Advancement

Today I have my meeting to start my official "advance toward candidacy."  I'm sure it will be fine and by the end of the semester, I'll be a candidate for graduation and my master of music degree.

And my references for DMA applications are now in place.

Mondays and Wednesdays are days that I normally allow myself a little slack in the morning, but I have found that Mondays between 4 and 7, I don't focus well and waste my time.  Because of this, I have set some goals for myself today.  The first goal is to write in translations for my vocal pieces.  My second goal is to finish writing translations in the Women's Chorus pieces (the reason this isn't the first is because I already know what each piece means and many of the translations are already in my head).  My last goal is to continue to work on my DMA applications.

And for the last portion of the blog post, a decision... The Women's Chorus has been assigned an SSA arrangement of "The Heavens Are Telling."  It has been one of the most difficult pieces the women have been asked to sing.  While normally I would be perfectly okay with them having a piece that is kicking their butt, we have so much music this semester.  At Winter Festival, all of the mass pieces must be memorized since we are taping.  And their Coventry Carol arrangement is a premiere and has some difficult moments.  That arrangement MUST be at top level readiness.

I had assigned the women homework- today they must come knowing a little more than half of the song.  The notes must be perfect.  I am going to have them sing it.  If it isn't together, I'm pulling the song from the program.  We already have five other pieces.  And I will not let them perform pieces that they wouldn't be proud of.  This is my job.  They trust me to do this and although I feel bad (I hope they don't think I believe they can't do it), given the amount of time we have, it may not be a feasible piece.  And although it's a good arrangement, I am not that sold on it where I would have them do it in the spring.  In the end, if we pull the piece from the concert, it's not a big deal.

I am still over the moon about the Coventry Carol.