damont

Just on a musical basis, choristers love two times of year above all else: December (Advent/Christmas) and early spring (Easter), though rehearsals can get ugly *preparing* for them. Well, it's December, and the Mercenary Bass is back at All Saints - Sharon Chapel for the season. Yesterday we did Tomas Luis da Victoria's setting of "O Magnum Mysterium" -- a piece well loved by many SCAdians around these parts; I recall an impromptu performance of it several years ago at a 12th Night that ended up with about 22 people singing it, most of whom had never sung together before... and I was one of only *two* people singing the tenor part! (Mistress Derbhilidh was the other.) Alle Psallite recorded this piece -- on a blisteringly hot Memorial Day weekend...

Anyway, I thought the anthem went rather well yesterday, and the hymns were good (including my favorite Advent hymn "On Jordan's Bank"). Next week we're missing our lead soprano so we're doing something fairly easy; then on the 18th we're doing William Byrd's "O Magnum". And then there is Christmas Eve... but plans for that evening are still in a bit of flux.