Today is "Choose a Cantata" Day!

So.... I know that in the scope of world-wide news... in view of all the strife and famine and wars and rumors of wars... keeping in proper perspective the importance of our upcoming election with which we are pummeled by mail, by television and our obscure and innocent cell phones...  these events and calamities are all so very pertinent and are top priorities but....

                                 Today is 'Choose a Cantata' Day

        and this day leaps to the top of my days of all days for the year!

16!

I have listened to 16 cantatas over the course of the last 7 days; more than the usual number I listen to each year in this process.  I finished up my listening in the wee hours last night and as usual lost a night's sleep over it all. You would, too if you had that many hours of "Joy, Joy Joy!!!!" and "Glo...riiiii....aaaaaas" and "Way down yonders" whirling in your head.

After evaluating each of the 16 cantatas on its worthiness, I then made spreadsheets for the top three.  Those '5' ratings are top, the '1' is so poor I could barely write the number...  I thought this charting of evaluations would help the process but actually confused me even more...  

Here are my perimeters for choosing a Christmas cantata:

The cantata should:

1. be traditional but too traditional... let's face it, if the music is too normal it gets boring...

2. be contemporary but not too contemporary... too much driving rock beat and repetition also gets boring... 

3.  be easy but not too easy... The choir should not be able to sight read the music the first time; what would we work on for 8 weeks???

4.  be difficult but not too difficult... get real!!!  The choir does not have that much time during their 8 weeks to study the music on their own...

5.  have speaking parts but not too many speaking parts... let's face it; the fun part is singing!  Uninspired speaking parts throw a wet rag on fabulous singing...

6.  have an interesting accompaniment... Jan and Bruce Randall on piano and bass, along with Bill Wilson on drums and Brad Etter on trumpet are so skilled they can whip out anything, and I mean anything... it's a shame to put dull stuff in front of them... their eyes glaze over...

7.  have an interesting part for the men in the choir!  Oh my!!!   This year, I have more male singers than you can shake a stick at!!!  And they can sing!  It would be such a shame not to feature them,  So many cantatas tiptoe around the problem of too few men and write easy, not-too-smart parts for bewildered basses and loner tenors...

8.  have an interesting part for the ladies...  the ladies in this choir are not too slouchy either!!!!  They love to sing!

9.  not be too long.... it's Christmas, for heaven's sake!!!!

10.  most of all, present Baby Jesus in a fresh and personal manner.... He is the entire reason we spend 8 weeks getting this up and rolling!  If there is no 'a-ha' moment, there is no need to put 50ish people through 20ish grueling hours of my wild arm flailing and resulting bursitis.... rehearsing and re-rehearsing tiny minutiae... filling each page with detailed symbols of "get loud" and "get louder!!!"

I mean, there is no reason to stink up all those freshly dry-cleaned robes (at 10 bucks a pop)...     if Jesus is not made much of!

                    

                               So....  you see...  This is a big day in the life of a choir director.  

The good news is I found one!  Yes, it's true!  I found a challenging cantata that meets my criteria perfectly... well...   almost...  It will be one of the best ones of the best ones.  I can't wait to reveal it to the choir so they can revel in it with me!!!

                                                                 And you all can come:

              Sunday, Dec. 16, 10:30 at First United Methodist at 202 W. Main, Marshalltown, Iowa.

                                                                      Be there... Aloha....