Rehearsals have now started for the Bath Camerata Good Friday concert in Wells Cathedral. The two main pieces I am singing in are Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms and Otce Nas by Janacek. From my point of view, these have a certain amount in common; first, both have a harp accompaniment. Secondly, I haven’t sung either before, and thirdly, I haven’t in fact performed anything in the language of either (Hebrew and Czech, respectively) before!
I can’t say that Czech trips that easily off my tongue but on a first rehearsal I coped rather better with it than with the Hebrew. (I studied the music beforehand but without the words, so that I wouldn’t get pronunciations that were way off fixed in my head). Perhaps because I can relate the words to the meaning rather more easily. I spend odd moments in rehearsal trying to work out which words of the Hebrew text mean what, as much as I can. And I’ve heard more performances of the Janacek and have a recording, so I don’t have to concentrate quite so hard on unfamiliar notes. Also, Bernstein sets a longer text and there’s less repetition of it.
Plenty of repetition in the men’s parts, “Lamahragishu goyim” over and over again. Performed it twice now, and I odn’t think I’ve actually got that section right yet.
Adonai = Lord
Rohim = shepherd (I think that’s right)
Goyim = people (or more particularly, gentiles)
When I heard that bit, I felt like adapting the traditional prayer and giving thanks that I wasn’t a man!
A few other words mean something directly to me: ‘haarets’ is also the name of an Israeli newspaper and ‘nayim’ is cognate with ‘Naomi’. After that, it’s a question of looking for words that occur more than once and matching them to the translation.