It feels weird to be in the office and have an hour or two to myself. I was in Baltimore Monday and Tuesday, and on the road a few days last week; the rest of the week is full of remote customer demos. And rehearsals for the Moses und Aron.
About which: I have to say, this is the most challenging piece I’ve ever done. Conceptually, the chorus in this work is supposed to “humanize” Schoenberg’s twelve-tone music, but it’s difficult to be convincingly human when you’re a little terrified of the music.
I’ve written about the challenges of the piece before, but after six weeks of rehearsals they appear no more surmountable than they did before. Vocal lines wander according to their own logic without reference to other musical parts, choral or instrumental, meaning that all the clues you have as a singer to find your pitch are absent; you basically have to memorize every entrance and every melodic line. And it’s a long work. (For other perspectives on preparing for the piece, check out fanw and Eryk, whose open letter to our conductor is one of the funnier things I’ve read recently.)