" />
 
  »

peace & light & surtitles

By Bruce, on December 4th, 2011

peace & light

The Concert

peace & light
UBC University Singers & Choral Union
UBC Symphony Orchestra
Graeme Langager, conductor

December 3, 2011
The Chan Centre

I just got home from a UBC Music performance that featured the UBC University Singers, Choral Union, and UBC Symphony Orchestra, all under the direction of Graeme Langager. The concert at the Chan Centre was called peace & light and included Morten Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna and Ralph Vaughn Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem. It was an ambitious program that I thoroughly enjoyed.

This was the first time I’d heard the Lauridsen, althought I was familiar with the a cappella third movement, O nata lux de lumine, as the Cathedral Choir had sung it last week for the Advent Lessons and Carols service. The work as a whole has a gentle introspective quality to it and it was sung and played beautifully by the combined forces, with the University Singers singing the O nata lux on their own.

The Vaughn Williams is one of my favourite choral works. I’ve sung it a few times and always look forward to hearing it performed. Marrying as it does the Latin “Dona nobis pacem” (grant us peace) from the Agnus Dei of the mass setting with poetry by Walt Whitman and scriptural texts, the work is dramatically powerful. Langager and the choir of 200+ singers and 90-member orchestra were up for the challenge. I was particularly impressed with the clarity of the choir’s diction. Not an easy accomplishment with that many voices! Bravo!

I was very impressed by Langager’s conducting. Always expressive, muscular when necessary, and attentive to detail, he put me at ease as an audience member. Congratulations for scheduling an unusual program in this a season traditionally given over to yet another Christmas concert.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation, the third movement of the Vaughan Williams always moves me.

Word over all, beautiful as the sky!
Beautiful that war, and all its deeds of carnage, must in time be utterly lost;
That the hands of the sisters Death and Night, incessantly softly
wash again, and ever again, this soil’d world
For some reason I associate this work with youth. Just by the vagaries of timing, the Dona Nobis Pacem performances I’ve attended have all been by university ensembles.
To hear Whitman’s beautiful phrase “That the hands of the sisters Death and Night, incessantly softly wash again, and ever again, this soil’d world” sung by a choir whose members would be prime cannon fodder in any war never fails to choke me up. (And again, kudos to Langager for insisting upon and getting a separation between the words “this” and “soiled” when the temptation is to make it easy by allowing elision.)
Surtitles? At a choral concert? YES!
This was the first time I’ve experienced a choral concert with surtitles and I must say I am impressed. The Chan Centre is perfectly set up for this, using the blank back wall that someday will be taken up with a pipe organ as a screen.
The “on the fly” translation from the Latin was great in the Lauridsen, but I found the surtitles even enriched my experience of the Vaughan-Williams, which was unexpected. As someone who knows the work from the singer’s perspective I was familiar with the text, but to have them appearing in synch (mostly) with the music gave an added dimension that I appreciated.
I hope this practice spreads. Surtitling offers:
  • an easier “entrance point” to younger audiences
  • a guide for  audiences unfamiliar with concert practice
  • aid to audience members who don’t know how to pick out words in a choral texture
  • simplification of printed programs
  • environmental savings
It really does seem like a no brainer, much along the same lines as the pre-concert slide shows that Chor Leoni and Elektra currently use.
I’m not sure how surtitles would work with the type of choral program made up of a host of smaller works, and learning the art of synchronization would be a whole new art to explore, but if operas have been doing it successfully for years, why not choirs?
concert reviews
 
  »

1 comment to peace & light & surtitles

  • donnae
    December 4, 2011 at 8:38 am

    Great review Bruce. I enjoyed your perspective as a choir singer which expands the readers’ knowledge & in the future their appreciation of the genre further. Hope to read more reviews from your particular viewpoint.

Leave a Reply

  

  

  

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Spam Protection by WP-SpamFree Plugin

 
  »

Categories

Archives

A sample text widget

Etiam pulvinar consectetur dolor sed malesuada. Ut convallis euismod dolor nec pretium. Nunc ut tristique massa.

Nam sodales mi vitae dolor ullamcorper et vulputate enim accumsan. Morbi orci magna, tincidunt vitae molestie nec, molestie at mi. Nulla nulla lorem, suscipit in posuere in, interdum non magna.