for some songs anyway, I checked that he was a bit off. Not that I wasn't off a number of times too! Haha.

Anyway, we were able to pull off Tarimbaba! It's this tribal melody from the Molbog tribe in the Philippines, and it's the ABSOLUTE TOUGHEST to coordinate! It sounds like gibberish when we sing in sectionals, but it sounds terrific when we all sections combine. Actually it sounds terrific only when all sections pay extra close attention to the timing, and although we failed to consistently make it during practices, we were able to pull it off on concert night! Yey!

I'm glad that the parts that we were quite off weren't obvious, and the choir held together in the end. First half we did very well. The English folk songs went smoothly, we pulled off the Missa Brevis (which always leaves me out of breath.. and my first minor error was in Kyrie), the two nice Jap songs, and Tarimbaba! Second half was good as well! The Spanish songs were well-liked by the choir, and we sang them with much emotion, the Chamber Choir (seniors) sang a livelier version Gloria and Sanctus, and the selection of contemporary songs turned out good! Many people like the last song, I'll Be There. Hehe I'm quite glad the altos' quite unsteady intro for it wasn't too obvious. :D

I'm so mighty glad to be part of NUS Choir. It's rewarding and fulfilling to perform one year's worth of hard work, into a decent performance. It's not just learning the notes and singing according to the music score's dynamics, it's about the emotion involved see. And as a choir, we sing together -- sing well together, or sink together. Yan Ting our Student Conductor told us during practice that the essence of choir is not singing with your own voice, but lending your voice to your fellow choristers, such that one sings the voice of the rest. It's quite hard to fathom, but it simply means that there is a sense of unity and a special bond among choir members so they can produce good music.

Thanks Ling Wei for the yummy yummy cake exclusive to basses! Thanks basses! It's been terrific singing and laughing with you all! People have commented that the basses did exceptionally well tonight! Yehey! And to the rest of the choir, wooohooooo we did it together!

AND OF COURSE! Thanks to those who came down to support! Ticket sales were very poor the first few days, but we managed to get a decent audience in the end! Special thanks to the Pinoys who came! Thank you for the card! I was looking for that promised banner though... hehe joke. But really, thanks for coming! And thank you thank you for the card. I truly appreciate. :D

Finally, after this I can rest. But not for long! As there are the killer Probability midterm test on Thursday, the NUS Hall Choirs' concert Amplitude on Wednesday, Hamlet for Lit class, and IRC's International Relations Night the week after next!

But thank you good Lord for getting me through the first of these tasks. :D



P.S.
I'll post photos when the photos have been uploaded by the photographer in the NUS Choir forum. :)



Music of the moment: Varsity Voices songs!
Currently feeling high.