Finding our Voices, Finding our Friends

by guest blogger, Lianne Bremer

And…. We’re Back!

The Long Beach Camerata Singers are back. Last night was our first rehearsal of the new season, and there was an air of excitement, joy, and relief that we were all back together again.

For all of us who spent the last year and a half missing our choral experience, our anticipation and excitement grew with every new email we received announcing what was coming up this year. As September loomed, we scrambled to start using our voices again (well, most of us) and to excavate our closets to find our concert wear that had migrated to the very back, about three feet from Narnia.

We’ve made many changes to accommodate our primary concern which is the health and safety of all members of the choir. The Camerata Board, led by Jan Hower, with important input from James Bass, Tammi Alderman, and the Long Beach Board of Health, came up with some genius ways to enable us to keep singing.

We are rehearsing in a new, much larger facility where we can spread our chairs father apart. This facility is gorgeous, and we are so grateful to have it. I have to say I think I broke Google Maps trying to find the location, but a good scenic drive is always fun. The ginormous speed bumps are also exciting, so singers will be well jostled as a warm-up. The new rehearsal space is worth any speed bump or wrong turn, because it allows us to be together.

There were many, “Is that YOU under there?” questions as we attempted to recognize our long-lost singers under their masks. It was also tricky because so many are sporting long luxurious COVID locks, and between new hairstyles and masks, it was like meeting a whole new set of people.

Speaking of new people, we have so many new singers joining us this season! Congratulations to all our new members. We know you will come for the music but stay for the great community.

James Bass took to the podium to welcome us back. He reviewed the safety rules: masks on all the time, unless singing, and even then, it is a choir member’s choice to sing with or with their mask. Everyone in the room is required to be fully vaccinated and encouraged to get a flu shot. We have done away with rehearsal break food and water and reduced the length of the break. All these measures are in place to keep COVID out of the choir, and we all recognize that we are still vulnerable to a break-through case. Dr. Bass was very clear that our safety measures against the virus need to happen when we’re at rehearsal and every hour between rehearsals. We are all committed to staying vigilant.

First night rehearsals for a new concert are always fun. First, you pick up all the new music. It is always so exciting to see what James and Tammi have programmed for us. However, some of these pieces were double sided loose printed pages. Let’s just say the staff was entertained watching me attempt to pick up a bunch of loose papers. It’s not my greatest strength.

Unbeknownst to most of the choir, there is an alto who ALWAYS remembers to bring a stapler to these first rehearsals. The first time she pulled it out of her purse I was convinced she was some kind of Choir Witch. When she told me she had TWO in there, I asked if she were a second-grade teacher, and she said, “No, I’m an engineer.” Then I understood why she had two staplers in her purse. I fully intend to learn her ways because I had papers flying everywhere last night. Never mind singing the right notes, I had no idea which side of which paper we were singing! 99% of Camerata members are far more coordinated with their music than I.

Unbeknownst to most of the choir, there is an alto who ALWAYS remembers to bring a stapler to these first rehearsals

Once we were settled in our separated seats, the magic happened. Taking out that first piece of music and singing together for the first time since March 2020 was an incredibly moving experience for me. It was the sound of community, of joy, and of our hearts. It was the sound of “we survived this, and we honor those who did not.” It was the sound of “we are back, and we are going to sing our hearts out.”

Camerata, it is good to be home.

Handel With Care: A Baroque Trivia Quiz

It’s a good thing that Peanut wasn’t G.F. Handel’s dog — he never would have put up for being ignored during that 3-week period when the master composed Messiah! Considering that the oratorio comprises almost 3 hours in its entirety, that is quite an accomplishment.  You can see that Mr. Peanut is ready for the holidays in this photo!  Here’s some interesting trivia about this beloved piece for your reading pleasure.

1.  Messiah is rich with vast effects derived from simple means,  along with beautiful melodies and the insistent rhythms that are characteristic of the Baroque era, easy to love and hard to forget.
2. The Music gains extraordinary intensity through the Baroque compositional technique of “word painting,” in which the flow of notes in the music actually seems to replicate a shape or contour that the words describe.

3. Papa Haydn, always generously praising the merits of other composers, called Handel “der Meister von uns allen,” or  “the master of us all” at a performance of Messiah. But Beethoven, who was far more grudging with his approval, used almost the same words—“der unerreichte Meister aller Meisters,” “the unequalled master of all masters.”

4. The association between diva soprano and the soprano solo role in Messiah extends more than a century earlier, back to the legendary Jenny Lind, who barnstormed the U.S. as a Barnum-sponsored headliner in the 1840s. On one of her transatlantic crossings, the Swedish Nightingale asked the ship’s captain to wake her before dawn, without specifying a reason for her request. At the appointed hour, she stood with him at the ship’s railing as the sun rose over the waters and sang “I Know My Redeemer Liveth.”

5.  Handel’s Messiah continues to exert a very real influence upon modern composers.  Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, composed in 1971, brings together music, dance and diverse religious and secular traditions in a way that owes much to Handel.  Andrew Lloyd Webber—like Handel, a master of theatrical craft in music—wrote a requiem mass as his only full- scale classical work. Paul McCartney, too, ventured into oratorio with his only classical work, The Liverpool Oratorio.

   This year will be the twelfth  annual performance of Messiah by the Long Beach Camerata Singers.  The chorus will be accompanied by Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra.

   Camerata sings Handel’s Messiah.  TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE $35/$45.  www.LBCamerata.org or call 310-686-5833.  Saturday, December 21 and Sunday December 22 , 4:30pm, Beverly O’Neill Theater, Long Beach, CA. Preconcert lecture beginning one hour before each performance, offered in both English and Spanish options.

“Word-Painting” and Handel’s Messiah

One of the most extraordinary aspects of Handel’s music is the use of “word-painting,”  the musical technique of composing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song’s lyrics. For example, ascending scales would accompany lyrics about going up; slow, dark music would accompany lyrics about death.

This technique is employed throughout Handel’s most famous work, “Messiah.”  Today we will examine the use of word painting in two  arias, “Ev’ry Valley,” for Tenor and “But Who May Abide” for Bass.

In the very first aria, or air, of the composition — “Every valley shall be exalted,”  Handel literally begins the work with powerful word painting.  Many a composer would be content with just composing a melody with half the beauty of Handel’s, but he went much further.  The text is: “Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight and the rough places plain.”  When the tenor sings the word, “crooked,” Handel toggles between two notes; and with “straight,” he writes one long note. The effect wonderfully contrasts uneven with straight.

“But who may abide the day of his coming?” contains one of the most dramatic moments in the entire oratorio. The text from Malachi prophesizes about Judgment Day, asking “who may abide the day of his coming?” This Handel crafts into a mysterious, slow air. But at the text, “for he is like a refiner’s fire,” the music explodes into … well … a fiery exclamation. The acceleration and ferociousness captures perfectly the threat of hell and damnation.   The word “shake” uses a melisma that actually sounds like the singer is shaking.  And, if you listen really closely you can hear the violins play a run that is reminiscent of  the “flames” of the “refiner’s fire” licking at the singer’s feet!

These are just two examples of many in Handel’s Messiah that make it interesting, exciting and accessible.  This is why the work has endured since its first performance in 1742.  We hope you will join the Long Beach Camerata Singers in their performance of Handel’s Messiah at the Beverly O’Neill Theater in Long Beach on December 21 and December 22, 2019.  Click HERE to purchase tickets.

How GF Handel Made History Reusing Music

GF Handel, like most composers of his era, borrowed and recycled musical themes on a routine basis.  Today, we would consider the practice at best, distasteful, and at worst, plagiarism.  But in Handel’s time it was a sign of respect.

As we know, “Messiah” was composed in just 24 days.  Part of the reason Handel was able to accomplish this remarkable feat is that four of the major choruses in the oratorio were “repurposed” from earlier work that the composer had done.

In the beloved Chorus, “For Unto Us a Child Is Born,” Handel not only borrowed music from one of his earlier compositions, he pretty much lifted in intact and just set it right down in the middle of the Messiah score.  The original composition was a duet for 2 Sopranos, an allegro movement from HWV 189, a short cantata called “No, di voi non vo’ fidarmi” or “No, I do not want to trust you.”  This piece was composed in 1741, shortly before Handel began work on Messiah, but it harkens back to his Italian sojourn in the early eighteenth century, when these vocal miniatures established his reputation as an up-and-coming composer.  Click Here to listen to a performance of the duet, beautiful and a bit bizarre in its original incarnation.

Stranger still, Handel was not done borrowing from this particular cantata.  The final movement of the cantata is another allegro section and yes, you guessed it, was also reincarnated into the “Messiah” oratorio, this time morphing into “All We Like Sheep.”  Use the same link as above to listen, but advance to 3:35 seconds to hear the second allegro.

If borrowing twice is successful, why not do it again?  And again still? Source material for “His Yoke Is Easy” and “He Shall Purify” was supplied by Duetto XV, HWV 192, “Quel fior che all’alba ride” or “That flower that laughs at daybreak.”  Again, the borrowing is deep and extensive.    Listen Here to this beautiful music.

Regardless of how he got there, we can only be grateful that GF Handel composed this great, enduring piece of music.

Long Beach Camerata Singers will perform Handel’s Messiah with Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra on Saturday, December 21 and Sunday, December 22 at 4:30pm.  Both performances will feature a pre-concert lecture one hour before the concert, offered in both Spanish and English.  The Beverly O’Neill Theater is the venue for these events.  On Saturday, a holiday sing-a-long will kick off the afternoon.  Tickets are $35 and $45.  Click HERE to visit our website to learn more and purchase tickets.

Peanut Interviews Dr. James K. Bass

In a recent interview with the Artistic Director of Long Beach Camerata Singers, Dr. James K. Bass, we discussed his approach to the group’s upcoming performance of Carmina Burana:

Peanutsez:  What makes Carmina Burana an enduring favorite?

Dr. Bass:  First of all, the piece has a special combination of rhythm, melody and imagery.

PS:  Imagery?

DB:  Yes!  First there’s the big beginning, “O Fortuna,” and then we are immediately introduced to the imagery of spring — the magic of the forest and first love.  Next is the tavern scene — in taberna — with all the images of drinking.  You know, drunken abbots, dozens of toasts, and the swan roasting on the spit.  Finally, we enter the Court of Love, populated with Greek Gods and their “higher” feelings.  The whole thing is a prescription for musical perfection!

PS:  What does it take to reach this music perfection?

DB:  Carl Orff composed the piece in such a way that there is nothing superfluous.  The ideas are repeated, albeit in an old german/latin dialect; the melodies are short and memorable and the rhythmic qualities are strong and appealing.  This music is easily consumed by the ear and the heart.  It is accessible to all levels of music lovers.

PS:  As Artistic Director, what interpretive choices have you made?

DB:  First, I decided to use the version written for 2 pianos and percussion.  This allows us to take the tempos faster and make the piece more exciting.  Also, I want to elicit an emotional response from the audience, so when a key moment or phrase occurs, I can choose to make it last longer, to make it louder or to make it softer, all for emphasis.

PS:  What do you want your audience to take away from the performance on April 22?

DB:  First and foremost, I want our audience to rejoice in the music, to take pleasure in the human voice as it touches the human heart.  I hope this performance will provide a “sonic meal” of different sounds, a live, high-fidelity experience.

If you would like to hear more from Dr. Bass about our performance of Carmina, please join us on Tuesday, April 17 at 3:30pm at the Long Beach Airport Holiday Inn for “Orff Revealed.”  Click here to reserve your free seat: http://longbeachcameratasingers.org/lbcs/carmina-burana-2/

To purchase your ticket for Carmina Burana on Sunday April 22 at 4:30pm, at the Beverly O’Neill Theater in Long Beach, click here:http://longbeachcameratasingers.org/lbcs/carl-orffs-carmina-burana/

Baroque Trivia: Five Crazy Facts About Handel’s Messiah

It’s a good thing that Peanut wasn’t GF Handel’s dog — he never would have put up for being ignored during that 3-week period when the master composed Messiah!  You can see that Mr. Peanut is ready for the holidays in this photo, wearing his little hunter’s cap. The little guy is surprisingly good natured about having his photo taken! Here’s some interesting trivia about this beloved piece for your reading pleasure:

1.  Messiah is rich with vast effects derived from simple means,  along with beautiful melodies and the insistent rhythms that are characteristic of the Baroque era, easy to love and hard to forget.
2. The Music gains extraordinary intensity through the Baroque compositional technique of “word painting,” in which the flow of notes in the music actually seems to replicate a shape or contour that the words describe.

3. Papa Haydn, always generously praising the merits of other composers, called Handel “der Meister von uns allen,” or  “the master of us all” at a performance of Messiah. But Beethoven, who was far more grudging with his approval, used almost the same words—“der unerreichte Meister aller Meisters,” “the unequalled master of all masters.”

4. The association between diva soprano and the soprano solo role in Messiah extends more than a century earlier, back to the legendary Jenny Lind, who barnstormed the U.S. as a Barnum-sponsored headliner in the 1840s. On one of her transatlantic crossings, the Swedish Nightingale asked the ship’s captain to wake her before dawn, without specifying a reason for her request. At the appointed hour, she stood with him at the ship’s railing as the sun rose over the waters and sang “I Know My Redeemer Liveth.”

5.  Handel’s Messiah continues to exert a very real influence upon modern composers.  Leonard Bernstein’s Mass, composed in 1971, brings together music, dance and diverse religious and secular traditions in a way that owes much to Handel.  Andrew Lloyd Webber—like Handel, a master of theatrical craft in music—wrote a requiem mass as his only full- scale classical work. Paul McCartney, too, ventured into oratorio with his only classical work, The Liverpool Oratorio.

   This year will be the tenth annual performance of Messiah by the Long Beach Camerata Singers.  The chorus will be accompanied by Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra

   Camerata sings Handel’s Messiah.  TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE $40.  www.LBCamerata.org or call 562-373-5654.  Sunday December 3, 4:30pm, Beverly O’Neill Theater

    

5 Big Reasons to Hear Camerata Perform Handel’s Messiah on Sunday!

Mr. Peanut is getting ready for the Holidays.  If you watched his Thanksgiving Message, you know he is expecting lots of goodies.  Today Peanut would like to recommend that you attend the upcoming performance of Handel’s Messiah by the Long Beach Camerata Singers — it’s a holiday tradition!  Here are 5 big reasons to attend this year’s show:

1.  Bring Family and Friends Together — In a world laden with consumer goods, why not invest in an afternoon with the people who are important in your life?  Put down the cell phone, step away from the computer and, yes, visit with people — in person!  You won’t regret it.
2. Build Traditions that Endure — It is important for both children and adults to have traditions in their lives, traditions that define the season and create memories; traditions that can be passed on to future generations.  Traditions loom large when we remember our childhoods.  If you don’t already have a holiday musical tradition, our concert is the perfect place to start.
3. The Beauty of the Music — There’s a reason why this piece of music has endured for almost 300 years — it’s unbelievably beautiful!  The compelling melodies, the dramatic arias and the powerful recitatives never fail to thrill.  You will be surprised at how much of the music is familiar to you — and don’t forget the Hallelujah Chorus.  Be prepared to stand for that one!
4. The Power of the Message — Regardless of your belief system, Messiah is filled with important reminders of our highest values.  Goodwill toward others, hope for a better life, comfort for those in distress:  these are the impulses that build our character.  It doesn’t matter if you attend church, or which denomination, if any, your subscribe to.
5. Get a Brain Massage — Give your poor, overworked brain a rest!  Allow the sounds of the chorus, soloists and orchestra to flow through you !  Close your eyes and float on the river of sound.  Your brain will be washed clean of electronic beeps, digital images and the cluttered detritus of our daily lives for this small piece of time.

This year will be the tenth annual performance of Messiah by the Long Beach Camerata Singers.  The chorus will be accompanied by Musica Angelica Baroque Orchestra.

Camerata sings Handel’s Messiah.  TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE $30/$45.  www.LBCamerata.org or call 562-373-5654.  Sunday December 3, 4:30pm Beverly O’Neill  Theater

What’s Your Sign?: The Camerata Peace Project

Because inclusion and belonging are the overriding theme for our Peace Project concert on Sunday, we want to make this beautiful concert accessible to a group that you wouldn’t normally associate with music — the deaf community.  However, it turns out that music plays a significant role, both therapeutically and recreationally in the lives of deaf people.  That is why we will have a song signer at our concert on Sunday.

So, how can the hearing-impaired enjoy music?  According to one   young man, they “Feel” the music and “listen with the heart.”  Here is a heartwarming video called “How Deaf People Enjoy Music:” https://www.facebook.com/aimediaAUS/videos/10155189131339220/?id=100010747232096

Deaf people often retain some degree of hearing.  In addition to sound, the tactile, the visual, and the kinesthetic all play important roles in deaf perceptions of music.  Song-signing performances use four principal forms of expression: music, lyrics, the signs of ASL, and other gestures independent of the signed language (i.e. dancing, swaying, pulsing, etc.).  One of the earliest records of song signing can be found in a film project by the National Association of the Deaf, produced between 1910 and 1920

The song signer portrays musical elements like rhythm, pitch, phrasing, and timbre through productive musical signs and non-linguistic gestures.  In fact, many song signing videos have gone viral on YouTube, and people are beginning to understand that signing can enrich the musical experiences of the deaf and hearing alike.  Song signing presents us with an opportunity to expand our understanding of familiar songs and to experience them in new ways.

Join us for The Camerata Peace Project on Sunday for an incredibly rich experience, including song signing!  Here is a link for tickets: http://longbeachcameratasingers.org/lbcs/camerata-peace-project/

Peace by Piece: The Camerata Peace Project

How we spend our time IS very important.   As we have seen this week, some people spend their time planning the cruelest deeds imaginable.  Not us, no not us.   We spend our time making our community better.

And making our community better is exactly what Long Beach Camerata Singers is all about. That is why our first concert this year is The Camerata Peace Project – how timely is that??? Now more than ever . . . we need to keep reminding ourselves that decency, goodness and belonging are alive and well, and that is exactly what we will be singing about in our concert on Sunday.

 Without pause or second thought, all of the singers are working together to create a work of art. Musical performance is without question an endeavor towards peace. On Sunday you will hear music representing many styles, religious traditions, cultural differences and generations. We hope that this afternoon will be unlike any “concert” you have ever experienced …and is instead a visual and sonic representation of community at its very best. 

The concert is comprised of a series of individual pieces from many different traditions — Pop/Folk (Gilkyson’s “Reqiem”), African-American (“Lift Every Voice and Sing”) Hebrew (“Hine Ma Tov”), Russian (Rachmaninoff’s  “Bogoroditse Devo”) and so much more.  Peace by Piece . . . each piece of music will add to your understanding and sense of belonging.      

Please come and spend an afternoon with us! Our music and our message has no meaning without your ears!  We promise you will leave moved and inspired 

 

An Anthem of Compassion: Eliza Gilkyson’s “Requiem”

Camerata’s Peace Project Concert on October 8 will be filled with fantastic repertoire.  My very favorite piece is “Requiem” by Eliza Gilkyson.  This absolutely beautiful piece of music is full of lament, and, ultimately,  hope.  It also has a very interesting history.

Gilkyson wrote “Requiem” in 2004 in response to the Asian Tsunami disaster.  In an interview with NPR, she revealed that she wanted to write a mass, and even considered using Latin text.  She researched female deities of many religious and cultural traditions, but kept coming back to Mary.  She used lower case exclusively in the text to signify the universal female comforter.

The composer recorded “Requiem” on her Paradise Lost album using  only two voices — hers and her daughter’s.  Her intent, exquisitely fulfilled, was to pair an innocent upper voice with a more world-weary lower voice.  Use this link for the NPR interview and the Gilkyson recording of the piece:  http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4847831

The story of Gilkyson’s “Requiem” doesn’t stop there.  As a matter of cosmic coincidence, both Gilkyson and  Craig Hella Johnson, Artistic Director of the professional choir Conspirare, resided in Austin, Texas, and the rest is history.  In 2006 Johnson produced a piano-and-chorus arrangement of “Requiem,” the very arrangement that Camerata will be singing on October 8.  In a blog posting by Conspirare, Johnson describes the piece as “an anthem of compassion.”  Click here for Johnson’s remarks and a Conspirare performance of the piece: https://conspirare.org/inspire/requiem/

Please join us on October 8 to hear the Gilkyson/Johnson version of “Requiem,” as well as many more wonderful choral nuggets.  To purchase tickets please visit Camerata’s website:  http://longbeachcameratasingers.org/lbcs/camerata-peace-project/