Travels on the Continent: : Saint-Saens, Victoria and Brahms

Leave a reply

Ave verum corpus is best-known in a setting by Mozart, but the Cecilian Choir began their spring rehearsals with a version by Saint-Saens, that I confess was a recent discovery for me. It’s a wonderfully simple setting in Eb major, which in the more colourful second section, at the words ‘Cujus latus perforatum,’ moves to chords of Db and Gb major, climaxing in the relative minor before subsiding to a gentle ending.

(Unfortunately, there’s a phrase in the middle that is identical to the opening phrase in ‘Tale As Old As Time’ from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1′ 43” in the video above), but we’re hoping listeners don’t notice…).

We renewed our acquaintance with the Victoria Ave Maria we’d begun last term, with its terrific rhythmic flexibility; the phrase ‘Sancta Maria, mater Dei’ is set in triple-metre instead of the compound metre up until that point, which imparts a lovely dance-feel.

Circle-time ensued: we moved away from the piano and gathered in a circle in the middle of the hall to sing it through – it really means you have to get used to not relying on a supporting instrument playing your line, and start listening to the other voices around you. It worked, too: some lovely chords echoed round the hall, and the tuning was spot-on.

Finally, a return to the drama of Brahms’ Ach, arme Welt, with its sudden crescendi and unstable harmonies.

All bodes well for the concert, which is currently being finalised: more details coming soon!

The agony and the ecstasy; madrigals, Tippett and Jackson

Leave a reply

Two ends of the spectrum at last night’s rehearsal: a selection of English madrigals celebrating the joys of singing and the agonies and the ecstasies of love, a thirteenth-century Welsh folk-song re-invented in the mid twentieth-century by Tippett, and music by Gabriel Jackson from the twenty-first century.

The flowering of madrigal composition in England yielded a rich variety of works, and our selection includes Sing We and Chant It by Morley, Bennett’s profound misery in Weep, O Mine Eyes and Weelkes’ Hark, All Ye Lovely Saint Above. The Bennett piece is often performed at a slow two-in-a-bar pace – there’s no tempo marking, the score simply says ‘Sadly’ – but we’re working on a slow four-in-a-bar feel that will really elongate the chromatic dissonances and tonal clashes between the voices; hopefully it will be a much more anguish-ridden meditation at a slower tempo. To balance this, and make sure neither choir nor audience are riddled with abject misery, the other two pieces are lively, with a dance-feel that we’re working hard to capture – the rhythmic lilt and dip often going over the bar-line.

Hark, All Ye Lovely Saints Above
(a rather brisk performance by Cantabile!)

Tippett’s treatment of the Welsh folk-song ‘Gwenllian’ is, at first meeting, rather alien; seemingly atonal fragments of line are scattered between the voice-parts, as though deliberately working to hide the actually rather tonal stretches of folk-melody that occur. Once the different parts realised that, at a particular point, they had the melody – and once they’d sung through that fragment of melody on their own – things became rather more secure, although there’s still some way to go. The tenors have a recurring splinter of a theme that rises E – C – F and occurs sporadically; it’s a challenge to pitch the first note and then get the intonation exact over the rising phrase.

I’ve remarked before on the value of learning new repertoire backwards; the psychology of already having seen the ending of a piece means it doesn’t seem so mammoth at first rehearsal, and we adopted this tactic with the Tippett. Because the final section is a recurrent one that appears throughout, working in two-page sections from the end backwards balanced the difficulty of the music with the sense that there was a part of it that was (comparatively) familiar.

We finished by returning to the Jackson piece we had started looking at last term; lovely, colourful sonorities but fiendish to be able to hold your own line and establish rich cluster-chords.

We’re also going to be getting slightly creative with some of the repertoire in the concert: there’s going to be some unusual and unexpected realisations of a few of the pieces, details of which we can’t reveal here as that would ruin the surprise. You’ll just have to hear it for yourself on the night….

Opportunity for young singers with The Sixteen!

Leave a reply

News just in of an opportunity for young singers aged between 18-23 to audition to be part of Genesis Sixteen, a new project ”to identify and nurture students with exceptional musical ability and the potential to become professional ensemble singers.” The project aims to bridge the divide between student and professional practitioner.

During the course of a year, a series of intensive weekend and week-long courses for singers will be led by key artists from The Sixteen, including founder and conductor Harry Christophers.

And, as an incentive for cash-strapped students in the current financial climate, participants will be fully funded for travel within the United Kingdom, accommodation and board.

Four courses are running between August 2011 to August 2012, with two in London and one each in Manchester and Oxford. The opportunity to work with The Sixteen, who featured in BBC4’s recent Sacred Music series, should not be missed….

Click here to visit the website.

New concert brochure now on-line

Leave a reply

It’s going to be a busy period of music-making at the University this season, and the Chamber Choir are presenting not one but two concerts this term.

The customary Cathedral Crypt Concert in February sees the result of all our rehearsals, in the programme exploring choral music from England, Wales and Scotland, evocatively titled This Scepter’d Isle. In addition, the Choir will be be visiting St. Gregory’s in Wye, in a second programme which will include new repertoire we’ll be learning in between the two engagements.

Details of the Cecilian Choir’s concert this term are being finalised as I type: more details will follow about this later, which should prove an exciting European musical odyssey.

The new choral term starts here: keep up with what’s happening here on the blog, and click here to download the new events brochure (PDF).

We sing both night and day: the Carol Service

1 Reply

Picture, if you will, an ancient cathedral plunged into darkness; the only light comes from the dancing flames of the candles held aloft by the congregation. From out of the silence, and the dark, two voices begin singing the first verse of Once In Royal David’s City. The voices soar into the recessed depths of the vaulted roof; the second verse begins, the same melody now supported with rich harmonies. The Carol Service is underway.

The Chamber Choir rose to the occasion in admirable form, beginning the service with Tavener’s Today the Virgin, delivered with punch and rhythmic vitality – having performed it this time last week at the Advent Concert, it’s become comfortably familiar, and the group delivered it with great confidence, each lengthening ‘Alleluia’ growing and filling the Cathedral with ringing harmony.

On a roll, now, the next solo choir carol, The Holly and the Ivy, virtually sprang from the page, and was by turns vivacious, playful and wonderfully legato in all the right places.

And my piece, A Babe Is Born, had an air of medieval magic, the second sopranos and altos evoking the distant choir of angels abroad on a winter’s night, celebrating Christ’s birth, and the whole choir dancing as one with the feel of the rhythms throughout. We decided, in rehearsal that afternoon, to give the final gesture, a three-note rising phrase on ‘cardine!’ more impetus by half-singing, half-declaiming the phrase – notes were less important than the drive of the phrase in the larger-scale surroundings of the Cathedral – and the final, exultant shout echoed wonderfully round the Nave for a good eight seconds before receding.

Traditionally, the University Carol Service celebrates the multi-culturalism of the University community by having Silent Night in a variety of different languages; this presented something of a linguistic minefield for everyone, with some fairly exotic verses being dealt with admirably, if not necessarily with quite the proper pronunciation!

As the service ended, and the congregation left the Cathedral with their candles re-lit during O Come All Ye Faithful, there was a sense that Christmas really had, finally, begun. The University community had come together in words and music to reflect on the season; and as the sea of dwindling candle-flames receded down the nave and out into the winter night, the spirit of Christmas went with them.

With thanks to the Choir for all their hard work over the course of this term; it’s been a great success: friendships have been forged, great performances have been achieved, meat and mead have been shared, and the group have done themselves proud. They have become a family: looking after and supporting one another, and achieving great things together.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Bass Desires at Christmas

Leave a reply

Fourth-year Drama student Dave Newell reports from the bass section.

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the choir is so delightful. Christmas in The Chamber Choir is the most terrific time of year. Spring term is always seen as being the biggie with the Crypt Concert and end of season outings to Canterbury village churches, but Christmas magic grips me time and again every year and makes me smile.

Filled with...angels...singing ?

Understandably, the 5 November fires were still being extinguished when our Christmas season crackled into view, and initially was met with some scepticism. I mean, let’s face it, who wants Christmas n early November, but needs must and we did and now we are here.

I write this on the morning of the University Carol Service in the Cathedral; until recently the Chamber Choir’s only formal booking over the Christmas season. But this year we have added another string to our bow. On the afternoon of a snowy December 6, the Chamber Choir arrived at St Mildred’s Church for a rehearsal of Advent by Candlelight. The rehearsal lasted a few hours before we retired to The Old Buttermarket Public House in the City Centre for a hearty meal (and perhaps the odd pint of ale). Then, bellies full, we headed back to the church, which by now had been transformed from a cold church with scaffolding holding up the north aisle into a sparkling Christmas card scene with candles, and as the audience slowly drifted in the atmosphere became warm, even if the church itself wasn’t, and full of anticipation. It was a concert full of scintillating moments; highlights including I Saw Three Ships, my friends’ favourite The Holly and the Ivy and the debut performance of Dan’s A Babe is Born. Obviously I was in the choir, and so only got part of the picture, but we received nothing but praise from those in the audience (except some excellent mince pies and nibbles provided by the church at the end).

By no means the choir’s only bookings over the festive period; we were excited to be offered the chance to sing at the turning-on of the Christmas lights alongside the Cathedral Choir and Sid Sloane  – a “celebrity”… apparently. It must be said, whilst the performance itself was enjoyed and appreciated by the audience of shoppers, the best bit was mince pies and German sausage in Whitefriairs afterwards, where jolly onlookers and slightly bemused stall holders were treated a bunch of students singing this, that, and the other.

Tonight is to the big one however, the largest congregation the choir ever performs to; The Carol Service. From my years of singing as a boy chorister in Wakefield Cathedral, and thus performing endless concerts and services in countless venues, especially at Christmas time, you, and I would expect there to be a dulling of the excitement for such an occasion, but the exact opposite is true. Standing up on the steps looking down on the brass band and beyond them hundreds and hundreds of students and staff with flickering candles and the large Christmas tree, belting out O Come all ye Faithful, it send shivers up the spine to say the least.

For those of you coming this evening, I hope to see you there, and it only leaves me to wish you a very merry and musical Christmas!

David Newell

The Cecilians entertain…

Leave a reply

The Cecilian Choir ended their term in fine style with a lunchtime concert of popular carols to entertain the members of the Former Staff Association in Rutherford yesterday.

Cecilian sopranos

The Sopranos: Imogen, Aisha and Alanya

Bedecked variously with tinsel, reindeer antlers and a miniature Santa hat, the Choir performed to the delight of the FSA as part of their Christmas Lunch. A few members of the Choir even struck lucky in the raffle afterwards, with one member of the bass section appropriating a bottle of champage, one of the sopranos being ‘really spoiled’ with a box of Ferrero Rocher, and one winning flowers. No names. You know who you are…

Cecilian sopranos

Guess who won the Ferrero Rocher...

With thanks to Dave Reason for the invitation to return this year, and looking forward to further occasions in the New Year; thanks also to the Choir for all their work this term.

No time to rest: Vaughan Williams and Jackson to finish the term

Leave a reply

No time for the choir to rest on the laurels of their successful concert last week: as I said to them, the hard work starts here! Notwithstanding we’ve performed thrice already and have the University Carol Service on Friday, last night was the last rehearsal of the term, and a chance to return to the challenging repertoire for February’s Crypt concert.

I’ve written a setting of the folk-song Mother, Make My Bed, for the choir to sing in February – the text concerns messengers rushing to tell a lord that his wife is dying, and by the time he reaches her, she is dead – he dies the following day. Not exactly cheerful stuff… The piece starts with a lively dance-like rhythm in the lower voices, but as the narrative darkens, the altos introduce a pedal-chord that becomes progressively more dissonant. The harmonies then start to slow down, until a six-part chord in the lower three voices becomes the tolling of funeral bells. The choir picked it up quickly, and it promises to work well in the evocative surroundings of the Cathedral Crypt.

Gabriel Jackson

Gabriel Jackson (photo credit Malcolm Crowther)

Thence back to the two Shakespeare settings by Vaughan Williams, and the first two movements of the Jackson Edinburgh Mass; a hard slog here, with much note-learning required for the individual voice-parts. ‘Full fathom five’ splits at one point in to an eleven-note chord, which needs absolute accuracy to work. The inner-voice parts of the Jackson are also rather tricky, and needed much part-by-part learning. Having worked on the Advent antiphons for last week’s concert, though, the opening plainchant of the ‘Kyrie’ came much easier than last time, and had a fluidity about it that it needs.

The rhythmic vitality of the ‘Laudamus Te’ section of the ‘Gloria’ also presented a challenge – there was much head-scratching amongst the basses, although in fairness there’s no constant pulse, and the tied notes across the bar-lines in bars changing between 5/8 and 3/8 beats do make life rather interesting…

It’s difficult, particularly after the euphoria of a recent concert, to get back to note-bashing and maintain the momentum; but the choir set to; there’s more to come in early rehearsals next term if we’re to do justice to these pieces, as I’m sure we will.

(And a happy birthday to Paris in the sopranos, to whom the whole choir sang a resonant ‘Happy Birthday’ at half-time: you don’t get the University Chamber Choir singing to you on your birthday that often, do you ?!)

Our last commitment is Friday’s Carol Service: stand by for feedback on it afterwards.

(Listening extracts via emusic.com; you can hear sections of the whole Mass here.)

Trolling the ancient Yuletide carol: Chamber Choir at St. Mildred’s

Leave a reply

Touch and go, this week, as to whether the concert would even happen. Heavy snow since Monday, icy roads and dodgy travelling conditions meant it wasn’t until ten o’clock on the morning of the concert, with event organisers exchanging phone-calls like Nato Superpowers planning a strategic response, that the green light came on.

Digital communication then came to the fore, with texts, e-mail and Facebook being deployed to tell performers and potential audience-members alike that the concert was still on. Choir and readers travelled gingerly along icy roads to rehearse at the church in the afternoon, before repairing to an hostelry in the centre of Canterbury for dinner; treacherous travelling meant that most people preferred not to have to go back to campus or home betwixt rehearsal and concert.

And what a concert it was. The Chamber Choir rose to the occasion and unleashed a sound quite unlike anything they have ever delivered in rehearsals hitherto; ensemble was tight, intonation excellent, and well-worked diction meant the words were clear. The readers, including staff from the University, an alumnus and members of the choir, provided some thought-provoking reflections on the Advent season, and the church community provided wine and mince pies for the benefit of all afterwards.

And the aspect most commented upon about the concert ? Not the performing (about which the feedback from the audience was highly enthusiastic afterwards), but the attire: how smart and professional everyone looked. New ties for the chaps and scarves for the ladies, matched and co-ordinated, added to the visual presentation of the performance, and was remarked on by nearly everyone with whom I spoke afterwards. It’s the details that count, just as much as the performing; in fact, perfecting the look and visual presentation of the group already establishes a level of professionalism even before a chord has been sung. Look organised, and the audience already believe you will sound thus, before hearing a thing.

Well done to all, who worked to make the concert a success, and thanks to St. Mildred’s for their support and for the opportunity to perform in their historic church. They’ve asked us back again in the future: the bar has now been set pretty high! The ensemble has flexed its muscles in public on three occasions now, and has grown to become a fully-fledged choir, with a rich and exciting sound. And I confess: I’m proud of what we’ve achieved, proud of the choir and the commitment they’ve shown, and of the heights to which they have risen and the standards they’ve reached.

Next up: Canterbury Cathedral, for the University Carol Service. Bring it on!