When I was presented with the choice between taking speech or men's chorus, given my interest in music, I naturally choose men's chorus. That and the fact that I was not extremely fond of presenting a speech to the class each week.
The freshman section of the men's chorus sum, roughly, 20 guys. This did not include the sophomore, junior and senior sections, that were included in the semi annual men's chorus performance at the end of each school term.
On the first day of class all students unanimously were tested for vocal range. Once a student was no longer able to comfortably hit the increasing pitches, demonstrated on the piano, they would raise their hand. This signaled the choral director to make a note of each student's vocal capacity which easily allowed him to categorize individuals students into vocal sections. This process continued until all students were accounted for. As the pitches on the piano proceeded to increase from low to high, those students left within the vocal pool decreased from many to few. This made it easier to single out individual voices. Luckily for me, I was one of those individuals... Only a lone student and myself were left to demonstrate our vocal abilities. A single glance at one another and a mutual understanding was established that this was now a competition. We both desperately tried to keep our composure while struggling to hit the increasingly strenuous pitches. And just like that, both of our voices cracked on the exact same note. Neither one triumphed over the other. Instead both were placed together, as first tenors.
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