In Which Codenames Are Introduced

...and the Situation Becomes Complicated.
Okay, not really. But the codenames part is true.

~

I've been singing in various choirs for a bit over three years now. Earlier this year, I finally got into what's basically my school's elite choir, a chamber choir called St. Cecilia. (Well. It's supposed to be a chamber choir. I think we have 36 or 37 members this year...)

I've had a lot of chances to do really cool stuff with St. Cecilia. For instance, we've performed a Bach cantata with the London Mozart Players. Last month we won the Peterborough festival with an arrangement of the song Africa, by Toto. (This one, except we did it without the rainstorm at the beginning; the song starts around 1:49)



So since we're supposed to be so elite, our director - who should know better - left us to organise our own rehearsal today. It was... interesting. She'd left in charge one of my classmates, who, since this is supposed to be an anonymous blog, we'll call Animal. (you know, after the Muppet. Basically, he's a red-haired taciturn percussionist. I feel the nickname is fitting.) The boy who ended up conducting was another of my classmates - he's a very good composer and a nice guy, but he has one of those 'serious musician' faces (you know the ones), so for the sake of argument, let's call him Beethoven II.

And... well, this could get very long and carried away, so I'll just leave you with Beethoven Two describing the dynamics of a crescendo as "like a beautiful flower of sound blossoming" and a girl screaming at - let's call her Rachel, because she permanently reminds me of the Glee character - "You are not the designated whistleblower!" (Rachel is very fond of whistles. I learned that when she directed the Beatles cover band. But that's a story for another day.)

It was most amusing.

And I like codenames. :)