Resonance. Next Concert: Verdi Requiem. Our Sponsors for the Choir are:-

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1 S U N S H I N E C O A S T C H O R A L S O C I E T Y I N C Resonance Our Sponsors for the Choir are:- I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E : From Adrian King - Conductor From the President Andrew Burns Guiseppe Verdi by Brad Drew & the Treasurer s report The Sunny Coast Choir Members Photo Gallery 8 Verdi Flyer Our Sponsors 10 Join Us 11 Choir information 12 Next Concert: Verdi Requiem Sunshine Coast Choral Society is celebrating its 25 th Anniversary in 2019, and is excited to present a gala concert of this most popular music. Such a beautiful and powerful composition requires many voices and so the SCCS has invited Noosa Chorale to sing with us. It is also their 25 th Anniversary! What a wonderful wealth of choral singers we have here on the Sunshine Coast. We will be accompanied by a large orchestra of musicians and guest soloists. The combination of these elements will provide a very mesmerising and memorable celebration of beautiful music for you to enjoy. The Messa da Requiem is a musical setting of the Catholic funeral mass (Requiem) for four soloists, double choir and orchestra by Giuseppe Verdi. It was composed in memory of Alessandro Manzoni, an Italian poet and novelist whom Verdi admired. The first performance, at the San Marco church in Milan on 22 May 1874, marked the first anniversary of Manzoni's death and was conducted by Verdi himself and included 4 soloists. The work was at one time called the Manzoni Requiem. It is rarely performed in liturgy, but rather in concert form of around minutes in length. It has been suggested that it is 'probably the most frequently performed major choral work A U T U M N composed since the compilation of Mozart's Requiem'. The playwright and music critic George Bernard Shaw was a great admirer of the work from its first London performance, and had the Libera me played at his funeral. Throughout the work, Verdi uses vigorous rhythms, sublime melodies, and dramatic contrasts to express the powerful emotions engendered by the text. Verdi traverses many moods throughout this famous composition, starting with the famous Dies Irae, through to ending with the Libera me, where the soprano cries out, begging, "Deliver me, Lord, from eternal death... when you will come to judge the world by fire. Date Claimer: Sunday 2nd June, 2019 at 2 p.m. We will be performing this wonderful concert at Venue 114 (formerly known as Lake Kawana Community Centre), Bokarina It will be an event not to be missed, as it is not frequently performed here on the Sunshine Coast due to the large number of choristers and musicians required. Please keep your eye on our website and Facebook page and local publications for updates about this event. Bookings can be made through Venue 114's web site:- Phone: Website: or purchased at Venue 114 on the day. P A G E 1

2 From the Conductor s Baton The very beginning of this requiem might be mistaken for a moment from a Verdi opera--a dark cloister, a procession of mourners, a few strands of melody to set the scene. But the movement quickly grows and blossoms in ways unknown to the opera house; the chorus makes a fugue of "Te decet hymnus," and then the music opens heavenward as the soloists enter one by one. It's music of an almost unimaginable sweep and grandeur and would be out of place even in opera, except in a grand finale. The Dies irae, the largest of the seven pieces in this requiem, has ten small sections, each one a vivid scene. In writing opera, Verdi had quickly learned to seek the parola scenic--the key word in each passage that would unlock his imagination. The "Dies irae" explodes with its sheer force and rage--the ffff thunderbolts of the bass drum are particularly alarming; Verdi increases the drama by adding offstage trumpets in the "Tuba mirum." We next hear from various individuals, each a commentator, an observer, or an eyewitness--what is known today as human interest. At the end of the bass's "Mors stupebit," sung quietly and full of terror, his voice catches repeatedly on the word "death." "Liber scriptus," a powerful aria for mezzo-soprano, was written for the London premiere in 1875 to replace a choral fugue that marred Verdi's sense of pace and drama, particularly since a brief outburst of the "Dies irae" music directly follows. "Quid sum miser" is a trio of lamentation. (A solo bassoon provides a haunting accompaniment.) "Rex tremendae" is a dialogue between chorus and the four soloists, reaching some common ground only in the final measures. The prayer "Recordare" is the duet Verdi conceived with the voices of his favourite Aida and Amneris in mind, though here they don't sing as adversaries (for a moment, at the words "O Judge of Justice," their voices join as one). Two arias follow--the tenor's "Ingemisco" and the bass's "Confutatis"--before the chorus again interjects the refrain of "Dies irae." The lament "Lacrimosa" (based on a duet withdrawn from Don Carlo) brings together chorus and soloists in a magnificent, sobering conclusion to a movement that began with fire and fury. The final "Amen" momentarily lifts the music into full sunlight, but darkness quickly falls. Domine Jesu Christe is scored for solo quartet, though Verdi saves the soprano solo for a breathtaking moment well into the movement, when the entire fate of the music hangs, seemingly forever, on her one sustained note. At "quam olim Abrahae" the music gathers force (maintaining tradition, it behaves like a fugue); the central "Hostias" is quiet and utterly still. Verdi's Sanctus is a brilliant double fugue for split choirs, moving quickly and with great energy straight through the "Hosanna" and "Benedictus" texts that detain most composers. The Agnus Dei begins with thirteen measures for the soprano and mezzo-soprano soloists, unaccompanied, singing in octaves. The melody is a nineteenth-century version of plainchant--it's diatonic, rather than modal--and it's repeated, alternately by the two soloists and the chorus, to an increasingly rich accompaniment. The soprano solo withdraws, leaving the three lower solo voices to the Lux aeterna, a trio of urgent drama and death-scene tremolos. The soprano now re-enters, unaccompanied, declaiming the text of the Libera me. This powerful final scene, for soprano and chorus, is based on the music Verdi wrote for the Rossini Requiem in It could only have been composed by someone steeped in opera, yet it's unlike anything else in Verdi's output. The music moves freely from dramatic recitative to soaring arioso, reprising both the "Dies irae," in all its concentrated terror, and the opening Requiem aeternam, here magically rescored for soprano and unaccompanied chorus. The last stretch, climaxed by the urgent pleas of the soprano, and finally dissipating into hushed and desperate prayer, is as compelling as anything Verdi ever put on the stage. Adrian King with acknowledgements - Phillip Huscher. P A G E 2

3 From the President: Hello everyone and welcome to this wonderful piece of choral music by Giuseppe Verdi. I would like to give you a little bit of background into Verdi s life, information about the Requiem and why I love to sing this great piece. To assist my creative spirits I acknowledge the assistance of Wikipedia for many of the belowmentioned facts. Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi (born 9 or 10 October 1813 and died 27 January 1901) was an Italian opera composer, born near Busseto (Northern Italy) to a provincial family of moderate means. He developed a musical education with the help of a local patron and came to dominate the Italian opera scene after the era of Vincenzo Bellini, Gaetano Donizetti, and Gioachino Rossini, whose works significantly influenced him. By his 30s, he had become one of the preeminent opera composers in history. Requiem: In 1869, Verdi had been asked to compose a section for a requiem mass in memory of Gioachino Rossini. He compiled and completed the requiem, but its performance was abandoned (and its premiere did not take place until 1988). Five years later, Verdi reworked his "Libera Me" section of the Rossini Requiem and made it a part of his Requiem honouring Alessandro Manzoni, who had died in The complete Requiem was first performed at the cathedral in Milan on the anniversary of Manzoni's death on 22 May Verdi conducted his Requiem in Paris, London and Vienna in 1875 and in Cologne in Verdi's three last major works continued to show new development in conveying drama and emotion - his Requiem was scored for operatic forces but was by no means an "opera in ecclesiastical dress. Although in the Requiem, Verdi puts to use many of the techniques he learned in opera, its musical forms and emotions are not those of the stage. Views on Verdi s music: Although Verdi's operas brought him a popular following, not all contemporary critics approved of his work. The English critic Henry Chorley found in 1846 that all Verdi s output unacceptable: "[His] faults [are] grave ones, calculated to destroy and degrade taste beyond those of any Italian composer in the long list. By the time of Verdi's death, 55 years later, his reputation was assured, and the 1910 edition of Grove's Dictionary pronounced him "one of the greatest and most popular opera composers of the nineteenth century I believe, for a choir, that the Verdi Requiem is the closest thing to performing opera with its vast range of dynamics and drama, wonderful melodies and harmony, and soaring principal solos! I leave rehearsals with a smile on my face humming the last chorus that we just practised. In my opinion, Verdi is one of the greatest opera composers ever and his Requiem is one of the greatest compositions ever! Andrew Burns President. P A G E 3

4 GUISEPPE VERDI We recently had occasion to attend a live-broadcast performance of Simon Boccanegra from Paris. We were unfamiliar with this opera of Verdi s, which has a political background underlying its story of love, a father and his daughter; as forms the basis of a number of Verdi s operas. Until this moment, we had been unaware of the political content of Verdi s life, secondary as it was. Verdi lived at a time when a great spirit of democratic nationalism was verdant, struggling to attain a unified Italy, free of the oppression of the Austrian empire, via the Risorgimento movement there and Verdi shared in that spirit. When Italy was unified in 1861, he was elected a member of the new provincial council but continued to concentrate his attentions on his composition, feeling that his democratic spirit could best be of service there. Later, in 1874, Verdi was elected a member of the Italian Senate but did not actively participate in its activities. All of this undoubtedly, would help to understand the spirit of the man and that implicit in his works. With the death of the great Rossini in 1868, Verdi was proposed, as part of a group of Italian composers to honour the dead man by each writing a portion of a Requiem Mass. Verdi wrote his portion, Libera me but the plan for the combined work collapsed. However, when the Italian poet Manzoni died in 1873, Verdi alone composed a complete Requiem Mass in his honour, which has come to be recognised as one of the great choral-orchestral masterpieces, ranking alongside those of Mozart and Brahms. This massive work, understandably operatic in its theatricality, is further magnified in stature by having been written for performance by two separate choirs, often overlaid and played off against each other. This is where our Sunshine Coast Choral Society currently finds itself. We performed it five years ago with the Noosa Chorale and this autumn we are all, doing it again. One can envisage the complex task this must present to our conductor, as he must juggle all the individual elements and their entries, of the duplicated four-part choir roles alongside that of the four major soloists and as if that were not enough, the concurrent roles of forty-eight musicians. This is where a musician of the calibre of our own Adrian King comes into its own and one can only wonder at the multi-tasking ability of a mind like that, which actually revels in the task. If you are not actually singing with us in this grand endeavour and carrying away the afterglow which such an involvement brings, then make sure you do not miss its performance. You will have the choice of two venues if the timing of one of them does not work for you. They will take place on Sunday, the 26th of May at the Noosa Leisure Centre, followed on Sunday, the 2nd of June at Venue 114, at Lake Kawana. Brad Drew From the Treasurer: Dear Members - just a few words of thanks to everyone who have made my first few months as treasurer less daunting than expected. It s been reassuring to see so many happy faces each Wednesday evening paying membership, hiring music or buying a CD. Thanks to Linda, Rebecca and Carol plus everyone who paid on line. It s such a help to see all the details come through with everything so clearly identified. Special thanks also to Colleen and Kerrie for their patience and support in getting up to speed as to how things are done. Linda and I have had our heads down with applying for a grant towards our Verdi performance at Kawana. We will remain forever hopeful of a positive outcome but will not know until a couple of days before our performance. Fingers crossed. Unfortunately booked a holiday long before I knew the Verdi dates and will be in Canada when everyone is singing at Venue 114 Kawana Waters. Luckily I still can sing at Noosa. So a big plea for someone who would like to just do some totalling up and banking after Kawana. No experience necessary - just the ability to fill in a bank deposit slip and count some money. All offers greatly appreciated. Happy singing Yvonne K P A G E 4

5 The Sunny Coast Choir Members What is a Choir? Choirs are people people who share a love of music. Choirs are about team work and feeling part of a creative living organism. There is not always time at choir practice to get to know members of this creative team we call The Sunshine Coast Choral Society. In each edition of Resonance we hope to share some insights into the lives of some of our Members. Tanya has recently joined our Choir as a Soprano, Tanya shares her story:- I grew up in Sydney and enjoyed singing in the Lilli Pilli Primary school choir. In grade 3, I was given a vocal solo in the end of year concert on presentation day. I had to sing "Pedro the Fisherman" which also had a verse of whistling. I got the giggles and couldn t get my mouth to make the right shape for whistling. The more I tried to stop laughing the less sound I made. My teachers were very cross and my parents mortified. Thus ended my young career as a solo vocalist. At Caringbah High School I successfully achieved musical anonymity. Alas, the school musical auditions were compulsory. Life had given me a second chance to perform sans giggles. Throughout my remaining school years I enjoyed roles in the chorus and also several lead roles. My love of performance in musicals and revues extended throughout my undergraduate years at Sydney University. In the 1998 I started studying cello under the tutelage of Anne Bowyer. In 2016 I started studying voice under Naomi Craddock. I am enjoying the challenge of Verdi s Requiem. My current goal is To NOT sing in the rests" Tanya Paszkowski Hello! My name is Rachael Twiggs and I am a new member of the Sunshine Coast Choral Society. I am currently in my 4th year at the University of Queensland studying music and education, hoping to become a high school music teacher. I have a vibrant passion for classical singing and I also play the cello. Every week I look forward to rehearsals with the SCCS and thoroughly enjoy all the classical musical wonders we have been fortunate enough to sing together. Music is such a big part of my life and I love to sing together with all my fellow members. Thanks! Rachael Twiggs (Soprano) There is a certain phrase in 'Jerusalem' that I remember particularly well 'O clouds unfold..'. you know the one. To please our music master, the brilliant and long-suffering Peter Warwick, the 'O' had to be held, not be attached to the clouds at all, or so he ingrained in us dusty 15 year-olds. He administered punishments to non-conformists. Once we had mastered every hymn in the book, we moved on to Gilbert and Sullivan (as you do). Fifteen years later I joined the Christchurch G&S Society and we did full versions of Pirates and then Offenbach's 'La Vie Parisienne' I've always had an acoustic guitar and enjoyed singing a range of folk and blues. But right now I'm loving the serious music we sing and hearing the light fittings vibrate when we hit certain notes on full voice! ANGUS (Bass) P A G E 5

6 IT S NEVER TOO LATE AND OTHER CLICHES REBECCA S STORY Frequently at our Wednesday night rehearsals I become aware of the beautiful singing around me and realise I am probably the least experienced chorister in the room. Where most of my fellow members have been singing in choirs of one kind and another all their lives, I bring to SCCS an almost total ignorance. I tell myself this is balanced by my unconditional love for what we are doing. I joined the choir in 2017 after a serendipitous meeting with a delightful woman called Erica at a wine-enhanced ladies get-together. Erica, who sings with the University choir, was telling us about a thrilling experience recently singing Carmina Burana I think it was an outdoors performance. I said (with typical exaggeration) that I would kill for the opportunity to be part of such an event. She then told me that she was about to start rehearsal of Handel s Messiah with the Sunshine Coast Choral Society and that they were inviting other singers to join them for the performance. Now, here s the thing. I ve never had a singing lesson in my life. I learned the piano, so I can read music. Well, if someone whistles the tune first, I can. I have a good ear (possibly two of them) and an ordinary voice. But I know or knew nothing about the art and craft of singing. But I love to sing; always have. I sing around the house, I sing in the garden, in the shower, in the car. I sang constantly to my children when they were small and defenceless. There s a family story of when I was out shopping with my baby son and my daughter, a toddler. As we were walking back to the car with the usual mountain of groceries (how in the world did I manage that?), I was singing. I think I had a vague notion (most of my notions were pretty vague then) of filling the children s lives with joy. I think I pictured them, far in the future, telling nostalgic stories along the lines of Oh, yes, my mother was such a joyous person! Always smiling, always singing Then I became aware that a small hand was tugging at my skirt. Shush, Mummy! my embarrassed two-year-old hissed. People can hear you! Oh. Okay. I shushed. Temporarily. Another such occasion came many years later when I was travelling in Ireland with my husband. As a devotee of folk music, and particularly Irish folk music, I had a song for nearly every town we passed through: I remember Dublin city in the rare ol times ; And in Kilkenny ; There was an old woman in Wexford. You get the idea. A moment came, as we passed over the Connor Pass and I saw the little town of Brandon in the distance. You re probably familiar with Christie Moore s classic Voyage of St Brendan? A boat sailed out of Brandon in the year of 501 Suddenly I realised the car was slowing and pulling over to the side of the road. My patient, loving husband spoke to me gently but firmly: I think that s enough of the singing for now. Oh. Okay. I did stop for a while, but you have no idea how hard, how nearly impossible it was! So, back to the dinner party. Erica urged me to join the choir and be part of Messiah. I pointed out my total lack of experience, but she urged me to apply and sent me the details. So I did. I was frank about my inexperience, pointing out that the last time I sang in a choir was in 1967, at St Patrick s Convent School in Mackay. I could read music, had been an alto then and thought I probably still was. I made no claim to be a real singer but I would so love to participate. The answer I got from Maryann was warm and welcoming and here I am! So that went well. Hugely excited, I persuaded my sister-inlaw, Linda, to come along too. Linda had the twin advantages of some experience with choirs and a beautiful voice. And so we turned up for the first rehearsal of Handel s gorgeous masterpiece. Well. That first rehearsal! Like any devoted listener to ABC Classic FM, I was familiar with the Greatest Hits from Messiah. I d attended a few blissful performances over the years. How hard could it be? Answer: pretty darned hard. Terrifying, in fact. Who knew that a few years in a small primary school choir in the dim past wouldn t have provided me with the necessary skills for Handel? St Pat s had blitzed the Mackay Eisteddfod in 1967 with our dazzling rendition of a Mary Poppins medley. Surely a working knowledge of two-part harmony for such classics as Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Feed the Birds would get me through? Well, no. That first night I discovered just how little I knew and how ridiculously ill-equipped I was for the task. And yet, I returned the next week. Why? The first and probably most important element was the way the rehearsals are conducted. The brilliant team-work between super-conductor Adrian and superb accompanist Natasha is a joy to experience. Adrian nails that balance between high demand and warm appreciation that is the mark of a great teacher. If he had been negative or critical, I would never have returned. P A G E 6

7 I was and am critical enough of myself. The other thing that kept me coming back was that fabulous sensation that comes in those moments when we all get it right and the sound is spine-tinglingly, goose-bumpingly glorious. It may be just a chord, but I can feel how we all rise to the magic of the moment, rewarded by Adrian s warm smile as he realises we ve finally got it. Pure bliss! When I get home from rehearsals, I am buzzing, high as a kite, and I can t get to sleep for hours. Other members tell me it s the same for them. It s something we share. So I kept coming, sang my heart out, rehearsed diligently, and then the performance. What a feeling! As Adrian said at the time, it wasn t perfect, but it was fabulous. I had family members there to see me sing even my daughter, who had travelled from Brisbane for the performance. Apparently, it was acceptable now for people to hear me. I loved it. Just as I loved our beautiful performance of Karl Jenkins Requiem, the crazy and surprisingly-difficult HMS Pinafore, the twin Glorias (Rutter and Vivaldi). It s all been wonderful. At each performance, I ve had a family fan club to cheer me on. They tease me about my blissed-out expression during the performances. It s been suggested they wouldn t be surprised if I levitated, drifted right up into the air during the high points. They re right. That s just how I feel. I m basically a lazy lump (my mother s expression from days gone by). I don t much like going out at night; sometimes I make excuses to skip my beloved yoga class or book club. But I never miss a rehearsal unless it s absolutely unavoidable. I look forward to Wednesday nights with happy anticipation. This choir is one of the best things in my life. It s even increased my love of classical music, as I now have at least an inkling of the brilliance and originality that go into creating those pieces I ve always enjoyed, the clever harmonies and tricks that make them so wonderful. So thank you to Erica, who opened the door. Thank you to Adrian and Natasha, who make it such fun and so rewarding and have taught me so much. And thank you to my fellow choristers, who made me welcome and hardly ever roll their eyes or glare at my mistakes. I ll be around for a long time yet! (Rebecca sings in the alto section) Thursday 14th March, 13 Choir members visited Sandy who was a valued member of our Choir as an alto. Sandy s health has prevented her from singing in the Choir. Thirteen beautiful voices filled Sandy s room bathing her in the sound of music. Thanks Choir members for being so kind and thoughtful to Sandy. I was born in Dunedin on Armistice (Remembrance) Day There was always music in our home as Mum had a lovely soprano voice and sang in and conducted choirs. I began learning piano aged 8 and by the time I was 12, I was able to accompany Mum. (I still enjoy accompanying vocal and instrumental soloists.) I was school assembly pianist at high school and a member of the Special choir. I learnt to play hymns for bible class on the old pedal harmonium and subsequently became church organist and choir director in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Dunedin. My high school teaching career began in the 70s and included acting as music specialist. We staged excerpts from Jesus Christ Superstar one year and it was one of the high points of my work at that school. The lowest was having to conduct the band at prize-giving because the brass tutor/bandmaster was occupied at the nearby private school. One half of the band got two bars behind the other during their whole item and I could see some of my lovely colleagues on the stage in stitches!! During my time teaching at a private girls college, I directed an all comers and an auditioned choir which we entered in the NZ Secondary Schools choral contest. Interestingly one of the songs I taught them was by Stephen Leek they loved it and so did the audience. My association with the local brass band involved playing for all the soloists at regional and national contests. Top achiever was national veterans champion euphonium soloist and his accompanist was definitely more nervous than him playing in the Grand Finale concert! I ve belonged to local operatic and choral societies wherever we ve lived, but they only managed to get me off the piano stool and onto the stage once My Fair Lady, the housekeeper. Oh I forgot, it s happened again HMS Pinafore but that s it!! I love singing with SCCS as Adrian chooses music which provides a challenge and stimulation, Natasha is a fabulous accompanist and my fellow choristers are a lovely friendly bunch. Love Robin (Tenor) P A G E 7

8 V OLUME 11 ISSUE 1 PHOTO GALLERY Choir Practice Wednesday evenings Our fantastic Pianist who makes the Choir sound great and always seems to hear when one of the sections needs help. Natasha Kosh Maryanne receiving her Life Membership Certificate Gloria Concert P AGE 8

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10 Sunshine Coast Choral Society Inc. P.O. Box 496 Buderim QLD 4556 Website: Phone: Concerts, 2019 September 8th Schubert s Mass in G and other similar works. December 8th A Christmas Concert featuring music from Messiah, Christmas Oratorio and other works. Music Matters New members are most welcome. Come along and sing with us while we are rehearsing. Rehearsals are held at the Lakeshore Community Church of Christ (which is air conditioned) on Wednesday evenings between 6.45 and 9.30 pm (with a tea break). Contact Christine on phone (07) if you are interested in attending. Our Sponsors: Web: montvillepub.com.au/ Tel: ryan@montvillepub.com.au Web: storagedirect.com.au Tel: Web: Tel: info@smartfish.com.au Web: Maroochydore.minutemanpress.com.au Tel: P A G E 10