... How did that happen?
Sep. 28th, 2009 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
damkiannaSomehow I have come to be in the Catholic Center choir. o.O
It's not even actually all that hugely convoluted a story; AT is Catholic, and I asked her if I might go to mass with her at some point, in pursuit of a ritual to write about for Human Cultures. She said yes, and added that I should come with her to choir, because they need people and I sing (not especially well, but reasonably on tune - and, bonus, audibly, as long as I am surrounded by other people who are also singing). So ... I did.
I was a little nervous about it, for several reasons; mostly, I was vaguely afraid that the musical director would, like, test my range or something before she'd let me be a soprano, and also there was some nebulous fear that someone would suss out my non-Catholicism and tell me I couldn't be in the choir.
The first wasn't an issue, which was great. As for the second, well. In hindsight it was kind of silly; if there were ever anywhere where it would be okay for non-Catholics to be in the choir, it would be UVM's Catholic Center. ^^ While there were certainly moments where I felt kind of awkward, standing there silently while everybody recited the Lord's Prayer and the Nicene Creed and everything, it wasn't like anybody leapt up and pointed at me, all "THAT GIRL'S NOT SAYING IT OMG." :D And I was actually surprised by how well I got through the music. I can't actually read music in a technical sense; I know which note has which name thanks to flute lessons in elementary school, but I can't just see an F and then open my mouth and have an F come out the way my dad can. But I've been singing for long enough that I can make a decent guess at the size of the jumps, once I have the first note. So. It actually wasn't that bad.
The mass was really interesting to watch. I've only really been to two kinds of services: Unitarian Universalist, with my dad, which I mostly went to for the brownies that came after the actual service was over, and which was ... pretty much nothing like a Roman Catholic mass, and Quaker, which was even less like a mass. A Quaker meeting is, like, an anti-mass, as far as level of organization and ritual goes. And one of the most interesting parts was how much of it my mother remembered as I was telling her about it on the phone today (it's her birthday, so I made sure to call). She went to Catholic school when she was younger, but has kind of lapsed since.
In conclusion: I think I'm going to stick with it. I hadn't realized how much I missed singing in a group, learning new music and practicing it and being taught to sing it well. \o/
It's not even actually all that hugely convoluted a story; AT is Catholic, and I asked her if I might go to mass with her at some point, in pursuit of a ritual to write about for Human Cultures. She said yes, and added that I should come with her to choir, because they need people and I sing (not especially well, but reasonably on tune - and, bonus, audibly, as long as I am surrounded by other people who are also singing). So ... I did.
I was a little nervous about it, for several reasons; mostly, I was vaguely afraid that the musical director would, like, test my range or something before she'd let me be a soprano, and also there was some nebulous fear that someone would suss out my non-Catholicism and tell me I couldn't be in the choir.
The first wasn't an issue, which was great. As for the second, well. In hindsight it was kind of silly; if there were ever anywhere where it would be okay for non-Catholics to be in the choir, it would be UVM's Catholic Center. ^^ While there were certainly moments where I felt kind of awkward, standing there silently while everybody recited the Lord's Prayer and the Nicene Creed and everything, it wasn't like anybody leapt up and pointed at me, all "THAT GIRL'S NOT SAYING IT OMG." :D And I was actually surprised by how well I got through the music. I can't actually read music in a technical sense; I know which note has which name thanks to flute lessons in elementary school, but I can't just see an F and then open my mouth and have an F come out the way my dad can. But I've been singing for long enough that I can make a decent guess at the size of the jumps, once I have the first note. So. It actually wasn't that bad.
The mass was really interesting to watch. I've only really been to two kinds of services: Unitarian Universalist, with my dad, which I mostly went to for the brownies that came after the actual service was over, and which was ... pretty much nothing like a Roman Catholic mass, and Quaker, which was even less like a mass. A Quaker meeting is, like, an anti-mass, as far as level of organization and ritual goes. And one of the most interesting parts was how much of it my mother remembered as I was telling her about it on the phone today (it's her birthday, so I made sure to call). She went to Catholic school when she was younger, but has kind of lapsed since.
In conclusion: I think I'm going to stick with it. I hadn't realized how much I missed singing in a group, learning new music and practicing it and being taught to sing it well. \o/
