Tuesday, November 2, 2004

• Rehearsal upstairs next week. Next week (Nov. 9, head for the church), as St. Mary Magdalen will be using the Parish Hall.
• Practice tapes. We still have a couple of practice tapes (for music) that have not been claimed – if you ordered a tape, please see Cristin. An extra soprano 2 CD is also available.
• Updated "Bellasingers" mailing list. Those of you who have given us current email addresses should have received a message inviting you to join a Yahoo group called "Bellasingers." This is a low-traffic list that will be used only to make announcements to the Bella Musica chorus. An email list is truly one of the fastest and easiest ways to get the word out whenever we have news (a rehearsal change, etc.) – if you have email access and want to receive announcements, please make sure we have your current email address!
• Memorial service for Alan Sagan. A memorial service celebrating the life of Arlene Sagan’s son Alan is planned for January 2005, and the Bella Musica Chorus will be among those singing. Please keep in touch (or make sure your email address is on the Bellasingers@yahoogroups.com list) for updates.

Would the Russian language less intimidating if the alphabet didn’t look so strange to Western eyes? Кириллица (Cyrillic) gets its name from St. Cyril, one of the first Byzantine missionaries to Russia. Versions of this alphabet first appeared around the 10^th century A.D. to write Christian scripture in the "Old Church Slavonic" variant of Russian spoken at the time, and the alphabet had mostly frozen into its current form by 1708 under the reign of Peter the Great (although four letters were eliminated during reforms in 1917/18). Cyrillic has been adapted to write over 50 different languages throughout Russia, Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including Abkhaz, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian, Turkmen, Uzbek, and of course, Russian.

The modern alphabet consists of 33 letters: 20 consonants, 11 vowels, and two symbols that have no sound themselves but are used to denote "hard" or "soft" pronunciation. Some letters are particularly exotic: Ж ("zh"); Ф ("f"); or the ubiquitous "backwards R," Я (actually, the vowel sound "ya"). Several letters are more familiar to those who have studied a little Greek, particularly П ("pi") for the English "P" sound, and P ("rho") for the English "R" sound. But many symbols are the much the same as in English, including А, К, М, О and Т. With a little review Cyrillic almost starts to seem familiar (at least compared to, say, Arabic or Chinese).

♫ "Vivaldi in Venice": Fweeter in Concert. Saturday, November 6, 8:00 pm at Montclair Presbyterian Church (?? Thornhill); Sunday, November 7, 2:30 pm at St. Mary Magdalen (2005 Berryman St.). Fweeter is a 9-voice women’s ensemble directed by Kensington soprano Marcelle Dronkers, and including several Bella Musica alumnae. Vivaldi’s Magnificat, originally composed for the orphan girls (and virtuoso musicians) of the Ospedale della Pieta in Venice, will be featured, along with works by Monteverdi and Brahms. With string quartet, two oboes, and Jim Meredith (of Sonos) on piano and organ. $10 suggested donation. For details see www.fweeter.org or call 510-841-5143.