Bristol Choral Society’s 2018-19 season, themed around ‘War and Peace’, ended with reflection on hope and new beginnings in Bristol Cathedral. I’d never sung (or I think even heard) Copland’s In the Beginning before. It’s a setting of the Genesis Creation story for unaccompanied choir and mezzo soloist. It’s a pity that Copland didn’t write anything much else for choir, as it’s a very exciting piece to sing with varied writing, despite a considerable economy of material. Copland’s trademark fourths and fifths are much in evidence. (I will forgive him the passage where the 2nd sopranos sing the same note some 50-odd times in succession, as there is rhythmic interest to compensate.)
I turned out to be the only person in the choir who’d sung Lauridsen’s Chansons des Roses before (apart from the final one, which I hadn’t sung). This didn’t stand me in as good stead as it might have done, as this time we kept to the conductor’s tempo markings rather than the more generous speeds at which I’d done it back in 2005, and I realised that I was probably never all that familiar with these settings.
We ended with arrangements of spirituals, both the familiar set by Tippett and a number by Richard Allain, mostly made originally for the National Youth Choir. These latter had some tricky corners which had to be mastered. Some were familiar melodies but there were also relative rarities such as Go down in the lonesome valley (again, I wonder whether the ‘saviour’ who is to be met there was someone from the Underground Railroad?) My favourite was the final one we sang: ‘Tis Me, O Lord with its gradual buildup into a denser texture as more different voices were used.
Although I can’t sing in the two autumn concerts, the 2019-20 season promises the excitement of a recording, a new rehearsal venue and my first performance of the Symphony of Psalms.