It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

Bonus points if you can correctly identify the source of today's title.

Today was mostly about being freaked out over all that I didn't get done over the weekend and all that has to happen soon. I also didn't feel well and had lots of pain and tension issues.

But then, I decided to do a little bit of singing, just to see what my voice was like. I found a new Brahms piece that I wanted to try out. I did a little warming up and then did some sight-reading of 2 Brahms songs. I think one will work well and might be a good back up piece if I'm still having tension and pain that cause high note issues. It sits nicely in my voice and moves well. The second song was pretty, but not a great fit at this point. Then I sang through a couple of the ones I'm currently working on and they sounded amazingly good, considering how I felt. Since that worked well, I pulled out a Brahms song I did several years ago. It's a little different in character from the ones I'm working now, and might be a good one to pull back for the recital. Today it was a completely different song that it was when I sang it several years ago. The spots that previously stressed me out were easy. I'll have to try this out with Ruth and see what she thinks.

Anyway, I love when there is at least one bright moment in a difficult day and today Brahms took care of that for me.