Choir Camp at the castle of Vaulruz

 From Friday the 5th to Wednesday the 10th I stayed at the castle above the village of Vaulruz with the St-Michel choir in order to prepare an amazing about of music for their 40th anniversary concert. The major work that we have been studying for many weeks now is Annelies, a choral masterpiece based on the life of Ann Frank. We also brought back out some music that the choir alumni would know, and learned pieces by Fribourgian composers that could apply to our theme. I really enjoyed all the singing, and had a great time being ridiculous with the other first sopranos!

We rehearsed all day, every day except for mealtimes and snack times. On Tuesday night we had a carnival party and Wednesday morning we just cleaned. Normally, after rehearsals were done every evening, there would be a small party in the dinning hall where they played music, learned traditional dances, played cards, talked, or drank wine. When we were not signing in rehearsals, you could find in practically every room a small gathering of people playing piano or guitar and singing. Sometimes they would put down a funky melody on the keyboard and then rap the lyrics to one of our Annelies songs! The last morning when we were packing, a group of tenors took to letting loose with female operatic singing. That was the funniest thing I have ever heard! I give them credit, they did it pretty well!

As might be suspected, the noise and energy of almost a hundred choir singers was a little too much for me. With 40 people in my room and very few places to hide, I took to taking walks early in the morning before everyone else woke up and during break times. The countryside was magnificent here, and the mountains were breathtaking! It was gorgeous and sunny the first few days, and then it snowed and became a winter world to be explored all over again! The day between the change of seasons there was a downpour, and I climbed up to a mountain sanctuary with an exchange student friend of mine. We talked a lot about the differences between European and American culture, how that might be accounted for, why French is weird, and why we love Switzerland, and so on. It was a much needed breath of fresh air after struggling to fit in and not finding that I could connect with people much after the initial where I live, whether I have siblings, and if school is going well.

I also loved being in the castle! The first day I ran through the halls like I child, trying every door and searching for secret passage ways. I am pretty sure I was the only one who was freaking out, but I was too excited to pay much attention. There was even an inner-balcony that went all along the upper wall of the courtyard, and there were notches all along the way to the outside world where archers could have positioned themselves. I found the door in the first fifteen minutes and picked a bed between it an a window so I did not feel quite so trapped. What I had heard about castles being drafty was very true. I actually liked having the air moving about the way it did on sunny afternoons when the windows were open for fresh air. The bed I had chosen was against a wall with a window that looked out over a sharp descent down to a stream with a little path clinging to the castle wall and a sort of forest there beside. I could listen to the birds singing when the tenors quieted down a little.

This is the dinning hall that we split into two sections: one for eating, and one for rehearsals. You can see the arc of chairs that we made to recreate our choir setting at the school: first sopranos all the way to the left, second sopranos in the next column, then first altos, second altos, tenors, baritones, bases, and so on. In the middle was the keyboard and music stand where our director stood, and behind him the giant screen you can see in the picture below.

We sang so much that my voice started doing really amazing things. During my private lesson the teacher got me to stop holding in my sound and I didn't even recognize myself signing. In one of our Annelies pieces I ended up being one of the few who could project a high B. I am proud of that, and tickled to know what I am capable of, but it all changes now that I am going back to having dairy and lost the environment where it didn't feel weird to be singing.

On the third day we had a movie night. We moved away the chairs and then dragged all our mattresses, pillows, and comforters downstairs to cover the floor in front of the screen, propped up by the mattress behind. I now wish that I had taken a photo of our giant nest for you. It was very much something to be seen! We watched an American, 2014 film called Whiplash. I had noticed that everyone likes cursing in English here, and that their insensitivity to the meaning behind it is a little disgusting, but this movie was just too much for me. I was curled up in a ball for practically the entirety of the film. Luckily afterwards we watched Frozen! Everyone here loves Frozen like people love Frozen back home! Most girls can sing the major songs by heart in French, and some know a few lines in English. People often make references to the lyrics, and even the guys raised their hands when we voted on what to watch. Our choir teacher had never see the movie, but he has two little girls, so just before the break for dinner we got him to sing "Let It Go!" for us in French. Everyone was laughing so hard, and at least half of them took videos!

To the right is a reference to Whiplash. The director in the film would always say "Not my tempo!" and throw things around, so our director started doing it too just to mess with us!

Throughout the camp we had visits from the composers that wrote the music we were learning. It was really special and amazing! Sometimes our director would even give his place at the piano to the composer to teach us the music, so he could go work with another group that was struggling. Every time, we got to hear a little bit of the passion that our visitor had for their music, hear the story behind it, or uncover a hidden meaning in the lyrics. Many came from Fribourg, and one had even sung in the choir St-Michel when they were young, but the most impressive was the acclaimed compositor of our major piece.

Here we are skyping with James Whitbourn, the composer of Annelies. He is from England, and so was talking to us in English. I am used to the ease, intelligence, and humor that our director always portrays when he uses French. It was like he turned into a different person in English. His voice sounded strange, and the accent that had seemed normal to me before, had become obtrusive. The people who I knew so well turned foreign when they spoke my native language.

The 13th or 14th of February, there are costumed  parades and confetti throughout the cities of Switzerland to celebrate carnival. The choir had their own carnival party. Everyone was given a category in which to base their costume: pre-history, victorian, medieval, future, etc. The concept was that there was a criminal who had escaped from the 21st century and they had gathered all the ages together to try and find them. In our groups we went around the castle and played games to get points. We identified smells, played pictonary, followed string trails, tried to build the tallest tower, knocked over cans, and even fixed a time machine that one of the organizers had programmed on his computer. Finally, we had to write and preform a musical number that told a story and showed that we were familiar with our era. The criminal was arrested from the team with the fewest points, and then the whole team had to do the dishes! Here are pictures of some of the groups!

 On Wednesday afternoon when I got home from the camp I made myself lunch, put away my things, and then slept until ten the next day. I don't know why I took this photo. Considering all the wonderful things at camp that I didn't think to capture, it was rather strange to see this one popping out at the end. Shall we say sleep deprivation? I was tickled by the fact that the pickles on my sandwich formed a smiley face!

Videos:

Our choir director singing "Let It Go" in French.

Tenors rapping the lyrics to the 40th anniversary song.