The first time I went to Capitol caroling after we moved to Jefferson City, was before I was a participant. But I still remember the grandeur and the beauty of the building and how moved I was at the music. There was a solo by someone named Sylvia Morris who sang "Sweet Little Jesus Boy". She had a truly amazing voice is probably still singing to this day although I don't know.
My turn came to be part of Capitol caroling in my freshman year. I was in the orchestra so I got to play, and there was a freshman girls choir and I sang in as well. The freshman choir stood around the balcony way up in the rotunda. I specifically remember this because I'm sort of afraid of heights so looking down from the top of the rotunda was very scary to me, but my desire to sing overrode my terror of being so high up above everything!
The choir was conducted by Mr. Carl Burkle who was amazing in its own right. He died about 15 or 16 years ago, but there is no way I can separate his memory from Capitol Caroling. He'd lived and breathed music and beauty. He loved the holidays as well. He had a Christmas tree on a spinning stands so that you can see the thousands of ornaments that he'd collected over the years. He had one that he'd made out of a sliver of wood. He said that he "received" the sliver when he was in Germany. He had the opportunity to play on the organ on which "Silent Night" had been composed. He said that when he slid onto the old bench, the sliver went through his pants and he later rescued it from his backside and put it on an ornament! That was pretty racy for Mr. Burkle!
Capitol Caroling was narrated by one of the students. For the first three years that I was in high school it was narrated by someone named Sam Trower who had a remarkable voice. My friend Randy used to do a great impression of him saying dirty limericks!
I remember, also, the year that I had to run back and forth between the orchestra and the choir and I almost passed out! I know Mr. Burkle saw me because he stared at me until I managed to pull myself back together.
But my best memory was being able to sing a solo my senior year. It wasn't really a solo, but rather a duet with my friend Cindy Ferrell. The piece was Haydn's Jungedemasse or Young People's Mass. It had four or five movements with duets interspersed throughout. Mr. Burkle loved the Vienna boys choir and tried to get us to emulate the pure tones of the treble voices. Cindy's voice had that sound. I was less successful at that, but our voices blended well and the piece was the highlight of the concert.
I used to have a record of that concert. It was recorded every year. But somehow my copy of the album has been misplaced and it's probably a moot point anyway since we no longer have a turntable on our stereo!
Being able to sing is something I really miss. Some of the reason for not being able to sing anymore is just lacking the opportunity. Some of it is just age and aging vocal cords. But some of it I can attribute to the MS. Vocal cords are muscles and mine are as flexible and responsive as they once were. I know this is due to MS because I was still singing in the choir at St. Paul's United Church of Christ when I was diagnosed and I could tell that singing was no longer an easy thing for me to do.
I recently attended a concert in St. Louis. It was at a beautiful Basilica with choir and orchestra and it reminded me of Capitol caroling, complete with the audience carol sing-along! My mom, who paid for the concert as a birthday present to me (thanks Mom!) Said I still sounded okay when I was singing carols. But I can tell the difference in the tone and the ability to stay on pitch!
I'm pretty sure they still didn't Capitol Caroling, and I'm sure it is still beautiful, but it just wouldn't be the same without Mr. Burkle or my vocal chords!
I hope you all have a very wonderful holiday.
No comments:
Post a Comment