Sing. Sing a Song.

Yes, yes, yes, I have a million things to write about and I'm behind in pretty much every facet of my life, but this isn't what this entry is about. This entry is about a discovery I've made on the interweb that I cannot believe I haven't discovered before.

Now, it will come as no surprise to any of you that I love music. I mean, I packed up my suitcase and moved to NYC basically because I fell in love with my cd of Kiss Me Kate. And though I always loved music, my love came via a very long history with playing in concert bands, full orchestras, marching bands, and basically hours of my father teaching me all about Tchaikovsky while en route to see the Houston Symphony and Ballet perform The Nutcracker.

And though I loved every second of being in band, once I left college, there wasn't much of a place that an oboist (yes, I know, I played the oboe, get over it.) could escape to her musical oasis.

So, one day, in seeking out the need to be surrounded by music of some sort, I stumbled upon my choir at St. Ignatius, and my love affair with choral music began. I know I'm a late bloomer, so I have to rely on things such as the NY Chorale's Summer Sing series- where they gather a bunch of music nerds like myself and sing through the scores of the more famous literature for choirs. For me, it is an excellent education in what I should be familiar with, and also with "kill or be killed" sightsinging, because shockingly, most of this genre of music was never familiar to me. Yes, I was fully aware of "Capriccio Espagnol" and "The Great Gate of Kiev" and "Incantation and Dance" (who's with me there?), but most choral pieces slipped right past my consciousness.

Anyway, so, I'm still in my baby steps of discovery, and the other morning, on an episode of my beloved West Wing, I heard in the background a beautiful piece, and thanks to the fact that there are bigger nerds out there in the world than I am, I was able to Google a few quick words and learned it was Vivaldi's "Gloria," which is now one of my very favorite music pieces ever. Seriously, it was going to take a lot to kick Next to Normal off the rotation on the iPod, but this piece has kicked out "Superboy and the Invisible Girl" for my top played song this week.

However, that's not even the best discovery! While I was searching for more information on the piece (namely, the sheet music so I can follow along), I found YouTube video that plays the recording in the background while showing the SATB music two lines at a time! What! It's like a sheet music teleprompter. I know Mr. Cote, my 7th grade band director would cringe at the fact that you can't read ahead in the music to know what's coming, but for just a cursory look at the parts, it was a pretty brilliant discovery. Don't worry, I've posted it below in case anyone is curious:


And for those of you who are harboring a secret love of choral music as well, this piece is indeed part of the NY Chorale's Summer Sings on July 22 along with Faure's Requiem.

So, now that I may have just proven that I am nerdier than you ever expected. I'm off to bed, for I have a conference call for my Tony nominated show at 10am tomorrow. Brutal for this Broadway baby.