Tonight we had dinner at great Indian restaurant, and along the way we decided to pop over to one of the cathedrals where the National Chamber Choir of Ireland were performing. Linc, Lindsey, Meredith and I trekked through Cork to find the cathedral, which is one of many here. I'm so glad we chose to attend that concert -- they are an exceptional choir. The choirs here in Europe have their blends mastered. It's unlike anything you hear at the collegiate level in Alabama, even from UAB. National Chamber Choir of Ireland was no exception. They blended perfectly. The concert was entitled "A Time for Everything" and it juxtaposed 16th century madrigals with contemporary pieces. They made some beautiful sounds with the madrigals, but I thought they were best with the contemporary pieces. They made use of straight tone much more so in those pieces, which I thought was their best sound, especially in the soprano section. They had a very boy choir-like quality to their sound which suited the music well...this contemporary literature was very "crunchy" as my church choir director would say, meaning that it had a lot of dissonant chords and strange intervals. I particularly liked the fact that some of the open chords in the contemporary pieces were akin to the perfect fourths and fifths common in madrigals. There was one piece they sang that was so beautiful that no one clapped for about 20 seconds after it ended -- it was mesmerizing. If "Dies irae" from Verdi's Requiem is the music you hear as you descend into hell, this piece is what the angels sing when you go into the bright light towards heaven. It had a recurring phrase at the end, not unlike the end of Whitacre's "Sleep" that we did last year. The tenors held the same note for about five minutes without the pitch falling at all and acted as a sort of a pedal tone for the rest of the choir. It was superb to say the least.
Something about hearing that music sung in that particular space was very moving. I'm a bit nostalgic by nature and I like feeling connected to the past. Sitting in that church that has been there for centuries while listening to music that represents both the past and future was a powerful experience. I felt connected to something bigger than myself, as if perhaps somewhere far down the line an ancestor of mine had sat in the same church listening to these ancient madrigals just as I was that moment.
Later after the concert was over, we explored the church, which in my opinion has more character than other European cathedrals I've visited. The walls are covered in family crests placed there in memory of various people. After scanning around the church, I noticed there on the wall was my family crest (Woods) on my mother's side. I have no way of knowing if I'm actually part Irish or not without some research, but it was exciting to see it there. It was even placed directly above the organ right by the choir loft. Linc also found a memorial to a man with the last name Parrott on the wall. It's neat to think that we might have some distant ties to this place, especially since music is such an important part of Cork's history.
I wish everyone in our choir had come to this concert. I think we need to emulate the European choral style -- they make the audience come to them; they do not hit the audience over the head with the music. Their intimate style draws the listener in and is truly effective when dealing with soft dynamics. Also each singer knew how to blend with his or her neighbor -- they all knew that the show was about them as a group, not one person trying to outsing another. They changed formations for just about every song to get just the right blend for that particular song. On some songs not everyone sang because the piece was only written for a certain amount and they wanted to be true to the composition (at least I'm assuming that's why). All in all I was blown away by this experience and it made me view our music and the way we sing in a different light.
Above are photos of the cathedral...
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