Thursday Thoughts

I hope you all had a well deserved rest last Tuesday night.  Thank you all for working so hard to bring Voices Remembered and Mozart Requiem to such musical heights.

Now on to the next project(s): Baltic Landscapes and Messiah. I have chosen the repertoire for Baltic Landscapes, as the Baltic composers (of which, for this concert  will include those from Scandanavia - Norway, Finland, & Denmark; Poland, Latvia and Lithuania) are writing some of the most exciting choral repertoire today.  And for this program, obviously we will be working in a number of languages: Finnish, Russian and Doukhobor - a dialect which comes from Russia which settled in the south eastern part of British Columbia. 

As you know from looking at the music in your envelopes, about half the program is sacred music - in Latin, and half is secular. Note: The Russian/Doukhobor set of Slavic folksongs which will end the program - a very cool set of pieces written by the Canadian/Latvian composer Imant Raminsh for the Vancouver Chamber Choir's tour to the former Soviet Union in 1989 -  is on its way from the publisher and I will have it to you before Christmas.

This program will be challenging because of languages which are less common than the ones we usually sing, complex harmonic structures, lots of divisi and finite, precise tuning. I am heartened that some of you have mentioned the program content with enthusiasm.  This concert will be another Camerata landmark.

But first let me put it all in context: You just sang an excellent half program on November 7 of which, if you missed no rehearsals, we had 9 Tuesdays (including the Tuesday of concert week in the hall).  For this program, if you miss no Tuesdays,  we have 13 Tuesday rehearsals (including the Tuesday of concert week in the hall) to learn a full a capella program of some of the most difficult rep I have programmed for Camerata.

How we will help: In a separate blog post, I will list recordings of the repertoire available either on YouTube or which Sean will post in the Choir Only section of the website. This may take a couple of weeks. These recordings are to be used as a model only, not as difinitive performances. In addition, Christina will prepare spoken texts of songs and we will also post these in the choir only section of the web site. You can go to these resources anytime at your leisure to review texts and to get the sound and nuance into your ears. The IPA work which Christina has been doing all fall with you will be invaluable in your marking of your scores as she goes over these texts with you.

Your responsibility: There can be no wasted rehearsal time, so learning notes on Tuesdays is not an option - for anyone. Please don't underestimate the group process - I know that you have the ability to miss a rehearsal and prepare on your own, however the balance of a divisi section of 2 or 3 singers singing harmonic minor seconds really suffers if you are not there. So try, if possible,  to schedule your business trips so that you are there on Tuesday nights.

Speaking of missing - next Tuesday I have to be working in Ottawa (I could not refuse the Canada Council again) but I am leavning you in capable hands with Tristan and Christina.  You need to be familiar with the following pieces for Tuesday:

Benedicto - Sisask
First Snow - Holten
Ave Verum - Raminsh
Auvksihuutopsalmi - Psalm of Invocation - Rautavaara
O Crux - Nystedt

Thank you to Tristan and Christina for allowing me to go to Ottawa with the confidence that you will be in very good hands. I will see you all on November 30 at Bethany for the first of two Messiah rehearsals in preparation for Noel Edison.