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Richard Strauss 6/11/1846
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Igor Stravinsky 6/17/1882
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RCS Volunteers - Get Your Programs! Courtesy of Anne Sauder 
Verbe égal au Très-Haut, notre unique espérance,
Jour éternel de la terre et des cieux;
De la paisible nuit nous rompons le silence,
Divin Sauveur, jette sur nous les yeux! ...*
If you don't speak French, fear not. Long-time member of the Rockbridge Choral Society's soprano section, Anne Sauder, does. For more years than we can recall Anne has been the coordinator and composer of our concert programs. Proficient at many things, Anne is a former teacher of the romance languages and current culinary genius, roaster of pigs, camp counselor, master of the limerick or a good story to accompany a recipe, Friends of the RCS Board member, and a fine musician. Most of us who are fortunate enough to sing nearby know that she's a reliable sight reader and counts like a fiend while making it sound effortless - the most useful traits for a choral singer. Our audiences are often not multi-lingual and neither are our singers. Sometimes making a beautiful noise wins out over getting the pronunciation just right. Thanks to Anne, you'll still know what we're singing. Just check the program for the English translation and for who's doing the singing and playing and donating and underwriting, etc, etc, etc !
*Word, equal to the Most High, our only hope,
Eternal day of the earth and the heavens,
We break the silence of the peaceful night.
Divine Savior, cast your eyes upon us!
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Cantique de Jean Racine
, Gabriel Faure, Click here.
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Singing Sands
The National Park Service turns 100 on August 25. There are 58 national parks in the US. The parks' features are unique; many are majestic. But when it comes to sound, or the lack of it, Great Sand Dunes National Park is in a class all alone. Located in south central Colorado, Great Sand Dunes boasts the highest sand dunes in the United States. The height and extent of the dunes imparts an unexpected character of sound - there's almost none. The decibel levels recorded by scientists working with the Park Service's Natural Sounds
 Division are significantly below those of a typical recording studio. The result is that sound, any sound, carries and echoes in uncharacteristic ways. It is possible to clearly hear the conversations of visitors hundreds of yards away. Sand avalanches are triggered by the sand and by human voices. Just imagine singers in the Great Sand Dunes! For a short, informative visit to this natural wonder, go to Visit the Sand Dunes
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Igor Stravinsky and Chanel No. 5
The heat of summer has finally arrived. Rehearsals and performances are behind us and we take a few months off. What to do on Monday nights? How about a novel?
Igor Stravinsky's,
The Rite of Spring,
has its Paris premiere on May 29, 1913. Fashion icon and couturiere, Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel, is in the audience and reportedly is mesmerized by the power of this new ballet and intrigued by its composer. The audience is
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Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel |
largely scandalized by the work's discordant, rhythmic mu
sic and Nijinsky's primitive choreography, but Chanel em
braces it as a musical revolution, a harbinger of the shedding of the old and the coming of the new. Stravinsky is said to be despondent with the Paris reception of his ballet.
Seven years later, in the spring of 1920, Chanel is introduced to Igor Stravinsky by Sergei Diaghilev, impresario of the
Ballets Russes
. Later that summer, she learns that Stravinsky, made penniless by the Russian Revolution, has been forced to flee Russia, and has landed in Paris as a refugee. Along with his wife, chronically ill with consumption, and their four children, and a "small flock of birds", he is seeking a place to live. Intrigued as she often was by people with whom she shared a passion for the modern and a shedding of artifice, she invites Stravinsky and his family to
Bel Respiro
, her villa outside Paris, until they can find a more suitable residence. The family arrives in the second week of September and stays until May, 1921. According to Chanel, a fiery affair with Stravinsky ensues. During this brief period, Chanel is said to have perfected Chanel No. 5™. Stravinsky revises the
Rite of Spring
, and it is performed, now to wide acclaim, in Paris in 1920. The cost of production is rumored to have been underwritten by a large, anonymous donation from Chanel. There is little doubt that Chanel saw a kindred spirit in Stravinsky.
The accuracy of Chanel's claims has been disputed both by Stravinsky's family and musical connections. The
Chanel fashion house contends there is no evidence that any affair between Cha
 nel and Stravinsky ever occurred, though it opened its archives for researchers for a film based on this rumored affair. Stravinsky was reputed to have been a philanderer who had several affairs, including one with Chanel.
Whereas Stravinsky never publicly referred to this alleged
affair, Chanel spoke about it at length to her biographer, Paul Morand, in 1946.
The conversation
was published thirty years later as
l'Allure de Chanel
. So, the legend lives on.
This forbidden love between the feisty fashion designer and the soulful composer makes for a fictionalized, historical novel, and in 2009 poet, Chris Greenhalgh, delivered it in his debut novel, Coco and Igor. The book became the basis for the film, Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky, which had its premiere in the prestigious closing slot for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.We'll never know for sure, but it's a good beach read!
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Friends of the Rockbridge Choral Society |
Rockbridge Choral Society
PO Box 965
Lexington, VA 24450
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