Saturday, December 1 marked the culmination of a long and fantastic voyage: That evening was the performance of Carl Orff's masterwork. It marked the coming together of adult and youth; and Woburn Collegiate Institute is proud to have been considered among three of the best school music programs Scarborough has to offer. Woburn sang with two other Scarborough schools: Agincourt Collegiate Institute and Sir John A Macdonald, this mass choir joining forces with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, an ensemble made up of professional and some of the very best amateur voices around. And for good measure, Northlea Elementary School provided a veritable squadron of 'Ragazzi' with their (admittedly adorable) children's choir.
The choirs worked many long hours practicing to get not just notes, but pronunciations perfect to the letter, pulling together in a minimal amount of time with only two mass rehearsals before the concert day. Much of the work was therefore undertaken by the teachers at the respective schools, who put in countless hours to ensure that we sounded our very best out there (even if we weren't quite sure what we were singing about).
As for the orchestra, it goes without saying that this was an intensive and exhaustive process, from dealing with what may not have been the most logical of transcriptions ("I'm sending this Juan fellow an e-mail) to the grotesque amount of photocopying inherent in having to play such an enormous work from rented parts. Which brings me to my first lesson: Always have your pencil. When 'crunch time' rolls around, regardless of whether or not one is in the choir or band, not having a pencil is equivalent to setting oneself up for failure. Sure, you can say, "I'll write it down later", but will you really? Ask yourself. When you've changed movements and casually neglected the rest of the orchestra, or when you're saying a "W" when it should be a "V", ask yourself again: Did you write it down? No? Well, whose fault is it then? Have a pencil handy.
Of course, this was also the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra's equivalent to a Christmas concert, and accordingly, the Wind Orchestra played two pieces to kick off the evening: Midnight Sleighride (arranged by Tom Wallace) and a piece that some older choristers might recognize: A wind setting of Morten Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium.
There is no lesson that accompanies how absolutely charming the children's choir was with their rendition of Ruth Watson Henderson's Don’t You Ever Squeeze a Weasel. We're not quite sure why they were singing about weasels, or why one would want to squeeze a weasel in the first place, but weren't they cute?
The orchestra and school choirs combined forces for the final piece of the first half, a well-known Christmas song called Do You Hear What I Hear, arranged by Emily Crocker and John Moss. Which is where a slightly more difficult lesson came into play: Listen to each other and it will be okay. A fitting moral for the song's title, the minimal amount of rehearsal time we had with this piece really forced the wind orchestra and the mass choir to hear what each other heard, in order to blend. Anyone who was there that evening will attest to the difficulties of getting 300 people plus an orchestra to balance out, but it is possible.
It was said at the choir's first mass rehearsal that any successful performance of Carmina Burana will require a nap afterward on the part of everyone involved, and I can certainly attest to that. From 'O Fortuna' to 'O Fortuna', there was a tremendous amount of focus and energy put forth by the choirs big and small, by the (absolutely breathtaking) soloists, and by the wind orchestra. Watching the soloists in rehearsal was a unique and enriching experience, and we learned that even professionals have a sense of humor (did anyone else notice Ms. Fagan's high kicks in movement 14?) as we got to see these seasoned performers involved in that ever-so-important process of rehearsing. This rehearsal also stressed how important it is to know what you are singing, as it is far more interesting than simply bellowing syllables and watching others laugh at jokes you don't quite get. Another important virtue taught by this experience was patience, and that every part is important. Some are bigger than others, but everyone is part of the process. Even those of use who were tacet for eleven of the movements (here, I am perhaps a bit hypocritical, as I spent much of my non-playing time being thoroughly amused by the meaning of the text. But I digress…). If you're going to rest, rest with just as much enthusiasm and focus as you play or sing with. A small part does not mean that you have nothing to do.
We all worked very hard and put in a gargantuan amount of effort, but I cannot say that it was with little reward. The knowledge that we performed a stellar concert (the biggest that the Toronto Youth Wind Orchestra has mounted in its 17-year history) and the experience of performing with such experienced and talented professionals as well as one of the premier youth wind ensembles in Canada is reward in and of itself. After recovery from being generally star struck, it is my sincere hope that each and every person involved, professional or student, performer or audience member, learned and followed what I consider to be a cardinal rule in music, and in all things: Have fun.