Now ten years in existence, our parish schola can handle many wonderful pieces, including most everything by Palestrina and Victoria as well as Guerrero and a large selection of Di Lasso and Byrd. Of course the pieces I dream about are the ones out of reach: not enough singers, not enough rehearsal time, too many other demands, and just generally too hard. And so I present to you one that got away: Sing Joyfully, by William Byrd, in two versions: Westminster and the pedagogical version at Choraltracks.com.
8 Replies to “The Dream Piece We Will Never Sing”
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Jeffrey, do you never listen to me?
NEVER SAY NEVER!
It didn't occur to me that I would ever be afforded the "horses," the talent resources to ever offer the Allegri "Miserere" on Good Friday.
But, because God does work in mysterious ways, and I can't go into detail, one of my choir alumni, had to come home from Steubenville. And tho' Wendy and my eldest daughter have wonderful high C's, they're operatic. This young lady couldn't sing for a great while, but after rehabilitation for a physical problem, she starting singing with schola. And her C was as pure as an Anonymous 4 soprano. We worked, she worked, it was a labor of prayer and discipline. And it was offered up. It happened, it was transcendent.
And this Spring, another milestone that I didn't ever regard coming my way, Mozart's REQUIEM, will happen.
Never say "never." Ever. Your friend. C.
Thank you for posting this wonderful piece of music – brought back memories of having performed it in graduate school. The university chorale was composed of graduate music majors, though, and it didn't take us long to get it ready for performance. You are right that it isn't often that any of us will have the singers or the time to do this in a normal church setting.
What's been the main issue, counting and entrances? One thing about Byrd that seems like a throwback to the Josquin generation is the rhythmic freedom and jazziness of the lines. Other late-16thc music seems squarely metrical in contrast. It really does take singers with great self-confidence. I hope you find a critical mass of those some day.
The "dream piece" I have is to hear Berlioz' "Requiem" at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
An old pastor I knew once, totally unfamiliar with the piece, asked at the last minute, if the cathedral choir director could play it for the archbishop's funeral.
You just had to be there to see the reaction.
chanttracks.com seems to be defunct.
my fault. http://choraltracks.com/
changed.
Love singing Sing Joyfully. I've tried to suggest that it be paired with Palestrina's Exultate Deo (which is Palestrina in an ever less slightly restrained mood), the Latin text of the same…..
How about Byrd's Haec Dies?
I was able to sing the Allegri high part for Ash Wednesday several years in a row (while directing the rest of my schola), and I felt such happy guilt, enjoying that piece at the beginning of the penitential season. I always dreamed of enough singers to pull off Bruckner's "Christus Factus Est" on Good Friday. . . .we rehearsed a couple of other Bruckner motets but never got it together! Sigh.