The Chantry Singers have started rehearsing again. I have sung all three pieces in the next concert before, but in each case there’s a catch.
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\nFirstly, the Little Organ Mass<\/i> by Haydn. We are doing this with the extensions to the Gloria by Michael Haydn, who teased his brother’s music out by inserting sections of his own so that it no longer superimposes four lots of words simultaneously. I’ve done this adaptation once before (in Holy Name Church, Manchester) but I’ve done Haydn’s unadapted version many more times and it’s disconcerting to have the extra bits, particularly where a phrase begins as originally composed and then changes tack.
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\nThe Deutsches Magnificat<\/i> by Schütz is still fresh in my mind as I performed it 18 months ago in the Brandon Hill Singers’ final concert. (I was reminded of this again the following day, when we had a work awayday at St. George’s Brandon Hill. As always when I go in there, I wondered why, when the church was made into a concert hall, they didn’t retain the musical instrument that was already there – the organ). This time though we are doing the Magnificat from a different edition with different barring, and I am singing in the first choir rather than the second.
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\nI have sung Kodály’s Missa Brevis<\/i> before, but it was a long time ago. It was also at a service in Ely Cathedral, and so I don’t think I sang the Kyrie or Creed, and certainly not the ‘Ite Missa Est’. It’s pretty substantial for a Missa Brevis (though shorter than Rossini’s Petite Messe Solennelle<\/I>), and lasts a good half-hour on the recording I have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Chantry Singers have started rehearsing again. I have sung all three pieces in the next concert before, but in each case there’s a catch. Firstly, the Little Organ Mass by Haydn. We are doing this with the extensions to … Continue reading