thoughts on that concert.
Dec. 20th, 2010 08:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silverflight8I went to a sing-along version of Handel's Messiah yesterday, and it was spectacular.
Some of the program was cut out, but the program ran for two-and-a-half hours, with something like a fifteen minute break. Singers - mostly university students, who had auditioned for the roles - sang the recitatives and arias and duets. For the first time I really understood what my theory teacher had said about ornamentation: the arias were heavily, heavily ornamented (and so long that they had to sneak in breaths) and incredibly intricate - very Baroque. The first bass made it sound almost like chanting, but in his defense, I suppose it was quite low. I liked the other singers, though; they handled the long phrases and huge space (it was a church) well. The first violinist was excellent, too; when it was just the solo violin coming in on a dead silence, it worked and didn't seem clunky.
The lady behind me was kind enough to lend me (and my friend) a copy of the score. [To the unknown lady: <3] I followed most of the score that way, and it was lucky I had it, too, since most of the pieces I knew by heart were sung by soloists anyway. There was a predictably better soprano section in the choruses than alto, even though there were two high school choirs who'd come out to sing. Highest soprano pitch: B natural just below high C. The people behind me went into the whistle register for that one, I think.
The spectacular part of it, though, were the choruses, especially the Hallelujah Chorus. Almost everyone knew it, and in a church that big - three balconies, seating on the ground floor, at least three or four hundred people - with such a high ceiling, the sound soared and of course, the Hallelujah Chorus is the peak of the whole oratorio. It was stunning. It was like being in a sea of sound, bigger than a normal choir would be and simply glorious.
Some of the program was cut out, but the program ran for two-and-a-half hours, with something like a fifteen minute break. Singers - mostly university students, who had auditioned for the roles - sang the recitatives and arias and duets. For the first time I really understood what my theory teacher had said about ornamentation: the arias were heavily, heavily ornamented (and so long that they had to sneak in breaths) and incredibly intricate - very Baroque. The first bass made it sound almost like chanting, but in his defense, I suppose it was quite low. I liked the other singers, though; they handled the long phrases and huge space (it was a church) well. The first violinist was excellent, too; when it was just the solo violin coming in on a dead silence, it worked and didn't seem clunky.
The lady behind me was kind enough to lend me (and my friend) a copy of the score. [To the unknown lady: <3] I followed most of the score that way, and it was lucky I had it, too, since most of the pieces I knew by heart were sung by soloists anyway. There was a predictably better soprano section in the choruses than alto, even though there were two high school choirs who'd come out to sing. Highest soprano pitch: B natural just below high C. The people behind me went into the whistle register for that one, I think.
The spectacular part of it, though, were the choruses, especially the Hallelujah Chorus. Almost everyone knew it, and in a church that big - three balconies, seating on the ground floor, at least three or four hundred people - with such a high ceiling, the sound soared and of course, the Hallelujah Chorus is the peak of the whole oratorio. It was stunning. It was like being in a sea of sound, bigger than a normal choir would be and simply glorious.
