[7:30 PM, Grace Methodist Church, Lincoln, n.of Harding & free...]
this will be my first concert with them...
and I'm so looking forward to it...
[quite the departure for me, who's been in hundreds...
perhaps even thousands, of performances...]
we begin with me, in the front of the church...
playing a fanfare on the natural, [no valves], trumpet...
[mine looks just like this one, but with a dark green cord...]
then I ring handbells as the other 4 singers/musicians...
[SilverSop, MizMinka, Trumpetman & BassoDude]...
process in from the back, singing, "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel...
and the merriment will proceed from there...
the church is just the right size for us...
effective lighting, good style for this period of music...
stucco walls & a dark wood vaulted ceiling...
cozy, but with a lovely echo, for that, "cathedral sound"...
all the seats are good for sight lines and sound...
but the very best seats are in the small balcony...
it will be a nice program, just the right length...
with a brief intermission...
featuring various groupings of voices...
we will sing & play a variety of Renaissance music...
secular, as well as sacred, including Christmas selections from the period...
I generally don't get nervous for performances anymore...
unless I'm unprepared, the music is really hard...
I'm sick, injured or hampered by equipment problems in some way...
and, I suppose, I AM, a bit of a "ham"...
so, I just don't worry...
["been there, done that"...]
it never helps anyway...
singing this music with this group is SO much fun...
[though I don't want to screw-up...]
I just focus on the music & don't think about anything else...
we've rehearsed, we know our parts & we sound good...
it will be what it will be...
so it's time to just focus, relax & have fun...
[that guarantees the audience a good time too...]
speaking of, "fun"...
I may have even gotten past the, "wearing a dress" angst...
it is, after all, a costume...so I'm, sucking it up & getting over it...
especially since SquarePeg so kindly did her sewing/ironing magic...
on my costume last night...
I'm rarely too happy with my general appearance...
dresses exacerbate these feelings...
[never been a, "girly-girl", though Mom tried...
come to think of it, maybe that's why I hate dresses...
I know that's why I loathe "pink"...]
anyway, I knew that my dress needed some TLC...
but I don't sew or even own an iron...
[I DO know about iron-on hemming tape...]
and I couldn't afford a regular seamstress...
so SquarePeg came to my rescue yesterday...
I took the dress, etc. to the church office, put it on over my jeans...
and SP & I tugged, adjusted, folded, measured & marked the problems...
some of which could be helped with a "better undergarment support system"...
[I have a new bra that was always too tight, today it fit, problem solved...]
so today, when I arrived at the church office...
there it was ! all finished & freshened...
and I felt a heavy weight lift from my shoulders...
you can see that the chemise is still too long...
but yesterday, we discovered that it can be tucked-up...
so it isn't longer than the skirt...
she had doubled over the hem of the "dress"...
securing it with the iron-on hemming tape...
hopefully, preventing me from pulling a total klutz move by tripping over it...
she had stitched a couple of decorative-looking pleats...
in the formerly H-U-G-E neck of the chemise...
keeping our "rating" for this performance as "PG"...
rather than the "R" it was headed for...
[SuperBowl half-time clothing malfunction style...]
removed about 5 inches of fabric from the chemise sleeves...
[if they had been "batwings", we might have gathered the top...]
and, [my favorite thing...]
sewed a big, strong hook & eye at the waist, below the cinch laces...
this will visually give me a waist, [such as it is...]
and allow the skirt to fall normally...
without me cinching my front laces too tight...
so I can still breathe & sing......
[we don't mess with the ones in the back...]
of course, I'll still need some deft fingers [& thumbs..]
to make sure that everything, "topside", is secure...
that's what these are for...
so tonight, when I get dressed at the church...
I'll feel a lot better about my costume...
and after the trumpet fanfare...
[the natural trumpet is a "slippery beast"...]
I can just relax, listen to & sing this amazing music...
with these gifted musicians... what fun !
Gloria in excelsis Deo...
2 comments:
It was fun, wasn't it? Thanks for "sucking it up," you looked great! :)
...yes, VERY fun...the "sucking it up" was easy after I figured out how self-centered I was being...
you looked really great too... I love the new look...
there should be pictures...
of both of us, "photo-shopped", of course...
Post a Comment