Ut queant laxis resonare fibris Mira gestorum famuli tuorum...

[ciroccoj]

Solve polluti labii reatum, Sancte Iohannes.

(And if anybody can tell me what that means, where it comes from and/or why it's important in musical history, I'll be most impressed!)



Our next concert is going to be totally amazing.

I don't think there's anything in it I don't like, other than I Beheld Her, which I loathe and which I believe I have sung every. single. year. I've ever been in choir. ::muttered curses::

Other than that, we've got the Canadian landscape series, which I thought was godawful at first but which is actually turning out quite lovely - and which, naturally, features a hymn to snow; All For Me Grog, which is piratey and great fun; a Latin thingy which is turning out quite beautiful as it comes together; a whole host of other neat stuff including a song currently being written for us, and, of course...

The Freedom Song Trilogy.

Wow. I don't think I've been this in love with a piece in a long, long time. The blending of the plain and simple Kyrie, our one-woman gospel choir belting out her Amazing Grace, the rest of us chanting the African choruses, and then the final coming together of Hallelujah... it's totally thrilling. Even though we still don't have it down yet. I'm going to ask Kurt if they're planning on taping it when we perform it, because if not, I'm going to order the CD it's on.

Our soloist sang today for the first time, and I nearly fell off my chair. She'd been sitting next to me singing first soprano, nice enough voice, stronger than mine (that's not hard) and not screechy, just another little soprano with a sweet little high voice, and then Kurt asked her to come in with her solo and out came this earthy, mellow, alto-range gorgeous sound.

!!!

Man, I had solo envy for the first time in many, many years. Normally I'm quite happy with my unobtrusive little vocal chords, and make up in accuracy and conscientiousness what I don't have in volume and talent. I sing between two very strong soprano voices who aren't always sure of the music and who always lean towards me when they're lost, and I consider mine to be a fine contribution to our section. But listening to Sandra today I really wished that just once I could make that glorious a sound.

Ah well. At least I get to hear it up close and personal. ::happy sigh::



Edit: Just realized my Limitations icon is rather a propos to this post. ::snicker::

Comments

[siliconivy.livejournal.com]

"So that Your servants may sing at the top of their voices the wonders of Your Acts, and absolve the fault from their stained lips."

Written as an ode to John the Baptist.

http://www.utqueantlaxis.com/

And no, I'm not that good at Latin, I was trying to translate it but my Latin is really rusty, so I got frustrated & just plugged the phrase into Google. Google rules!

[ciroccoj.livejournal.com]

Ding! Correct! I would give my first child to Google, if only Google would take him ;)

Love the icon, BTW :)

[siliconivy.livejournal.com]

thanks. icon courtesy of anniesj.

Google is grwing & expanding, so who knows, may take your first born. :)

So, if I read the website correctly, it's the basis for the whole "do-re-me" tones? Cool, learning new things is fun!

And my translation? was only about half right. Oh well.