True Amateurs

A quick search on google for the word "amateur" finds you face to face with a Wikipedia definition that starts like this:

An amateur  - French "lover of",  from Old French  "lover" - (so far this is good!!)  is generally considered a person attached to a particular pursuit, study, or science, without pay and often without formal training.

So an amateur is a lover in the truest sense, a person that persues their passion without hope of monetary gain.

Well, that means that the choir world is full of lovers. People that out of pure love for singing devote vast amounts of their time and energy to make collective sounds that uplifts their spirits, and makes the world a much better place.

This week on choral concert you'll hear the results of just one of the many amateur choirs from across the country that make music for love.  These amateurs are entirely dedicated to the music, and getting it as good as they can possibly make it.

And it works! If I didn't tell you that I Coristi were amateur you wouldn't know it. They are that good, period.

So check them out this weekend, I Coristi perform Holst, Brahms and Veljo Tormis

on CHORAL CONCERT with Peter Togni  this SUNDAY, August 1st  9:00 - 11:00 am, (9:30 - 11:30 NT)

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Hearing is believing

Ralph Vaughn Williams was a declared agnostic, if not an atheist. Yet he wrote some of the most interesting and beautiful church music to ever come out of England.

Seems very strange. But he really was one of many composers to write mass settings, and other liturgical music without any belief in the Christian church. Verdi, Berlioz, and Brahms were also openly agnostic if not atheists.

So what's with that? How can someone write music for the church when they don't even believe in God?

Good question!

I think the answer lies in looking at music itself. People use music to be part of everything we do, celebrations, ceremonies, movies, presentations, you name it - if people are gathered together to do something, music will be a part of it.

So Vaughn Williams had a chance to write a great piece that allowed him to draw upon 1,000 years of musical development in the Christian church. He had a HUGE amount of material to work with and obviously he found that truly inspiring!

Believer, non-believer? Doesn't really matter, the music stands up on its own in any context.

Peter Togni says Vaughn Williams mass in G minor is  "one of the great unaccompanied choral works of the 20^th century" and its worth listening to!

So check it out this weekend, Vaughn Williams Mass in G minor with the Elora Festival Singers on CHORAL CONCERT with Peter Togni  this SUNDAY, July 25th   9:00 - 11:00 am, (9:30 - 11:30 NT)

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Vespers: The day's last glow

A Vesper is an evening service in the Christian church. The idea goes way, way back to very early Christian times - like at least the year 500.

The idea was to have a service in the day's last glow, when the angle of the sun was just right to reach inside the church and light up the stained glass windows beautifully.

There is something very special about light at the transition between day and night. I am not totally certain of the science about this, but it seems to me that the sun is shining through more low level atmosphere at that time of day. It gives the light a certain shimmer, and a softer glow than the harsher light of mid-day.

So at this time of day a church or a cathedral is literally glowing with magical light. The monks and clerics obviously knew this, and took full advantage of its special atmosphere with the Vespers service.

Musicians have known this for a long time as well, Rachmaninoff, Mozart, Monteverdi and many others wrote some of their most beautiful and well known pieces for this time of day.

This week on Choral Concert we celebrate the power of light with the "Vespro della Beata Vergine" or the "Vespers of the Virgin Mary" by the great 17^th century composer Alessandro Scarlatti. It's really, really beautiful.

Check it out: CHORAL CONCERT with Peter Togni this Sunday, July 18^th  9:00-11:00 am, (9:30-11:30NT)

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Some good moments

There are some good moments in this weeks show.

Check out Carl Orff's  "Carmina Burana" which comes in about 11 minutes into the show, guaranteed to give you an 24 minute blast of freedom and exuberance - the text is really quite raunchy BTW, too bad it's all in latin.

A little over half way in you'll hear Vivaldi's "Dixit Dominus", absolutely perfect joyous Vivaldi.

And finally, a collection of pieces straight out of the oven (or maybe the freezer I should say in this heat), newly minted compositions from the Winnipeg New Music Festival. It's all from a wonderful night of music made at Westminster United Church last February.

Last week I was going on about the Boy's Air Choir from London, England and their ambitious goal of being "the best quality boy's choir in the world".   Are they the best I said?

Well, they are very good, maybe not the best in the world (too much warbling for my taste) but they are really very good!   

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The best in the world

This week on Choral Concert you'll hear the Spiritus Chamber Choir from Calgary, and they're pretty good, not the best choir in the WHOLE WORLD but this live recording was a surprise and delight for me to listen to - well done guys!

You'll also hear lots of music from Cambridge, England with the Cambridge Singers, the choir of King's College, and the Cambridge Choral Scholars. All of these choirs are very good, really wonderful pristine performances,  not necessarily the best choirs in the WHOLE WORLD mind you.

We'll also hear from Paul Halley, really a genius choral director and a wonderful composer. Maybe not the best in the WHOLE WORLD but pretty darn good.

Then we will hear the Boy's Air Choir from London, England.  They have the ambitious goal of being "the best quality boy's choir in the world".  Wow. In the WHOLE WORLD.

OK, so you know where this is going.

Are they really better than any other boy's choir in the whole world?  Either that is an empty promotional gimmick or, well - they are telling the truth. You really have to be either truly dumb or supremely confident to say such a thing.

So, they are coming up as the second piece in the show on Sunday - about 6 minutes in. Give it a listen, you decide if they are the best.

Does the space make the music?

Recently I heard from a violinist friend of mine about an experiment going on at McGill university. I'll try to make this description short:

They are putting musicians in a room and surrounding them with an array of strategically places speakers. In this set up they can reproduce almost any acoustic environment.

That means you can play (or sing) a note and hear it back say as it would sound in Westminster Abbey, or Roy Thompson Hall, or your grandparent's basement, or the Taj Mahal or..... you get the picture.

The beauty of this set up is that you can switch from one environment to another instantly. What my friend discovered (his name is Mark Fewer BTY and he's amazing) is that EVERYTHING changed when the acoustic changed. The way he played, the way he felt, and the way he sounded.

It's a kind of instant emotional, musical roller coaster.

So to answer the question "does the space make the music"?  TOTALLY!  The sound, the look, and the feel of the space you are in has everything to do with the emotional tone of the music you end up making - or composing for that matter.

This week we have music inspired by one of the most beautiful spaces (visually and acoustically) on earth. St Mark's Cathedral in Venice is covered in more than 8,000 square metres of golden mosaics....  A stunning feast for the eyes and an acoustic resonance that would inspire the angels.

So tune in and let the Laudate Singers from Vancouver bring you music that was created over 400 years ago through the inspiration of one of the most beautiful spaces on earth.

Check it out this weekend: CHORAL CONCERT with Peter Togni  this SUNDAY, June 27th   9:00 - 11:00 am, (9:30 - 11:30 NT)

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Papa Haydn would be proud

We'll be playing his Nelson Mass.

But we are also serving up an all women's youth choir from Halifax. These young women deliver an atmospheric and passionate program that they completely developed themselves.

They did their own choreography, and built their own sets - a tree of life that they put on centre stage just for the program we will hear.

Something tells me that this is something old Papa Haydn would be proud of. To know that we all have grown to the point where young woman take such a high level concert experience into their own hands and build it from the ground up.

Check it out this weekend: CHORAL CONCERT with Peter Togni  this SUNDAY, June 20th   9:00 - 11:00 am, (9:30 - 11:30 NT)

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What makes it spiritual?

The Phoenix chamber choir from BC digs in to explore that question this Sunday, and they don't leave too many rocks unturned in their spiritual exploration.

You'll hear Gregorian Chants that have been part of the Christian liturgy for over a thousand years, spirituals (in the traditional sense) masterfully arranged by Moses Hogan, and a range of contemporary music pieces, including some written by composers from behind what we used to call the iron curtain - Rihard Dubras from Latvia and Pawel Lukaszewski from Poland.

Music that explores Christian mysticism is very important to these composers. Having had restrictions placed on their religious expression for so many years in the Soviet era, they now approach their musical expression of faith with a depth and character that seems a thing of the past for us in the west.

It's a wonderful line up so check them out this weekend: CHORAL CONCERT with Peter Togni  this SUNDAY, June 13th   9:00 - 11:00 am, (9:30 - 11:30 NT)

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What's in their water?

Or maybe it's that briny air, or the sense of isolation and separation from the mainland, or maybe it's the Celtic heritage.....  or maybe it's just magic.

But Newfoundland's got talent.

From Festival 500 through to the dozens upon dozens of incredible choirs that dot the landscape of that incredible place, the standard of singing in that province in remarkably good.

Take Lady Cove for instance. Beautiful blend, great musicianship, a sense of rhythm rarely found in a choir, and a true dedication to every note. Wow.

Check them out this weekend: CHORAL CONCERT with Peter Togni  this SUNDAY, June 6th   9:00 - 11:00 am, (9:30 - 11:30 NT)

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Is it pop?

Is Rajaton a pop group?  They are certainly popular, they certainly do a lot of pop music, and they certainly get crowds really excited.

But this Finnish group of extraordinary musicians can deliver almost any style of music, and they do it with flair and panache. It leaves you thinking "who cares what kind of music they sing" because as the cliché  goes - this group is beyond categorization.

Check them out this week, and see why the Music Fest Vancouver has brought them back 4 years in a row.

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