Lord Nelson Mass

The plan is that we'll be performing Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass in September 2009. Here is a bit more about this mass (from Wikipedia):

The Missa in Angustiis ("Mass for troubled times") or Nelson Mass (Hob. XXII:11), is one of fourteen masses written by Joseph Haydn.

Haydn's chief biographer, H. C. Robbins Landon, has written that this mass "is arguably Haydn's greatest single composition." Because of a shortage of musicians at the court at that time, it is scored for just strings, trumpets and timpani. Later editors and arrangers added what they perceived to be missing woodwind parts, but the original scoring has again become the accepted choice for modern performances.

Though in 1798, when he wrote this Mass, Haydn's reputation was at its peak, his world was in turmoil. Napoleon had won four major battles with Austria in less than a year. The previous year, in early 1797, his armies had crossed the Alps and threatened Vienna itself. In May of 1798, Napoleon invaded Egypt to destroy Britain's trade routes to the East.

The summer of 1798 was therefore a terrifying time for Austria, and when Haydn finished this Mass, his own title, in the catalogue of his works, was "Missa in Angustiis" or "Mass in Time of Distress." What Haydn didn't know when he wrote the Mass - but what he and his audience heard (perhaps on the very day of the first performance September 15) was that on August 1, Napoleon had been dealt a stunning defeat in the Battle of the Nile by English forces led by Admiral Horatio Nelson. Because of this coincidence, the Mass gradually acquired the nickname "Lord Nelson Mass."

Here are some video samples:
Kyrie
Gloria
Credo (1)
Credo (2)
Credo (3)

Shepherd's Pipe

I discovered a new composer (for me) today - heard this Christmas carol on the radio this morning and thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread!

Have a listen: http://homepage.mac.com/kokopelliphotos_01/videos/iMovieTheater46.html

There is also this version on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfQISWFyyz8


About the composer: John Milford Rutter CBE (born September 24, 1945) is an English composer, choral conductor, editor, arranger and record producer. In 1981 he founded his own choir, the Cambridge Singers, which he conducts and with which he has made many recordings of sacred choral repertoire (including his own works), particularly under his own label Collegium Records. He still lives near Cambridge, but frequently conducts other choirs and orchestras around the world.

In 1980 he was made an honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and in 1988 a Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians. In 1996 the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate of Music upon him in recognition of his contribution to church music.

I think our choir would just love to sing the Shepherd's Pipe!

City Choir ends with a Hallelujah!

(The following is x-posted from The Chorister)

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City Choir had our final rehearsal last night.

I say 'rehearsal' although it wasn't really. We'd already sung our last concert (the Bach Christmas Oratorio), so last night we were instructed to bring along 1) our Messiah scores, 2) a plate of food to share, and 3) our wits.

The first presented a problem. I don't own a Messiah score. I've never actually performed the entire work, to my best recollection - and what I have performed from Messiah I have sung as an Alto. Yeah - more sight-singing! As if I needed more, with all the work I'm doing at St Pauls!

The second did not present a problem. I bought six punnets of luscious strawberries, a block each of dark, milk and white chocolate, and dipped the strawberries. Here's a photo of the outcome:





Of course, I couldn't eat any of them - or even lick the bowl afterwards - due to my being one year chocolate-free. Now that was hard, but I prevailed, and can still say I am chocolate-free - four months down and going strong!

The third - well, I can't say I ever have my wits about me, as I'm usually exhausted, but I do try!

Messiah was fun. I still don't understand why more of the women weren't willing (as I was) to try singing the tenor and bass solos at pitch. They weren't that low! Really! And it can be fun to sing a couple of octaves down from where we normally hang out! But some of us were willing and able, and David didn't seem to mind too much. He didn't stop us! Hehehe.

The spread of food was awesome. People really excelled themselves. Yum. I must admit I have a weakness for meringues and anything involving strawberries, and both were featured in one dish, which met with my solid approval. My tastebuds were revelling. There were lovely slices and cakes and truffles and mince pies - and all of it appetizing. And almost all of it disappeared when break time was called. Washed down with wine, beer and juice. Lovely.

After break, when we were all feeling well-oiled, it was time for the Hallelujah Chorus. Lots of fun. We blasted it out! Yay! Then home time. Boo! Hiss! In fact, so much Boo and Hiss that a small group of us decided to go socialise some more, and went off to the Octagon for an hour or so. And why not? The night was too young!

So City Choir has finished for 2008. It has been my first year with this choir, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my time and look forward to 2009. Everyone has made me very welcome, we have performed some excellent works to a very high standard, and I have been proud not only of my own achievements but of those who I have been honoured to sing and work with. What more can any chorister ask for?

Party Pictures

What a wonderful social event! We sang arias, recitatives and choruses from Handel's Messiah, made merry with food, drink and good company, then finished the evening by singing the Hallelujah chorus. We were pleased that Philippa, Nicole, Kate and Arthur of the Southern Sinfonia could join us for the evening. And of course, Lyndsey (alto) is also Librarian for the Southern Sinfonia.

Here is a picture of David, Lyndsey and Philippa, their merry chatting interrupted to smile for the birdie in the camera.

For more pictures of the happy crowd, view the album at http://picasaweb.google.com/LetaLab/CityOfDunedinChoirEndOfYearParty9December2008#.

Party tonight

Would you believe it? We have come to the end of another exciting choral year. Our concerts went down like a house on fire! You could tell from the rave reviews we got; have a look at the Choir's website news page.

Highlights of 2008:

Proms Concert with the Southern Sinfonia
Franz Schubert's Mass No. 5 in A Flat
South African and New Zealand national anthems at the rugby test
Carl Orff's Carmina Burana
Elgar's Dream of Gerontius
Bach's Christmas Oratorio

We can be very proud of a busy and successful year. So come along tonight all ye City of Dunedin Choir choristers, it's party-time! Bring along your Messiah scores, a plate of nibbles, and don't forget the party hats! Also bring a camera and snap the fun to share those magic moments with everyone.

Chatterbugs!

The internet has a whole stack of chat clients that can be used for talking to your friends online - at little or no cost.

Skype: Phoning home without the cost

Skype is one of the better-known products out there. It's actually an online phone client, not a chat program. You can use it to talk to people with landlines, computers and mobile phones all over the world. It's brilliant. I know a lot of people in City Choir already use Skype, and find it saves them heaps of money on overseas calls, keeping in touch with their families and friends.

Chat clients

Chat clients are great for gasbagging with friend overseas. Most of my friends are in Adelaide and Melbourne, and I chat online with them all the time, keeping up with gossip and other information on what they're doing. It's informal and easy.

I'll give a run-down on some of the more common clients, providing links to the client websites.

I use Meebo a fair bit. Meebo enables you to have all your chatting programs in the one place. So if you have ICQ, MSNChat and GoogleTalk, by logging in to Meebo you can chat to all your different friends on different chat programs with the one login. As a freelancer, I have found this particularly useful - its a great networking tool.

Then there's GoogleTalk. The advantage of GoogleTalk is, of course, that as bloggers with Gmail accounts, you already have access to GoogleTalk. Yay!

ICQ is the Granddaddy of chat clients, and has been around for, like, ever. It's still good after all these years.

In the end, it just depends what you prefer to use. Like I said, I use Meebo, and everyone who has a blogger account has access to GoogleTalk already. Google does some nice bundling of products, although they are getting a bit too evil for my liking.

Why chat?

It's free, it's easy, it's fun, and you don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar with your spelling. Or your grammar. On chat, it doesn't matter. Chat is a great way to keep in touch, make plans for the afternoon, or discuss the next week's meeting or rehearsal.

Studies show that chat, rather than email, is the internet mode of communication of the future. The next generation are dropping email, and chatting and texting instead. Why? Because it's fast, easy, and direct.

Chatting with fellow City Choir choristers

Why not? Download a chat client by visiting the chat web page (I've provided the links above) and hunt up your fellow choristers. Drop them a line. Wage war about Bach and Beethoven, or organise to meet for a coffee. It's up to you!

A Russian Requiem

"Verdi Requiem in Moscow September 2008"

The words sprang at me last year from the newsletter of the World Festival Choir. St Petersburg! Moscow! Verdi! I could piggyback all this on a visit to UK grandchildren! All I had to do was find a few hundred euros over the next year! I sent the deposit to headquarters in Norway and blew the dust off my practice tapes.

A year later singers from around the world emerged into a grey St Petersburg. Most were from Scandinavia, many from Europe and the USA; sixty-three from Australia, thirteen from New Zealand.

At breakfast we slid filled rolls into handbags for lunch. Water had to be bought, for drinking and teeth-cleaning.

With a free day, we stoked up on roubles - 17 to the NZ dollar - and headed for the splendour of The Hermitage - the first of our two visits. Back at the hotel we had no sooner kicked off our shoes than it was time to put them on again for the first of four rehearsals - up to five hours duration, the last on the afternoon of the concert.

The 80-strong Academic Symphony Orchestra of St Petersburg Philharmonic was in full swing as we shuffled upstairs to wait. The Shostakovic Hall was white, pillared, with a thousand elegant red chairs and eight huge chandeliers. The orchestra took up the whole stage except for five narrow planks at the back. Surely not! Oh yes! Two hundred and thirty bodies were to squeeze onto these! Not a hope of sitting down in the long solo bits. Grace, from rural NSW, and I nabbed a spot on the floor in front where we wouldn't wobble, although Grace did have a tuba in her left ear!

Two young women took our warm-ups. Then we met Maestro Alexander Dimitri. A quietly-spoken, patient man, he took us over and over the beginning, the Libera Me, the Sanctus. Four hours later we staggered back to the hotel for panadeine and port!

Organised sightseeing was fitted around rehearsals. St Petersburg is 10% water - river and canals everywhere. We admired the golden domes of the churches, the grace and symmetry of the old buildings; not the tangle of wires overhead or the interminable roadworks.

A roaming phone proved invaluable and birthday calls came clearly to the back of the bus from Auckland and London. We descended into the earth to the Metro - from a platform flanked by many pairs of black doors. No tracks, no train. A roar, doors open, you cram into the space. We had been warned to beware of thieves so clung tightly to our bags.

Language was a barrier at times. We climbed on a city bus for what should have been a simple journey but ended with us walking the length of Nevski Prospect - the longest street on the planet!

Our first concert received prolonged applause. The Russian soloists were exquisite, but after our long afternoon rehearsal we were united in agony!

Back at the hotel somehow we found energy to join the post-concert frivolity - with items performed by various nationalities.

Next day it was good to be on an eight-hour train ride to Moscow. The amazingly green countryside slid by with glimpses of villages, rivers, dachas, vegie gardens, woodpiles. We'd brought our own food, supplemented by Russian tea from an ancient samovar. The restaurant car with its pretty blue and white curtains served Borsch, coffee, vodka and meals.

At 9pm Moscow's floodlit towers greeted us. Another trek to the bus; another hour to the hotel; registration for over 200 people a nightmare.

Our hotels were comfortable and boasted many restaurants, but we found the service variable. Few staff, long waits; sometimes the restaurant would close mid-course! However, we joined the ten million on the underground and discovered wonderful stations and a large attractive eatery serving cheap Russian food.

Inevitably with such a large group, we were always waiting - for the buses, for food, for a seat, for a loo and a few succumbed to illness and coughs.

Rehearsals and sightseeing meant long days, but the sights were worth it. We marvelled at the churches and paved streets inside the Kremlin walls. Red Square in bright sunshine was so different from the usual gloomy portrayal. Our hotel overlooked a vast motorway lined with lush parkland. Despite an exellent public transport system, cars crawled incessantly towards the distant crop of "highscrapers". Streets, surprisingly, were very clean.

The Tchaikovski Concert Hall was a steeply-raked semi-circle of navy and cream. The huge advertisements made us feel excited and privileged. No more space - this time we peered between double basses of the Moscow Academic Orchestra – but the performance seemed better. Our soloists were stunning and it was a thrill to be with singers from all over the world.

Flying out from Domodedevo airport next day I felt a surge of relief and satisfaction. Back at home the latest newsletter from the World Festival Choir sits on my desk. "Vilnius, European Capital of Culture, Lithuania 2009"! Agony fades, but ecstasy lives on!

Soloists: Veronika Djioeva, soprano, Elena Maksimova, mezzo, Ahmed Agadi, tenor, Nicolai Didenko, bass

Contact may be made to
World Festival Choir, PO Box 2018 N-3202, Sandefjord, Norway
email wfc@wfc.no http://www.wfc.no
or Lynda Hunter,26 Orr Cres, Lower Hutt hunt@paradise.net.nz

by Diane Wales (Alto)