In Dreams

Unlike our YKLS performance, this time we only did three (four, if you count the open rehearsal) shows. But each show turned out to be much more exhausting compared to our YKLS performance, even when all that we did was sit, stand, and sing.

Preparation for the performance was tight, as we only had less than four months to do so whatwith having to learn our parts, work on pronunciation (since we're singing in not only Sindarin, but also Quenya, a bit of Adunaic, Black Speech, Khuzdul and Old English), know our standing and sitting cues, work on timing, intonation, identify cues for when to prepare to sing, dress rehearsals, and then the week of the performance itself there was to be the rehearsal with the conductor and with the orchestra.

And since this is the first time we're working with an orchestra to boot, it's a whole new experience.

Obvious signs men don't use lipgloss.

For our dress code we'd the satin attire to wear, and were also required to put on coloured lip gloss so that we all don't look like pale white faces.

Forced to get a stick, after a couple of applications this is how the tip looked like.

Then we thought, ah heck it, it's not like we'll be using it much.

The orchestra conductor is indeed a very scary figure.
And there's differences between our choir conductor and the orchestra conductor. For the main thing, the orchestra conductor actually pays more attention to the orchestra members compared to the choir, or, focuses on different music parts at different sections. We watched as he kept shifting focus from directing trumpets to give a more militaristic feel to getting the timpani to beat in five strong BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM rather than a gradually louder boomBoomBoomBOOMBOOM to getting the flutist to play more playfully or the strings to really play out of tune to...sigh.

So we learns that the conductor does more than keep the tempo for a piece, he also gives the piece direction and flow. This meant that even though the tempo for a section is marked as fast, he'd slow down here and there to give the piece stronger emphasis.

Why scary? Because when it's not to his liking, the conductor will give a very very black look.

It also didn't help that we didn't understand the way he conducted tempo initially - and was generally out of sync quite a fair bit during our rehearsal.

There's probably never many rehearsals for/with the orchestra.
Because as professional paid musicians they are able to sight-read. All it may take is just a couple of go-throughs to get the feel of the entire symphony while the rest of us not-musically-trained people have to make do with listening to the soundtrack or the symphony recording. And all this while our rehearsals were done with piano reduction (we'd Tracy play, what would require an entire orchestra, on piano).

So we'll say that we haven't got our fill of listening to the orchestra play the entire symphony - even though we got to listen to them play five times, while others could only come for the show once.

This is The Lord Of The Rings Symphony, not Soundtrack.
Which everyone will of course compare to because 'it sounds exactly the same as the soundtrack!'. There's a certain difference in emphasis or emotions here - for The Seduction Of The Ring the conductor tells the Children's Choir to feel very sad, or the ladies that, "From this point you have found your 'Elberethgheel', and then from this point you must sing sad, for you have lost your 'Elberethgheel'."

Many Meetings - The Passing Of The Elves

The entire phrase for that bit actually goes "A Elbereth Gilthoniel".

Soloist parts were suppose to sing it as it is printed on the score, and not follow the soundtrack version. Only once we understood that the conductor controls the overall pulse of the piece and that the tempo does not strictly follow the score, then we understood why it's important for the soloist to follow what's written on the score and not improvise.

Also, the symphony doesn't have all the instruments (and musicians skilled enough to use them) that was used for the movie soundtrack. Minor changes were required, and thus we had a taste of a slightly different version from what we know.

When you sing loud, the orchestra plays louder.
And from the beginning of rehearsals we were told this already. Then we'll have to sing louder. Then they play louder. Or so we were told.

Thankfully in our case the symphony was made so that for most of the choir parts the orchestra was muted.

Durin's Song & The Balrog

And when it came for the men to shine in Movement II, the orchestra made us give more volume and energy then when we sounded in rehearsals. That, and the conductor glared and told us, "Men...the orcs have bitten your heads off, and I am the orcs."

Orchestra music never sounded so clear.
One thing is because we were sitting behind the trumpets section. But we could hear each section much more clearly than from the soundtrack. From the timpani banging out a strong beat, to the percussionist giving a continual crescendo-decrescendo beat in Gollum's Song to the celeste beating a playful tune in Regarding Hobbits, to the trumpets playing out of tune for when Isengard sieges Helm's Deep in The Hornburg...to our favourite - listening to the strings play in Into The West.

Which brings us to the final point...

We had the best seat during the whole performances.
Oh yes. Our only complain about our seat is that we couldn't see the screen overhead showing scenes of Alan Lee's sketches throughout the performances.

And we can still hear the music in our head. We're definitely glad to have been part of this.