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May. 5th, 2005 05:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anotherusedpageConcert last night was absolutely brilliant. Sang Holst's Hymn to Jesus, Berlioz Te Deum, and what was probably the world's biggest ever performance of Tallis' forty part motet. Just beautiful.
In the Holst, I cheated and sang the semi-chorus part with the kids choir, which was just fantastic fun, because you get to listen to huge chunks of the music. Specifically, there were a couple of the really big entries where we had to come in a bar or two after everyone else, and there was just this huge wall of sound coming towards us that we just had to kind of float over the top of - totally magic. Most of the piece is in five four time, which I actually find makes so much more sense to me than most simple time signatures (I also like seven - my mobile phone ringtone plays a tune in seven eight). Anyone who's into Romantic music or Holst and doesn't know this one should check it out - specifically any of you christian mystics on my flist. The god I mostly don't believe in? Right there in that music.
The Tallis is usually done with one on a part, forty singers. We did it with just slightly under four hundred singers. Again, like with the Holst, there's a very physical effect to the way the music moves around the stage and around the auditorium, swapping from choir to choir. I was singing choir number seven out of eight, which was... to be frank, a bit of a shite part, we didn't get the main theme, not even once. But we did finish on the top note, which I suppose made up for it. The big moments, when all forty parts are singing together are just incredible.
The Berlioz was a total belter, easy enough to just sort of hum along to without feeling to stressed about getting the dots in the right places, and most of it was very high and very loud. It was the biggest high I've had off performing in quite a while, and I can't quite work out why because usually recently I only get quite so high after singing if I've been petrified it's going to go horribly wrong. Which I wasn't.
And... that's it for the Festival Hall for a while. I'd forgotten that when I signed up for the concert, but it's out of commission for the next year or so while they finish the refurbishment. Closing altogether at the end of August I think - but I definitely won't be back singing there... probably til after I've finished my degree. Fuck, that's a terrifying thought.
On the plus side, I think we get to sing another Prom this year. It's not up on the choir website, but it is up on the BBC one. The penultimate one - I think it might be some Sibelius. Last year was the first year since I was eleven that I hadn't sung one, and I had a godawful feeling that CEFC weren't going to get invited back after turning them down last year - who turns down a prom? But it looks like they still love us. It could be just the men, though, and David hasn't said anything about it while I was listening yet....
In the Holst, I cheated and sang the semi-chorus part with the kids choir, which was just fantastic fun, because you get to listen to huge chunks of the music. Specifically, there were a couple of the really big entries where we had to come in a bar or two after everyone else, and there was just this huge wall of sound coming towards us that we just had to kind of float over the top of - totally magic. Most of the piece is in five four time, which I actually find makes so much more sense to me than most simple time signatures (I also like seven - my mobile phone ringtone plays a tune in seven eight). Anyone who's into Romantic music or Holst and doesn't know this one should check it out - specifically any of you christian mystics on my flist. The god I mostly don't believe in? Right there in that music.
The Tallis is usually done with one on a part, forty singers. We did it with just slightly under four hundred singers. Again, like with the Holst, there's a very physical effect to the way the music moves around the stage and around the auditorium, swapping from choir to choir. I was singing choir number seven out of eight, which was... to be frank, a bit of a shite part, we didn't get the main theme, not even once. But we did finish on the top note, which I suppose made up for it. The big moments, when all forty parts are singing together are just incredible.
The Berlioz was a total belter, easy enough to just sort of hum along to without feeling to stressed about getting the dots in the right places, and most of it was very high and very loud. It was the biggest high I've had off performing in quite a while, and I can't quite work out why because usually recently I only get quite so high after singing if I've been petrified it's going to go horribly wrong. Which I wasn't.
And... that's it for the Festival Hall for a while. I'd forgotten that when I signed up for the concert, but it's out of commission for the next year or so while they finish the refurbishment. Closing altogether at the end of August I think - but I definitely won't be back singing there... probably til after I've finished my degree. Fuck, that's a terrifying thought.
On the plus side, I think we get to sing another Prom this year. It's not up on the choir website, but it is up on the BBC one. The penultimate one - I think it might be some Sibelius. Last year was the first year since I was eleven that I hadn't sung one, and I had a godawful feeling that CEFC weren't going to get invited back after turning them down last year - who turns down a prom? But it looks like they still love us. It could be just the men, though, and David hasn't said anything about it while I was listening yet....