Ji bai zi

TBF: Saturday night wrap-up

Tonight's Taipei Philarmonic Chorus rehearsal for the St Matthew Passion was a kick. It's been a long time (Sunday School, before my voice broke) since I've been in a chorus rehearsal, and I've never been in on a rehearsal of a group of this quality. Even the warm-up exercises were interesting. Once they got into rehearsing the Pasion they went quickly. (Of course some of the apparent speed may have been because the direction was mostly in Chinese; I was already tired and my tinnitus was acting up.) It took me a little while to realize that they were basically rehearsing from back to front in the score -- good idea to mix up the order because otherwise the last few movements won't ever be rehearsed while the chorus is fresh. The direction was brief, rapid fire, and to the point: very intense work. 

At the break (after ninety minutes of rehearsal), the student conductors were sent home to study their scores and prepare for tomorrow. As an auditor, I could have stayed, and seriously considered it; but finally decided not to push it. It's going to be a busy week.

Taipei Bach Festival: dinner break

This afternoon we were joined by members of the Taipei Philharmonic Choir. We worked throgh 54 pages of the score, about one sixth. 

The conductor's job is complicated by having two choirs.  The layout is like this:

Makes it hard to cue the bass section when the choirs are singing the same parts; the conductor has to choose.

I learned something I should have known already; the "#" sign (for sharp) in German is called "Kreutz"; the same word is used for "Cross". So Bach often will sharp a note when the text refers to cross or crucifiction.

I have to run back in; this evening, there are no classes, but we're watching a rehearsal of the Taipei Philharmonic Choir. 

Taipei Bach Festival: First Impressions

This morning was the first session of the 2012 Taipei Bach Festival's master class. There seem to be more students and auditors than in 2010, maybe forty people in all. Several students and auditors came from China this time; last time I don't recall any. Most of the students and auditors are from east Asia. There's one student from Australia; there's one other auditor from North America, from Cupertino. I think I'm the only auditor of the class who doesn't conduct -- small groups, church groups, etc. Apart from Dr. Davies, I'm the only person of obvious European extraction.

Quick background: the St Matthew Passion is a musically dramatic setting of the Gospel according to St Matthew, from the beginning of Holy Week, to the point where Christ's body is placed into the tomb.  The singing of the gospel text is divided up by hymns and sung commentary (recitative and arias), and bookended by large chorus movements. (Large in this case means that these movements use two choirs and two orchestras. Not huge orchestras -- this is baroque music -- but this being Bach, there's a lot of activity.)

After the usual introductory comments, Dr. Davies had the student conductors conduct several of the hymns (or chorales): 15, 17, 44, 54, and 62. These are all arrangments of the same old Lutheran hymn O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden as set by Hans Leo Hassler (thank you, Google).  In each case, the verse taken from the hymn is chosen to match the moment in the Gospel, and Bach changes the arrangment to emphasize the significant words in that verse.  He also changes the key signature in each chorale, 15 has four sharps, 17 three flats, 44 two sharps, 54 one flat, then finally 62 has n sharps or flats.

The auditors and the students other than the conductor formed the choir.  I found myself singing bass in a small group of three in the back corner. Fortunately, the Californian was a fine bass, so we had someone who could hit all the notes. I've studied the piece for the last several months, as I knew we'd be singing, but I'm only a half bass -- I can't reliably hit the low notes, but then I can't get very high, either.  The other auditor next to me didn't have a score -- better singer than me, but didn't read German very easily (plus we were sharing my study score with very fine print).  But we persevered. We were supposed to be sitting by sections (soprano / alto / tenor / bass), and we three were ostensibly the only basses -- sort of alarming when you consider that this afternoon we'll be working on the pieces with two choirs, and then we'd have one bass per choir, plus me. But toward the end I heard some basses on the other side of the room; so perhaps we'll be OK.  Dr. Davies is a great teacher; it was a pleasure to watch him working with the students. And the students are all very talented.

This afternoon we'll start working through the piece from the beginning. The opening chorus is a great work; and (at least for the bass part) there's not much difference for the parts in the two choirs. So we ought to be able to fake it. (Of course, it doesn't matter much, because the point is to train the conductors; but this is also part of the fun. Singing Bach with a group of musicians is something I basically never have a chance to do.)

It's a pity, I think, that more non-professional musicians don't attend this kind of event -- this is a great opprotunity for anybody who can read music, and who has an interest in Bach, to learn the St Matthew Passion in depth. (I don't classify myself as a non-musician, as I play, at least, harmonica, but I'm certainly not involved with music to the same degree as most of the other people attending. I think there are lots of people in the world with a similar or greater level of musical education, who would enjoy this as much as I do.)

Lunch was a quick bowl of beef noodle soup at 鼎記 ("Dingji") on Xinyi Road -- very pleasant restaurant, good soup, friendly, inexpensive -- about $5 for soup and some cold cucumbers.