Journal Entries
Sacred Music
Posted Mar 30, 2004
On Sunday I went to a concert in the Christuskirche (Christ's Church) in Mannheim.
Having the difficult choice between Mozart's Requiem in Speyer and this concert, I decided you can hear the Mozart any time, really.
The Programme:
Johannes M. Michel:
"Cantate Domino"
"Ave Maria"
"Alleluja, I heard a voice"
Thad Jones:
A Child is Born
Duke Ellington
"Sacred Concert"
(10 parts - varying themes, mainly "Freedom")
The concert was absolutely breathtaking. The Church looked beautiful in the Sunday evening light - better than I remembered it. (I sang in the choir there from 1977 - 1987). It has superb acoustics.
Being there brought back such lovely memories and so I was rather highly-tuned emotionally. Plus which I noticed that the conductor I had known back then was sitting right in front of me. He has gone on to higher Ecclesiastical Musical offices in the meantime, but was quoted in the programme as the founder of the Chamber Choir who put on the concert.
The first works, by Michel, were impressive and rhythmic, but I felt that there was nothing there that I couldn't have done myself. It was entirely a capella. The Ave Maria was most unusual - almost too jazzy and bordering on "disrespectful".
"A Child is Born" was instrumental, played by the accompanying Big Band. It didn't create a Christmas feeling, but was good meditative music and pleasant to listen to.
The Ellington was very enjoyable, the audience (lots of old people) took ages to warm up, but by the 7th movement "David danced before the Lord" with lots of drums and very skilled jazz playing (the trumpeter was brilliant - and the clarinettist surprised us each time he played a solo) the audience/congregation finally got going and gave the applause that was deserved.
The choir were extremely skilled and obviously enjoyed the performance.
There was a solo soprano, who was somehow just a bit too young and inexperienced to pull it off, but she showed promise and certainly had no trouble with the highest notes.
It's hard to put it into words - if you get a chance to see it or perform it yourself, you'll love it!
My arms still ache from clapping!
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Latest reply: Mar 30, 2004
Not really paranoid as such
Posted Mar 11, 2004
I just discovered that someone had put me on their friends' list, the name was unfamiliar. In fact it wasn't a name, just a number, U235568.
A look at the PS of this Researcher showed me that he/she hadn't activated their space, had written no entries or journals and had no other names on their list. And the spookiest thing was that they had literally only my journals in their conversations list. No postings. I have deleted my name from the list. I hope. The server seems a bit slow tonight, and the command says "press button to delete more than one name from list". All very odd. It's nice to know you can delete yourself from someone's list if you want to.
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Latest reply: Mar 11, 2004
This may be the last thing I write
Posted Jan 27, 2004
Oh dear Oh dear. How could I be so silly - this sort of thing should only happen to other people!!!
My e-mail service had categorised an e-mail as spam - I just happened to notice it in amongst all the others - it was from jwf in Canada. I opened it but it was illegible so I clicked on "view". It was still just as illegible. Only then did I realise that I might just have made a mistake.
After a few minutes everything got slower and slower, and I checked the "Processes". Needless to say, this file was using up a lot of MBs. It was called "doc.scr" - a screen saver, I thought. But why should jwf send me a screen saver?
Anyone else seen this - is it a bug, or was ~jwf~ genuinely being friendly? Perhaps I should set the screen saver up to run, and see what happens.
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Latest reply: Jan 27, 2004
Drat
Posted Jan 2, 2004
So am I chaotic? Or just too busy? Or lazy?
Anyway, I did consider going to the January meet, but somehow it's nearly here and I didn't do anything about it. Money is always tight, of course, but if I'd made a move in November, I could have flown for 19 Euros.
We have a date singing with the choir on 11 Jan which will be nice, but I have sung so much lately, I could miss one gig. Except the priest who's invited us to sing Mass for him that morning is cooking for us too and that's a treat not to be missed.
Oh, yes, I can always find excuses, but I'm still really sorry I'm not going to be there.
However, I really must come over in the summer - my parents celebrate their Diamond Wedding in June, and we are trying to get something organised.
Hmm I wonder...
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Latest reply: Jan 2, 2004
Christmas on its way
Posted Dec 17, 2003
Well, whaddayaknow. It's Christmas next week and I am caught with my pants down again. It's not my fault - I am just so long at work and the shops have such short opening times that I never get to go to them. I have taken today (Wednesday) and tomorrow and Friday off, as I am working next week - to get Christmas preparations done while the rest of the family is still at school/uni/work. Well - it starts with today, and I've got to go in to work. Just so much to do, and one or two things have to be ready for a shipment we're loading for India on Friday.
Never mind - I am in three choirs still and there's plenty of Christmas spirit there.
Choir 1 is the local church choir. Well, it's not actually, but the official Church choir is without a conductor and the one I sing in was originally the Youth Choir, but everyone in it is at least 30 now because they've been together so long.
We are doing Christmas Mass *and* putting on a concert on 28th, so there's plenty of festive repertoire. We are doing a lovely sung version of the reading from the Gospel according to St Luke. The priest who's coming to take Mass (we do not only not have a conductor for the choir, we don't even have our own priest) has a beautiful voice - he should have taken up singing professionally. So that will be very gratifying and moving.
German Christmas Carols are all about Joy and what-have-you, but to my ears they all sound very funereal. Our choir has introduced "Noel, Noel" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" into its Christmas repertoire and when we sing them for the first time each year, I have a good blubber. Then it's Christmas.
In another Choir we had a big concert in October. We didn't do anything special for Christmas, although we did a little recital last year and sung some of the Rutter songs which have recently come out in German versions. The translations are very good.
Choir 3. Then at school I couldn't resist joining in too. The music teacher there is very very popular - always gets standing ovations from pupils of all ages. And their Mums and Dads, whom he mostly also taught when they were at school, as he is over 60 and will be leaving soon. He is irreplaceable. The concert was last night, so, really, that choir has finished its course.
We put on a Nativity Play with music by Orff with the youngest pupils, and sung a Gloria by Mozart which I ought to recognise but I can't say which Mass it's from, sorry. Was lovely. The school orchestra played a couple of pieces, one of which was a Christmas medley, arranged specially by above-mentioned music teacher.
The Nativity Play was lovely - I bored everyone on Zarquon's Singing Fish's space about it.....
It was very funny among other things because they had translated it into the local dialect, which, being a country area, fitted very well with the conversation of the shepherds, as they did all the talking. It somehow wouldn't have come off in a Berlin or Hamburg accent! The angels spoke and sang High German of course. Or Latin, as is usual with Orff.
It was really great fun to do and good also even if your own little darling wasn't an angel or a shepherd.
The Three Kings, after paying their "reverences" made a quick getaway and the shepherds had a good go at how the rich never thought much. Just dumped a load of gold and went off leaving the family in the stable.
"If I had had the money, I would have put Jesus on a lovely throne and would have built a palace of gold for Mary. And I would have given Joseph a workshop with golden hammers and pliers and nails of ivory".
A good time was certainly had by all. The adult choir sang some Mozart and a couple of Gospel songs with the senior choir and the senior choir sung a Christmas lullaby by Rutter.......
And the Church choir in the local town (No. 4) are singing Schubert's Mass in G which I will now go along and support as they keep advertising for voices. They're singing that the day after Boxing Day at High Mass. I think. It might just be a concert. Anyway, the Church has good acoustics and the choir is really weak, so I shall see what I can make of that.
Then there's our Advent Window scheme in the village. The churches have got together and each evening, meet at someone's house. There are anything from 10 - 40 people, depending on the locality, the date, and possibly the weather.
People decorate their windows and a small committee of young women organise it and arrange a small service with prayer, song, a story or a reading each night. The hostess has decorated her window with cut-out figures or with candles, electric lights, or arranged some decorations in a 3-D display. We gather in front of the window and someone says a few words and we sing a song, then another reading - a poem or something - and then we sing another song while the window is lit from behind and the shutterrs opened to display the window. After a couple more songs, a prayer and a story, the little group breaks up. Rules have been set like: Do not offer food and drink/do not use blinking lights/do not depict the Nativity/please display your number/please leave your window on display - lit with the shutters open - for the rest of Advent.
So since 30 November we have had a window at 6 pm every night. I have been to a few, one I did myself - i.e. I decorated the window and read all the texts - and one more I am doing the readings and songs but it's at someone else's house.
Apart from that, I haven't bought or written a single Christmas card, packed a single present - haven't even bought most presents.... Any ideas for a couple of 85-year-olds who really don't want anything?
Perhaps I should just go and visit them. Maybe I could incorporate the January meet.... but by the time I get round to it the cheap prices on Ryanair will no longer be applicable.
Better toddle off and find out when the meet is.---
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Latest reply: Dec 17, 2003
You can call me TC
Researcher U154942
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