{"id":503,"date":"2011-02-02T13:22:34","date_gmt":"2011-02-02T13:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cantusfirmus\/?p=503"},"modified":"2011-02-02T16:25:51","modified_gmt":"2011-02-02T16:25:51","slug":"singing-spirits-finzi-skempton-and-vaughan-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/cantusfirmus\/2011\/02\/02\/singing-spirits-finzi-skempton-and-vaughan-williams\/","title":{"rendered":"Singing spirits: Finzi, Skempton and Vaughan Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019d have thought persuading the gentlemen of the choir to sing in a lusty and bawdy fashion would be no problem. The opening of the setting of Mother, Make My Bed<\/em> which I\u2019ve written for the concert starts with a rambunctious repeated pattern for the tenors and basses, which needs to be delivered in not quite a thigh-slapping manner, but not far off. And yet\u2026they were terribly polite and mannered about it; it was far too refined. More loose living before next week, chaps, maybe ?!<\/p>\n

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Finzi finesse<\/p><\/div>\n

It was back to England this week, after last week\u2019s rehearsal of Scottish pieces, and a chance to dance with Finzi\u2019s My Spirit Sang All Day<\/em><\/a>. This piece is a complete joy, full of life and bursting with sheer delight in its harmonic revelry. It\u2019s also the last new piece to prepare for the end of the month (apart from the encore, should we need one, which is a popular favourite that we can learn at the drop of a hat nearer the time); from now on, it\u2019s all consolidation, which makes me feel an awful lot better!<\/p>\n

Whenever I start to become nervous about the concert \u2013 it\u2019s a big programme, with challenging works, in an awe-inspiring venue \u2013 I should just get the choir to sing the Skempton Cloths of Heaven<\/a>, <\/em>and all shall be well. We looked at if for the third time last night (that spreadsheet I wrote about keeping<\/a> earlier is really starting to pay dividends \u2013 I can see which pieces we\u2019ve neglected in a trice!), concentrating now on balancing the chords and making sure all the lovely semitone clashes between the inner voices are brought out, or making the sure the basses\u2019 sustained pedal notes can be heard. The basses are, at several points, the driving force behind the emotional impact of the piece; they either underpin the gently breathing harmonies with a solid pedal-note, or at crucial points rise up over an octave to really push the texture upwards.<\/p>\n

Although I\u2019m endeavouring now to try and provide as little support on the piano as possible, to get the choir accustomed to singing without any accompaniment, there\u2019s a danger that the pitch can drop and you can end up a good semi-tone lower at the finish, something we\u2019ll have to work on improving.<\/p>\n

We revisited the Vaughan Williams songs to finish the rehearsal, endeavouring to impart a sense of rhythmic vitality into the sprightly \u2018Over hill, over dale,\u2019 whilst contrastingly making sure the bell-like effects of \u2018Full fathom five\u2019 were working. The chords struck in the four-part divisi sopranos throughout the opening section need to begin percussively with a crisp \u2018d\u2019 on the words \u2018ding\u2019 and \u2018dong.\u2019 The altos really showed themselves to be solid masters of the beat, holding the straight crotchet beats against the triplet rhythms in the other voices: I\u2019m beating with one hand in six and with the other in four, so it\u2019s certainly a piece to keep everyone on their toes, including me\u2026<\/p>\n

(Preview tracks via LastFM).<\/p>\n