One of the things that I always loved about being two choir directors’ kid, one of the things that I love about being a choir director’s girlfriend, and one of the things that I’ll love about being a choir director’s wife is the fact that Christmas music appears in June. I adore Christmas, and the music, especially the choral music, is one of my favorite parts.

Colin’s been listening to Christmas music since July, choosing the music for his choir’s cantata. I helped him put it all together in August, and I’ve been listening to it non-stop since then, since I’m writing the narration for it. It’s been playing in my car, and I’ve sung through it with the music often enough that I could almost just show up for his cantata and sing with his altos. I just spent the last hour or so conducting through it, timing out the breaks where the narration (which I fully intend to spend Sunday afternoon writing a rough draft of) will go.

Tomorrow, we have a retreat for my choir, at which we’ll get our Christmas cantata music and sing through it for the first time. I’m looking forward to seeing if we have any songs that overlap, although I’d be a little surprised if we have any this year, since most of Colin’s cantata is taken from various other published cantatas, and my choir director tends to use anthems to put the cantata together. Still, I know that I’ve sung at least one of the pieces before. Many years ago, but still–I’ve done it.

(The one thing I’m not looking forward to about tomorrow are the “workshops” about how to read music. There’s one on basic rhythms and one on basic sightreading, and I’m a little apprehensive as to how “basic” they’ll be. If it’s a rhythm-reading thing that has something complicated, that’ll be fun, but if it’s all “This is 4/4 time, and this is a whole note,” it’s kind of a waste of my time. Not everyone’s, although I find it hard to fathom that some people are in choir for numerous years without being able to read music, but I almost wish those were a separate thing, so those of us who have several decades of music training under our belts don’t have to worry about them. But oh well–they’re a small part of the day, and hopefully they’ll be challenging enough that those of us who don’t need them aren’t totally bored.)

But still. Christmas music! Yay! Especially when it’s still 90 degrees outside! My car is full of carols! And has been for the past month! And of course I mix it up and listen to a variety of music, but why should Christmas music be relegated solely to December? Especially when it’s an artistic process and a rehearsal process. I love being able to meditate on and live in the music for so long. It makes it that much more special when December comes.

Tags: choir, Music, things I'm working on

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