Showing posts with label Church Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Church Music. Show all posts
Friday, August 8, 2014
St Francis' Choir, Melbourne sings at the Holy Trinity Festival on Saturday 16 August
Members of St Francis' Choir are looking forward to performing at the "Sounds of Joy" concert as part of the Holy Trinity Festival on Saturday 16 August 2014. For further details see: holytrinitymelbourne.org.au.
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
Music for Easter, St Francis' Choir, Melbourne
If you live in Melbourne and would like to experience some fabulous music in conjunction with the traditional Easter church services, then look no further than St Francis' Choir, Melbourne. Yours truly is back on the Music Repertoire Sub-Committee this year (a one year on, one year off policy) and was especially excited to get some wonderful English and continental polyphony on the program:
http://www.stfrancischoir.org.au/program/program.htm
All welcome!
Thursday, April 4, 2013
Veni sancti spiritus!
On Sunday 31 March I was as usual part of the choir at St Francis' Church, Lonsdale Street, Melbourne for the Easter Sunday 11:00 mass and we were standing in the back of the sanctuary behind the altar and the celebrant. While the celebrant was reading the Gospel one of the servers was standing to the left of the lecturn, waving the thurible back and forth, with a steady cloud of incense rising upwards. Something unusual caught my eye as a perfect ring of white smoke also emanated from the thurible. With a thick rim, it quickly became more square than round and then as it passed the celebrant and the right hand side of the lecturn it formed into a perfectly symmetrical dove, complete with wings, head and beak, and then slowly dissipated as it passed towards the front row of pews on the right hand side of the church with two shiny wing edges remaining visible until it was gone.
In Christian faith the dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Holy Trinity, and I felt as if I had seen the Holy Spirit that morning. Somewhat prophetically, the following sermon was about keeping your faith, even in times of doubt. With all the trials and tribulations in life set in a rationalistic (and some might even say atheistic) age keeping faith can be a daily struggle when your soul is sorrowful and burdened. I want to believe but I would be lying to say that there are no doubts. However, seeing that white smoky dove in that precise place at that precise moment on Easter Sunday brought some tears to the eyes of a weary soul and it was if for those few seconds the Holy Spirit made it plain that it walks amongst us and that we can dare to keep faith in hope and the message of the resurrection story.
In Christian faith the dove is the symbol of the Holy Spirit, the third member of the Holy Trinity, and I felt as if I had seen the Holy Spirit that morning. Somewhat prophetically, the following sermon was about keeping your faith, even in times of doubt. With all the trials and tribulations in life set in a rationalistic (and some might even say atheistic) age keeping faith can be a daily struggle when your soul is sorrowful and burdened. I want to believe but I would be lying to say that there are no doubts. However, seeing that white smoky dove in that precise place at that precise moment on Easter Sunday brought some tears to the eyes of a weary soul and it was if for those few seconds the Holy Spirit made it plain that it walks amongst us and that we can dare to keep faith in hope and the message of the resurrection story.
Monday, November 5, 2012
Diva for a day!
On Sunday 21 October St Francis' Choir sang the "Missa festiva" by Gretchaninov and John Ireland's iconic motet "Greater Love Hath No Man". It has been one of my favourites since I came across it when I was first at university and started my career as a chorister singing with the Canterbury Fellowship and the Trinity College Choir, both based in Trinity College Chapel at the University of Melbourne.
It is a dramatic motet for both choir and organ, and has divided choir parts in places, which those of us who are first sopranos always enjoy singing. The text is drawn from Christian texts: and I remember hearing once that it had great resonance for the time it was written, when many young men were making the ultimate sacrifice for their country and laying down their lives for their friends.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can the floods drown it.
Love is strong as death.
Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.
Ye are wash’d, ye are sanctified,
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus;
ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
that ye should show forth the praises of him
who hath call'd you out of darkness, out of darkness into his marvellous light.
I beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God,
that ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, holy,
acceptable unto to God, which is your reasonable service.
The Choir's performance was recorded and has been posted on the Choir’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Francis-Choir/58534273651
and for those without Facebook access, it has also been posted on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/xo2Tfe7C2lw
There are also many recordings (of variable quality) available on YouTube but this one is probably the best (St Paul’s Cathedral Choir, London):
http://youtu.be/rc4RUeKzddg
Further information on John Ireland can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ireland_(composer) and a free version of the musical score is available from http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Greater_love_hath_no_man_(John_Ireland).
In the first part of the motet, there are important short solos for a treble voice and a baritone which 'set the scene' for the remainder of the piece. The treble solo is normally sung beautifully by one of the choir cantors. As she was going to be away for the day, a 'stand-in' had to be arranged. In late April both the cantor and the Choir Director had been absent when we were rehearsing the motet for an earlier performance, and our highly esteemed Assistant Director was taking the rehearsal. As I assessed it to be a "no threat situation" I spontaneously decided to sing the solo part when we got to that point in the rehearsal. The Assistant Director and several other people were quite complimentary about my efforts, which gave me a nice warm inner glow.
When the Director was deciding on an understudy, it did not occur to me that I might be considered, but on the basis of my earlier efforts I was nominated by the Assistant Director and the Director encouragingly suggested "see how you go". Things went OK in the rehearsal run-through, and once again I was relieved to receive positive feedback from a number of people. Thus began several days of anxiety leading up to Sunday's performance.
Although I was able to run over the notes on a keyboard to check my pitch intonation, as always a believer in the Boy Scout motto of "be prepared", when I arrived home from work on Friday I set about checking my CD collection to see if I had a copy of the motet that I could use for practice purposes. When this proved fruitless, I then checked YouTube and the iTunes Store. What I was really looking for was a recording where the two organ cues for the solo phrases were clearly audible. I listened to most of the YouTube recordings, but in the end settled for an absolute bargain on iTunes - a $7.49 album of 40 tracks of English church music recorded by King's College Cambridge - "England, My England". This enabled me to rehearse the solo at my convenience, which I did many times prior to the performance on Sunday. I knew I would be nervous, so I rehearsed the notes enough that they would come automatically (even to the point of boredom at one stage!). A Neonatal Paediatric Fellow once referred to this type of memory as being "brain stem" - so automatic that you did not really have to think about it. I think I alternated between terror, nervous apprehension and trying to be upbeat that this was an exciting opportunity to do a good job. There was an interval of decades since I had last sung this particular solo and this would in fact be my solo debut in my long history with St Francis' Choir!
I did not sleep much on Saturday night and there was plenty of nervous anxiety on Sunday morning. The Assistant Director kindly gave me a 'run through' prior to the rehearsal, and the rehearsal went without incident and there was lots of support and encouragement and kind words from other Choir members, including compliments on my 'pure treble tone'. I did feel a lot calmer when we got into the church and got through most of the service without significant nerves. However, these began to resurface as the appointed time drew near. Somehow I 'held it all together' and sang the solo without noticing any obvious errors on my part, even managing to watch the Director for the entries. I was desperately hoping that it had sounded OK to others, and was relieved to hear that it had, including from both the Director and the Assistant Director. The latter, whose opinion I greatly respect, even suggested that perhaps I could do other solos in the future! It was a great relief when it was all over, but I think it took me a few days to recover from the nervous exertion!
I think my somewhat extreme form of performance anxiety was the reason that I stopped putting myself forward for small solos. It is a physically unpleasant sensation and oh so distracting and all-encompassing. I try to do all the right things to get on top of it, but this is quite challenging.
It has always been a matter of great wonderment to me that people such as myself can be so anxious about solo performances (whether in music or exams or medicine) whilst other people just ooze confidence and don't give it a second thought. I have always wished that I could be like that! There are reasons (which I will not go into here) why my confidence has been eroded over time until I guess it has become a habit to be lacking in confidence, but I long to be different. Perhaps singing this solo will prove to be one small step on the way, and I am very grateful to all the people who believed in me.
It is a dramatic motet for both choir and organ, and has divided choir parts in places, which those of us who are first sopranos always enjoy singing. The text is drawn from Christian texts: and I remember hearing once that it had great resonance for the time it was written, when many young men were making the ultimate sacrifice for their country and laying down their lives for their friends.
Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can the floods drown it.
Love is strong as death.
Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness.
Ye are wash’d, ye are sanctified,
ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus;
ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
that ye should show forth the praises of him
who hath call'd you out of darkness, out of darkness into his marvellous light.
I beseech you brethren, by the mercies of God,
that ye present your bodies, a living sacrifice, holy, holy,
acceptable unto to God, which is your reasonable service.
The Choir's performance was recorded and has been posted on the Choir’s Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Francis-Choir/58534273651
and for those without Facebook access, it has also been posted on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/xo2Tfe7C2lw
There are also many recordings (of variable quality) available on YouTube but this one is probably the best (St Paul’s Cathedral Choir, London):
http://youtu.be/rc4RUeKzddg
Further information on John Ireland can be found here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ireland_(composer) and a free version of the musical score is available from http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Greater_love_hath_no_man_(John_Ireland).
In the first part of the motet, there are important short solos for a treble voice and a baritone which 'set the scene' for the remainder of the piece. The treble solo is normally sung beautifully by one of the choir cantors. As she was going to be away for the day, a 'stand-in' had to be arranged. In late April both the cantor and the Choir Director had been absent when we were rehearsing the motet for an earlier performance, and our highly esteemed Assistant Director was taking the rehearsal. As I assessed it to be a "no threat situation" I spontaneously decided to sing the solo part when we got to that point in the rehearsal. The Assistant Director and several other people were quite complimentary about my efforts, which gave me a nice warm inner glow.
When the Director was deciding on an understudy, it did not occur to me that I might be considered, but on the basis of my earlier efforts I was nominated by the Assistant Director and the Director encouragingly suggested "see how you go". Things went OK in the rehearsal run-through, and once again I was relieved to receive positive feedback from a number of people. Thus began several days of anxiety leading up to Sunday's performance.
Although I was able to run over the notes on a keyboard to check my pitch intonation, as always a believer in the Boy Scout motto of "be prepared", when I arrived home from work on Friday I set about checking my CD collection to see if I had a copy of the motet that I could use for practice purposes. When this proved fruitless, I then checked YouTube and the iTunes Store. What I was really looking for was a recording where the two organ cues for the solo phrases were clearly audible. I listened to most of the YouTube recordings, but in the end settled for an absolute bargain on iTunes - a $7.49 album of 40 tracks of English church music recorded by King's College Cambridge - "England, My England". This enabled me to rehearse the solo at my convenience, which I did many times prior to the performance on Sunday. I knew I would be nervous, so I rehearsed the notes enough that they would come automatically (even to the point of boredom at one stage!). A Neonatal Paediatric Fellow once referred to this type of memory as being "brain stem" - so automatic that you did not really have to think about it. I think I alternated between terror, nervous apprehension and trying to be upbeat that this was an exciting opportunity to do a good job. There was an interval of decades since I had last sung this particular solo and this would in fact be my solo debut in my long history with St Francis' Choir!
I did not sleep much on Saturday night and there was plenty of nervous anxiety on Sunday morning. The Assistant Director kindly gave me a 'run through' prior to the rehearsal, and the rehearsal went without incident and there was lots of support and encouragement and kind words from other Choir members, including compliments on my 'pure treble tone'. I did feel a lot calmer when we got into the church and got through most of the service without significant nerves. However, these began to resurface as the appointed time drew near. Somehow I 'held it all together' and sang the solo without noticing any obvious errors on my part, even managing to watch the Director for the entries. I was desperately hoping that it had sounded OK to others, and was relieved to hear that it had, including from both the Director and the Assistant Director. The latter, whose opinion I greatly respect, even suggested that perhaps I could do other solos in the future! It was a great relief when it was all over, but I think it took me a few days to recover from the nervous exertion!
I think my somewhat extreme form of performance anxiety was the reason that I stopped putting myself forward for small solos. It is a physically unpleasant sensation and oh so distracting and all-encompassing. I try to do all the right things to get on top of it, but this is quite challenging.
It has always been a matter of great wonderment to me that people such as myself can be so anxious about solo performances (whether in music or exams or medicine) whilst other people just ooze confidence and don't give it a second thought. I have always wished that I could be like that! There are reasons (which I will not go into here) why my confidence has been eroded over time until I guess it has become a habit to be lacking in confidence, but I long to be different. Perhaps singing this solo will prove to be one small step on the way, and I am very grateful to all the people who believed in me.
Friday, October 19, 2012
St Francis' Choir sings Haydn's "Nelson Mass" at SS Peter and Paul
On Sunday 9 September 2012, St Francis' Choir (joined by orchestra and soloists) sung Haydn's "Nelson Mass" at the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in South Melbourne (http://www.sppchurch.org.au/). This was by invitation of the congregation to help celebrate an historic occasion for the church (the centenary of the new extensions).
On the St Francis' Choir Facebook page there is a photo gallery from the day and recordings of the Kyrie and Agnus Dei from the Nelson Mass.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Francis-Choir/58534273651
For those without Facebook access, these recordings have now also been posted on YouTube:
Kyrie: http://youtu.be/-NV4_aRHI-w
Agnus Dei: http://youtu.be/ExDzRmT1z6I
It is my very favourite orchestral mass, and it was wonderful to have an opportunity to sing it again under such enjoyable circumstances.
On the St Francis' Choir Facebook page there is a photo gallery from the day and recordings of the Kyrie and Agnus Dei from the Nelson Mass.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Francis-Choir/58534273651
For those without Facebook access, these recordings have now also been posted on YouTube:
Kyrie: http://youtu.be/-NV4_aRHI-w
Agnus Dei: http://youtu.be/ExDzRmT1z6I
It is my very favourite orchestral mass, and it was wonderful to have an opportunity to sing it again under such enjoyable circumstances.
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Ave maris stella by Edvard Grieg
The tranquil nature of the motet reminded me of the photographs that I had taken of the beautiful lake next to Grieg's home Troldhaugen during a visit to Bergen in June 2004.
After catching a bus to the suburbs of Bergen, it is only a short walk to the Troldhaugen precinct. I remember walking through the front gate and being serenaded by a beautiful young Norwegian girl dressed in a traditional bunad playing a violin (and presumably some of Greig's music). After a short walk down a path in dappled sunlight through a grove of stunningly green birch and beech trees, one first comes to the visitor centre (where the small Troldsalen concert hall is housed) and then it is only a little further to Grieg's house and composer's hut (both overlooking the water) and it is also possible to walk down to the edge of the lake and look up at the tomb which is the final resting place of both Edvard and his wife Nina. I enjoyed sitting in the garden for a time and just looking out over the lake (I seem to recall this may have been interrupted at one point by the predictable Bergen rain!).
It is a beautiful, calm and tranquil place and well worth a visit. Certain areas of the house are open to visitors and you can also look into the composer's hut.
Troldhaugen
The Composer's Hut
Lake Nordås
The Tomb of Edvard and Nina Grieg
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