Montag, Oktober 17, 2005

Missa Solemnis Horror

Sigh...

I feel like I'm tainting my own name writing about this.
But Beethoven somehow deserved to be cursed and sweared at by the future generations of chorus members...

We got our score (Edition Peters, and some obvious printing errors on note values - unforgiveable!) of Beethoven's Missa Solemnis today. I looked through it during the warm-up session at 19.00 Uhr... Gosh, I thought, those high B-flats are gonna kill the whole group of sopranos.

It did.

Not only that. We sight-singed through the first two movements: Kyrie and Gloria. Kyrie was okay; as long as you keep count you're on the safe side. The killer is Gloria... o_O The basses were completely lost, the movement is totally long... And gosh... The demanding technical aspects of it! It strangled the entire chorus... Beethoven put fast running notes face-to-face with lengthy held notes. And what kind of lenghty notes? 9 bars of held As, and ties on B-flats that seem like forever. If the sopranos are not turning blue (or purple), our vocal cords would implode. Shane was laughing at us while at the piano. Arrrrghhh... Yeah, laughing at our plight... =_=

Of course we will soon embrace the idealogy behind Missa Solemnis, since this work will be at the back of our head come next April, but the rehearsing process will still be painful... And daunting... Did Beethoven even regret writing such stuff? His choral writing is impossible - and more impossible during his times. I myself have a crack theory about the reason for his cruelty: He must have had a bitter love affair with a soprano then, and hence sought to make all the sopranos of the future suffer! Muahahahahaaa!!

Okay, I'm lame. And Beethoven is cruel.

I wonder what's his voice range? *ponders, then kept nodding off*

Okay, time for bed!
*hangs throat and vocal cords aside*

posted by empress @ 7:02 PM