I’ve been singing with various choirs since 1993, and my dogs have never uttered one noise about being stuck in the soprano 1 section. My last guide dog, Meghan (the yellow one in the picture of three dogs), amazed me by not moving a muscle when I ended up standing behind the timpani when the church choir sang with the orchestra in 2006. That one truly surprised me. The dogs have been truly good when I’ve sung with contemporary worship teams and the music got quite loud. The only truly challenging thing for any of the dogs has been the pipe organ at my current church–and it seems more that the challenge is songs with clashing notes and not the loudness of the organ. The organist can see Loretta from his seat; and he apologized a couple of weeks ago for bothering her after a particularly clashy piece during which I petted her to make her lie still.
So this is all a joke between me and the person who sits beside me in choir… This morning on the way to cantata rehearsal, I told her about standing behind the timpani with Meg, and we decided it would be a good thing that they couldn’t put the timpani in front of me this time–there is an altar in front of us, and the brass would be in front of that.
We got there and went in from the back of the sanctuary … and the timpani is directly to the right of my row–and I am the second person down.
Poor, poor Loretta. She did amazingly well. But I think I am just a timpani magnet.
