First Concert of the Year

This last weekend was our first concert of this new school year. It's the typical Choral Showcase with the Combined Choirs at BYU. Men's and Women's chorus started the evening with their combined number and their individual sets. Both have been working really hard and it payed off.

For our set we sang three songs:

- "Alleluia Cognoverunt Discipuli" by William Byrd
- "Abide with Me" arranged by Molly Ijames
- "With Drooping Wings" by Henry Purcell

The first is surprisingly difficult to memorize. I'm not exactly sure why this is, but it could have something to do with all the uneven rests. It actually came off really well, and were all glad that it all came together so well. Byrd is a really amazing composer. We're doing a song of his in Wasatch Chamber Choir.

The arrangement of "Abide with Me," was easy to learn and easy to sing, but what a powerful statement it turned out to be. It means much more to me now that it did in the past. Look up this arrangement.

The last song we sang a cappella without any strings. In this piece, we worked really hard on tuning and phrasing. It was easy to learn but hard to execute. When we took it to performance Dr. Staheli took it much slower than we ever took it in rehearsal. And even though we took much more time in certain places, all of us followed him with incredible flexibility. It was exhilarating to have everyone following something that we'd never practiced. We didn't do it as well the second night, but it was good.

Concert Choir sang just one piece, but it was the Magnificat by Finzi. Holy Cow. It was incredible. They sound like a million bucks. It was the first time I'd heard it, and I was blown away. Kudos to them for working the hardest of all of us. What a miracle.

Our next concert is with the King's Singers at the end of October. We'll be performing a relatively new piece by Eric Whitacre called "The Stolen Child." Tickets go on sale tomorrow! Also, a hello and thank you to "Ian" who came from the University of Utah to see out concert this weekend.