Today

The sustained applause felt good, didn't it?

Seeing the choir in the balcony rooting for us was wonderful, wasn't it?

I was very pleased with today. It wasn't a perfect performance, but it had heart . . . it had spirit . . . it had passion. We were not, in the words of John Dickson, just another boring choir. We sang with soul. It seemed to me that you felt the way that one should feel when they sing great music and the audience responded the way they are supposed to respond when they see a group of people aggressively pursue their art. Congratulations.

Some random positive notes:

• I'll have to watch it when I get inspired before an already inspired choir--the result can trend towards overwhelming!
• I would swear that some of you mirrored my stance on the women's "Sicut erat" music in the Nunc Dimmittis. I gave you powerful looks and you responded with your own powerful looks! Congratulations, I thought you really stepped up in passionate singing.
  
• Joshua was fabulous. Soloists did a great job and I think Tyler sings a great tenor solo.
• Nunc had some great moments. Opening page had some exquisite sounds and beautifully pure singing. At times, I wanted to just stop and say "wow, it really sounds great in here."
  

Other notes:

• I agreed with some of what Dr. Baird said; we oversang in places. I also disagreed with her about some things, especially in regards to Nunc being an introspective work. It is in places, but quite extroverted and dynamic in sections.
• Opening chord of Kyrie didn't settle. We must listen to pitch, think our note, sing with presence. That hadn't happened before--I think it was because we were having trouble containing our excitement after Nunc.
• I heard some women singing occasional notes sharp, especially when switching to higher sounds (head voice). We must be able to control every note

Overall, I would score you extremely high on passion and excitement. You sang like a motivated choir today and it was impressive. On the actual substance of our technique I would say "very good." Our passion and excitement got the best of us at times; we'll learn to focus that energy in other ways.

I'm a lucky man, I get to keep directing you. I'm a lucky man, we'll continue to get better. I'm a lucky man, we can take a day off tomorrow. Enjoy.