Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury

On Friday, 22 November 2013, we will be performing Gilbert & Sullivan's Trial by Jury as a benefit to raise funds for Gordon Page's cancer treatment.  This one-act comic opera by the famed duo Arthur Gilbert and W. S. Sullivan is one of their earliest collaborations,  first produced on 25 March 1875, at London's Royalty Theatre. The story concerns a “breach of promise of marriage” lawsuit in which the judge and legal system are the objects of lighthearted satire.

If you haven't gotten a copy of the score, you can download a copy here or here.

To help you learn the music of this charming operetta, here is a 2008 performance by the Bristol Catholic Players.

Sunday, 6 October 2013: “Lead me, Lord,” by Samuel Sebastian Wesley

Samuel Sebastian Wesley
1810-1876

The anthem for Sunday, 6 October 2013, the
Twenty-seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time,will be Samuel Sebastian Wesley’s “Lead me, Lord,” which is actually an extract of a longer anthem, “Praise the Lord, O my soul.”

A grandson of Charles Wesley, the composer’s middle name is a testament to his father Samuel Wesley’s admiration of the earlier composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. He dedicated his entire life to music in the Church of England, beginning as a boy chorister in the Chapel Royal, through his years as organist at Exeter, Winchester, and Gloucester cathedrals.

Here is a fine performance of this short anthem, by the Somerville College choir.

For practice at home, you may download a score here and a MIDI practice file here.

Anthem for Sunday, 22 September 2013: “O Come, Ye Servants of the Lord," by Christopher Tye

On Sunday, 22 September 2013 (Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time), our choir will sing the anthem "O Come, Ye Servants of the Lord,” by English composer Christopher Tye. Tye was chapel organist for both King Henry VIII and Catholic Queen Mary, so his choral compositions include both English and Latin works.

Tye may have been music tutor to
Edward VI, son of Henry VII.

Greatly admired by Henry, who said of him, “England hath one God, one truth, one doctor hath for music's art, and that is Doctor Tye, admired for skill in music's harmony,” Tye was reportedly a difficult, ill-tempered man. Once when Queen Elizabeth complained of his playing that it was out of tune and “contained much musick, but little of delight to the ear,” Tye responded that her ears were out of Tune.“ Fortunately, the  polyphonic anthem we will be singing is quite tuneful and not at all difficult.

Here is a nice performance of “O Come Ye Servants of the Lord” by a quartet at Grace Episcopal Church in Weslaco, Texas. Each vocal part is clearly distinguishable. If you need a copy of the score, you can download one here. There is also a MIDI file that you may download.

Practice Files for Fauré Requiem Concert, Sunday, 27 October 2013

On Sunday, 27 October 2013, those of us who are willing and able will join others to present a concert performance of Gabriel Fauré's beautiful Requiem mass, under the direction of Vivian Rentowski in Desoto, Texas.

Gabriel Fauré, 1907

Fauré spent years composing and revising his Requiem and said of the work, "Everything I managed to entertain by way of religious illusion I put into my Requiem, which moreover is dominated from beginning to end by a very human feeling of faith in eternal rest." He told an interviewer, "It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death: as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above, rather than as a painful experience." Certainly, this Requiem is a joy to sing.

Here is a lovely performance of the Requiem by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, under the direction of Piérre Boulanger.

To help everyone get up to speed on their parts, I've compiled separate YouTube playlists of practice files for each voice: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. On movements where the tenor and bass voices split, both upper and lower parts are included in the playlist.

September 8: Palestrina's O Crux Ave

This Sunday our anthem will be Palestrina's O Crux Ave, which I believe is a new addition to our repertoire. Here is a performance of the piece, by the Madrigal Choir of Bucharest, conducted by Marin Constantin.

Click here to download a MIDI file. And if you need a copy of the vocal score, click here to download a PDF.  Happy practicing!

Sunday, 25 August: Lotti's Misere

Antonio Lotti, d. 1740

This Sunday, our anthem will be Antonio Lotti's Miserere, one we have done a number of times in the past. If you'd like to learn or review your part, here are some links that will help.

Here's a performance of the piece.

And here is a Youtube playlist that contains practices files (score and MIDI recording) for the four parts together, as well as a practice file for each individual vocal part.

You can download the score here (same edition we are using, I believe). Happy singing!

Did you know: Antonio Lotti was an Italian Baroque composer. Lotti was born in Venice, although his father Matteo was Kapellmeister at Hanover at the time.

For our patronal feast day, 15 August 2013

For our patronal feastday, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the choir will be singing Josef Haydn's Missa Brevis Sancti Joannis de Deo, also known as his Kleine Orgelmesse (Little Organ Mass).

To help everyone learn this Mass, there is a playlist on YouTube, with choral renditions of all mass parts, along with practice recordings (with score) for individual vocal parts.