Letter H of Libera Me

Yes, you're right, I should be asleep, but (a) I can't sleep, and (b) I'm waiting for one of my cats to come in :-)

I can see I'm going to be wiped out by the end of this week. Back to school yesterday, GCSE coursework to sort out for 2 subjects, any number of other urgent things that have to be done this week... and we have choir tonight (piano rehearsal), tomorrow (orchestral rehearsal) and Thursday (concert)! Argh! At least it's a fabulous piece that I love dearly (Fauré's Requiem, for those who aren't paying attention).

Not much to report, actually, so in a minute I'm going to treat you to my "notable bits of Fauré's Requiem". I know you want to hear that! Not even any Jamieisms (well, except something I forgot to write down at the time, about the altos and tenors keeping an eye on each other's bits... it made Dr Liz giggle!)

We've got a new temporary choral administrator, called Rosie. She was extremely well received by the choir, particularly by the men... being young and pretty probably helped there, mind you :p But the ladies of the choir were equally delighted to meet Micha Hamel, the conductor. He looked even younger in the flesh than in his pictures, but was very lovely... Not the loudest of voices - I had trouble hearing what he said at times, and I wasn't right at the back - but other than that he was very clear about what he wanted, which is a good thing in a conductor.

Dr Liz and I watched at the break, as the person who was picked for the semi-chorus but then asked to reaudition to stay in the choir (I don't think it's a huge secret who this is, but I feel that it's not up to me to name her in such a public forum as this) - confronted Jamie. They had quite a long chat, but I don't think she was entirely satisfied by his answers. One of these was that when choosing the semi-chorus, he was choosing good, reliable sight-readers.

...

(That's a pause while you imagine my reaction to that! I will say no more.)

Oh, and I saw the live show of Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds on Sunday night. Might write about that tomorrow, though, because both the cats are now in :-) So I'll cut to the "notable bits", which I actually wrote down first, but not before reminding you all to sign up for the People's Chorus if you haven't yet done so!

Anyway, here we go... Fauré's Requiem - the Notable Bits!

Well, actually, first of all I'm going to list my favourite bits, because they're ALL notable :-) Wendy and I were pointing them out to each other as we went along. The title of this post - Letter H of Libera Me - is the one I've decided is probably my favourite of the whole piece. It's the alto/bass low bit - actually, though, the whole of the Libera Me is possibly my favourite bit. Well, actually, the whole Requiem :-)

Other good bits:
• 3rd bar of A in Sanctus (first time the orchestral bass note changes)
• 2nd bar of B in Sanctus (bass note descends to F, and we're suddenly, and very unexpectedly, in D minor)
• Letter E of Sanctus (the horn bit!)
• 2 bars later (the men's bit!)
• Letter G of Agnus Dei (horns again...)
• 2nd bar of B in Pie Jesu (nice chord, and also the first time the soloist has orchestral accompaniment; until then, she sings with the organ, and the orchestra play in the gaps)
• 3rd bar of B in In Paradisum (men's chords)

Other general info about the instrumentation:

The violas and the cellos are both split into 2 parts throughout (in the Sanctus, the 2 viola parts play arpeggios in contrary motion most of the way through).

The first thing the violins play is, very unusually, not until bar 5 of the Sanctus, and even then they're muted. They don't play in the Pie Jesu. The first unmuted thing they play is the big Agnus Dei intro. Oh, and the bit right after letter G of the Agnus Dei LOOKS like the beginning, but this time the violins play too. (Then in Libera Me they don't play till the fast bit.)

There are 2 harps, who only play in the Sanctus, Pie Jesu and 2nd half of In Paradisum, and they play the same as each other most of the time.

The altos only sing the last 2 notes of the Sanctus, and not much more in In Paradisum. (All altos know this, but other parts might not have noticed!)

The trumpets don't play again after the Sanctus (no, not even in the loud bit of Libera Me).

The flutes and clarinets only play in the Pie Jesu.

The "Lux aeterna" bit (2 before E) in the Agnus Dei is what I think of as "the Fauré Requiem bit". I think this is because there's a bit in Mozart's Requiem that's very similar, and I knew the Fauré many years before I first heard the Mozart. The fact that the latter predates the former by over 100 years doesn't seem to have registered with that part of my brain :p

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Anyway, sleep!