Would You Risk The Hostile Stare?

Today there was an Easter Chapel Service at my school. As I am in Chamber Singers and Senior Choir, I was required in leading a few hymns along with my fellow choral members.


Four of these were sung with the Choir. These went really well and the Chamber Singers had epic harmony bits that we got to sing that made them sound pretty cool (at least in my opinion...). We sounded good, and I was proud (considering when I joined choir around 4-5 years ago it was a massive choir and now it comes just under 20 people); that was until the Chamber Singers had to perform the one song that belonged to just us.


Now... To get into Chamber Singers you have to audition, because (not to sound snobby or whatever) but we are a small (usually 5-6 people) group of people who have pretty good voices. Now, at the start of the year 5 people auditioned and we all got in. One of us is moving out in June-July to somewhere down the Sunny Coast which means we'd be left with only 4 people.


Chamber Singers naturally work together... We work out how strong our voices should be at certain points or with certain parts. We blend with each other; and we sing the correct notes! Yesterday, our teacher offered a position to a young girl I shall call [OffKey] and her first rehearsal with us was that afternoon... I already knew this girl from choir and knew that this could not possibly end well...


This was proven to me this morning in the Easter Service...


In the song that we were singing there were 3 parts (2 people to a part). Low, melody and high. The high part required hitting notes that; if sung wrong would sound terrible, but if sung right would sound pretty good!
My best friend [Tarsha] and I were on the melody part. Another two of us were on low; and [OffKey] and the last of the Chamber Singers were on the high part.


Now as we were singing the chorus when the parts come in. At first you could hear [Tarsha] and I pretty well, the low part could barely be heard and the high part was quiet enough so we were blending pretty okay... After not too much longer all you could hear was the high part... No, not the high part... Just [OffKey]. And as the name suggests... She wasn't hitting any notes right!


I heard the story later on that the girl who was also on the part with [OffKey] could tell she was off so sang a little louder to try get her to sing the right notes... Instead! [OffKey] decides to completely ignore her and sing even louder than before... Positive: she has a powerful voice... Negative: she can't hit a single note right... She CONSTANTLY sounds flat or sharp...


After the Chapel Service, all I could hear was people talking about how they could only hear [OffKey] and how terrible she sounded...


I literally felt like crying... Or punching [OffKey] in the face... Actually, I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking, I had so many mixed emotions... But I knew one thing... And that was that I had never felt so humiliated in my life... Every year I have been in Chamber Singers we generally sound pretty good and always get positive reviews... But today our teacher didn't even look at us, which is a sure sign that it didn't sound too good...


One of the songs the choir sang had the line "Would you risk the hostile stare?". I posted it as the title to this post because I have an answer to it... HELL NO!!! But I have a feeling that's all [OffKey] is going to be receiving every time she passes one of us. I'm pretty sure she already knows that none of us want her there... I'm just trying to find a way to break it to her gently that she sucks and needs to work with us or else she'll make everyone look absolutely terrible... If she left, that would also make things a heck of a lot easier!


...As I am the oldest in the Chamber Singers now, I feel like I'm in charge (in a sense) and I also feel quite attached... I love Chamber Singers because we can produce really good sounds!!! Now I grind my teeth in frustration at the thought of attending a rehearsal every Wednesday afternoon listening to [OffKey] try to overpower everyone with her voice and sounding dreadfully flat or sharp... I seriously think the Chamber Singers would be better off with just the four of us rather than having her kill our ears every time she opens her mouth...


On a random, more positive note (to save everyone from my rant). English Extension was cancelled this afternoon (heck yeah!) so I instead went to the rehearsal for One. I'm not sure if it was because of late nights, stress, or because the Easter weekend starts tomorrow... But almost everyone seemed to be insanely delirious... Though I've only been to two rehearsals so far, this had to be the most hilarious one yet... Mostly because [Carl] (who is usually a focused, amazing actor) was just as crazy as I was half the time and was producing some of the worst, but funniest ad lib ever... I (already having the worst improvisation skills ever) was way too tired and laughing deliriously (man, I love that word...) to be able to even begin thinking about what on earth I could say to reply to my "daughter" whining at me about not wanting to be at the festival or my "husband" yelling at me for being too soft on her...


Believe me, if I could play the tough Mum I would absolutely love it!!! Playing a good, soft, caring, doting mother is too difficult for me... I prefer the characters with at least a streak of evil... Muahahahaha!!! :P


Anyways, at 4.30pm (rehearsal ends at 5pm), [Carl] and my "daughter" left for work or other priorities leaving three of us for the last half hour... 20 minutes was spent working on a scene with my "son" and his friend; with the last 10 minutes spent watching [Tarsha] choreograph a dance for the younger grade to the song that I then found out is the song that I shall be singing!!! The funny thing was that I went there to ask what song I would be singing; only to walk into the room and have the teacher go "Oh! Miss Invisible! Perfect! This is the song you will be singing!"


First thing I thought of was "Oh wow, this could be a challenge...". I'm not entirely sure how to describe the song... And I don't know the artist of the song so I can't search it on YouTube and provide the video for your listening pleasure... Due to the song being called "Beautiful", it would take forever to find the singer because I swear every singing artist in the world has a song called that... All I can say is that it's a contemporary piece and the key in which the artist sings it in is an awkward one... If anything, the artist has a voice that is quite unique and I am not sure how I am going to pull it off... But we shall see!
I promise that as soon as [Tarsha] gives me a copy of the song this Saturday I shall put it in my blog for any who wishes to listen to it :)


And it is here, where my blog ends for the time being!


~Discordant symphonies are the ones best to be discarded~