On Sat, 8 Apr 2000 DANIaka007@a... wrote:
"Hi temperary listers----
I was thinking...what would be considered "challenging" in a song to sing?
What MAKES it challenging? Also....does it have to do with pitches, the
music, or the over-all song? Thank you, replies would be appreciated!"
Danielle
I have perhaps an overly simplistic reply:
There is no greater challenge for me than a piece I can't manage to connect
with emotionally or physically.
Some pieces are such a physical joy to sing, a lame or uninspiring text
doesn't ruin it for me. In others, a heart-rending text, or situation can
transform a banal melody into something exquisite for me. But when I can't
find anything that touches me on some level - that's as challenging as it
gets for me. I believe I can resolve most technical challenges with
practice, guidance, etc... but when I get a "thing" about a piece, or feel
nothing, I'm not going to enjoy the experience. (Although, sometimes a
conductor's enthusiasm for a piece will provide a connection for me. I
connect to the conductor instead.)
The hardest thing I ever had to sing was Bach's "My Heart Ever Faithful".
Musically it was not at all difficult for me. But I had heard it first in
college done terribly and the image that remained with me for the next ten
years was that of a squawking chicken with heaving breast: Sing praises
(gasp)...SQUUAAAAAWKK...Joyful!
One piece I was coerced into singing surprised me. The pastor at my last
church gig insisted that we do some music from an Amy Grant Christmas
Cantata. The organist/choir director (Catherdral Epsicopal to the bone!) was
miserable and refused to do most of it. So, cleverly, he compromised by
making me (7 months pregnant)sing "Breath of Heaven" with such inspired
lyrics as "I have travelled many moonless nights, cold and weary with a babe
inside, and I wonder what I've done?" complete with pop ornamentation. I was
sure I would sound like a fool (pop is not my strong suit) and look like a
sight gag. The director hated it, I hated it, my husband laughed at me, my
mother-in-law felt sorry for me, the choir snickered. But come Christmas
eve, when I got up to sing it in the darkened church - tired, miserable,
embarassed and with my baby's feet jammed up under my rib cage, the
connection came. Even the choir director cried.
I don't know exactly what it is, I wish I could teach it and I wish I could
unerringly find it. That's the greatest challenge for me.
Laura Sharp
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