Singing "Gloria"

I spent the evening at a rehearsal for Lex de Azevedo's Christmas oratorio, "Gloria."  Other than taking the last two years off, I've sung "Gloria" every year since 1999.

Lex has continuously made changes since then, though, which means that every few years we get a new, updated score....I think I have 5 full scores all together.  (That doesn't include the random extra page here and there...)

My most current one is pretty hammered.  Penciled in are new notes and rhythms and reminders to myself of difficult passages and dynamics.  Yellow highlighter shows where I sing 2nd soprano.  Little smiley faces or notes to myself of personal memories of that particular song or passage are written on the side or above the stanzas.  The pages are dog-eared where I've tried to mark codas.  Tabs marking the beginning of each new song have long since started to rip.  New pages with updates are taped in on top of other pages.

We received a new score today...which Lex claims, after 13 years, is his FINAL draft.  I have to admit, as clean and nice as it looks....I miss my old score.