...At Conservatory, we all had to study many aspects of music. I loved 'Music History', I got an 'A' and the Professor remembered me, we saw each other at a Market a decade later, and he called out my name.
When we were studying the periods of music, we had to listen to recordings of the period. I would sit in the Music Lab, with headphones, and study a score as I listened to the music...he would test us by 'dropping the needle' on the tape, and taking it off, quickly, and we would be expected to write down the Composer, and the name of the piece.
There was a nice aria written by Monteverdi, and we all studied it.
One evening, I was in the practice rooms working on a cello sonata, and was starting my second hour of practice. I then heard a pianist playing the aria...and emerged from the small practice room. I looked over, and my stand partner, was also standing outside his practice room. We locked eyes...and...without words...KNEW what we had to do. We walked to the pianists' room, and opened the door...and entered! She stopped, and he told her..."Start from the beginning." She did....
We put our arms around each other, and began singing the aria.
As I have said in the past, I can't sing, although I have a very enthusiastic alto, and my stand partner had a worse bass/baritone.
The poor woman played the entire work...although she did miss a few notes...her shoulders were shaking with laughter...we, well...'missed' a LOT of notes.
We thanked her at the end, and asked if we should perform the work at 'Solo Class', and she said..."I'd rather be thrown off the bridge into the creek." We took that as a 'No', and went back to our cellos.
