School Days
(A note on this interpretation: I don't really like it, but it's the best quality I could find on YouTube. To really get the feel, grab the sheet music, a keyboard instrument of some sort, at least five willing friends, and a warmish sunny afternoon in a grassy green area, then sing your hearts out.)
Ah, school. Doesn't everyone love it? Well...no, obviously not, and I've got a very mixed relationship with mine (this is putting it politely). Exams and being at the rock bottom of the social pecking order really do not help. Debating and more particularly choir, however, do.
I love singing. I'm not great or even good at it, but I love it. More particularly, I love singing in choirs - getting to sing beautifully complex music, hearing how voices mesh together and how they clash, and all this while sharing that beautiful complexity with other people. It's better in small groups, desperately trying to sight-read the music and bonding over each member's individual little quirks.
A lot of the music we do is very much like this - sometimes simpler, sometimes harder - but this is what I associate with choir. And for me, it takes on a special significance in the summer term, when the days start to get longer, when the slanting rays of light touch the grass (my school's got a lot of open fields) in the afternoon when choir rehearsals are on...when you know you've only got a couple of weeks with those people left, and when it makes you sad. Suddenly, the subtle dissonance, the suspensions, the soft, flowing lines of music, remind you of the soft sunlight on the leafy green spaces, sitting out on Top Field with your friends, the almost total lack of will to do any more studying up after seven, eight, nine months of hard studying and revision, and the knowledge that soon all of this will be over, so you should cherish it while you can.
(Again, sorry about any mistakes or general poor quality of the recording - again, the best I could find, again, get the sheet music, a keyboard instrument, four willing friends and a warmish sunny afternoon in a grassy green area, then sing.)
Ah, school. Doesn't everyone love it? Well...no, obviously not, and I've got a very mixed relationship with mine (this is putting it politely). Exams and being at the rock bottom of the social pecking order really do not help. Debating and more particularly choir, however, do.
I love singing. I'm not great or even good at it, but I love it. More particularly, I love singing in choirs - getting to sing beautifully complex music, hearing how voices mesh together and how they clash, and all this while sharing that beautiful complexity with other people. It's better in small groups, desperately trying to sight-read the music and bonding over each member's individual little quirks.
A lot of the music we do is very much like this - sometimes simpler, sometimes harder - but this is what I associate with choir. And for me, it takes on a special significance in the summer term, when the days start to get longer, when the slanting rays of light touch the grass (my school's got a lot of open fields) in the afternoon when choir rehearsals are on...when you know you've only got a couple of weeks with those people left, and when it makes you sad. Suddenly, the subtle dissonance, the suspensions, the soft, flowing lines of music, remind you of the soft sunlight on the leafy green spaces, sitting out on Top Field with your friends, the almost total lack of will to do any more studying up after seven, eight, nine months of hard studying and revision, and the knowledge that soon all of this will be over, so you should cherish it while you can.
(Again, sorry about any mistakes or general poor quality of the recording - again, the best I could find, again, get the sheet music, a keyboard instrument, four willing friends and a warmish sunny afternoon in a grassy green area, then sing.)
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