Little Venice

May 19, 2010

Where do I begin? I woke up this morning filled with wonder that I found myself in London. It is such a fantastic opportunity. I went running this morning in Hyde Park. As I've already described, it is a unique experience. I love the pace of my mornings here. Class this morning felt a little bit long. We covered a lot of choral literature including four of Bach’s Motets. It was interesting to study them because the motet was an old genre, especially since he wrote the motets near the end of his life. We spent time looking at the ways Bach looked to the past to find the particular writing style for them. We also discussed our recent concert experiences with the BBC Singers, the London Bach Choir and at Westminster Abbey. After class was over, Michelle and I came back to the flats and made lunch together. Gotta love pasta. Cheap and easy. We had quite a bit of free time for the rest of the day so we decided to head to a new place in London called Little Venice. I had heard that Little Venice was a nice place to visit and walk through. While we found it interesting, it wasn’t exactly what we had in mind. The most interesting thing about Little Venice is the canal system that it’s a part of. At the same time the Eerie Canal was being built in the United States, England was building a canal system of its own for massive transport and shipping. The canal system became obsolete with the spread of trains and later with the thoroughfares (highways) and motorways (freeways). Nowadays, the canal system is traversed by folks in their house-barges. We stopped to talk to a couple who were moored with their boat on the side of the canal and learned about their story. Mick and Jenny, a lovely couple from Manchester, bought a house-boat barge and spend three quarters of the year living on it going from place to place enjoying their retirement. The boat they bought, much like the others on the canal is 7 feet wide and 70 feet long. Once the boat is licensed to you, you may take the boat wherever you please, docking for two weeks anywhere you like for free. There is no need for a captain’s license or anything. It was really interesting to talk to them about their way of life. They suggested we rent one if we ever decided to come back to England for an extended stay because it’s so cheap to rent, easy to get around and a great way to see a lot of the country. I took note of that thinking that it might be the means to some future adventure. While we enjoyed talking to Mick and Jenny, Little Venice wasn’t everything we thought it would be. The website I’d looked at before going promised a museum, an art gallery and a few other sites to see. We didn’t really find any of it except a really lovely park where we took a short nap on the grass. Evening plans looming, we decided to pack up and head back to get ready for the rehearsal we were scheduled to attend that evening. The rehearsal was for the Holst Singers conducted by Stephen Layton who also conducts Polyphony (made famous by THEIR recordings of Eric Whitacre’s choral works). I asked Nathan Wright and Sister Hall if they would enjoy seeing a fist fight between Dr. Staheli and Stephen Layton over the Eric Whitacre recordings. Nathan laughed and said he would. The rehearsal was held in Temple Church. I’d never heard of the Holst Singers. It’s always fun to see a new choir and see how they work. The Holst Singers is composed of amateur singers with approximately 8 people per part. They rehearsed in a half circle around the conductor. The first thing I noticed about their rehearsal was the amount of time Stephen Layton took to address their sound and phrasing. It’s really the first choir we’ve seen that has worked to really perfect their pieces. As always, the sound was treble dominated. The rehearsal was rather lengthy and I was impressed how hard they worked for as long as they worked. We heard them rehearse the Bach Motets that we’d studied in class. Listening to classical music is so much more enjoyable when you are familiar with the form and structure of the piece. It’s easier to appreciate the works of the masters like Bach when you’ve invested time to learn how they practiced their craft. I really appreciated how much each member of the ensemble seemed to contribute. It made me rethink a little bit Bob Chilcot’s comments about the British being so individualistic. Maybe it’s truer in the professional world. The best part of the rehearsal was when Michelle went to put down the prayer bench in the pew right in front of us, it slammed down and a large crack echoed through the whole church. It was hard not to laugh out loud! Funnier still was when we nearly lost it when the German diction coach went to approach Stephen Layton with a correction in the diction and was nearly whacked with a vigorous sweep of his hand. Warning! Conductor on the premises may strike you with his waving arms or baton causing injury or death! After the rehearsal, Michelle and I needed to get to the grocery store. The problem is that the stores around here all close at 10:00 and we got out at 9:30. We were commenting on this problem when one of the choir members overheard us and offered us a ride to the nearest Sainsbury to shop. In the small talk that commenced with Steve, we learned that he was a vicar at a nearby church. He was so nice to drive us around until we eventually found the market. We made a goal to buy more food from the grocery store so that we’d eat out even less than we are. I’m totally cool with it because I love to cook. When we got home, I enjoyed a nice cup of tea.