Friday, March 02, 2007

Anton Bruckner Choir concert - tomorrow

Tomorrow marks my first concert with Anton Bruckner Choir. So I won't feel able to review it, later. Still, we're singing a mixture of music old - Taverner's Western Wind Mass, and Leroy Kyrie; Robert White's Christe, qui lux es et dies - and more modern - Herbert Howells' Take him earth for cherishing, Let God arise, Here is the little door, Salve regina, Magnificat and Nunc dimittis (Collegium Regale), and Like as the hart desireth the waterbrooks.

I feel it's a good juxtaposition of 16th and 20th century music, and the variety in Howells' works is interesting, from the aching longing of Like as the hart, the strident, Stanford-like Let God arise, to the moving and beautiful Take him, earth for cherishing, which was written for President Kennedy's memorial service, but was inspired by his son's early death.

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Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Singing in the shrouds

This actually happens to be the title of a good book by Ngaio Marsh, but I thought I'd use it to start off my posting on this blog.

After a long fallow period of not singing much due to various reasons, the past few weeks have been quite busy - a friend's wedding, evensong at Ely Cathedral, a performance of Tallis' Spem in alium (amongst other works) - and to come, Haydn's Nelson Mass. It does make me aware of how poor my sight-reading is, and how I should practise more. But Sunday's concert made me realise how much I enjoy choral singing. Even though all three works were in languages other than English (Latin and Russian), and though most of the time I was unaware of the real meaning of what I was singing, it is very moving to be part of such a group. The combination of words and music together are perfect, and bring something to each other that they do not have alone.

The pieces performed at the weekend were Tallis's 40-part motet Spem in alium nunquam habui (to give its full title), Rachmaninov's All-Night Vigil, and Psalm 150 in Grandsire Triples by Finnish composer Jaako Mantyjaarvi. To be able to take part in the Tallis was a rare privilege - being in forty voice parts, it rarely gets performed.

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