Disco Fever

Thursday night was the Sacred Heart school disco. Oh the anticipation! Last year when we went, T-man spent most of the time cuddled up to me, only rarely venturing out onto the floor and then just to talk to friends. But this year he seemed really excited about going. We were met by the usual wall of sound, a mash-up of thumping disco music and squealing children. To my suprise the moment we entered the hall, Tyler started busting out the moves! Must get it from his father cos he sure doesn't get it from me.

The obligatory glow-sticks and flashing bit 'n' bobs were purchased and away he went, not fazed at all. As usual, talking to other parents was done by sign language. Here's the end result of ear-splitting disco music and too much fizzy:

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'The Singing Part of the Blog'

As I have mentioned, my voice has not been the same since I lost it at the end of Hansel and Gretel and after trying Sudomyl and Prednisone to catch any possible underlying inflammation or infection, Plan B was commenced and I headed up to Dunedin on Tuesday to visit an ENT specialist. Ironically the same one who does Chris' 6 monthly cancer checks. Depsite my apprehension, as I have a strong gag reflex, having a camera shoved up my nose and down my throat was not painful or awful, just strange. The best bit was seeing it all on tv. The verdict is (and even I with layman's eyes could see this) that my vocal folds and epiglottal area are purty enough to grace a medical textbook under the section: 'What healthy vocal folds look like.' Which is good from an I-don't-have-nodules-or-other-nasties point of view, but didn't explain the ongoing voice strain.

So the theory is that while my voice was still recovering, I inadvertantly started using a bunch of smaller muscles in the throat and neck area to compensate and that became a habit. And these muscles are big enough for the job and so get strained resulting a husky voice. So I'm being referred to a speech therapist to relearn to use the right ones.

Of course that's not going to be happening in time for Competitions with start on 7 October. The repertoire for Comps is:

Duet (with Ruth Gorrie): Christie Eleison - Bach, B minor Mass

Oratorio: If God Be For Us - Handel, Messiah

Lieder: Wer hat dies Liedlien Erdach - Mahler

Aria: In Uomini, in Soldati - Mozart, Cosi fan tutte

French Art Song: Au pays ou se fait la guerre - Duparc

Scholarship: Test piece - Music, when soft voices die - Quilter

Contrasting piece - Let the Bright Seraphim - Handel, Samson.