Friday, July 09, 2004
How can I share that moon with you?
Sorry about the lack of information in previous posts, we've been super busy over the last few days because we've been competing in...
The Competition:
The last four days have been a wee bit insane. We competed in one section on Tuesday in an ancient Basilica about 50 minutes out of Gorizia. It was originally built in 313 AD, and has been rebuilt or added to five times on the same spot, each time on the ruins of the previous church. It was so old the floor had sunk in places and some of the mosaic tiles had had their colour worn away, or had been worn away completely.
We competed again on Tuesday, one category in the morning, and one in the afternoon, in a dry little auditorium in Gorizia. Then we had a prize giving and concert in the evening. We won both of those categories, although we officially came "second" because no choir got a high enough score to be awarded "first" prize. Does that make sense? We got the highest score in both those sections, but to get "first" you have to exceed a certain threshold, which no choir exceeded. The threshold was 90, and in one of the sections we got 88.6... It's a very weird system.
Yesterday we competed in the Traditional Music/Gospel and Spiritual section, using all Maori music, including I Te Timatanga, which has a huge haka for the guys, and lots of poi work for the girls. Man, did we rock!!! We all went so hard out it was like being pummeled and spun by a huge breaking wave. I made the ugliest Pukana and had huge red marks all over my arm and chest (the latter, fortunately, was hidden by my shirt). Pukana, by the way, are crazy faces with big eyes, tucked up chin or tongue poked out. Our manager in the audience said the energy was so strong you felt as though you were being pushed back in your seat by it. Man, it was awesome! Then, that evening we had the final prize giving. We won the traditional section. We were awarded both the Judge's Choice and Audience Choice awards for that category, as well as winning Best Director/Conductor, and best Artistic something for having the best overall repertoire throughout the competition. A girl in our choir, Anna Griffiths, also won Best Original Composition for Okarito Tuhituhia October, which we sung in our contemporary section (and which helped us to win that section). In the concert we got to sing all the Maori stuff again, this time for the other choirs rather than for the judges. We blew them away. At both prize-giving/concerts we were given the honour of performing last and capping off the evening, and each time we were asked to sing almost twice as much repertoire as any other choir. Hah! So cool.
Enough of that.
I realised last night just how much of this tour is still to go. We go to Venice tomorrow for the day, which means around 10 hours of wet and wild Venetian delight. How cool is that? I'm going to Venice!!! Then, on Sunday we get to hear last year's winners of all the European Grand Prix competions compete for overall winner. Then, we leave for St Petersburg. Mmmm, Smolny Cathedral, the Hermitage...the overnight train to Moscow... I'm so excited. This tour is unbelievable!
Man, I didn't tell you about our night in Budapest! We sang in a church set on these crazy fairytale white battlements and went for a cruise on the river Danube at night, seeing all the buildings lit up. In the morning we saw Heroes Square, with statues and collonades flanked by two huge twin museums. I reccommend Budapest. Did you know it's actually two cities? Buda and Pest, set on either side of the Danube, which, by the way, is not blue but beige, and wide and fairly shallow.
Funny Stuff: A girl in our choir asked the other day on the bus, "Why is there a Danube in Vienna AND one in Budapest?" Ah, classic. Also, before competing in the ancient Basilica, we were all waiting outside silently and one of the girls had a runny nose. So, she picked an old floppy leaf of the hedge and used that to blow her nose on.
Ooh! Have I mentioned the Mr Silly Awards? Every day (pretty much) nominations are taken for people who have done something particularly silly in the last 24 hours. Then, the choir votes with applause as to who has done the silliest thing, and whoever "wins" has to wear a pair of gold reindeer antlers on a red headband and a fluffy white bowtie for the next 24 hours. There have been some really good ones. There's one guy in the choir who gets nominated almost every day for spading foreign chicks. I've only been nominated once, for accidentally speaking French to a Viennese shop keeper (they speak German) and then (by some freakish coincidence) finding that he replied so quickly in super-fluent French that I couldn't understand a word he said and just had to smile and nod and pretend I was confused by trying to count out my Euros... I didn't win.
Wow, long blog. Hope I can do this again soon!!!
The Competition:
The last four days have been a wee bit insane. We competed in one section on Tuesday in an ancient Basilica about 50 minutes out of Gorizia. It was originally built in 313 AD, and has been rebuilt or added to five times on the same spot, each time on the ruins of the previous church. It was so old the floor had sunk in places and some of the mosaic tiles had had their colour worn away, or had been worn away completely.
We competed again on Tuesday, one category in the morning, and one in the afternoon, in a dry little auditorium in Gorizia. Then we had a prize giving and concert in the evening. We won both of those categories, although we officially came "second" because no choir got a high enough score to be awarded "first" prize. Does that make sense? We got the highest score in both those sections, but to get "first" you have to exceed a certain threshold, which no choir exceeded. The threshold was 90, and in one of the sections we got 88.6... It's a very weird system.
Yesterday we competed in the Traditional Music/Gospel and Spiritual section, using all Maori music, including I Te Timatanga, which has a huge haka for the guys, and lots of poi work for the girls. Man, did we rock!!! We all went so hard out it was like being pummeled and spun by a huge breaking wave. I made the ugliest Pukana and had huge red marks all over my arm and chest (the latter, fortunately, was hidden by my shirt). Pukana, by the way, are crazy faces with big eyes, tucked up chin or tongue poked out. Our manager in the audience said the energy was so strong you felt as though you were being pushed back in your seat by it. Man, it was awesome! Then, that evening we had the final prize giving. We won the traditional section. We were awarded both the Judge's Choice and Audience Choice awards for that category, as well as winning Best Director/Conductor, and best Artistic something for having the best overall repertoire throughout the competition. A girl in our choir, Anna Griffiths, also won Best Original Composition for Okarito Tuhituhia October, which we sung in our contemporary section (and which helped us to win that section). In the concert we got to sing all the Maori stuff again, this time for the other choirs rather than for the judges. We blew them away. At both prize-giving/concerts we were given the honour of performing last and capping off the evening, and each time we were asked to sing almost twice as much repertoire as any other choir. Hah! So cool.
Enough of that.
I realised last night just how much of this tour is still to go. We go to Venice tomorrow for the day, which means around 10 hours of wet and wild Venetian delight. How cool is that? I'm going to Venice!!! Then, on Sunday we get to hear last year's winners of all the European Grand Prix competions compete for overall winner. Then, we leave for St Petersburg. Mmmm, Smolny Cathedral, the Hermitage...the overnight train to Moscow... I'm so excited. This tour is unbelievable!
Man, I didn't tell you about our night in Budapest! We sang in a church set on these crazy fairytale white battlements and went for a cruise on the river Danube at night, seeing all the buildings lit up. In the morning we saw Heroes Square, with statues and collonades flanked by two huge twin museums. I reccommend Budapest. Did you know it's actually two cities? Buda and Pest, set on either side of the Danube, which, by the way, is not blue but beige, and wide and fairly shallow.
Funny Stuff: A girl in our choir asked the other day on the bus, "Why is there a Danube in Vienna AND one in Budapest?" Ah, classic. Also, before competing in the ancient Basilica, we were all waiting outside silently and one of the girls had a runny nose. So, she picked an old floppy leaf of the hedge and used that to blow her nose on.
Ooh! Have I mentioned the Mr Silly Awards? Every day (pretty much) nominations are taken for people who have done something particularly silly in the last 24 hours. Then, the choir votes with applause as to who has done the silliest thing, and whoever "wins" has to wear a pair of gold reindeer antlers on a red headband and a fluffy white bowtie for the next 24 hours. There have been some really good ones. There's one guy in the choir who gets nominated almost every day for spading foreign chicks. I've only been nominated once, for accidentally speaking French to a Viennese shop keeper (they speak German) and then (by some freakish coincidence) finding that he replied so quickly in super-fluent French that I couldn't understand a word he said and just had to smile and nod and pretend I was confused by trying to count out my Euros... I didn't win.
Wow, long blog. Hope I can do this again soon!!!
# posted by Doug @ 09:15 
