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Yesterday I did go to the "Choral workshop" at Memorial church. CPE Bach's Magnificat (the Hamburg version). I had listened to it online beforehand, somewhat surprised that it runs 45 minutes - the little bit of text from Luke totals about ten sentences in the BCP, plus a Gloria. I've sung it without much adornment in the distant past, in English, German, and Latin (not all at once), as it can be (must be?) part of evensong, but didn't realize that a gussied up version was popular as a concert piece in Baroque times, or so I gather. There was an organ taking all of the orchestral parts. There were high-quality soloists, and a lot of good sight-singers in the chorus (I guess there were about forty of us). A CPE Bach scholar (also an alto named Laura) cheerfully asked me before we began if I were a professional musician. I said no, more of a once-a-year open Messiah sing person. It was OK. In parts that were too hard for me I just shut up. Decades of singing the Messiah probably helped - there were little bits in the alto part that seemed similar from time to time. I felt that I was learning so much - Harvard's Edward Elwyn Jones (very formal sounding name for someone called Ed by people who know him)gave so many instructive comments, conducted so well, was picky and encouraging at the same time.
Memorial Church is pretty depressing - all those dead all over the wall, including a few Radcliffe alums. But the building is well designed, with good acoustics, and the updates that have been done to make it accessible are wonderful (says someone who is not a wheelchair or walker user). There are ramps and electric door openers and an elevator that seem integral to the design, not something added on years after it was built in 1932.
While singing or being instructed, I kept thinking about how cool it is that our brains and ears and eyes and voices have evolved to make music possible. It will be sad if we drive (and fly and manufacture) ourselves to extinction soon. There were lots of jokes on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me last week about an estimate of 2050 as the end, more or less. Not really funny to me, but I know that many climate scientists still do have hope.
Despite the fact that the 76 bus was running 40 minutes late this morning, I made it to "Seven Times Salt" almost on time, missing only the introductory piece. A fair proportion of the program was familiar to me. I enjoyed it all, but the only part I wished to have at home was the 1620 four part harmony version of Psalm 100 (the same tune that is sort of sung weekly in thousand of churches). It didn't seem worth buying the CD for just that, and it's on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHtbsnUi8Go
One other thing that struck me was that while Thomas Morley's setting of "O Mistress Mine" has been around for hundreds of years, instead of having it linger in my mind as I was walking to the Green Line after the concert, I was humming the tune used in "Twelfth Night" (1996), sung mostly by Ben Kingsley and Imelda Staunton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8kA2zx8isk
As I left, I overheard someone confirm with her companion that they next thing on their plan was the North Texas Baroque concert at Church of the Covenant. I hadn't planned to go, but thought "what the heck." I like to support them - as the program said, the University of North Texas has one of the biggest early music programs anywhere. After a while, it dawned on me that more than half of them were *there* - in the second part of the concert, for Telemann's Magnificat (again - more like twenty minutes this time), the combined orchestra and chorus numbered fifty-two students. They were great. The first two orchestral pieces were pleasant but not inspiring to me - not my kind of thing, I guess. I worked on a crossword puzzle. Then the selection featuring a baroque trumpet began and I perked right up. After that the Magnificat, and I liked that too.
Memorial Church is pretty depressing - all those dead all over the wall, including a few Radcliffe alums. But the building is well designed, with good acoustics, and the updates that have been done to make it accessible are wonderful (says someone who is not a wheelchair or walker user). There are ramps and electric door openers and an elevator that seem integral to the design, not something added on years after it was built in 1932.
While singing or being instructed, I kept thinking about how cool it is that our brains and ears and eyes and voices have evolved to make music possible. It will be sad if we drive (and fly and manufacture) ourselves to extinction soon. There were lots of jokes on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me last week about an estimate of 2050 as the end, more or less. Not really funny to me, but I know that many climate scientists still do have hope.
Despite the fact that the 76 bus was running 40 minutes late this morning, I made it to "Seven Times Salt" almost on time, missing only the introductory piece. A fair proportion of the program was familiar to me. I enjoyed it all, but the only part I wished to have at home was the 1620 four part harmony version of Psalm 100 (the same tune that is sort of sung weekly in thousand of churches). It didn't seem worth buying the CD for just that, and it's on youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHtbsnUi8Go
One other thing that struck me was that while Thomas Morley's setting of "O Mistress Mine" has been around for hundreds of years, instead of having it linger in my mind as I was walking to the Green Line after the concert, I was humming the tune used in "Twelfth Night" (1996), sung mostly by Ben Kingsley and Imelda Staunton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8kA2zx8isk
As I left, I overheard someone confirm with her companion that they next thing on their plan was the North Texas Baroque concert at Church of the Covenant. I hadn't planned to go, but thought "what the heck." I like to support them - as the program said, the University of North Texas has one of the biggest early music programs anywhere. After a while, it dawned on me that more than half of them were *there* - in the second part of the concert, for Telemann's Magnificat (again - more like twenty minutes this time), the combined orchestra and chorus numbered fifty-two students. They were great. The first two orchestral pieces were pleasant but not inspiring to me - not my kind of thing, I guess. I worked on a crossword puzzle. Then the selection featuring a baroque trumpet began and I perked right up. After that the Magnificat, and I liked that too.
