|
At the start of September, our Senior Choir now has 91 students enrolled, with 37 sopranos, 24 altos, 16 tenors and 14 basses. In any mixed choir, male voices are essential, and so to have 30 males is a great blessing. It means that the entire repertory of choral music is open to us - simply because we have a complete 'orchestra'.
We are blessed because so many schools have an acute shortage of males in the choir. If, for example, a teacher has 26 altos, 30 sopranos and 5 males, it is going to be extremely difficult to do any music that is written for four parts. The sound will not be balanced, and will not have that architectural solidity that bass and tenor voices give to the whole structure. Earlier, I mentioned that the entire repertory of choral music is open to us. It is difficult for us to imagine the huge amount of music that we have available - ranging from Plainchant of, say, 1050 all the way to brand new compositions of 2025. As an example of this, for the October Mass, we are learning the motet "If ye love me" by Thomas Tallis (1505-1585). This is a piece that has been around for five hundred years -and it will continue to be sung in the next five hundred years -if there are still choirs around to sing it. Why? - because it is a sacred work of genius, beauty and incredible craftsmanship. This is music that leaves us stronger for being exposed to it. Music educators have an important role to play in being music conservators - that is, in keeping Tallis alive, and presenting his music to the SJCS teenager and church congregation alike. Malcolm V. Edwards
0 Comments
|
Malcolm EdwardsMalcolm Edwards was born in Halifax, England and emigrated to Canada in 1967. He is a graduate of Sheffield College of Education (UK), Trinity College of Music, London, the University of Lethbridge, the University of Montana and has done further graduate work at the University of Northern Colorado. He taught music in junior and senior high school for twelve years in southern Alberta before joining the University of Calgary as a Professor of Music Education in 1980. He retired from the university after thirty-one years of service in 2011. In the community he was affiliated with the Youth Singers of Calgary for 21 years directing the Act Three and Senior divisions. In his retirement, he is now employed as an Adjunct Professor of Music at St Mary’s University, as the Artistic Director of the Calgary Men’s Chorus and as the Senior Choir Director at St John’s Choir Schola. He has held leadership positions within the Alberta Choral Federation, the Association of Canadian Choral Communities, served on the Board of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and is active as a choral adjudicator and workshop leader in schools and churches. He is the recipient of two awards from the Provincial Federation – one in recognition of advocacy in arts education and the second in recognition of exemplary service to choral music within the Province of Alberta. In 2004 he received recognition from the national body (ACCC) for twenty-five years of service to the Canadian choral community. Archives
October 2025
Categories |
RSS Feed
587-892-7321
© 2024 All Rights Reserved St John Choir Schola