Sorry to be late, everyone; health interruption. Fine, now!
On Tuesday, we will continue to compare our two composers' means of expressing the text, specifically the opening movements of each.
In both versions we repeat the word "Magnificat," which in Latin strictly translates as "it praises," i.e., Mary is saying to her cousin Elizabeth "my soul praises." According to Biblical scripture, this is her response to Elizabeth's news that Mary will give birth to the long-awaited Messiah.
This will be the only Latin word that you'll sing in Rutter's setting, and you'll use the Roman Latin pronunciation of the word: mah-NYEE-fee-caht. You'll sing it a lot...a LOT. See how it glides smoothly? It's a perfect example of the difference between Roman Latin and German Latin. In the Bach, you will stop the tone on a hard G, continuing with the other three syllables: mahg-NEE-fee-caht. As we sing it, you'll notice how the German Latin provides a very clear point to the beat! Then try to find the point of the beat with the smoothly gliding Roman pronunciation; not so easy, but also not surprising when you group it with words in, say, Italian and French. Scholars began reasoning and putting into practice the difference between those versions as recently as the mid-to-late 80s, and musicians now feel the German approach is most "authentic" (perhaps a misused and impossible term) for works composed up through the Baroque and Classic eras by composers from the appropriate regions. Having performed it for years as a singer with the professional Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, I grew to love it and appreciate how its rhythmic clarity seems to happen by itself. That said, I'd never use it for Faure or Verdi!
Enough dry, scholarly information...on to a practical matter: the ease with which sopranos and altos will discover your correct parts in this movement of the Rutter! He gradually enriches the harmony by thickening it. When we performed this piece the first time many years ago, there had to be long and tortuous deliberations deciding who and how the divisions of SSA would become SSAA. No problem, now: as you transition from Bach (SSA) to Rutter (SSAA), you simply revert to your usual parts of 1st & 2nd soprano and 1st & 2nd alto. Easy peasy!
Not so much for the tenors and basses, when they each divide into two parts! So far this term we have a numerical challenge in the tenor section. Basses have pretty much settled into their bass/baritone division, but I'm not sure if the tenors have completed that plan. That said, here's the point of this all-important discussion: last time, I assigned all the 2nd altos to the 1st tenor line when the tenors divided. (We had to do that in Cohen's Alzheimer's Stories a couple of years ago, and it was difficult.) But know this now: WE WILL NOT ASSIGN ALTOS TO FIRST TENOR for this performance! I'm trying for integrity. It may be necessary to shift (request?) a couple of baritones to 2nd Tenor, freeing more tenors to take the high road, but I want to use that path.
Bottom line: if you're an alto who sang the Rutter with us before, or have a used score that has those arrows of reassignment, erase the arrows, please. Retain your alto-ness (a newly minted word).
Is all that clear? I hope so! If you will please study the opening movement of the Rutter to discover where and when your part divides, please mark those places.
We'll have our new seating arrangement next Tuesday night. What I dearly hope we won't have is snow.
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