At nine o'clock this morning our tour choir gathered itself into a few circles and started singing Jesu, meine Freude by Johann Sebastian Bach. We have sung this work over the years- long enough for me to change from a second soprano to a first alto. The first time we took this on tour I was pregnant with my third child who would tumble around in response to it. This was the only work she would do this with... so I always had a small smile....
I have strong feelings when I hear this work. One of my favorite sections is Gute Nacht, or Good Night. Which to me is the story of a soul turning from the goals and attractions of the world and turning to face God. As with any really great composer it is so easy to get lost in the music and become unaware of your technique. It is a fine balance between style and emotion that is a challenge for any singer if you are too aware of keeping clean style you can sound like a cold machine and if you are too emotional you are mushy and wobble all over the place ! So here's hoping we can balance on the knifes edge.....
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