Got narration?

So, the MIT Chamber Chorus had its spring concert on Saturday, featuring the world premiere of Libby Larsen's The Nothing That Is, with a healthy dose of a cappella music in the first half: two short Barber pieces, and Copland's In the Beginning. The latter is about as big as a cappella pieces get: it's about 400 bars and 15 minutes long, without a single break for obtaining new pitches. So, of course, this means that staying in tune is a real pain, especially with all the sudden jumps in harmony (such as a downward half-step modulation halfway through that defies all natural musical impulses). Our chorus was not immune to this: our pitch fluctuated up and down, yet, miraculously, we somehow manage to get to E flat major every time at the end of the piece. I guess one can say "all's well that ends well."

As for The Nothing That Is, my role was not a singing role--although there is a prominent baritone solo. Instead, my role was narrative: reading from the Apollo 13 flight transcript, as well as snatches of speeches by Kennedy and something suspiciously sounding like an introductory celestial mechanics lecture. The performance went mostly without hitches, except for me forgetting to read a few zeroes as zeroes (I said "ten" for "one zero" in one spot, and "two point oh" instead of "two point zero" in another). The one exception was a faster than usual tempo at one section that forced me and the other narrator to play catch-up with the chorus. [Too many syllables, and not enough seconds to get them all out at the tempo that was hit.]

For the most part, though, it was an enjoyable evening that ended way too soon.