Quartet Rehearsal

There are four pieces on my recital that are more challenging than I wish to ask my choir to sing, especially in light of the many pieces we are already singing. I decided to hire a quartet to sing them, people who read music and will not feel so overwhelmed by the tight harmonies and changing meters. These pieces are:

Notre Pere by Maurice Durufle
Sanctus by Charles Gounod
Pater Noster by Igor Stravinsky
Daemon Irrepit Callidus by Gygor Orban

Today the quartet came together for the first time, after the PrayerSong rehearsal and took a look at the music. Two musicians Lourdes recently met, one from Cuba who speaks no English, and one from Peru who speaks enough English to get by, are joining in. And I finally asked one of the basses in the choir to sing along since I was having no luck finding anyone willing to sing for the small amount of money I could offer.

How bizarre to discover that those who do not do English were familiar with the Latin and the French! Music IS a universal language. I had the honor of working with the Concordia students on the Stravinsky piece, and already had time to figure out better ways of introducing it to new singers to prevent some of the avoidable pitfalls.

I begin to realize that we are not all that far away from the recital date. I need to make sure we do some solid and beneficial work towards getting this music down pat. As for me, I know that what is in my head will eventually get communicated, so I am patient while I work around language barriers and find ways to make this work.