The Last Rehearsal
Tonight was the last regular Wednesday night rehearsal before the recording and I think we're ready. The mechanics of preparing for the recording sessions have been more difficult this year than the music, but every time I'm tempted to wonder whether it's worth it there comes a word of encouragement.
A member of the choir will spontaneously mention their favorite year's program. Someone else will talk about the people they are inviting this year. Someone else not in the choir will tell me that they listen to the CDs on their way to work every morning. Someone else will mention a specific piece of music that has grown in meaning to them through repeated hearing. Someone else will want to but a new CD because they "wore the old one out."
I remember in January 2008--after the first year's concert--we had to cancel a Sunday service because of bad weather and I made some of the calls to alert the choir on the Saturday afternoon before. At least five times when the phone was answered, I heard our Harvest Home 2007 CD playing in the backrgound.
The concert's have been well attended and there is something special about being in the room for the concert. But thanks to the CDs, those four evenings in November 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 have been multiplied into hundreds of hours for dozens of people, many of whom did not attend the concert live. Technology allows the messages of Harvest Home to extend in space and time beyond the concerts themselves. I guess I'm looking forward to these recording sessions more than I thought.