Vocalist.org archive


From:  MFoxy9795@a...
MFoxy9795@a...
Date:  Sat May 12, 2001  1:39 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] reading skills or rather a lack thereof.........



as an organist who has done a lot of subbing, i certainly need to know how to
sight read. you never know what you are going to have thrown at you at the
last minute. even if they have told you hymns and so on ahead of time, there
is either something that has been changed or added at the last minute, or
something they forgot to tell you about.

i think the most outrageous case was when i was asked to fill in as
substitute organist and lead a choir in Mendelssohn's chorus There Shall a
Star from Jacob come forth, as well as a solo, i think a Grieg piece which
was not straightforward. The choir wandered in about 10 minutes before the
service, at which time the prelude should be beginning! obviously there was
not even enough time to go thru anything once, let alone rehearse anything,
and let alone the fact that this would have been on a rehearsal piano, not
the organ in the church.

i had learned a few things thro the years about not getting into a lose-lose
situation, and i refused to do it. the minister was mad, but oh well. they
deserved it. it was one of those churches that never called me back, and i
was glad.

merry

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