Little technique, a little heart

Dear God, there you have it, finished, this poor little mass. Is it really sacred music or is it dammed music that I have created? [Est-ce bien de la music sacrée que je viens de faire ou bien de la sacrée musique?] I was born for opera buffa, as you well know! Little technique, a little heart, that is all. So may you be blessed and grant me Paradise.

So wrote Rossini in 1863, at the end of the manuscript of his Petite messe solennelle - a work he referred to in an inscription at the beginning of the manuscript as “the final sin of my old age”.

We performed the Kyrie and Gloria and Cum Sancto Spiritu from the messe in our Other Choir concert on Wednesday, and a trio of alto, tenor and bass performed the Gratias and a tenor soloist sang the Domine Deus. I hadn’t really been looking forward to the concert, because I didn’t feel we were properly ready. We (the chorus) weren’t (although the soloists were), but the concert turned out to be quite a relaxed affair and the conductor specified that some of the pieces were ‘works in progress’, which took the pressure off a bit. In the end our pieces from the messe went better than I expected them too, and I actually enjoyed singing them, despite the fact that I ended up standing in quite a squashed position at the back and could see neither my music nor the conductor very well!

We also sang most of the pieces we sang in the concert at the cathedral the other week, which went alright as well. I suppose they should do now that we’ve done them so many times!

The second half of the concert was given by the university choir who also sang with us in the cathedral, who are brilliant. They sang Crucifixus, by Lotti, and then four pieces by Whitacre - Lux Arumque, A Boy and a Girl, Sleep and With a Lily in Your Hand.

My favourite part of the whole concert was when the choir stood among the audience, in the aisle and down the sides, to sing Lux Arumque. I find it such a beautiful and moving piece anyway, but to have the singers so near to us when they were singing took the listening experience to another level.