Yay for Connecticut!

Just a quick note to celebrate Connecticut's legalization of marriage equality. The state Supreme Court handed the ruling down today, and I just read it here. 

Like the blogger says, 3 down, 47 to go! And with every state, Coro has something new to sing about.

Weekend wrap-up, and federal arts funding.

Well, this weekend Coro held its retreat, where we worked like crazy on Figure humaine, which continues to be a gigantic challenge. Now that it's coming together, though, I can hear how all the tonalities really are meant to sound, and I can tell you  all truthfully that this concert is going to be TREMENDOUS. This piece is so worth the effort.

The retreat also featured our usual awesome potluck-- props to all the rocking Coro cooks on that one-- and the annual meeting, at which new singing board members were elected. Singing members serve one-year terms, and are meant to bring the voice of the singers (so to speak) to the board members at the monthly meetings and on the various committees. The new singing members this go-around happen to be a nicely balanced SATB group: Alicia Boisnier, Paul Lewis, Bob Henry, and Megan Weireter (that's actually me).

One issue the board continually grapples with is funding, and since funding for the arts might be on a lot of people's minds these days, I wanted to pass along this link courtesy of the Arts Action Fund. They've summarized the two major presidential candidates' positions and histories on arts funding in a useful chart, with links to primary sources. Definitely worth your while if this matters to you-- and if you care about Coro and the music world in general, it should!

Eluard reading Liberté

Poulenc wrote Figure humaine on the poetry of Paul Eluard, a surrealist poet and all-around interesting and frequently (it seems) miserable guy. I'd always known him most infamously as the guy whose wife left him for Salvador Dali. But I've been reading more about him and his work; his poems in Figure humaine are tremendous, most especially Liberte, an over-the-top, extremely moving litany. The RAF dropped thousands of copies of this poem over occupied France during World War II.

Especially if you have any degree of French fluency, you'll want to check out this recording of Eluard reading his poem.

It's really no wonder Poulenc was inspired to set this one to music. This poem is the text of the eighth movement of Figure humaine, and it just makes for an unforgettable finale.

Of political interest...

It's difficult for me to stop thinking about politics for even 10 seconds at a time these days, what with, you know, EVERYTHING going on all at once. So forgive some political meandering today.

First of all, I'm late getting to this, but it's great to see folks here in Mass pitching in to help keep marriage equality alive in California. Ethan Jacobs at Bay Windows blogs about the work Family Equality Council is doing here. I hear mixed things about the ballot initiative that could potentially make gay marriage unconstitutional in Cali-- I think the polls are on our side, but the money seems to be with the other side, at least last I heard. Anyway, that fight isn't over, and news about it is hard to find in the noise about presidential politics and the various bailout plans.

Secondly, looks like McCain did an interview with the Washington Blade. Apparently he's the first Republican candidate for president to EVER talk to a gay publication. To which I say, Really? And to which I then say, Does this even count as an interview? Because in an interview, I tend to look for substance. Read and marvel at the ways it's possible for English to be rendered virtually meaningless. (For the record, Coro Allegro does not endorse any candidates-- these comments are mine alone.)