Samantha Saville
The Paw Print
The choir concert Friday night at the Sacred Heart Church was a huge success. Dr. Beth Robison the choir professor teamed up with Dr. Sarah Owens, professor of English, to conduct a historically correct medieval-renaissance concert. The plans for this concert started mid-summer and the chamber choir and concert choir have been practicing hard since the beginning of school. All of their practice has paid off as the two choirs executed their songs beautifully. This beauty was easy to follow with the aid of program notes in the bulletin to help the audience along.
The concert started with the two choirs marching in and lining the outside of the isle while singing their first song, Sumer is Icumen In with Dr. Robison in the middle isle. This technique was slightly intense, but the choir did move to the front for the next song.
The layout of the concert was a little confusing because not all of the songs had distinct beginnings and ends. For example, it was difficult to hear where April is in My Mistress’s Face ended and Je le Vous Dirai started. This happened on a few occasions but did not take away from the beauty of the music. April is in My Mistress’s Face started off a very slow, mellow song then grew until there was a fast passing of the rhythm between the men and women of the choir. This flowed right into Je le Vous Dirai which was a very fast song with dramatic dynamics and lots of words.
Some of my favorite songs of the concert were OVos Omnes, Worldes Bils Ne Last, and Savory, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme. These songs stuck out to me either because of the emotion they portrayed or their interesting patterns.
The song OVos Omnes was a very emotional song that had several tear-jerking lulls and pauses. The song is about after Christ’s death and what everyone is going through. This was very well shown in the song by the way in which it was sung.
The song Worldes Bils Ne Last had beautiful solos that passed fluidly between Alisa Smith, Martin Jay Mckee, and Casey Bachurski. This was a slow and emotional song about how life is too short. Written in 1260 when the Black Death was ravishing Europe people knew the value of a minute.
The song Savory, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme was a humorous and upbeat song sung in English. The song was about impossible tasks that people put their lovers through to prove themselves. The song started with the women singing, and when the men came in singing the title, the beautiful fast rounds started that captivated the audience’s attention.
The song PuerNatus Est was a Gregorian Chant that flowed right into the song Angelus ad Virginem. In Gregorian Chants women did not participate so the fact that the women did in the concert did not seem right. The men started the chant and then the women joined in. When the women joined, it signaled the start of the new song.
Overall the concert was full of emotional dramatics, long intense pauses, and crazy fun rounds. The church was a beautiful location for a beautiful concert.
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