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Apr. 23rd, 2013 07:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysobelToday is FOP Awareness Day, and I, well, kind of don't want to talk about FOP. Because it sucks. I wrote up something (filed under personal: about me, if you want to look it up) a few years back, but talking about FOP is just... I don't know. Depressing. Because FOP is more relentless than brainweasels, and there's still no cure and no treatment -- yes, the date is because of being the anniversary of when the relevant gene was discovered, and maybe knowing the gene will eventually be a useful step in treating or curing or preventing FOP, but for right now it really means fuck-all to my life as a person with FOP -- and I have lost so goddamn much, and it isn't going to get any better.
(I do have a habit of obsessively checking the feet on any babies I see, in person or in picture, because malformed big toes are a strongly linked first sign way before any flare-ups or bone growth start doing their fun, but I have no idea what I would actually do if I saw one, because "Um hi, I think your baby has this horrible untreatable genetic condition that will have lots and lots of bad effects on hir life, google IFOPA for more information" is awkward even with people I know, let alone strangers. "No, I'm not a doctor, but...")
(And for not wanting to talk about FOP, I just spent two paragraphs talking about FOP. Sigh.)
...so instead, I shall talk about music.
Like the fact that we're doing Eric Whitacre's Alleluia as one of the pieces this quarter, and I just adore it way too much. (It's probably on Youtube somewhere; I'm just too lazy to look it up right now.) It's -- well, the text isn't hard in the sense that there are precisely three words, two of which are variants (allelu, alleluia, amen), though there's complexity in when the syllables fall, because sometimes the first a- is held out and sometimes we rush through to the -lu, but ah and ooh are both fun to sing (unlike, say, 'e' vowels, either the eh sort or the ay sort ) and the harmonies are rich and deep without being aurally obnoxious, and it's fun.
It's also brain-breaking in places -- there's one bit where the tenors have this ugly-looking line with a lot of accidentals, except it sounds nice and straightforward, and then the conductor pointed out that those two measures were just *in the key of E* -- they *looked* horrible because the key signature was five flats and then there were additional flats thrown in to make things like F flat (which is really E natural) and B double flat (which is really A natural) and I have no idea why he chose to flat flats to get something that sounds like E major rather than naturalizing flats to bring it up but whatever, not my call.
Or like the fact that the TA we have this quarter is ... he's a very nice person as far as I can tell, and he's decent at accompaniment / piano playing, but he is utterly crap at teaching music or at leading groups. We sometimes split up into semi-sectionals, going into two rooms -- either SA in one and TB in the other, or ST and AB -- where the director takes one group and the TA takes the other. It saves some time in learning music (because if, say, the tenors have to go over their part alone, there's only one section that's twiddling thumbs while they work it out, rather than three) -- but only if both groups have at least somewhat competent leaders.
The choir director has my absolute loyalty. I would do just about anything he wanted, musically. Last quarter's TA was also amazing (and had the sort of quiet competence of Getting Stuff Done that is just impressive). This quarter's TA can't quite lead a choir out of a paper bag. I feel a little bad since I probably wouldn't do any better, but then again maybe I would, because I at least know that a) spending a lot of time on easy parts kind of screws the whole choir for working on the hard parts, and b) it's good to actually let people hear what their part is supposed to sound like. Also c) if someone in the choir says "can we please work on X" then maybe actually working on X would be nice.
...today, the division I was in (sopranos and tenors) had the choir director, which was awesome for the semi-sectionals but then things fell apart when we got back together because the TA doesn't really have what it takes to work on stuff in parallel.
(I know that leadership is a learned skill, and choir leadership is a learned skill, and knowing which parts are going to be hard is a learned skill that is imperfect in anyone even when they have tons of practice, and being able to hear where things are going wrong is a learned skill, and that a lot of that stuff can only be acquired by trying and doing, so it's a little unfair to take someone who is basically a grad student with no choral background and expect him to be stunning, especially coming on the heels of almost two years with the previous TA who was astoundingly good especially towards the end, but at the same time, ARGH.)
...hmm, music doesn't seem to be any less frustratingy to talk about. Perhaps I shall go crochet instead.
(I do have a habit of obsessively checking the feet on any babies I see, in person or in picture, because malformed big toes are a strongly linked first sign way before any flare-ups or bone growth start doing their fun, but I have no idea what I would actually do if I saw one, because "Um hi, I think your baby has this horrible untreatable genetic condition that will have lots and lots of bad effects on hir life, google IFOPA for more information" is awkward even with people I know, let alone strangers. "No, I'm not a doctor, but...")
(And for not wanting to talk about FOP, I just spent two paragraphs talking about FOP. Sigh.)
...so instead, I shall talk about music.
Like the fact that we're doing Eric Whitacre's Alleluia as one of the pieces this quarter, and I just adore it way too much. (It's probably on Youtube somewhere; I'm just too lazy to look it up right now.) It's -- well, the text isn't hard in the sense that there are precisely three words, two of which are variants (allelu, alleluia, amen), though there's complexity in when the syllables fall, because sometimes the first a- is held out and sometimes we rush through to the -lu, but ah and ooh are both fun to sing (unlike, say, 'e' vowels, either the eh sort or the ay sort ) and the harmonies are rich and deep without being aurally obnoxious, and it's fun.
It's also brain-breaking in places -- there's one bit where the tenors have this ugly-looking line with a lot of accidentals, except it sounds nice and straightforward, and then the conductor pointed out that those two measures were just *in the key of E* -- they *looked* horrible because the key signature was five flats and then there were additional flats thrown in to make things like F flat (which is really E natural) and B double flat (which is really A natural) and I have no idea why he chose to flat flats to get something that sounds like E major rather than naturalizing flats to bring it up but whatever, not my call.
Or like the fact that the TA we have this quarter is ... he's a very nice person as far as I can tell, and he's decent at accompaniment / piano playing, but he is utterly crap at teaching music or at leading groups. We sometimes split up into semi-sectionals, going into two rooms -- either SA in one and TB in the other, or ST and AB -- where the director takes one group and the TA takes the other. It saves some time in learning music (because if, say, the tenors have to go over their part alone, there's only one section that's twiddling thumbs while they work it out, rather than three) -- but only if both groups have at least somewhat competent leaders.
The choir director has my absolute loyalty. I would do just about anything he wanted, musically. Last quarter's TA was also amazing (and had the sort of quiet competence of Getting Stuff Done that is just impressive). This quarter's TA can't quite lead a choir out of a paper bag. I feel a little bad since I probably wouldn't do any better, but then again maybe I would, because I at least know that a) spending a lot of time on easy parts kind of screws the whole choir for working on the hard parts, and b) it's good to actually let people hear what their part is supposed to sound like. Also c) if someone in the choir says "can we please work on X" then maybe actually working on X would be nice.
...today, the division I was in (sopranos and tenors) had the choir director, which was awesome for the semi-sectionals but then things fell apart when we got back together because the TA doesn't really have what it takes to work on stuff in parallel.
(I know that leadership is a learned skill, and choir leadership is a learned skill, and knowing which parts are going to be hard is a learned skill that is imperfect in anyone even when they have tons of practice, and being able to hear where things are going wrong is a learned skill, and that a lot of that stuff can only be acquired by trying and doing, so it's a little unfair to take someone who is basically a grad student with no choral background and expect him to be stunning, especially coming on the heels of almost two years with the previous TA who was astoundingly good especially towards the end, but at the same time, ARGH.)
...hmm, music doesn't seem to be any less frustratingy to talk about. Perhaps I shall go crochet instead.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-24 05:46 pm (UTC)Does cranky crochet yield knots? I've been too cranky to bead for a year — I just know I'll swing around hard and dump 300 beads on the floor.
My sympathies on the suck that is FOP.