Monday, April 2, 2007

Everlasting Light and the St. Olaf Choir

Yesterday's post on church and church choir reminded me of a beautiful piece we sang last Fall that I wanted to share with you all. It's probably the most wonderful piece we've ever done in our church choir: Our Father by Alexander Gretchaninov (1864-1956). The entire piece is beautiful, but the best part is at the end (the altos have an exquisite suspension on the word 'Lord' after 'Holy, Holy, Holy' which will probably make you cry):

Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord, God of Hosts.
Come to us, O Lord, in splendor bright,
Fill our hearts with everlasting light.
Amen.

You must hear this beautiful piece. You can buy it on iTunes for $0.99 sung by the St. Olaf Choir.

Speaking of the St. Olaf Choir, back in January FavoriteBoy and I got to see them in concert at the Sanders Theatre at Harvard. We took our friends Ellen and Dave (both choir nerds like we are) and we all loved the concert. What a fantastic choir. They sang Bach’s Der Geist Hilft, the Randall Thompson Alleluia, the Christiansen Praise to the Lord, some Eric Whitacre, the Vaughan-Williams Serenade to Music, and some wonderful spirituals including This Little Light of Mine, and Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal. They closed with the Christiansen Beautiful Savior. A small chamber orchestra from St. Olaf (which was, not surprisingly, a fantastic group of musicians) was on tour with the choir as well, so works like the Bach were performed with instruments. It was a wonderful program.

1 comment:

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