Ut Lucifer lux oriens ipsum solem preveniens. . .
Translated - "Bringing light, like the Morningstar before the rising sun." - Ave cuius conceptio, by Nicholas Ludford.
Adventures in culture! Attended the British Choir Festival at the National Cathedral. Lead honors to the Choir of New College, Oxford, along with the Choir of Saint Thomas Church, New York City and the Choir of the National Cathedral. Lovely, lovely fun. And a packed house, too, which is impressive in a house the size of National Cathedral.
Not really up on sacred choral music anymore - been. . . ouch, nearly a quarter century since the Duke Chorale and the choir and chorus at Science and Math. Even with my limited experience, though, this was a really amazing bunch of singers. Each choir did a couple of numbers, with the three choirs combining for two numbers. My favorite (and apparently the choirs', as they used it for the encore, was the Spem in alium numquam habui, by Thomas Tallis. Like the Ligeti Lux Aeterna (which I got to do with the Chorale), it's a piece for 16 parts, massively complex, wonderful when done correctly. Very different piece, in that Tallis doesn't appear to have been insane (which was my definite opinion of Ligeti, way back when), but the same sense of magic when all the parts finally meld together and the themes all join and resolve.
The treble soloist for the Choir of New College on the Christus Vincit was scary, scary good. High, pure voice just soaring through the Cathedral. It was. . . amazing.
All in all? I love this town.
Adventures in culture! Attended the British Choir Festival at the National Cathedral. Lead honors to the Choir of New College, Oxford, along with the Choir of Saint Thomas Church, New York City and the Choir of the National Cathedral. Lovely, lovely fun. And a packed house, too, which is impressive in a house the size of National Cathedral.
Not really up on sacred choral music anymore - been. . . ouch, nearly a quarter century since the Duke Chorale and the choir and chorus at Science and Math. Even with my limited experience, though, this was a really amazing bunch of singers. Each choir did a couple of numbers, with the three choirs combining for two numbers. My favorite (and apparently the choirs', as they used it for the encore, was the Spem in alium numquam habui, by Thomas Tallis. Like the Ligeti Lux Aeterna (which I got to do with the Chorale), it's a piece for 16 parts, massively complex, wonderful when done correctly. Very different piece, in that Tallis doesn't appear to have been insane (which was my definite opinion of Ligeti, way back when), but the same sense of magic when all the parts finally meld together and the themes all join and resolve.
The treble soloist for the Choir of New College on the Christus Vincit was scary, scary good. High, pure voice just soaring through the Cathedral. It was. . . amazing.
All in all? I love this town.