Meet Beethoven

I sing here and there, in choirs etc., especially being a Mormon, there’s ample opportunity. About a year ago I sang with the large Portland Mormon Choir and Orchestra for a super Joseph Smith Commemoration. I enjoyed it tremendously, but felt quite outclassed and also not up for the time commitment. Well, this last December the Choir sent out a call to help with their newest project--a joint performance with the Willamette Falls Symphony Orchestra doing Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony. Sounded like quite an exciting opportunity, so I began attending rehearsals, listening to the music, and stretching my voice again.

I’d only known the main theme before this point, but began to be intimately familiar with it, at least the 4^th movement (the only one which has any singing). I find it quite beautiful--and as we recall, Beethoven wrote this piece after having lost his hearing. I carpooled extended distances with friends for the rehearsals once or twice a week. We were on a tight schedule: show time in one month! The notes were coming (though way too high Meister B!), and I was slowly picking up German pronunciation, sorta.

The week of the performance arrived. Excitement was creeping in and Talmage was surely tired of hearing my practice CD for his every breakfast. Final rehearsal with the orchestra went well, we were sounding good--just keep your eyes on that conductor. And then... the night before the performance, I fell ill. We’re talking wasted, no-energy, I-can’t-sing ill. So set in sadness as I was lying in bed thinking of the choir and orchestra some miles away recreating Beethoven’s masterpiece for a packed auditorium.

However, there in bed the idea struck that I was approximating Beethoven’s own experience when his 9^th premiered. He could only imagine the sound, hearing it in his head, but not with his ears. Freude!