The Happy Thread Part 2

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

I'm happy this year is almost over. Vacation is overdue.

[Nautipus]

Same here. I cant wait for break. I'll be able to sleep in.....yay.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

Originally Posted by Nautipus

Same here. I cant wait for break. I'll be able to sleep in.....yay.

You'll sleep in yay? Is that a wetsuit, or something?

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by sisterandcousinandaunt

You'll sleep in yay? Is that a wetsuit, or something?

Your soooo cute

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

I'm too lazy

Tessar, seriously...update me on your music writing. I've been known to be a very inspiring motivational speaker, and I can help you with your music ideas!!!!

Thanks Hector .


Actually for the longest time I've been wanting to work on a setting for the first verse from that Alfred Lord Tennyson poem, 'Ulysses'.

The part that goes:

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with and aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vexed the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honored of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch where through
Gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this grey spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.


But I think that project is still pretty far beyond me. It's funny because I'm studying opera, but what I'd really love to sing/compose is more in an Enya/Loreena McKennitt style. I know they're really very different, but that idea of using poetry and their overall vocal styling are what makes me lump them together.

I'm happy, though, because I know at least Loreena trained as a Mezzo-Soprano under an operatic teacher when she was younger. Enya is also a Mezzo, and I seem to recall that she had some operatic training at a college or conservatory.



... and I'm totally stupid because I think my Mom really is a Mezzo. No wonder her voice reminds me of Enya. DUH. I think her breaks are even in the right place. *sigh* Me stoopid .

[Mari]

It's finally finished. After 4 days of agonizing, wait make that 5 days. Only one essay left to go...
I'm dead.

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Mari

It's finally finished. After 4 days of agonizing, wait make that 5 days. Only one essay left to go...
I'm dead.

Ugh, essays. >.> Ebil thangs.

Gratz on finishing four o.O

[Nautipus]

Originally Posted by Mari

It's finally finished. After 4 days of agonizing, wait make that 5 days. Only one essay left to go...
I'm dead.

Yeah, I'm still working on 2, and have another to write as an English final. Good for you though.

[Nautipus]

Hehe
Made me smile.

[strider8]

I'm happy because it's less then three days until christmas and 15 days until it's the christmas holiday

Edit:I meant three weeks

[Mari]

Isn't that the other way around? Vacation in 3 days and christmas in 20 or so?
Gaahn~ I'm jealous, I want to have vacation in 3 days...!

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Thanks Hector .


Actually for the longest time I've been wanting to work on a setting for the first verse from that Alfred Lord Tennyson poem, 'Ulysses'.

The part that goes:

It little profits that an idle king,
By this still hearth, among these barren crags,
Matched with and aged wife, I mete and dole
Unequal laws unto a savage race,
That hoard, and sleep, and feed, and know not me.
I cannot rest from travel: I will drink
Life to the lees: all times I have enjoyed
Greatly, have suffered greatly, both with those
That loved me, and alone; on shore, and when
Through scudding drifts the rainy Hyades
Vexed the dim sea: I am become a name;
For always roaming with a hungry heart
Much have I seen and known; cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honored of them all;
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch where through
Gleams that untraveled world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this grey spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.


But I think that project is still pretty far beyond me. It's funny because I'm studying opera, but what I'd really love to sing/compose is more in an Enya/Loreena McKennitt style. I know they're really very different, but that idea of using poetry and their overall vocal styling are what makes me lump them together.

I'm happy, though, because I know at least Loreena trained as a Mezzo-Soprano under an operatic teacher when she was younger. Enya is also a Mezzo, and I seem to recall that she had some operatic training at a college or conservatory.



... and I'm totally stupid because I think my Mom really is a Mezzo. No wonder her voice reminds me of Enya. DUH. I think her breaks are even in the right place. *sigh* Me stoopid .

A word about setting those words to music: try to be transparent. Handel would write a crescendo when the word was 'heaven' and a decresecendo (or a 'descend-O) when it was the word 'valley'. So everytime you have a chance for word-painting, go for it.

[hectorberlioz]

Originally Posted by sisterandcousinandaunt

Vacation is overdue.

How long have you had it checked out from the library?

[Rían]

Got the train tracks put down - 3 interconnected loops *wipes brow* Whew, it's a lot of work! Now an entire evening hooking up the electronics, and voila! fun trains!

We have 3 engines (LGB-size - the big kind) on 3 tracks - the fun thing is to see how long you can run them before crashing (or almost crashing - we hit the emergency "OFF" button right before a crash - them thangs are expensive!). The engines run at different speeds, and the tracks are different lengths - you have to get into a rhythm, but then eventually one sneeks up on ya and

[Mari]

That reminds me of my fathers trains. He would never take them out and build a track, but one day I was sick and my father had a day off, so he said that we could build the tracks together. I had been begging for that for a long time allready, so I was very happy, but in the end my father wouldn't let me touch it and allthough he asked me what kind of shape I wanted and how many bridges he didn't listen to me and build the entire thing all by himself. It took him the entire day, while me being sick couldn't even rest in my own room anymore since he had put his trainstuff everywhere.
That evening he invited us all up (after he had missed dinner) to watch the thing do one round before he had to put it all away again, because I had to go to bed... It's still a story we tease him with.
I must have been 6 or so.

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by hectorberlioz

A word about setting those words to music: try to be transparent. Handel would write a crescendo when the word was 'heaven' and a decresecendo (or a 'descend-O) when it was the word 'valley'. So everytime you have a chance for word-painting, go for it.

Except that Handel would pick about five to seven words.... and then repeat them.


FOR THE ENTIRE ARIA!!!! o(>.<)O

I'm actually singing a Handel piece for my vocal juries tomorrow... I'm quite excited ^_^.

[Nautipus]

Well, I must say that as much as I enjoy colleg, I'm glad this semester is coming to a close. Almost done with all my exams (got a really long one on Saturday, grr) and next week is my last one. After next week you guys may not here from me for a while, but I'll try and get on.

[Tessar]

Eeeee, Juries tomorrow... I'm excited.

I actually have my singing jury, and then I have to go perform a monologue I wrote and sing 'Try to Remember' for my acting class. That'll be interesting.

[sisterandcousinandaunt]

I'll be waiting for the update.

[Tessar]

My jury went pretty well (I did get lost once... I just let being on stage singing to a nearly-empty auditorium get to me!) although I don't know what grade I got yet.

My acting thing went GREAT! I got a B+ on my song (I would've had an A, except that I decided to wear a hat for my character and I apparently needed to keep my face 'up' a little more, which I didn't think about), and an A+ on my monologue.



Today was great... Went in and did five hours of stage-work with the director again (cutting patterns, painting backgrounds, ironing clothes, making costume dividers out of cardboard...) and totally loved it. Is it a bad sign that doing monotonous work makes me happy? I think I mainly enjoy it because it gives me time to think about other things, and the director and I chatted a bit while we worked... mostly she was sewing stuff together while I took on skilless-but-time-consuming type things. I'm going to go in again on Thursday... I really have nothing to do at all over my Christmas break... so why not spend it in the shop learning useful stuff?

I also talked to my mom about teaching her some over the break, and I think I've found some great repertoire for her... I don't know -why- it didn't occur to me before... My Loreena Mckennitt sheet music! It's got a good range for her voice, and I can play the accompaniment without too much trouble... so unlike the aria we had been working on, I can actually give her some piano assistance on it, and it's really pretty stuff, so I think she'll like it.


I have a -plan-!