Thank goodness *that's* over!

We managed to survive the Christmas rush, attending four services in two days. It started with 10 AM Sunday morning, to celebrate Advent IV. No choir for that one. That evening there was a 7 PM Christmas service at the Lutheran church. We arrived about 20 after 5, after a nice, easy dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. (Their new mango curry pizza is wonderful!) I brought along my viol and my bandura, and intended to tune the 4 octaves of the latter instrument when we got there. I figured there would be plenty of time, as the choir rehearsal didn't start until 5:45.

So much for expectations! The organist was already there, and was unhappy that middle C on the principal was out of tune, despite the organ having been tuned that week. As I was present at the tuning, I had some concept of how to fix it. Fortunately, it was one of the facade pipes and the problem was obvious. Somehow the flanges around the aperture had been flattened out, so I simply bent them back to their normal position and voila! The organ, she is in tune.

At that moment our violinist appeared. I hadn't expected her until 6:15, but was glad to see her. We worked out which pieces she would play and when, and even had the chance to go through them. It is pretty stressful rehearsing something for the first time an hour or so before you have to perform it! Luckily, she is a professional, and quickly mastered the parts. I went back to continue tuning the bandura when I heard a scream. The violinist had missed a stair and had fallen to her knees. She was a bit shaken, so we sat with her for several minutes while we made sure nothing was seriously wrong.

The choir was now showing up for rehearsal. Most of the folks were out of town, so we had greatly diminished forces. In fact, other than having two sopranos, we were basically one on a part. I had taken this into consideration when programming the music, making sure there was a lot of solo work. Still, we needed to go through it a few times. Finally I got back to the bandura and managed to finish tuning it.

As part of the prelude music, the violinist and I played "Greensleeves on a ground." It consisted of a repeating series of chords that I played on the bandura, over which the violin had variations on the famous melody.

During the service itself my wife sang "Vom himmel hoch" as a solo, accompanied by violin and tenor viol. It was lovely. All of the music went very well, and we got many compliments as we were leaving.

We then headed over to the Episcopal church, where we sang a concert intermixed with carols at 9:30 and then the "midnight" service at 10 PM. We had diminished forces there as well, but at least had two on every part. The music was challenging, and we hadn't had long to rehearse it. The adrenaline kicked in, and we managed to sing it better that evening than at any of the rehearsals. We certainly did not peak too soon!

Christmas morning it was back to the Episcopal church. In addition to doing one of the readings, I played "Carol of the Bells" on the bandura during communion. The folks there were quite appreciative.

We visited some friends afterwards and had lunch with them, and then they came to our place to watch "Life of Brian," one of my favorite holiday movies. In the evening we visited some other friends, sharing our truffle liqueur and their homemade limoncello, while reading and answering questions from a trivia game. It was a lot of fun.

Next morning I woke up congested - I had finally caught my wife's cold...

The hours creep on apace...

Hard to believe, but Christmas is almost here. The town is decorated with banners and lights, and the rain has stopped. My wife caught a cold from one of her students, and it has been hanging on, making her miserable. We tried to go to the Chanticleer concert last night (we had had the tickets for awhile), but had to leave after the first two pieces. Her cough chose to manifest itself at that time, and it became clear we would not be able to stay. So it goes. What we heard was lovely, so it wasn't a complete loss.

We're taking it easy today, as we have two services to sing on Christmas eve, featuring a lot of what is essentially solo work.

On a brighter note, I received a CD in the mail yesterday (won it for 99 cents on eBay) called "Should Auld Acquaintance be Forgot." It is a recording of original versions of a lot of popular carols and patriotic songs. I have been looking for it for a long time - the one I had had was stolen several years ago, and it is out of print. It contains the original Mendelssohn piece "Vaterland in deinen Gauen" from his Gutenberg Festgesang which was reworked into "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing." Mendelssohn's text is praise for Gutenberg, and the setting is for men's voices. There are some minor differences (especially in the "Joyful, all ye nations rise" strain) that are quite delightful and an entire contrasting "B" section. It is really a lot of fun.

A triumph, I tell you, a triumph!

The remaining concerts went very well, indeed. We were delighted to sing to full houses at every performance, and the comments afterward were all extremely positive. Sadly, no reviewers from the local papers attended. All I've been able to find is this one extremely positive entry from the blog "The Odd Review." The best part, though, was that we all felt extremely good about the concerts afterwards, feeling we had really put our collective best foot forward.

Now we get a whole two weeks off before returning to our rehearsal schedule for our next series, featuring Leonard Bernstein's "Chichester Psalms" and Aaron Copland's "Old American Songs."

One down, two to go...

Our concert last night was quite successful. There was a good turnout, and the audience was quite enthusiastic. There's nothing quite like the feeling of being able to share the gift of music with a live audience, especially when it involves singing. There is no middleman - the communication between performer and listener is unimpeded. It is a very vulnerable thing to do, and as a result the connection from heart to heart is palpable.

My daughter was visiting from grad school this last week, and I took her to my voice teacher for a lesson. She had never had one before, but has a lot of natural ability. The first thing my teacher asked was "why do you like to sing?" She pointed out that the question included the answer (the Linguistics major in her coming through). He thought about that for a second and decided she was right, and changed it to "why do you sing?" Her answer - as it probably is for most of us - was "because I enjoy it."

That is what it all comes down to - singing makes us feel good. That feeling translates into that certain "je ne sais quois" in a live performance, and it is picked up by the audience. It is a wonderful way to spend the evening, and makes it worth getting into the tuxedo!

We give the concert again this evening and tomorrow afternoon.

Now you hear it, now you don't

Our conductor pulled the plug on my cornetto debut, more's the pity. He called me over and said that it was too loud. When I suggested that I could point it in a different direction, he clarified his statement to indicate he didn't like the effect. "So," I responded, "you meant that being able to hear it at all made it too loud!" ;-)

Oh well. I probably would have choked under the adrenaline of performance anyway. That mouthpiece is awfully tiny...

Truffle Country

Colle del Capitano

The Farm and Guesthouse
Italy has a big industry called "agrituristica." Essentially, that is a bed and breakfast located on a farm or other agricultural endeavor. This is the one where we stayed, just outside of Monteleone di Spoleto.

Goose Eggs

Colle del Capitano is a true working farm, owned by the Vannozzi family. It has been in their possession for over 100 years, and probably much longer. The eggs on the counter came from their geese, and our hostess gladly made us omelets from them. One egg was sufficient to feed the both of us. She even asked if we wanted her to put some truffles in it! Well.... OK....

It was great!

The Biga

On February 8, 1902, Isidoro Vannozzi (the ancestor of our hosts) stumbled upon an Etruscan tomb, right at the site of the current buildings. Legend has it that he was building a wine cellar. The prize artifact was an intact chariot, or Biga. This is a photo of the copy that is in a dedicated museum below the chiesa S. Francesco. The original is in the Metropolitan Museum. The town is trying to secure the return of the biga, but it has not had much success to date.

Gathering Truffles Reserved

I knew that the Valnerina was truffle country, but I didn't realize that this was true in the Monteleone environs. However, I came across this sign while taking a hike around the property. I later saw a man out among the trees, surrounded by dogs, poking the ground with a stick. It turned out to be our host gathering truffles. They ended up on our pasta that evening!

Room with a View

Our room wasn't fancy, but it was large, comfortable and had a kitchen. The view was not spectacular, but pastoral and calm. The grove in the distance is where signor Vannozzi showed me the truffles. After the hustle and bustle of our tour, our week in the peaceful and quiet Colle del Capitano was absolute heaven.

Bells are ringing...

It is that time of year again. The local city hall has changed the traditional hour chimes for Christmas music - on bells. I don't know if they have some sort of a machine that produces bell sounds that can be programmed, or if they use a recording. They certainly don't have a carillon (or even a campanile).

Whatever the source, the sound is the sound of bells. Unfortunately, unless the bells have been specifically constructed for music, they produce harmonics that do not match the standard harmonic series upon which most western music is based. As a result, normal tonal songs sound terrible when played on them. It is absolutely painful...

All Keys Are *Not* Equal....

Ross Duffin of Case Western University has come out with a wonderfully readable book on tunings called "How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony (and why you should care!"

Reading about temperaments (tuning systems) can be dry and confusing, but professor Duffin brings the subject to life with a lively history and easy to understand explanations of the concepts involved.

Equal Temperament is what we are used to hearing today, with each octave being divided up into 12 equal sections. This allows a keyboard instrument to play equally out of tune in every key. In this book we learn that *unequal* tunings were actively used up until about 1917, by such luminaries as Bach, Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven, among others, despite the common belief that equal temperament had outmoded all others by the mid 18th century.

If you are at all interested in music, this book is a must read. It will open your mind (and your ears!)

Ancestral Homeland...

The Valnerina

After our tour was over, Elaine and I stayed on another week in Italy, rented a car and drove up to the Valnerina (Valley of the river Nera) region of southern Umbria. This is a beautiful area of central Italy tucked away in the Appenines and is the area from which my great grandfather Francesco came.

Scheggino


The little hillside town of Scheggino is nestled in the heart of the valley and at first blush seemed empty of people. However, we found a place to eat lunch at the Taverna del Brancaleoni.


Salume di Norcia


We ordered a selection of prepared meats (Salume) from the local area. They were made from wild boar, and were from the pork industry in Norcia, which produces the finest pork products in the world. They were absolutely delicious and very affordable.


Valley of the Nera


We proceeded southward and upward from Scheggino, up a windy, narrow road as we assaulted the mountains. This is the view looking back down the valley.


Appenines


I was impressed as to how much the scenery reminded me of central California. This photo could have been taken in Palo Colorado Canyon.


View from the pass


Our destination was just over the pass at about 1000 meters above sea level, so one last view looking over the valley from the highest point possible...

Now *that's* a (Spanish) trumpet! Or maybe not...

A nice comment from an old trumpet playing buddy of mine got me thinking a bit. It's been some years since I played regularly. Being an early music enthusiast, I recently acquired a cornetto. The embouchure is a bit different, so I have been avoiding playing the modern horn in an effort to build up the appropriate chops.

It is taking longer than I thought...

The cornetto is devilishly hard to play, with a tiny mouthpiece and fingerholes like a recorder that are not conveniently located. On top of that, middle "A" is completely open, so it is hard to hold the instrument while playing that note. The tuning is very sensitive, so one must be very careful to get the feel of the correct pitches.

So far I can last about 5 minutes, and am up to the "farting bedpost" stage.

Nevertheless, I have the opportunity to play it in public for the first time in a couple of weeks. My community chorus is singing a Chanukah piece called "Ocho Kandelikas" in our upcoming concert, and at one point it calls for a soprano solo in the style of a Spanish trumpet. There is a notation that a kazoo would be acceptable.

"Aha!" said I. "A perfect place for a cornetto!" The cornetto was considered to be the instrument that most closely resembled the human voice, and the way I play it sounds a bit like a kazoo. Our director went for it, and I'm going to be wailing away in two weeks. Luckily, it is only about 3 measure of music in an easy range. Now to see if I can make my lips buzz with all the adrenalin in the heat of passion of the performance!