Glee, The Series, Takes Me Back
I caught up on some missed episodes of Glee on-line recently. With the recent self-outing of Jonathan Groff (Spring Awakenings) and his appearance on Glee mentioned in the Newsweek article by Ramin Setoodeh (see my previous post) I decided to pick up where I had left off last fall viewing Glee on line. Mr. Groff was also in Ang Lee's Taking Woodstock where he played the promoter Michael Lang, sometimes on horseback, always unflappable. On Glee he is introduced as a suitor for Rachel, as the lead singer for a competing high school's show choir. My verdict: handsome, yes, nelly, no. And he really can sing. And, earlier in my life, so could I!
Grace Episcopal Church, Providence
When I was a boy I sang in the Grace Church Choir of Boys and Men in Providence from the age of 8 to the age of 22. So at 8 years old I was taking the city bus by myself from home into Providence three days a week for 4 PM rehearsals. On Sunday I got a ride to church with the organist, Fred Cronhimer and his wife Barbara. Services were at 9 and 11 AM. On Easter Sunday there was also a 6 AM sunrise service, and on Christmas Eve an 11 PM "midnight" service. (Fred always played Charles-Marie Widor's Toccata from the 5th Symphony as the postlude every Christmas. It really wasn't Christmas without Widor, my favorite organ piece. Sorry about that Johann Sebastian!) My dad was a cameraman-technician with the local NBC affiliate, WJAR-TV, and they often broadcast the midnight Christmas service from platforms built over the pews and the choir did a long procession around the church. (O Come All Ye Faithful was always the processional hymn because it has so many verses we could complete the circuit. And the recessional was always Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, for the same reason.)
I sang my last soprano solo as a 13 year old and had my voice change over the summer, returning as an alto in the fall. Later I sang tenor. Besides the choir and bell choir (Whitechapel Foundry bells), Grace Church had a marvelous double Casavant organ, with 6000 pipes in the gallery and another 2500 in the chancel, and Fred, who studied under Marcel Dupré, knew how to play it. When the Québécois group Arcade Fire released their album Neon Bible I recognized the sound of a Casavant organ on it, and traced it to a 1915 instrument in Église Saint-Jean Baptiste, Montréal. The net is amazing for what you can find!
Classical High A Cappella Choir, Dr. Louis Pichierri, Conducting
While at Classical High School I was a member of the A Cappella Choir, which was not always a cappella. We sang a world premiere of a Vivaldi piece that the director, Dr. Louis Pichierri, had unearthed while studying in Italy. Another piece that I remember we sang was Orazio Vecchi's madrigal Fa una canzona in Italian. (I still remember the words!) Since he claimed it was a bit ribald, Dr. Pichierri would give only a hint of a translation, but, of course it is available now on the net. (http://j.mp/9PAqTi) I can remember traveling by bus to a music educator's convention in Buffalo with the choir, and making a recording, which was pressed as a LP, and which I still have, somewhere.
Providence College Glee Club: The Amazing Tom Sullivan
At Providence College I sang in the Glee Club—yes it was called a glee club—my freshman year. I don't remember much about it except that the blind entertainer Tom Sullivan was a member and he was pretty amazing, both because of his extraordinary voice, and because of the way he navigated the campus unassisted, by counting steps and listening for echoes from finger snaps. He transferred to Harvard after that year, and later appeared on The Tonight Show and more recently on ABC's Good Morning America. He has starred in several movies and TV episodes, and was a consultant for the Ben Affleck film Daredevil.
http://www.sullivanspeaks.com/default.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Sullivan_(singer)
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0837945/
Tom also recently wrote a novel called Together with actress Betty White about a boy who loses his sight and thinks his life is over. Yes, THE Betty White, who "discovered" Tom playing in a bar, and even introduced him to his wife, 40 years ago. (Tom now uses guide dogs, and Betty is a big animal lover.) Tom was a bit of a pain in the glee club, however, because he could not see the director's signals, so every once in a while, when Tom got carried away, he would sail on past the rest of us in an impromptu solo. He was so likable it was hard to get angry at him.
So Glee really does bring back old memories, and I just shared a few of them with you.
