Thursday Thoughts

First of all, my sincerest congratulations for two great concerts this past weekend. There were many musical moments, which thrilled our listeners not to mention ourselves throughout the two concerts. As you have no doubt read, the review was very complimentary. You can read about it here: http://thechronicleherald.ca/ArtsLife/1235639.html.  You are all good enough musicians to realize that by now, you take a review with a grain of salt - the truth lies somewhere in the middle. However it is thrilling to realize that in print, our work is being validated in spades. Again, ccongratulations to you all!

So on to the next project - Musica Mystica will include our guests,  the SNS Chorus. The chorus will be a little smaller than some concerts in the past and we will have about 60 singers total on stage for the second half. The repertore is influenced by composers who have captured the essence of texts of mystic writers and music which had embodies the same. Musica Mystica will sound sensational in St Patrick's!

Please hear this: the number of rehearsals HCS has for their rep alone is 8 Tuesdays including concert week - that is if you don't miss any Tuesdays. I am expecting that every single one of you prepare your rehearsal assignments each week and come with the scores learned. If this doesn't happen we will not get this program learned and I, for one, don't want to be reading our next review. In addition to our rep, there are also the pieces with SNSC - not difficult but have to be learned. We will begin the SNSC rep with both choirs together and I will decide how many of these Saturday rehearsals we need with both choirs to make sure everything is coming together.

We begin this Saturday at Bethany from 10 am -12:30 pm on the SNSC repertoire. I will try to get through everything so you will have phrasings, articulations, dynamics, etc in your scores. You have the SNSC scores in the envelopes of music I gave you last Friday night.

Beginning next Tuesday, April 5 we begin an exciting partnership with First Baptist Church, Halifax whereby we will begin to rehearse Tuesday nights at First Baptist Church, Oxford St., Halifax (opposite Sheriff Hall). Next season, we will sing all of our concerts at First Baptist and finally, it will be wonderful to rehearse in the venue where we will sing our concerts. This partnership has fabulous possibilities and I am excited to be able to make music in this beautiful space. Please allow yourself enough time to get to the new venue, find a parking place (on Oxford St. opposite the church) and get your scores in order. The main church doors will be open at 6:30 pm on Tuesday nights.

Next Tuesday please prepare the following:

Agneau de Dieu - Lang
i thank you God....- Whitacre
Nunc Dimittis - Part
Then Shall I Leap Into Love - Enman
Rosa Mystica - Balfour

Please use the following reference recordings to help in your prep work:
Camerata rep:

Agneau de Dieu – Lang
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8BZ_YwppXY  (musica intima)

i thank You God – Whitacre
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u94zGAy0YMM (Polyphony)

Nunc dimittis – Part   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5NO07gmQWo

Lay A Garland – Pearsall
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U9Ap2A_2BY&feature=fvwrel

SNSC rep:

Kyrie – Palestrina
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIcrgNtyX0U (Tallis Scholars)

Agnus Dei – Barber
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVbCskHojyM (New College Oxford – excerpt))

Agnus Dei (from the Gospel Mass) – Robert Ray
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMDxSyp2lfM&feature=related

Dona Nobis Pacem (fr the Mass in b minor) – J. S. Bach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkvZAVO1nPY (John Nelson)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnrHhYSGzd4  (Robert Shaw)

Good luck everyone, as this will be a fast ride until the concert.  However I am supremely confident that we have the ability to learn this rep in the next 8 weeks.

See you Saturday!