Jenkins' Dies Irae: A Translation

We've sung Mozart's Dies Irae before, but we sang an edited version. If you know the Latin Mass you will be aware that it is actually much longer than that. According to Wikipedia, the Dies Irae is a poem describing "the day of judgment, the last trumpet summoning souls before the throne of God, where the saved will be delivered and the unsaved cast into eternal flames. The hymn was used as a sequence in the Roman Catholic Requiem Mass until the 1970 revision of the Roman Missal."

In Latin:

1
Dies iræ! dies illa
Solvet sæclum in favilla
Teste David cum Sibylla!

2
Quantus tremor est futurus,
quando judex est venturus,
cuncta stricte discussurus!

3
Tuba mirum spargens sonum
per sepulchra regionum,
coget omnes ante thronum.

4
Mors stupebit et natura,
cum resurget creatura,
judicanti responsura.

5
Liber scriptus proferetur,
in quo totum continetur,
unde mundus judicetur.

6
Judex ergo cum sedebit,
quidquid latet apparebit:
nil inultum remanebit.

7
Quid sum miser tunc dicturus?
Quem patronum rogaturus,
cum vix justus sit securus?

In English:

1
Day of wrath! O day of mourning!
See fulfilled the prophets' warning,
Heaven and earth in ashes burning!

2
Oh what fear man's bosom rendeth,
when from heaven the Judge descendeth,
on whose sentence all dependeth.

3
Wondrous sound the trumpet flingeth;
through earth's sepulchers it ringeth;
all before the throne it bringeth.

4
Death is struck, and nature quaking,
all creation is awaking,
to its Judge an answer making.

5
Lo! the book, exactly worded,
wherein all hath been recorded:
thence shall judgment be awarded.

6
When the Judge his seat attaineth,
and each hidden deed arraigneth,
nothing unavenged remaineth.

7
What shall I, frail man, be pleading?
Who for me be interceding,
when the just are mercy needing?

In total there are actually 19 verses, thanking the stars we only have to sing seven of them!

P.S. For the translation of In Paradisum check out this post. Picture of The Last Judgement by Hans Memling.

Almost Paris

I have been away from rehearsal for 2 weekends while Simon and I were away in the U.S. on holiday, but we are back now, and it was with some trepidation that we returned to rehearsal to face two new songs
Let The Sun Shine In and Dies Irae from Jenkins' Requiem. The latter Mladen would like us to perform in Paris, while the former, well, we have to perform because it is our joint song. A few seasons ago we attempted, but never followed through on, a version of this song from Hair, and all I will say, for diplomacy's sake, is that it is an interesting arrangement. I don't know the musical well at all, but England and Manchester in particular seem to feature prominently in it. Perhaps this is an incentive to watch the show? Despite these misgivings, I think we did pretty well and the difference between how it sounded at the start of the rehearsal and the end of the rehearsal was staggering, thank goodness!

As for the other songs, they are shaping up well too, and for the first time ever, I think we paid attention to the markings on the sheet music and actually sang "pianissimo" when it was written "pianissimo". Notice I did not write "forte", mainly because we tend not to have a problem with "forte". Ever. In particular, even the semi-horrifying Come What May is sounding less like a dying cat, although we are still quite a way away from tenderness and romance.

The other highlight was some of the Soprano 1s going for gold by singing parts of Lacrimosa an entire octave above what was written; that goes to a high D for the musically inclined. Despite their hesitation, I think it sounded wonderful, and it was quite angelic to hear their high voices floating above the more earthy tones of the rest of the choir.

It was good to chat with some of the new members, even if I find that I am often in such a rush to arrive and leave that I don't get that much of a chance. Celso, who is the tenor who got me into the Front Runners in the first place, was there. He seems to be enjoying himself and is a really dedicated member, so props to him! It seems rather tragic to me, but in the break I was regaling Miranda, Tim R and Andrew D with my, and Johnathon's, adventures in the Front Runners. I also spoke briefly to Joey and Colm, ironically as my bladder was about to explode while queueing for the loo. Needless to say, the conversation was very brief.

All in all I thought it was a very exhausting rehearsal, especially for the tenors who have to hit ridiculously high notes in both Come What May and You'll Never Walk Alone but one in which we seemed to cover a lot. Paris really isn't very far away, so we need it!

P.S. The picture associated with this post is actually quite accurately linked to the title because the Eiffel Towel you see above is the one in Las Vegas, not Paris, but you knew that!

Living The Dream

I know loads of musicians who wish they could give up the day job and live on music alone. Unfortunately, it is a really tough world out there, and my impression is that for every Kylie there are a million who have fallen by the wayside. That said, I haven't heard a band with such catchy music as Paleday in a very long time, so it comes as no surprise that they are finally having a press album launch cum gig on Tuesday 13th November at 7.30pm at the Soho Revue Bar, London, W1F 0ED. The Pink Insider will definitely be there shaking his pink booty all night! I've been priveleged to watch Anthony (a Pinkie!)and his band develop over this very exciting time, and all I can say is good on them, I can think of no-one who deserves it more.

Oh, and do visit their website for the coolest in press photos!

Of Musicals And Chess

My first ever musical was Starlight Express in London all those years ago. I was thirteen, and despite it not being one of the most sophisticated art forms in the history of humanity, was mesmerized. It sparked off an obsession which continued with Les Misérables, Blood Brothers, The Phantom Of The Opera, Into The Woods and a dozen other stage shows of the 80s and early 90s.

I am pleased to say that not only did I have the original cast recordings to all these shows, I actually managed to see all of them performed with one great, and much lamented, exception: Chess.Brought to us by the guys from ABBA, who could not love the drums of One Night In Bangkok or the melodies of I Know Him So Well? I was on a conference in Stockholm in 2003 when I chanced upon a performance in the Nykvarns Folkets Park - my hopes were raised, only to be dashed when I realized it was sung in Swedish.

Anyway, this story does have a happy ending. I was watching Breakfast on BBC this morning when Josh Groban came on. I'm not sure what exactly he is promoting at the moment, but the conversation turned to his recent appearance on Any Dream Will Do with Lee Mead. He was asked, given his theatrical training, whether there was a chance that he would return to musical theatre, and his reply was that it was great to be able to dip his toes in occasionally, and that he would be giving this concert of Chess in May next year at the Royal Albert Hall.

The other rumour/highlight is that one of the female roles is to be played by none other than Idina Menzel. This is going to be a concert made in heaven!

Here are a couple of YouTube videos: one of Josh Groban performing the wonderful Anthem (I Mitt Hjärtas Land for the Swedish speaking crowd), and the second of the even more amazing and original Tommy Körberg singing the same song. I really like both, although I wish Josh would pronounce his 't's when he sings 'petty' rather than Americanize them.

Di ..... di ..... di ..... di

Yesterday's rehearsal was rather bereft of tenors. With only six of us (less than half the quota) it was a poor showing. But of course, what we lacked in numbers we made up for in gusto. The "movements" rehearsal found us washing each other's hair as we sang and 'danced' to "I'm gonna wash that man...."
We also sang Karl Jenkins' "Dies Irae" for the first time as a choir - a very interesting piece for the difficulty came in the timing. The tenors seemed to have about 3 notes to sing so that bit was easy but at a fast pace that was more difficult especially in Latin. Also we found ourselves singing di ... di ... di ... ... to everybody else's "dies irae" and this went on for some time. Thankfully our musical leaders decided to cut out big chunks off this - otherwise I might find myself rehearsing this piece at bedtime when I feel insomnia creeping in.
All in all, I think things are moving on steadily. I've managed to speak to a couple of the new altos now. With any luck I might managed to say hello to the rest of the newbies before the end of the season....

Breaking News: Dumbledore is Gay!

Um, there's not much more I can add to this... it does mean I will be reinterpreting the books in a new light.

The revelations emerged at an event at New York's Carnegie hall:

The biggest revelation of the night came when Jo [J. K. Rowling] revealed to her audience the fact that Albus Dumbledore is gay and had fallen in love with fellow wizard and friend, Gellert Grindelwald.

I also wonder who will play the young Dumbledore in the film version - I favour Ryan Reynolds...

Singing In A New Place

As I said in a previous blog, our choir has really increased in size over the last few seasons, and we are nearly full. At the rehearsal on Sunday Lynne announced that with the confirmed new members we are running at maximum capacity for the tenors and sopranos, and are just a few off filling the altos and basses. I keep revisiting the issue because it is really wonderful: the current group is just manageable in terms of getting to know everyone, but more importantly we are beginning to sound really warm and rich.

Ironically, none of the new tenors could attend this last rehearsal, so I ended up chatting with some of the new basses and a new soprano in the break. As ever, being in the tenor section means that the altos are physically the most remote of the sections, and getting to know them on the far side of the rehearsal space always proves to be problematic! I’m sure they feel the same about the tenors.

One implication of the larger choir is that we have outgrown our previous rehearsal space at the Royal Academy of Music. In the last few weeks I have noticed that we are not only bursting the rooms at the seams, the venues have taken on a decidedly unpleasant whiffiness, the result of sixty lungs breathing in and out in a confined space for four hours no doubt. Not the place for hypochondriacs!

So this week we went back to one of our older rehearsal venues, the Place. It is a dreadful name which can lead to silly conversations like, “Where are we rehearsing?” “The Place”, “Which place?”, “You know, the Place!”, “No, I don’t know what place we are rehearsing at, that’s why I’m asking you!” Ugh.

Anyway, the Place (definite article, capital “P”) is nominally a dance studio by day with beautifully sprung floors, and, as we discovered, decidedly warm central heating with windows which cannot be opened. My other relatively minor complaint was having to see myself in the full-length wall-to-wall mirrors during warm up. I like to delude myself that I look effortless when reaching the high notes, and do not need a reminder of how contorted my face actually appears.

In the end, the dance studio proved to be especially useful for the blokes as we started our choreography practice for I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair and ABBA Pink. Lynne had already sent her warning to wear socks with no holes, but few unfortunately, heeded Jo’s comment about loose leg warmers. The rooms are surrounded by warm-up bars which I presume dancers gracefully swing their legs up on to in a Jennifer Beale moment. Johnathon gave us a demo with a little less elegance, but which was achievable for him because he is so tall. Being somewhat shorter, Sue and I decided that it was not worth taking the risk of dislocating our hips for. We all need a whole lot more practice with the dance moves!

So, this season is bedding down nicely. Can’t wait for Paris!

Until My Dying DAAAAAAAAAY!

Yes, we are singing this song this season, and yes, three weeks in we are still murdering it.

This clip also begs the question, how do people have so much free time that they can spend it creating a home-brewed music video?

Not that I'm complaining mind...