Elijah!

Elijah,was a famous prophet and a wonder-worker in the northern kingdom of Israel^[3] during the reign of Ahab (9th century BC), according to the Biblical Books of Kings as well as the Qur'an. According to the Books of Kings, Elijah defended the worship of Yahweh over that of the Phoenician god Baal; he raised the dead, brought fire down from the sky, and was taken up in a whirlwind (either accompanied by a chariot and horses of flame or riding in it).^[4] In the Book of Malachi, Elijah's return is prophesied "before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord,"^[5] making him a harbinger of the Messiah and the eschaton in various faiths that revere the Hebrew Bible. Derivative references to Elijah appear in the Talmud, Mishnah, the New Testament, and the Qur'an.
In Judaism, Elijah's name is invoked at the weekly Havdalah ritual that marks the end of Shabbat, and Elijah is invoked in other Jewish customs, among them the Passover seder and the Brit milah (ritual circumcision). He appears in numerous stories and references in the Haggadah and rabbinic literature, including the Babylonian Talmud.
In Christianity, the New Testament describes how both Jesus and John the Baptist are compared with Elijah, and on some occasions, thought by some to be manifestations of Elijah, and Elijah appears with Moses during the Transfiguration of Jesus.
In Islam, the Qur'an describes Elijah as a great and righteous prophet of God, and one who powerfully preached against the worship of Ba'al.

(the above is re printed from Wikipedia and I can't believe the amount of hyper texting that is going on here!)

So we now know that Elijah is a major prophet with great impact.  It is this story that Mendelssohn sets to music and this story that will be performed by the Winnipeg Philharmonic Choir and members of the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra  under the direction of Yuri Klaz for their 90th Anniversary Gala - a major event in itself!
I have read that it is often performed in English speaking countries and it was first performed in England and became very popular there but I cannot say that my city of Winnipeg has been a frequent Elijah performer.  I have heard it only twice here and have never performed it myself.  I am enjoying learning a new work and look forward to the Feb. 24 performance. 
Like in Bach's Passions the chorus gets to act out the parts of "the crowd" so in the famous battle between Jehovah and Ba'al it is the chorus who cries out, "Ba'al we cry to thee, Ba'al we cry to thee, hear and answer us!  Hear and Answer!  This can feel hokey in rehearsals if you are not quite into it but once it is put together with soloists and orchestra I am sure we will be in the right mood to cry out to our Ba'al begging for hm to show himself!  Speaking of soloists, they will be Tracy Dahl, Kirsten Schellenberg, Kurt Lehman, and Greg Dahl.
Other portions are a joy to rehearse and I can get into the mood for them even in rehearsal  These are the comforting pieces such as, "He Watches Over Israel",  "He That Shall Endure to the End", and "Lift thine Eyes"
The copies we are using are old and ragged so that one can frequently hear choristers whispering,"Oh, %hit" as half of their pages land on the floor.  So on the "To Do" list this week is repair my copy so no more bending over to retrieve lost pages, finish writing in the bar numbers, and rehearse a few of the trickier parts so I will be completely ready to go by the next rehearsal.  In addition to being ragged our scores also have German and English text, and not written in the most clear manner, so you will have choristers singing out "Send" while that may look like an English work it is actually part of the German text so don't sing it!  Sometimes your voice part will only have the German and you have to look up or down to another voice part to get your lyrics.  I want to go over this at home this week too so that I can sing confidently from now on.

It is a treat to sing with the Philharmonic choir because there is no pressure there for me to lead the section and in fact there are so many others on whom I am leaning. 

A More Profound Messiah

Ivars really gets into it!

Ivars Taurins

I have just returned from my first rehearsal with Ivars Taurins. Maestro Taurins is the conductor of Tafelmusik and a Handel expert.  In Toronto he dresses up as Handel when he conducts it, I don`t  think he will do that here.  The first time I saw him conduct was in the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra 2011/12 season where he offered a complete evening of Handel. Little excerpts from this work and that, orchestral and choral, it was the best MCO concert I have attended. From that moment on I was looking forward to working with him.

We have 4 rehearsals of the Messiah with him prior to our two performances with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
.
During the rehearsal today I experienced joyous laughter and such profound emotion I had to work hard not to cry.  First off I have to say that it was so touching to find out that he likes altos. He thought we had important parts to sing and had us come out in lines that have never been pointed out to me before, and I have sung the Messiah for more than a handful of times.!( Although I can't compete with Ivars who has performed it over a hundred times and is still excited still inspirational about it.) For example in the "His Yoke is Easy Chorus" he said every line the altos sing is important. What? Us? OOOO La La.  At one point he called our sustained A in another chorus the rib cage of the whole section.  Yes, the altos are supporting the whole choir for those 5 beats.   Go Altos!

I have never worked with a conductor who is so animated! He swoops and scampers across the floor encouraging us to create life out of the notes on the page. He tells us the Messiah is an attempt to bring mystery and prophecy back. The whole work is obliquely telling us there was a prophecy and it came true. Obliquely because there are no characters or narrator to tell us but the orchestra, soloists,and chorus work together  to tell this story.

The images he gives us to tell the story are like no other. When we come to the word "grief" in "Surely" he tells us to sing it as though we are Italian Grandmas, who have lost their precious grandson in the shopping mall, wailing with fist in  mouth.  Okay, yes, we can do that!   When he wants you to strike a note and then gradually diminuendo he tells us that "this is the moment the pelican hits the plate glass window and slowly slides down"  After he gave us this image each section could perform this beautifully.  SPLAT, scare the audience and then slowly fade out. Of course each image is acted out with grandiose gestures and a highly animated face.   In the "Glory to God" chorus he tells us we start off mezzo piano as the heavens have just opened and the angels are far away then they come and scare the shepherds while the orchestra flutters along with angel wings and the chorus sings the steady Peace on Earth.  and then at the end we diminuendo because of course we are ascending back into heaven.  Lovely.  Every technical bit of information he gives comes with a picture (Pelican, blue whale for a swell etc) and a reason for that particular action.

 Another one of my favourites is "For Unto us a Child is Born" which he has dubbed the golfer's chorus with all the shouts of  'For" "Fore" Fore".  He instructs us here to draw a heart above the quarter note on the word "us" when we sing "unto uuus"   and over "a son is given" to remind us to sing like loving and parents.  What a beautiful way to mark a swell on a note in a song such as this.  We are proud parents who repeat what our spouse has just said,( as spouses do), 'yes, unto us a son is born"  "Yes, unto us a son is given",  A loving dialogue.  sigh. When your voice section gets to that part he shapes a heart with his hands and holds it towards you.

Ivars provides so many profound moments of text interpretation you feel as though you are in a play.  After his instructions I felt as though I needed to go and ponder it for half an hour instead of applying it immediately.  Ivars Taurins breathes new life into the Messiah making even the rehearsal a profound spiritual experience.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-fr5An5v3o   This is a link to Ivars discussing the Messiah. He recorded Messiah with Tafelmusik recently and it is on You Tube so I encourage you to play it or buy this recording - it is a beauty

Voice Lesson: So Much to do; so Little Time

Today I am attending my second session with my voice teacher who will attempt to steer me in the right direction so that neither I nor my misguided conductor will regret that I said "yes" to doing the Alto solo mentioned in my previous posting.  Yes, I know this blog is called Choral Confessions but my having to sing these few solo notes have bumped the entire choral section off of my radar screen.    Really, am I going to be able to enjoy this concert at all? 

Now I have not taken a voice lesson in a long time and I was a bit nervous about my first lesson but my knowledgeable teacher just had me dive right in and began to offer advice.  "Why are you punching every note?  How do I answer that?  I am not normally an aggressive person but apparently when I sing I turn into a prize fighter?  This does not make for a very nice sound and is not like Maureen Forrester at all. Who knew?  All I have to do is stop punching the notes.  As for not liking the way my phrases end she has this to offer.  "how do you stop your sound? "  "I don't know" is not the right answer.  The correct answer to this is "by inhaling."  So she advised me to simply inhale when I want the sound to stop.  That is all fine and good but it also happend that I am not breathing from the right place, so inhaling and exhaling have to be re-learned. (Oh is that all?)  Then there is the recitative that has a note I don't so much hit as 'scoop up.'  So she tried to teach me to put down my scoop and go on the attack.  Actually this had been frustrating me before I ever got to my lesson and her advice was clear and rather easy to follow.  I was saying the initial consonant on the preceding note and then the vowel on the right note which made for the Scoop Sound.   So after she pruned at me for 29 minutes the last minute managed to get a fairly acceptable sound out of me.   I am hoping that this week I will be able to remember at least one of these things without her having to remind me.  I can choose from the following:

1.  Don't breathe the way I normally breathe.

2.  Refrain from punching; try bow across a cello image instead.

3.  Inhale when I wish to stop sound.

4.  Leave scoop at home.

When rehearsing at home I find I can get an acceptable sound about 40% of the time.  I don't think I will be lucky enough to have one of these times occur at the concert  when I will have to throw up, I mean, throw my nervous tension into this mixture.  Today I will probably get an additional 4 bad habits to break and the  Concert is only one month from today!

Plucked from the Choir

Oh, Oh. "Why did I say yes?" When my conductor's voice on the phone said, "May I ask you a favour? Could you please sing the Alto solo for the Saint-Saens Christmas Oratorio?" All he heard from me was silence. My heart pounded my stomach lurched and then after a few seconds I could hear myself saying, "yes."
Now, two days later, I am thinking, "What have I done?"   Obviously the choir is under severe budget constraints in order to pluck me from the choir to sing alongside professional soloists. Also obviously there are no big arias, but if my stomach gurglings are any indication you would think I were singing the Queen of Night aria at Carnegie Hall. I alternate from the ego boosting thought of, "I can't believe he would choose me" to the deflating, "I will sound like a complete idiot up there!"

Maureen

For someone who has been a solid choral singer for 40 years I have become an expert at that. Choral singing is NOT solo singing, I can't see how the skill set will transfer over. Of course, I have played soloist in my living room, piano room many a time. Much the way a  9-year old prances around Brittany Spears style I am there, score in hand, belting out Aria after Aria with Renee Flemming or Cecilia Bartoli, or Anne Sofie van Otter or Maureen Forrester accompanying me in the background. They are great partners for me because when I take a breath Maureen keeps the sound going, when I lose the key Renee finds it for me. Our phrasing is sublime. Singing solo lines without these girls in the background is like riding a wild horse without saddle or reins. I will fall off after the first bar. I know this because I have already practiced with myself and I need a breath after every bar, that is when I sing imagining I am in front of the audience. If I just sit on the couch, slouching and singing casually along I can hold a phrase quite nicely. Stand me up again with soloist posture and my voice will not cooperate. It knows I am not a soloist. "Get back in the choir where you belong!", it shouts. It refuses to provide me with my entry note, preferring to be led there by the beautiful Anne Sofie instead. It will not get a full sound out, it refuses to hold the tone from start of note to end of a 3-beats, it sabotages every attempt at creating something beautiful. "Oh, Girls, we used to make such beautiful music together, why must I be thrust out from you and stand alone?"

Anne Sofie

Renee

Said by No Alto Ever

I thought I would provide another attempt at defining an alto using the approach of a list of things that were never said by any Alto. If you hear these things mentioned below coming from a choir they are usually coming from the soprano section. If you hear it from the alto section you can rest assured the culprit is really a mezzo-soprano.

1. That note is too low for me. 2. Could the sopranos please join us in bar 34? 3. I wish there were more unison parts to this song. 4. I need to apply my lipstick before I can sing this properly. (flip of hair) 5. I don't like using my chest voice. 6. I would rather sing this duet with a tenor than a bass. 7. The sopranos are singing too quietly. 8. Please don't ask me to help out the tenors in their beautiful tenor line on page 4. 9. What page are we on? (this is only and always heard from the Bass section) 10. Can we sing this in a different key?

Plans Change

Summer has past and in that season I rehearsed the Bruckner (mentioned in previous posting) at home and then as the day when rehearsals with the choir were to begin I realized that I would not have the energy to start back to work, manage my household and join this choir. So after erasing all the previous markings in my score, buying the CD and spending hours rehearsing, I had to back out. This happens in a chorister's life. Plans change.

Just because I said good-bye to Bruckner does not mean that I am not rehearsing anything. I am back with the church choir and we are rehearsing Camille Saint-Saens' Christmas Oratorio and Mozart's Te Deum. Two short easy works that we should have no problem mastering. Although the performance is for First Advent we have already started rehearsing it. This is a "come one come all" choir so we are in that lovely note pounding stage. One voice part attempting to sing their line with the piano pounding only their notes and the other voice parts whispering and laughing until it is their turn. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6t5rkg46kc This is a link to the Mozart which is truly delightful, written by little Wolfie while only a young teenager. The Christmas Oratorio (published in 1877)was written by the parisian born Camille Saint-Saens who was also a very talented youngster. He played a Mozart piece, along with Beethoven and Handel at his first public concert which was given at the age of 10. he wrote his first piano piece at the age of 3. Oh boy! As an adult he taught music and counted Faure as one of his pupils. Camille was born in 1835 and died in 1921 so he was born in the romantic period and died in the flapper times. He himself was a great admirer of Bach and Mozart so I am happy we are performing his work together with a Mozart piece. Monsieur Saint-Saens lived through the turbulent French revolution spending some of that time in London as he surely would have been part of the elite that the Occupy Demonstraters would have killed had he stayed in France. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2Ng-_AVMbw is a link to the closing chorus of this Oratorio.

In the Beginning

This summer I am spending time rehearsing several pieces for the upcoming season. Mendelssohn's Elijah. Bruckner's Mass No. 2 in E minor and Stephen Chatmann's Songs of Remembrance. I have not sung any of these works before so I thought i would share my learning methods. After I pick up the scores I spend time erasing all the previous markings as I find the markings of others extremely annoying, although slightly entertaining. For example one day, during a Sunday worship service, our conductor could hardly contain his laughter as he turned the page of his score at a point where at the page turn there was a key change which rendered the tone written out from a G flat to a F sharp. In the score was written in all caps. SAME BLOODY NOTE!. In any case, funny or not, I delete them all. My own scores are full of markings that are meaningful to me but I abhor the markings of others. For example, I despise the cute eyeglasses that many choristers doodle into their music when they want to remind themselves to watch the conductor. I prefer to write "Look" or "Watch" or "Bill" the conductor's name. My scores, however, would drive others crazy with their detailed quotes from the various conductors I have worked with. For example: unravel the words - William Baerg in my Bach Mass in B minor score, from the same score comes sing with quiet pathos In my Messiah score I have written - a Melismas should not be stressful it should sound fun Still, the eraser must come out for the markings of others. I will often do the erasing while having the work play on my Cd player so I can begin to get the feel of the music into my head. This means, of course, that I have had to purchase the Cd's ahead of time. I listened to the Bruckner last night with score in hand and find I was not particularly moved by it, and found none of it very singable. Would love to hear from anyone who has performed this work who can assure me that it does get better as one gets into it. I will continue to play the Cd's at home or in the car whenever my teenagers allow, which is when they are not around. The car ride driving kids TO their activities has their radio station playing but as soon as they jump out Mendelssohn CD is cranked up. During this phase of rehearsal I will also be using Cyberbass.com to learn my alto line. I rarely pound it out on my piano first as I am not that skilled in counting out rhythms so better for me to rely on cyberbass. This time however, cyberbass has let me down as they do not have the Bruckner. I also like to read about the composer's life during the time of the writing of the piece which I feel really helps me get into the rehearsals and the performances. I have read a fair bit about Felix before but do not know anything about Anton so I should get a book from the library about him. I have played the Mendelssohn Elijah on my CD a few times and find that even the pieces I have not heard before stick in my ear better than the Bruckner so I think learning the Mendelssohn will be less challenging for me than the other. I have not begun to rehearse the Chatman which came to me as a photocopied pages paper clipped together which I shall have to get bound in order to use. So to do: 1. Bind the Chatman 2. Get book on Bruckner's life 3. Rehearse Mendelssohn on Cyberbass 4. Pound out Chatman and Bruckner on piano 5. Listen to CD's of all 3 works