The
Dream
Vortex
Various Chorale Worries
Interpretations always welcome
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An awkward silence is preserved between myself and a woman from a chorus with which I once sang. We share the task of helping a wheelchaired woman navigate a very wheelchair-unfriendly route. Someone is watching The Simpsons, and a Simpsonesque (or rather Crustyesque) Santa Claus is saying from a fireworks sky, "Merry Christmas! Bah Humbug! Betray your friends!" Mon. May 22, 2000
I dreamt I attended a Sweet Adelines convention in Canada along with the High Country chapter. Upon my return I wrote an initial "my first international experience" email and sent it to the chorus list, for which I was gently chastised. After all, I wasn't the designated spokeswoman. September 2, 2000
In this dream one of the more ambitious quartets in my chapter is missing a baritone for Regional Competition. I'm singing in her place. The other three ladies wake me up—I overslept!—just in time to perform for the judge/coach in our room. I just bound out of bed naked to save time. We sing a couple of simple regional "all-sing" numbers, easy pieces. I stumble around, fumble with my tape recorder, forget simple pieces of my part. Then, our bedroom becomes a huge ballroom, and I'm still naked. A snide comment from a clique by the window: "No wonder they never close these blinds." A group of men from a SPEBSQSA come to sing with us—one of them gives me a big, sorely needed hug. Because of course I'm mortified: These ladies took a chance on a rookie baritone, and I failed them. (But they go out of their way to tell me not to beat myself up over it.) September 8, 2000
Not only am I late for every act of the show, but the routine's completely different from what I knew. I sneak on stage halfway through the first act, slipping into the chorus when the dance routine brings them conveniently close to the stageleft wings. I've got the wrong costume on, and I'm singing the wrong song, and I just don't know the choreography. They're not even singing, they're chanting in rhythm, and everyone's bent over in creepy postures. November 5, 2000
"Who was it interested in singing with [thisperson] and [thatperson]?" asks P———. I am just about ashamed to tell her it was me. She looks at me with disbelief; I stammer that "of course I'm not going to sing (compete) with all three quartets. I'm just trying out how it sounds..." November 7, 2000
My assigned listener leads me by the hand into her house, and now it is too late to do anything but miserably fail my qualifier. November 21, 2000
I seem to remember dreaming of a chorus audition where each of us was to sing some very high notes, just to hear our vocal quality there. My notes come out "peel the paint" style—more of a screeching soprano than any acceptable floating tenor. I feel ashamed and embarassed for even trying. December 10, 2000
The lead of the quartet I just joined plays a tape for me of them singing a really innovative arrangment they performed last year. She can't remember the name of the song. There's a lot of prog-rock orchestration, and it drifts through several recognizable motifs, but finally it settles on the unmistakable 4-note repetition of Yes's "Changes". When the quartet starts singing those are indeed the lyrics I hear. I want to rewind to the other motifs and name them but now I can't operate the tape recorder and I can't seem to remember the songs. They were so subtle. December 25, 2000
Some folks in my chapter are singing through "Shakin' the Blues Away". I sang this in my very first chorus, so I sing along in my part just to show off that I know this song too. This is real: When he awoke that morning some hours after me, my husband was singing it. But I couldn't swear that he wasn't singing it the night before. He was certainly singing "Sentimental Journey". January 1, 2001
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