This week I have been mesmerized and elated to have conducted a marvelous group of folks in a few pieces of music: 1) Rheinberger's Benedixisti, 2) Dan Forrest's A Basque Lullaby, 3) Robert Lau's Sing to the Lord a New Song, and 4) Ken Neufeld's arrangement of Morton Bay. The Benedixisti I have already talked about, so I won't say much. Though I liked the piece a lot, I think it could use a final bar line after the 3rd measure. A Basque Lullaby has a different text. It talks about fairies, silver wings, and flower buds, which is set to a GORGEOUS musical setting. Sing to the Lord a New Song is fantastic. I conducted it on our culminating concert on Friday. It's portions of Psalm 148, 149, & 150 set to mixed meter of 7/8, 3/8, 3/4 and it has a middle section of 4/4. It's way fun, and I will definitely be returning to that piece when I get a capable church choir. Morton Bay is a fermata frenzy...I didn't like it as much as I thought I might.
Dr. Bara is going to be a treat...I might not want this next two years to end if it's anything like this past week. He's brilliant and funny and an extremely good and patient teacher. Great combination for any kind of teacher...as a matter of fact, I don't think teachers should be anything BUT that.
Posts
5 comments:
Sounds like you had a wonderful week! So glad you are off to a good start and having fun...
two years of extreme choral geekdom has only just begun...
Hey Blair. You are so right! it was a great week of music making. Good luck in your time in ECU.
It was an honor to share wonderful music with you.
see you!
Belford Hernandez
Dan is all those things... and you will have a great two years!
Blair,
Sorry you didn't care for MORETON BAY. Try it again, sometime, keeping in mind that fermati are (always?) optional.
CHEERS! -Kennen
Post a Comment