Schubert's Mass in G Major

The joy I experienced while singing Schubert this morning was a long time coming. My memories of Schubert stretch from Stuttgart to my college days in Williamsburg and back again.

Schubert's G-Major Mass with the Untertürkheimer Kantorei at the Wallmerkirche

My first introduction to Franz Schubert's vocal music was through the recordings of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. I had probably first read about him in the Guinness Book of World Records, he being the recording artist (in 1980) with the most LPs on the market. In addition, our music library at William & Mary had a good number of his recordings and I found them very interesting. After failing my audition for the college choir the first week at college - and rightly so because I couldn't sing in tune - I began taking voice lessons. My elder sister sang in the renowned choir there and thought I would also enjoy singing. Our father sang Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, so she probably thought it was in our genes. But my rendition of "Oh beautiful" was only good enough to get me placed on the waiting list for the choir. 

Some of the songs in my first Schubert collection

So Frances Breeze taught me technique for a year, as did Ryan Fletcher afterwards. I spoke German, so I skipped the beginners' Italian arias and bought a collection of Schubert Lieder, probably as much for the luscious looking piano parts as for the texts. "Das Wandern", "Heidenröslein", "Der Tod und das Mädchen", "Die Forelle", "An die Musik" and a half-dozen other of his Lieder have accompanied me through my life since then. 

I sang in several choirs after taking voice lessons, but the only one I enjoyed was at Breadloaf Writer's Conference; that lasted only 11 days. Not playing an orchestra instrument, I never got to play in ensembles and see how they create music. I plunked on alone at the piano. The literature of my chosen instrument interested me, though, so I enjoyed attending recitals at the college and dreamed of one day playing Beethoven, Chopin and Debussy. The first time I attended an orchestra rehearsal was for Schumann's Piano Concerto, at which I was thrilled to be allowed to turn pages for the soloist. After that I went to orchestra rehearsals in Williamsburg, Richmond, Freiburg and Stuttgart whenever I could. I wanted to know what the conductor said, how the instrumentalists interacted and how exactly a piece developed from page to performance.

Reahearsal with orchestra at the Wallmerkirche

I've already written about my magical experience singing Bach's Christmas Oratorio with this terrific choir. Last week we rehearsed for the first time with the Untertürkheimer Kantoreiorchester and went through the Schubert Mass a couple of times, stopping and adjusting or repeating important cues so that we felt secure when they came up in performance. Both the choir and the orchestra were reminded to pay attention to intonation and rhythm. 

After a fairly rough early-morning run-through before the service today, we pulled off a pretty good performance at 9:45 by concentrating 100% and paying attention to our cues and listening to each other. 

The sermon was about not having to be a perfectionist, and I realized that when you play or sing in an amateur orchestra or choir, it's not about being perfect but about letting go, trusting the (wonderful) director and the routine you've developed during time you've spent rehearsing, and having fun making music. I'm so glad I've finally learned this invaluable lesson.