Alleluia by Eric Whitacre | Choral Music

Contrary to popular belief, I have not completely forgotten about this blog! Haha. Starting college (at 24 years old!) has taken up quite a bit of my time the last few months. The spring semester begins next week, but I figured now was as good a time as any to get back into the habit of blogging...so I'm continuing the Choral Music post series!

Last summer I finally decided to listen to some of Eric Whitacre's music, having seen his name in related video lists on YouTube for ages. The first one I listened to was Alleluia, and as this breathtaking sound filled my ears I quickly decided to tune out all distractions and only focus on what I was hearing. I instantly knew two things: 1) I really wanted to sing this piece, and 2) I didn't want to just sing it...I wanted to direct it. Thus began my love for Eric Whitacre's absolutely glorious music, and my dream of becoming a choral director. I'm now a Music Education major in college, so chances are pretty good that some day I'll get to sing and/or direct this piece. (UMobile's choir sang Whitacre's Lux Aurumque for their Christmas program a couple of months ago, and that was an unforgettable experience that I'll be blogging about soon.)

Alleluia is over 9 minutes long (yes, seriously!), but if you can, put headphones on and close your eyes as you listen to it. If the music in heaven doesn't sound like this, I'm gonna be surprised. :)

(Interesting side note: Whitacre also wrote a version of this piece for concert band called October; in fact, October came first--he based Alleluia off of it!)

My Song in the Night, arr. Mack Wilberg | Choral Music

The last several weeks during my church choir rehearsal, we've been learning new music for our upcoming Easter Cantata. But a few weeks ago, our director handed us each a beautiful book of hymn and folk song arrangements by Mack Wilberg. Y'all know how much we love Mack Wilberg, so we were excited to read through a new piece, an absolutely beautiful folk hymn called, "My Song in the Night". The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings it with a full orchestra, of course, but we loved how simply beautiful it was with our small choir and just piano accompaniment. We sang it for the offertory this past Sunday.

O Jesus, my Savior, my song in the night

Come to us with Thy tender love, my soul's delight,

Unto Thee, O Lord, in affliction I call,

My comfort by day and my song in the night.

O why should I wander, an alien from Thee,

Or cry in the desert, Thy face to see,

My comfort and joy, my soul's delight,

O Jesus, my Savior, my song in the night
My comfort and joy, my soul's delight
O Jesus, my Savior, my song in the night


For the love of music and the glory of God,
Rebekah

How Firm a Foundation, arr. Dan Forrest | Choral Music

One of my favorite arrangements that we've sung over the last few months in my church choir is How Firm a Foundation by Dan Forrest. It's really quite magnificent, whether with a full orchestra or just piano accompaniment.

From the arranger's website: "How Firm A Foundation was first published in America with this tune in the 1830s, and was one of the most commonly sung hymns of the Civil War era. The text first asks, what stronger foundation can God give to His children who flee to Him for protection, than the precious promises of His Word? Stanza after stanza then affirms these promises of protection and comfort.
Robert E. Lee requested that this hymn be sung at his funeral. (It was a favorite of Andrew Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt, as well.) Perhaps the most moving American historical idea, however, is the thought of the countless soldiers, fighting on both sides of the Civil War, who would have known this popular hymn and clung to its promises on the battlefield. This setting is inspired by that thought, and therefore uses a musical style which evokes the 19th century American folk hymn tradition."

The question is asked at the beginning of each stanza: "What more can He say?" How precious are these promises, indeed, this sure foundation we have in Jesus Christ!

"So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf." Hebrews 6:17-20a.



For the love of music and the glory of God,
Rebekah

Brother James' Air, arranged by Mack Wilberg | Choral Music

Not long after my dad, sister, and I started singing in our church choir a few months ago, our director handed handed us some new music that definitely sparked our interest. The text: Psalm 23; the tune: a beautiful air by James Leith Macbeth Bain (1840-1925). It's commonly referred to as The Lord's My Shepherd, or Brother James' Air.

Mack Wilberg arranged it for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square, so of course that means it was originally performed by a multiple-hundred-member choir and a huge orchestra! But we discovered that this piece is equally beautiful with a smaller number of voices and a simple piano accompaniment. All of us absolutely loved it and we keep begging our director to let us sing it again! (In fact, our pianist loves it so much that he frequently plays the tune whenever we need any quiet piano music in church.)

Brother James' Air is a beautifully reflective, quiet piece. I hope you are as blessed hearing it as we were singing it!



You can purchase the sheet music here.

For the love of music and the glory of God,
Rebekah

O Nata Lux by Morten Lauridsen | Choral Music

It was late last September as I sat at the piano in the choir loft of a church here on the Coast. I was substitute playing for a friend one Sunday morning, and a piece of paper on the music rack caught my eye. It was information for an upcoming concert featuring a capella choral works from several different composers, ranging from the 1600's to recent years. This music would be performed by a high school madrigal group and a university chorus; the chorus would be directed by a friend of ours. "Wow!" I thought. "This ought to be really good!" So a few days later, my family and I drove over to this church and immensely enjoyed each and every piece of music we heard. The voices in each choral group were phenomenal!

One of my favorites from that evening was "O Nata Lux", a sacred choral motet written by the contemporary composer Morten Lauridsen for the late Paul Salamunovich, conductor of the Los Angeles Master Chorale. It is one of several poems set to music in Lauridsen's magnificent work "Lux Aeterna" ("Eternal Light"). You can read the composer's own thoughts on Lux Aeterna here.

Incidentally, the chorus performing O Nata Lux in this particular video is the same one that performed Pilgrim's Hymn in my last Choral Music post: the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire choir. It's absolutely beautiful.

O nata lux de lumine,		O born light of light,
Jesu redemptor saeculi		Jesu redeemer of the world,
dignare clemens supplicum		mercifully deem worthy and accept
laudes preces que sumere.		praises and prayers from Your supplicants.
Qui carne quondam contegi		Who once was clothed in the flesh
dignatus es pro perditis.		for those who are lost.
Nos membra confer effici,		Allow us to become members of
tui beati corporis.		Your holy body.

For the love of music and the glory of God,
Rebekah

Pilgrim's Hymn by Stephen Paulus | Choral Music

I've decided to start a new series of blog posts about choral music!

Mostly because I've recently discovered that I'm a choral music nerd.

It kinda goes along with the a capella obsession thing.

This first piece of music is one that my church choir performed back in October. After our director told us about it, he played a recording of it on his phone. It was really quiet, and you could hear a pin drop as we listened in awed silence because of how absolutely gorgeous this music is. We were so excited to learn it.

The contemporary composer Stephen Paulus wrote this piece, interestingly enough, for one of his operas called "The Three Hermits". The lyrics were written by Michael Dennis Browne and are as breathtakingly beautiful as the music itself.

Here is a video of the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire choir performing Pilgrim's Hymn in the Milwaukee Art Museum:

Even before we call on Your name

To ask You, O God

When we seek for the words to glorify You

You hear our prayer

Unceasing love, O unceasing love

Surpassing all we know

Glory to the Father

And to the Son

And to the Holy Spirit

Even with darkness sealing us in

We breathe Your name

And through all the days that follow so fast

We trust in You

Endless Your grace, O endless Your grace

Beyond all mortal dream

Both now and forever

And unto ages and ages

Amen

For the love of music and the glory of God,

Rebekah

[You can order the music here.]

Stories & Songs - Christmas Edition! | Christmas Choral Music

A couple weeks ago, my dad and sister and I had the blessing of singing in our church choir's Christmas cantata. Our director put together a program of several choral pieces interspersed with Scripture readings. We had about 20 choir members and a 7-piece orchestra, and though our performance wasn't on as grand a scale as those in the videos below, it was beautiful nonetheless.



Our program began with Dan Forrest's magnificent arrangement of O Come, All Ye Faithful. This particular video features several different high school and college choirs from south Mississippi - they performed it last year. We loved singing it and wish we could do it again!



We also sang three of Mack Wilberg's arrangements! Fum, Fum, Fum was fun to perform but difficult to learn - the time signature changes multiple times starting at 0:36, and the rhythm in the the bass and alto parts was tricky.



Away in a Manger - such a beautiful, peaceful song. We sang it again on Christmas Eve.



I Saw Three Ships - oh, and we thought Fum, Fum, Fum! was hard to learn! Goodness gracious. We called this one "The Beast". The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, of which Mack Wilberg is the director, performed it at an even faster tempo than we did (and ours was still fast!). At 2:14 all four parts begin going up the scale chromatically in half-steps and thirds (sorry! #theorynerdprobs) and it was incredibly difficult to sing the right notes, on pitch, with the correct rhythm. Needless to say, we felt like we could conquer the world when we finally learned it!

Also, side note: I got to play the glockenspiel at 1:16! That was new experience for me, but a fun one. Our choir director asked me less than a month before the performance, "Hey, can you play the glockenspiel part?" "Sure! Um...remind me...what is a glockenspiel?" "Oh, it's like a small xylophone. You know how to play the piano, so you can play it." "Okay...!?" "I won't be able to get a spare set for you to practice on before the dress rehearsal, so you'll have only one day to practice." No pressure, right?! Thankfully, he actually was able to get a spare set, so I had a few days to make sure I had my part down. It wasn't too hard, but with only two handbells ringing while I was playing (at first), the sound was so exposed. If I made a mistake, I knew the whole congregation would hear it!



Earlier in Advent, we sang this breathtaking arrangement of Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming by Jan Sandström. We didn't have enough choir members to have voices sing the "Oooo" part, so our pianist played that on the organ. We stood in the foyer of the church and it was incredible to hear all of our voices echo in that room and into the sanctuary.



Several times now, we've enjoyed hearing another nearby church choir perform at Christmas, and they always begin their program with this gorgeous arrangement of Of the Father's Love Begotten by Paul Wohlgemuth. I could listen to it a dozen times in a row and not get tired of it!

For the love of music, and in celebration of the birth of our Savior,
Rebekah