(no subject)
I just have to say that I got my National Youth Choir music in the mail a couple of days ago, and I just looked at some of it for the first time tonight, and I'm so excited!!! Oh my goodness. I love love LOVE learning new music, which is good because there are 23 (twenty-three) pieces. *dances around*
One of them I already know, having done it in BCYC a few years back. But I had forgotten how magnificently gorgeous it is. ("Agneau de Dieu" by Rupert Lang in case you're wondering) Just... it makes me melt (and it will even more so when it is sung by a f*ing fantastic amazing amazing choir). The long phrasing, and the gorgeous crunchy notes in the chords, and there's a quartet that sings above the choir, and this lovely atmospheric ending including a floaty tenor solo... *sigh* This is what I live for. Really. It's hard to believe it was written for a competition five days before the deadline for recorded submissions because his choir didn't have a piece in French or by a Canadian composer. :D :D
AND! AND! There's a really long spiritual with incredibly hard rhythms, and I say that as someone who is usually good at rhythmic reading... and, okay, this is the best one of all (so far).... Alice in Wonderland. As a song.
It's called "Alice" and it's by Sara Quartel and the time signatures are NUTS. It's SSA, and it's going to be so fun! It switches between 4/4 and 6/8 quite a bit, but there are also sections that switch between 3/4 and 5/8, and lots of random bars of 2/4 and 7/8 and 3/8 thrown in. Holy cow, challenging! I'm so excited! The instruction at the beginning is "playful, like a caucus race" and the chorus is about how they're all mad in here, and at one point the altos get carried away and keep going down a chromatic scale instead of stopping and the sopranos have to *ahem* at them. And we get to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat." XD There needs to be a larger emoticon with which to express my feelings. XD XD
That's all the music I've had time to go through so far; expect periodic blog postings with more gushing.
One of them I already know, having done it in BCYC a few years back. But I had forgotten how magnificently gorgeous it is. ("Agneau de Dieu" by Rupert Lang in case you're wondering) Just... it makes me melt (and it will even more so when it is sung by a f*ing fantastic amazing amazing choir). The long phrasing, and the gorgeous crunchy notes in the chords, and there's a quartet that sings above the choir, and this lovely atmospheric ending including a floaty tenor solo... *sigh* This is what I live for. Really. It's hard to believe it was written for a competition five days before the deadline for recorded submissions because his choir didn't have a piece in French or by a Canadian composer. :D :D
AND! AND! There's a really long spiritual with incredibly hard rhythms, and I say that as someone who is usually good at rhythmic reading... and, okay, this is the best one of all (so far).... Alice in Wonderland. As a song.
It's called "Alice" and it's by Sara Quartel and the time signatures are NUTS. It's SSA, and it's going to be so fun! It switches between 4/4 and 6/8 quite a bit, but there are also sections that switch between 3/4 and 5/8, and lots of random bars of 2/4 and 7/8 and 3/8 thrown in. Holy cow, challenging! I'm so excited! The instruction at the beginning is "playful, like a caucus race" and the chorus is about how they're all mad in here, and at one point the altos get carried away and keep going down a chromatic scale instead of stopping and the sopranos have to *ahem* at them. And we get to sing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Bat." XD There needs to be a larger emoticon with which to express my feelings. XD XD
That's all the music I've had time to go through so far; expect periodic blog postings with more gushing.