How I became a cathedral chorister - Part 1
Well, how I became a cathedral chorister?
It started with a moving to a new state, Lower Saxony near Bremen, Germany. I looked for tourist attractions in my new home to explore my new state. I found this wonderful building, the Bremen Cathedral. Belonging to the parish Saint Petri I found the website of the cathedral. Under the category 'church music' there was the cathedral choir and the affiliated cathedral singing school mentioned.
I contacted the cathedral cantor, he is the director of the cathedral choir. He asked me about my previous choir experience, my pitch of voice, my 'Know-how' about music theory and skills in reading music notation. I told him all and told him my age, too. In September 2010 i visited one of the performances of the cathedral choir and in October 2010 the choir director invited me to come to the rehearsal's. The particular point in time would be good cause the choir started to work on a new music piece at the moment, he said. At first I didn't dare to go to the rehearsal's. A cathedral choir is something other than a layman choir or a spare time choir. On the website of the Saint Petri parish I read that the cathedral choir sings in worship regularly, gives several big concerts in the year, appears on the radio, broadcasting and television. A cathedral chorister has many duties and have to invest much time to the choir.
The first rehearsal
On 11th May 2010 i finally had the heart to go to the rehearsal of the full cathedral choir. It's a big choir and I felt uncertain and was shy cause I knew no one there, wasn't sure where I have to sit and all. But the other choristers were very friendly, they helped me to find the right seat in my pitch of voice, liberally gave me all the sheet music which was practised at this rehearsal and they helped me when I didn't understand something. Also the cathedral cantor, Tobias Gravenhorst, was friendly when I enrolled myself with the words: 'Hello, today Iam here to get a taste.' ( = taste trial, testing something, like a rehearsal of the rehearsal). The choir rehearses in the choir hall of the cathedral, a grand piano is in it, a podium platform for the choir director, many hard wooden chairs and from the wall, amongst others, looks composer Johann Sebastian Bach to you. When I sat there on one of this wooden chairs which grieves my bottom and I sang the stuff which I could read out of the sheet music, I already felt like a part of this whole big thing, this choir. Three times I was moved to tears cause the sound of the choir was so great and awesome. In the sheet music was a song that I know from St. Thomas Boys Choir (Lipsk, Leipzig, Germany) and that I like very much. I decided to go again to the rehearsal next week.
picture: Bremen cathedral and town hall
It started with a moving to a new state, Lower Saxony near Bremen, Germany. I looked for tourist attractions in my new home to explore my new state. I found this wonderful building, the Bremen Cathedral. Belonging to the parish Saint Petri I found the website of the cathedral. Under the category 'church music' there was the cathedral choir and the affiliated cathedral singing school mentioned.
I contacted the cathedral cantor, he is the director of the cathedral choir. He asked me about my previous choir experience, my pitch of voice, my 'Know-how' about music theory and skills in reading music notation. I told him all and told him my age, too. In September 2010 i visited one of the performances of the cathedral choir and in October 2010 the choir director invited me to come to the rehearsal's. The particular point in time would be good cause the choir started to work on a new music piece at the moment, he said. At first I didn't dare to go to the rehearsal's. A cathedral choir is something other than a layman choir or a spare time choir. On the website of the Saint Petri parish I read that the cathedral choir sings in worship regularly, gives several big concerts in the year, appears on the radio, broadcasting and television. A cathedral chorister has many duties and have to invest much time to the choir.
The first rehearsal
On 11th May 2010 i finally had the heart to go to the rehearsal of the full cathedral choir. It's a big choir and I felt uncertain and was shy cause I knew no one there, wasn't sure where I have to sit and all. But the other choristers were very friendly, they helped me to find the right seat in my pitch of voice, liberally gave me all the sheet music which was practised at this rehearsal and they helped me when I didn't understand something. Also the cathedral cantor, Tobias Gravenhorst, was friendly when I enrolled myself with the words: 'Hello, today Iam here to get a taste.' ( = taste trial, testing something, like a rehearsal of the rehearsal). The choir rehearses in the choir hall of the cathedral, a grand piano is in it, a podium platform for the choir director, many hard wooden chairs and from the wall, amongst others, looks composer Johann Sebastian Bach to you. When I sat there on one of this wooden chairs which grieves my bottom and I sang the stuff which I could read out of the sheet music, I already felt like a part of this whole big thing, this choir. Three times I was moved to tears cause the sound of the choir was so great and awesome. In the sheet music was a song that I know from St. Thomas Boys Choir (Lipsk, Leipzig, Germany) and that I like very much. I decided to go again to the rehearsal next week.
picture: Bremen cathedral and town hall
Chorsängerin - 25. Mai, 12:20
What song by the Thomanerchor did you recognize? I recently started listening to them and really like them :)