Thanks, Justine. Broke a leg, best thing that ever happened.
Thought I’d relate my (strange) experience, as it was something I’d never done before: I went to a rehearsal Thursday evening at the other church. The choir director from our church ran the show. She has a phD in music and plays early music on violin. It was amazing to watch the rehearsal and see what she needed to have organized in her head, between alto, soprano, tenor, etc singers doing harmonies and lines set off each other, instrumentalists in the blend, etc, etc. And I give everyone credit for knowing when to come in and when to shut up. (I have too much of a wandering mind. Can’t remember how many times a tune is a set was played, or even how many times part A of a jig was done…once or twice??) So, anyway, at this church, the organist is up in the balcony and can’t see the director conducting from there, so she asks me (who has nothing to do during the rehearsal) to go up into the balcony and mirror her motions for the organist. Laughable, but I did my best. I asked the organist if I was keeping time and he said, ‘part of the time.’ She was doing strange figures in the air like the sorceror’s apprentice, you know. I did this for over 2 hours and more-or-less got the hang of it. He said it helped. Nice guy. Ultimately, I got what I came for: the dress code (wear a dark suit) and when do I play? (when the choir is walking up to the front of the church).
Saturday evening, I show up in my suit, wife and son in attendance. They head over to the monkey bars at the school playground and my son relates that my wife is swinging accross the rings, skipping a ring each time and crashes her knee into the support pole. Then she hangs by a hand twisting on the ring moaning in pain. This is typical of her.
So the program in the church is beginning, I’m sitting near the front with the audience next to my family. The director gives me a nod and I walk up to the front off to the side. Next thing a 12 year old girl is preparing to sing to piano accompaniment, so I stand quietly, whistle in hand, trying to be invisible. When she finishes, the director whispers that there are two longer bits before I come on. So I sit down in the very front, almost knee to knee with a cello player and wait through two Bach pieces on cellos, violin, harpsichord, and a phenomenal singer. (I’m thinking about the Zoolander movie where Zoolander walks up to the stage to accept an award and it’s given to the other guy. Like, ‘No Tony, go sit down.’ Anyway, I never show my fear, so I’m next, and I get up and play ‘A Stor mo Chroi’ on high D whistle and it goes over well. After intermission, I play ‘Lament for Limerick’ on low D, only honked once. Hard to say if the audience thought it was part of the ornamentation, but my wife noticed it. It’s good to get positive feedback from other musicians, which I did. I figure they’re listening more carefully. Before I left for the night, the director asked me to prepare a third tune for the following day. No problem, I’ll have one ready.
Today at the second church (the one with the organ in the balcony), I see her when I walk in and ask when do I play the additional tune. She says she changed her mind. She doesn’t feel well and doesn’t want to walk the length of the church. (Makes no sense, but I’m satisfied with a clear yes or no.) She is pregnant, I should add, and appears due at any moment. I go up to the balcony to be ready (anticipating the 12 year old, this time). The chamber group is upstairs with me for their performance, as well. The choir director slogs up the stairs as she’s playing violin with the Bach group. She tells me to get the extra tune ready as soon as the girl finishes and the piano player leaves his bench to join us upstairs. I’m to play while he’s walking back. Being ever so flexible, I get up and stand at the front of the balcony. Not sure which note I start on and pick the wrong one. Silent church, me, with this fabulous sound space and a nice Abell A, noodling in the wrong key, asking myself what’s going horribly wrong. Fortunately, I’ve had this experience before, so I quickly change keys (finger-wise) to the correct one and keep going. You should have heard the voices in my head arguing what to do next…Anyway, once I figured it out, it went well. The organist told me later that you couldn’t tell, when I told him what was happening to me. After intermission, I played Lament for Limerick, like yesterday, and no honks this time.
When the whole performance was done and the individual performers and singers were recognized and applauded, the director pointed me out in the balcony and I got a rousing grinning applause from the audience and the other performers. This was very remarkable and touching to me. Never experienced that before in that way.
So, if I want to continue to hang out with these guys, I’ll have to take up the recorder. 
Just kidding. I have to say, it felt kind of strange playing quasi-improvisational ‘lazy rhythm’ Irish slow airs between very carefully conducted classical music pieces. The contrast made me think of jazz- putting heart-felt expression into the music over strict timing and technique.
Thought I’d pass this story on as it was so strange and different to me. (Not like pub sessions a’tall, a’tall.)
Tony
-Abell high D and Copeland low D FWIW )
