A house is not just a house; it’s embedded in the natural and cultural landscape that surrounds it. So I try to visit some of the local villages and towns and see what they have on offer, so to speak.
Today I went to Nysted, and when you visit the church of a small town on a Thursday, you’re VERY likely to be alone. And leaving me alone in a vaulted, late-Gothic church is just… Well, it leads to this:
There really isn’t much to see in the church apart from the baroque altarpiece and a few portraits and memorial tablets, but the sound was phenomenal. I know I muddled up the lyrics (it’s been 18 years since I was last in a church choir), but I just HAD to play with the sound of the space.
I always wear shoes with hard soles when I visit churches, simply because they make a sound that resonates under the vaults. And when I’m alone I may occasionally hum a few notes, just to hear them reflected from the vaults… But today I felt rather confident that nobody would stop by, so why not go all-in?
I spent just over half an hour in that church. Nothing much to see, but it was so much fun to play around with the acoustics! I need to sing more, because singing is fun – and I am badly out of practice as you can hear. My voice is decent enough, but it needs training to be good.
Soren, I enjoyed your sound-test in the church. It also resonated because recently, after almost fifty years away from formal singing, I have joined a local chorale and we are rehearsing Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, which will be performed with full orchestra in a big vaulted local basilica. I think the sound inside the church will be magical.
It’s fun to sing. I do it too rarely, really, considering that I come from a family where singing is part of the social convention. The last family party I attended we got through just under 20 songs during the meal – place settings were fork-plate-knife-songbook-glass…