Try to Remember

Listening Pleasure. Reveries.


30 Sept 2019. As September sunsets - a farewelling of my birth-month of ups and downs, sadness and joys, disappointments and realisations. And welcoming a new month. October. Second chances... new beginnings.

"Try To Remember", sung by Nana Mouskouri.

This song is about nostalgia from the musical comedy The Fantasticks. Lyrics written by lyricist & librettist Tom Jones.

Try to remember the kind of September when life was slow and oh, so mellow
Try to remember the kind of September when grass was green and grain was yellow
Try to remember the kind of September when you were a tender and callow fellow
Try to remember and if you remember then follow

Try to remember when life was so tender that no one wept except the willow
Try to remember when life was so tender that dreams were kept beside your pillow
Try to remember when life was so tender that love was an ember about to billow
Try to remember and if you remember then follow

Pondering over time past

"Memory is the way we keep telling ourselves our stories - 

and telling other people a somewhat different version of our stories."

 ~ Alice Munro ~

There's nothing more beautiful and calming than the way the ocean refuses to stop kissing the shoreline. All in my mind.

I poured myself a second cup of coffee and sipped it slowly, sitting up straight.

Time alone doesn't heal all wounds. It's how I spend my time that helps me heal or hold me back. 

The silence was now very loud.




(c) September 25, 2019. Tel. Autumn Reflections. All rights reserved.

Musings amid excitements

Everytime I get home from our choral rehearsals I'm spent physically and emotionally. I feel like I've been running all day. Our rehearsals last until 9.30pm. UsuallyI get home half past 10pm, always spent and hungry put together. But fulfilled, thank God for the love of singing.    

The following day after choral rehearsals, I usually wake up late. The anxiety is especially pits during the tutti rehearsals, with the orchestra and the soloists. Everyone on our toes. Thank God for our dynamo of a conductor in Maestro Brett Weymark. On occasion, we are also conducted by Liz Scott, Music Director of SPC's VOX, the Young Adult group.  

Amid excitement, last minute preparation, my mind is brilliantly lit yet I can't stop thinking...  especially when much is expected of our performance.

Will it be a good full-house... they said they were selling tickets good but couldn't be sure ahead of time of a sellout.  Ah, I'm tingling all over with excitement. Something I usually feel in any of our performances, but the excitement is always exhilarating the moment I step inside the Concert Hall's Choir's Box.

Here's a snapshot of our Alto group, our last Sydney Philharmonia Choirs - Festival Chorus Concert due to the SOH's two-year renovation. We performed Dvorak's Requiem at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall last September 21, 2019. Just one performance this time. It's down memory lane now. Wonderful memories...   (I'm in front row, leftmost).  A haunting yet powerful piece of music.    

Let me see if I can find a good Dvorak Requiem performance in Youtube... Here:  I found one: performed by Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks with Mariss Jansons, conducting. Dvorak Requiem, uploaded by romanticism_is_not_dead. Accessed September 24, 2019.



(c) September 2109. Tel. Autumn Reflections. All rights reserved.

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

Comfort.

Composed by Paul Simon and performed as a solo by Art Garfunkel, “Bridge Over Troubled Water” is a song about providing comfort for someone in need. 

Even when clouds are clearing and we are feeling better, a crisis may overwhelm. There are times when "friends just can't be found". When this happens I breathe deeply, look to my higher power for strength, keep faith and listen for nudges or messages that are coming through... it could be a help from someone unexpected or a situation that turns out as a blessing-in disguise. 

This song is a great comfort. 

Bridge over Troubled Water

By Simon & Garfunkel

"When you're weary, feeling small
When tears are in your eyes, I'll dry them all
I'm on your side, oh, when times get rough
And friends just can't be found
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.

Golden Rules for making the best of golden years

I most probably have few more in mind . Here are salient ones I'd like to share to whoever reads this page from my self-reflections.  


My golden rules for making the best of my golden years, in no order:

• Just because I am "older" doesn't mean I am "old". 
• Immobility is my greatest enemy. Activity, my best ally. 
• I'm never too old to give moral support or to receive it.
• To exercise the mind as much as my body. 
• Retirement should mean activity, but with "complete" freedom. No more boss/bosses to deal. I plan my activities, do what I want to do or love to do. 
• To relax. Take it easy. It's my time. 

(c) September 2019. Tel. Autumn Reflections. All rights reserved.  

Gift of Music

Sometimes I imagine what the choirs in heaven will be like. When Mozart, Bach and Handel, or Tchaikovsky, Schubert and Mahler are put to service.

Music is good for the soul; at times when my faith is on shaking ground I turn to listen to a choral music especially one I've sung before; very soon I'm filled with thankfulness for God's gift of music.

I'm thinking of Handel's Messiah in particular "And the Glory of the Lord" wherein we Altos start. I love that. I've sang Messiah few times: before joining Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, and few times with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs. I haven't any excerpt of our SPC performances to share but here's one I found and really like, performed by Bow Valley Chorus. Brilliant performance! Uploaded by jstumple. Accessed September 4, 2019.





(c) September 2019. Tel. Autumn Reflections. All rights reserved.