My Support Forums - View Single Post - Bipolar check-in #43

Moose72 · 03:56 PM

Here I sit drinking coffee while the Ann Arbor Grail Singers of 2001 massages my brain. I am loving it! This recording was made in May, 2001. I was 5 months pregnant with Noah. They are an all-women choir. I wish I could send you all one track at least. I used to have a lot of them uploaded to a "cloud" of sorts, but I've long forgotten where that is.

One of the tracks is called "Io V'amo Vita Mia". Recording it was a bear! We were using a viol da gamba for the bass part of a four-part piece. I sang the tenor line. This music was written by a woman- in fact, the whole CD is music by women. However, we were having trouble staying in tune. Take after take was flat. We couldn't hear the viol and the director finally said "Let's leave this one out". No! Oh no! we said. One last take and we tuned our ears to that gamba and concentrating hard, we matched relative pitch with it. The experience was like hanging by your fingernails! Always thinking "stay up!". That with matching pitch with the viol made for a wonderful recording!

Also on the album is a chant called "Meditabor". We only used the lower voices but I was included. In fact, there were at least three people who just sat and listened to us record because they were sick and couldn't sing! I loved singing chant. We were told to "sing into" each other's voices- to the person to your left and to your right. The effect is wonderful. Not only does it work for chant, but when there is a unison in other music, its pure blend.

The group still exists and I'd be tempted to join again, if only I had the same voice I did 18 years ago! The director died, though over 10 years ago. She was on vacation on the Jersey Shore (!) with a bunch of friends. At one point she went out for a swim and got caught up in the under toe. They got her to a hospital where she was able to communicate with her long-time friends, but it was too much. She died. That's always made me very sad. She was a very special director and person. I took a video of her when I interviewed her for my "Ageing to Infancy" class back in 2004. I played the video for the group when we got together after she died. It took on a special meaning. And I must say that I'm not bad at interviewing!

I thought you would like hearing about the special choir I was in. I can hear myself on this recording- through the blending of course; no one else would be able to- and it makes me so nostalgic and happy.

P.S. Both Meditabor and Io V'amo Vita Mia were recorded in one take. That is, they are "live" not pieced together digitally.