"Wounded Alto": what beat is this anyway?

Today our anthem in choir was "Wounded Dove," a perfect choice for the 4th Sunday of Lent. We've been working on this anthem for awhile, since we're a tiny group of five and we need a LOT of lead-time. Well, we seemed ready. All systems were go. Right?

Wrong. The tenor, our lone male voice, got sick. Unfortunately, the person with the next-lowest voice is ... me. I should have been OK. This tenor part was even written on the treble clef. It should have been a no-brainer. It sounded OK right before the service. I even looked it over during the sermon (don't tell!). I made handy notes to myself on my score.  Handy notes have bailed me out plenty of times. When it was time for the anthem, I opened my mouth with confidence. That should have been my first clue.

It was a train-wreck.

 First I couldn't seem to figure out what octave I should be in. Then I lost the beat against the womens' voices. Then I noticed I was in the wrong key. I mean, seriously? How did THAT happen? We all finally got together on the last line. The ending was fine The congregation applauded politely. We crept in horror back to the choir stalls. The anthem lay bleeding on the floor .....

Oh well. There's always next week, right? I'm wearing a trenchcoat and a rubber nose for Lent 5.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Reminds me of when we sang Elijah--as long as you all ended at the same time you're golden!!!

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