The Choral Music Thread

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 4:55pm

So yes, I know this is a Broadway Messageboard so there isn't very much appreciation for the more classical choral tradition. I am hoping there is at least one other person whom this interests. In one of the chorales I am in at my college we are doing this beautiful arrangement of Ave Maria by Franz Biebl. If any of you have heard Chanticleer perform this is the Ave Maria they do. We took this piece to state Competition my senior year of high school. It's hard to think of how difficult a piece of music it is because I know it so well now. When we first pulled it out last week to rehearse everything came back like it had ust been a month or two since I had last sung it. This is one of my favorite choral pieces I have ever sung. It's just so beautiful! Some other favorites I have sung are Chichester Psalms by Bernstein, See the Chariot at Hand-Vaughn Williams, Set Me As A Seal-Rene Clausen, Sing Me to Heaven-(forget who it is by though) and there are many many more but I just want someone to share my love of choral music with. Is anyone out there?!

Updated On: 11/13/04 at 04:55 PM

[Broadway Matt]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 4:58pm

I loooooove me some Chanticleer! And I looooooove me some good choral music. I've always been a fan of a good classical Mass or a nice Requiem to bring the family to. Faure's is at the top of my list.

[judy_in_disguise]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 5:01pm

What a coincidence- I'm about to head out to choral ensemble rehearsal!

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 5:01pm

I was huge into choir in high school and half of college. I miss singing choral music very much.

"See the Chariot at Hand" by Ralph Vaughn Williams was one of our region choir competition songs. We also did something by Rene Clausen--can't recall.

My favorite composer/arranger by far was John Rutter.

[Plum]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 5:04pm

I miss singing in choir, but I don't miss dealing with the people in choir. I keep telling myself that when I wonder why I haven't sung in 5 years. Updated On: 11/9/04 at 05:04 PM

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 5:06pm

I was in the Indianapolis Children's Choir from 5th until 8th grade, and then was in the Indianapolis Youth Chorale (Basically ICC for high school) for two of my four years in high school. On top of which I did school choir, and the musicals and plays. I was busy, but there is just something so glorious about choral music. I also enjoy most Moses Hogan spirituals. Unfortunately, he died about two years ago now. So young and so talented. It really was unfortunate.

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 5:14pm

This thread was calling my name. I've been in choirs my WHOLE life and I love it. Which, is why I wanted to be a music ed major. If I had only known how hard it was going to be...
I am going to say John Rutter is also my favorite composer. But, I like doing the fun Moses Hogan stuff too. My favorite peice I have ever performed was Mozart's Coronation Mass. BEAUTIFUL!!! Funny enough, my least favorite would be Faure's Requiem because it was difficult to sing.
I've never hear the Ralph Vaughn Williams (also one of my favorites) piece you are talking about. But I have sung "Set Me as A Seal" and it is absolutely gorgeous.

Man, I am such a nerd...

[M J R]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 5:41pm

son_of_a_gunn_25 - I know / have sung every single piece you mentioned in your first post. All beautiful. Sing Me to Heaven is by Daniel Gawthrop.

EDIT - I was lucky enough to be the debut soloist of a Moses Hogan piece called "Jesus Lay Your Head in the Window" with Moses conducting in 1998. He was an amazing man.

Updated On: 11/9/04 at 05:41 PM

[M J R]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 6:07pm

I'm also a big fan of the choral music by an Estonian composer named Arvo Pärt.

[Dollypop]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 8:57pm

I love choral music! I sing in the church choir and love to sing Mozart's vocal music. I guess my favorite piece is his REQUIEM. However his "Ave Verum Corpus" is so sublime I have tears in my eyes every time we perform it. The music makes me feel like I'm touching Heaven. Perhaps that because of the experience I had in Salzburg about 15 years ago. I was attending a choral concert in a lovely church. As the choir began the "Ave Verum", the setting sun came through the rear windows and illuminated the huge silver crucifix that stood behind the altar. It created an almost miraculous glow and seemed to illustrate the Latin lyric. It gives me goosebumps just tot hink of it.

Has anyone ever heard Mozart's "Ave Maria"? It's written for female voices and is quite beautiful. Why isn't it recorded more often?

By the way, I've just been informed that I am going solo on the Feast of the Epiphany again. Somehow the congregation likes the rendition I do of "Some Children See Him". Oddly, I'm not that crazy about the carol.

Posted: 11/9/04 at 9:33pm

I used to love choir! Then I came to NJ and began attending school where I currently do, and attending all the possible choirs... it sucks when one has such a ridiculously hypocritical, dumb, psychotic, mean, rude, obnoxious, moron as a choral director. I cannot stand this woman... complete lunatic! She has completely turned me off of a love of choir music. I wish there was some way to regain the love.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 9:44pm

A great composer of choral music, is ERIC WHITAKER (sp?). I have his cd and it has some of the most gorgeous choral music ever.

[OneBlazeOfGlory]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 9:58pm

The women's choir at my school is working on a 4 part a capella rendition of 'Ave Maria'... from what I have heard it is gorgeous. Otherwise, yes I've been in choirs since middle school, but am still not familiar with a lot of the composers. Right now, my favorite song is a 3 part men's version of 'Prayer of the Children' by Kurt Bestor. Has anyone ever heard if it?

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 10:02pm

I also love choral music, Rutter, and Hogan. A couple of years ago, I had the pleasure of hearing Moses Hogan's "My Soul's Been Anchored in the Lord" performed by a chorus of almost 300 voices...and amazing experience.

And I have tickets to see/hear Brahm's Deutsche Requiem performed in a couple of weeks. How excited am I?

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 10:06pm

3 part? I've only heard the four part version of Prayer of the Children, but it is an ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL song! I can't believe I had forgotton about that song.

[The Grovers Corners Yenta]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 10:20pm

I have done quite a bit of choral work over the years. We did the Messiah when I was a junior in High School. It was extremely difficult, but I thought it was magnificent. I sang for a number of years with the Connecticut Hebrew Chorale. We did everything ranging from Bernsteins Chitchester Hymns to Yiddish Folk Songs to ancient Hebrew liturgical music. Then, for awhile I worked for Traveler's Insurance in Hartford and we had our own choir. It was wonderful to take a choral break in the middle of a busy work day. We gave two concerts a year in the Bushnell Theater. My biggest thrill was singing in an all Broadway concert with The Hartford Symphony in a 20 voice chorus. Sometimes I sing in a small group in my synagogue. Last year we celebrated the 60th anniversary of our synagogue which was founded by Holocaust survivirs. We sang all German Jewish sacred music. I am currently singing evry morning in my shower. Tickets are still available.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 10:41pm

That is wonderful that you had a choir in an insurance company! I can't believe I forgot The Prayer of the Children. Another one of my favorites. When the tragedy happened in Russia, it was running through my head the entire day. Music really can be perfectly suited for a moment and that was definitely the case.

[OneBlazeOfGlory]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 11:23pm

'3 part? I've only heard the four part version of Prayer of the Children, but it is an ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL song! I can't believe I had forgotton about that song. '

Yea technically it is 4 part, but there are so few guys involved in the choir program that we had to take out a part. I have however heard a clip of a women's choir singing an SSAA version. It gives me the chills sometimes! PM me if you want to listen

[Allie]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 11:43pm

I also miss being in choir! I only got into it in the past few years, but now it's one of the things I love best. I have to say, I'm partial to Stphen Hatfield. He's such a quirky, amazing conductor, and has written some beautiful pieces, in addition to a few strange ones. I love them all equally!

[NYadgal]

Posted: 11/9/04 at 11:59pm

I have always adored Choral music...

Am performing Benjamin Britten's War Requiem in Carnegie Hall on Thursday night.

If any of you in NYC want to join an amazing choral group, PM me...

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 11/13/04 at 2:24am

Hey I thought I'd just throw this out here for you choral music lovers. If anyone would like to hear some of the music from my fall choral concert follow this link. http://web.bsu.edu/jcarter2/concertchoirsoundmore4.htm It was our first concert in our new choral hall so hopefully you'll be able to hear the wonderful acoustics. I wish I had a recording from our old hall so you could hear the difference but that's ok. I want to go through and point out where I think we screwed up but no one wants to hear that. I would like to point out that the last two pieces were mass choirs though and we didn't have much rehearsal time all together on them.

Updated On: 11/13/04 at 02:24 AM

[meagan9848]

Posted: 11/13/04 at 4:05am

" A great composer of choral music, is ERIC WHITAKER (sp?). I have his cd and it has some of the most gorgeous choral music ever."

I'm going to second that...I graduated high school in 2003 and my junior and senior years we did peices by Eric Whitacre and it was amazing. We did "Water Night" and "Sleep" and they were both nothing less than brilliant.

I also really enjoyed Kings Singers arrangements. We also did a beautiful arrangement of "Danny Boy" in which we started a capella, then in the middle were joined by the piano, and then finished a capella. For our other competition peice we did "Prayer of the Children" which is a beautiful song, again, I'm not sure who composed it.

For my chorus (the one that's not selective...anyone can be in) we did a lot of stuff arranged by Kirby Shaw and I liked his stuff. It always sounded more difficult than it actually was to sing.

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 11/13/04 at 4:15am

"I also really enjoyed Kings Singers arrangements." Funny you should mention the King's Singers. We just had Simon Carrington (one of the cofounders of the King's Singers) as the conductor in residence for our Fall concert. He conducted the two mass pieces in the link.

[BWIDB Charlie]

Posted: 11/13/04 at 4:43am

Eric Whitacre's 'I Thank You God For Most This Amazing Day' and 'Sleep' - I ADORE these amazing pieces, and had the wonderful opportunity to perform them. Is anyone here familiar with them?

Also, if it's Moses Hogan, I love it! My high school (which could have been a performing arts high school, as the departments were so supported and advanced) choral director gets everyone hooked on it, and we performed many of his pieces.


Charlie
[e-mail] Updated On: 11/13/04 at 04:43 AM

[meagan9848]

Posted: 11/13/04 at 4:49am

I also forgot ab out Shut De Do...though incredibly simple it's SO much fun to perform!