Berkshire
Choral Festival E-Newsletter January 2012
Happy New Year!
Choruses are starting to rehearse their spring concerts and we are heavily into the details of the 2012 season. The selection has been made and acceptances have gone out. There are, however, still spots available in the Sheffield weeks and in Salzburg. There is a waitlist for altos in Weeks 1 (Missa Solemnis) and 2 (Defiant Requiem). To keep up to date on voice part availability, click on Chorister Openings.
SPOTLIGHT ON SHEFFIELD WEEK 4
Kathy Saltzman Romey joins BCF again to conduct two very different, yet complementary, masses July 29-August 5: Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass and Schubert's Mass in A-flat Major.
Ms. Romey, who is the artistic director of the Minnesota Chorale, was last at BCF in 2007 conducting the Mozart Mass in C minor.
Haydn had composed the Paukenmesse when Austria was on the verge of being invaded by Napoleon's forces. He composed the Nelson Mass several years later, when Napoleon had already invaded Vienna. Haydn called the later work "Mass in Troubled Times," and one can indeed hear anxiety and uncertainty in the widely varying tempi of the movements. It came to be called the Nelson Mass because it premiered on the same date that word was received that Horatio Nelson had dealt Napoleon a significant defeat in the Battle of the Nile.
Though a mass, this is a work reflecting a people crying out to their God for deliverance.
The Schubert mass is stately, a dignified worship of the Almighty rather than a prayer for help. It reflects a time of confidence and assurance. Schubert was already nearing the end of his short life, though he could not have known that.
The juxtaposition of the two works brings the singer full circle in the realm of choral worship music. To sign up for this, or our other singing weeks, click below.
Making the rounds now on the Internet are the following definitions:
ALLREGRETTO: When you're 16 measures into the piece and realize you took too fast a tempo
ANGUS DEI: To play with a divinely beefy tone
A PATELLA: Accompanied by knee-slapping
APPOLOGGIATURA: A composition that you regret playing
APPROXIMATURA: A series of notes not intended by the composer, yet played with an "I meant to do that" attitude
APPROXIMENTO: A musical entrance that is somewhere in the vicinity of the correct pitch
DILL PICCOLINI: An exceedingly small wind instrument that plays only sour notes
FERMANTRA: A note held over and over and over and over and . . .
FIDDLER CRABS: Grumpy string players
FLUTE FLIES: Those tiny mosquitoes that bother
musicians on outdoor gigs
FRUGALHORN: A sensible and inexpensive brass instrument
GAUL BLATTER: A French horn player
GREGORIAN CHAMP: The title bestowed upon the monk who can hold a note the longest
PLACEBO DOMINGO: A faux tenor
SPRITZICATO: An indication to string instruments to produce a bright and bubbly sound
TEMPO TANTRUM: What an elementary school orchestra is having when it's not following the conductor
The Will To Create
As choristers prepare to perform Defiant Requiem: Verdi at Terezin at BCF this summer, the 92nd St. Y in New York City is offering a series of lectures and presentations about the remarkable works of art that came out of the concentration camp.
The Will to Create, Will to Live: The Culture of Terezin series explores the history of the holding camp, which was set up by Adolph Eichmann in 1941. Many imprisoned there were from the Prague artistic and intellectual elite; ironically, their horrific circumstances strengthened their will to create.
The series uses documentary film clips and stories from survivors of Terezín itself, looking into not only the art that came out of Terezin, but also the family lives and routines of the occupants, who might at any moment be sent to Auschwitz.
Two of the presenters are survivors of Terezin: Zdenka Fantlová escaped the gas chambers of Auschwitz and became an actress after the Holocaust. Zuzana Justman, now a filmmaker, spent two years with her family in Terezin.
The Schubert mass is stately, a dignified worship of the Almighty rather than a prayer for help. It reflects a time of confidence and assurance. Schubert was already nearing the end of his short life, though he could not have known that.
