Saturday, January 10, 2009

Honors Choir

It's finally over and done! Weird I'll say that one. We had our Honor Choir tonight, with chamber choirs from 8 high schools throughout Utah, singing British Masterworks, and conducted by Dr. Craig Jessop. We've been working on this music since our first concert. Friday was the first time all the choir students were together singing, we rehearsed from 3:30-5:30, had dinner and then had another rehearsal 7:30-9:30 finally being directed by Craig Jessop. And oh my goodness, I absolutely love having him as our director. Right when he started working with us, it was a whole new choir. We were focused and and I had so much fun. It was hard though. More then 10 hours of rehearsal in a span of 2 days is a bit draining. I'm surprised I still have a voice.

We sang 4 pieces of music. Some were extremely difficult. Hands down the hardest music I've learned and sung. The first was Let the People Praise Thee, O God by William Mathias which was written for Princess Diana's wedding. That song has the strangest rhythm, at first you feel like your fighting and trying to jump in on some off beat to your part, but once we understood it and started digging for the musicality and the dynamics, it became a work of genius. The intertwining harmonies are insane.
The second piece was Linden Lea by R. Vaughan Williams. Which was the easiest of all of them, simple but very pretty. I liked it.
The third piece was the renowned incredible three movement piece of Gloria by John Rutter. Oh my how I absolutely loved love this song. We had six people there for the orchestra part also. The first movement is fast and strong with intense orchestra parts. The second movement slows down a lot and has some insane organ solo throughout the whole movement. But i thought it sounded the best when you had the choir parts. Made the organ solo a bit more interesting. The third movement which was my favorite!! is intense, quick and very rhythmic. It's for sure the funnest section. And we were a powerhouse and had such an amazing sound quality.
The last piece was Psalm 148 by Gustav Holst. I love this song and the men...ahhh they had a section of the song in 4 part men harmony. GORGEOUS! they sounded amazing and i just about melted. We ended that song with this huge strong chord and Craig Jessop had the organ drop out so it was just the choir... ah and when we cut it off the sound just resonated. I loved it. loved it all...

But talking to the parents afterward...they were just blown away by our sound. And all i have to say is Craig Jessop knows how to get the sound he's looking for out of a choir. He transformed us. And I had such a fun time singing with him. It was an honor! And it was worth all the ridiculous amounts of practicing and trying to learn that insane music. :D

2 comments:

Amberly said...

oh my for sure am i glad its over. it was amazing though. Dr jessop really is an incredible director. i'm so glad we got to work with him. we'll be able to use that to help us be a better chamber choir now.

Unknown said...

Your concert sounded like a great experience for you - and many others. What a wonderful opportunity to sing under Craid Jessop.