Parts

My singing is not the most renowned, but I struggle with the tenor parts and Harmonica Monday gets it pretty right on the night. HM is a modest group, practicing mornings and performing for friends and relatives and taking on the most satisfying on repertoires. This concert covered the waterfront for choral eras, from mediaeval through to modern, extant, Canberra compositions: de Victoria, Bennet, Handel, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Faure, Barber and Canberran international choral master, Stephen Leek. His piece was a quirky song from the northern Australian islands, Monkey and turtle. Fabulous fun. There were some seriously interesting harmonies and considered parts displayed. Nice one.

Harmonia Monday (choir) is directed by Sheila Thompson and Oliver Raymond (conductors) with accompanist Jenny Kain (piano).

Love and other stories

I enjoy my Harmonia Monday choir for the opportunity to learn to sing (it's a slow process!) but I wouldn't if it weren't for the music. Admittedly we can struggle with it. The Messiah choruses are complex and fast and sometimes get up high. The parallel but temporally moved lines of canon singing can be an worthy challenge. Finding the harmony and not dropping into another part, not least struggling with the soprano melody, is a playful task. I like all that. This last open day featured a string of interesting tunes in 4-or-more part harmony from baroque to modern, many in religious traditions (it seems that's where a lot of choral music comes from). Music from Mozart Missa Brevis, Handel Messiah, Bach B minor mass, Hassler Dixit Maria. Music as far back as Greensleeves in harmony, attributed to that great lover Henry VIII. Through a string of love songs (love has ever been a theme of popular songs): Go lovely rose, My sweetheart's like Venus, She's like the swallow, The shower, and one more seductive, Fine knacks for ladies (their seductions were discrete compared to ours). And a final return to religious singing, but modern: Lauridsen from Lux Aeterna. A fine program directed by our two conductors, Shiela Thompson and Oliver Raymond, with our repetiteur, Jenny Kain.

Harmonia Monday sang under Shiela Thompson and Oliver Raymond (conductors) and accompanied by Jenny Kain (piano).

Harmonious

I didn't actually sing at the Harmonia Monday open day concert, but there were times I wanted to. I usually sing with this group. They are guided and conducted by Shiela Thompson and Oliver Raymond, both well experienced local singers. They were, today, accompanied by Jenny Kain and Lucus Allerton, even playing together in one series of pieces, selections from Brahms Liebeslieder waltzes, that required four hands. The program was broad. I like the fact that this is SATB, harmony singing, of works by major composers from Palestrina to extant. There's a lot for me to learn and this is my vocal vehicle. This program included Haydn, Brahms, Vaughan Williams, Holst, Schubert, Elgar and Copland as well as a few arranged traditional pieces. My favourites were Schubert, Holst, Copland and Shenandoah, a famed American folk song, here arranged by Luke Jakobs. These songs settled best with the harmonies that were clearer and time that was more easy. I itched to sing a few lines, I found some harmonies and seached for the tenor lines, although there were few tenors and they are easily overwhelmed in practice. Like most choirs I hear of, tenors - and men generally - are in short supply. But there's a love of the music and some interesting challenges here. Nice one; I'll be back for more practice in the new year.

The Harmonia Monday Choral Studies group performed its end-of-term open house concert. Shiela Thompson and Oliver Raymond (conductors) variously directed and by Jenny Kain and Lucus Allerton (piano) variously accompanied.

Right on the night

She'll be right on the night. It's so often the case that I've come to accept it. Despite a horrid practice the week before, we done reasonably good. Not perfect, of course. As our MC said, we are a Choral Study group, so expect students. The audience of family and friends expected that and that's what they got. Some pieces worked well; some of the longer pieces got bogged down as we followed complex counterpoint or confusing canon. I'm new, so the feel of a baroque bar still tricks me (the 1s aren't where I expect them), and finding the starting note and harmony, and also the bigger intervals remains problematic. But students learn, and I drool over the clear harmonies when they sit neatly and the complex interplay of parts and the baroque canon writing and the beauty of Mendelssohn and the modern romantic voice (no bar lines) of Eric Whitacre. (What wife could resist This marriage as a wedding gift? Have a listen to Ingenium Ensemble singing it on YouTube). Congratulations to the choir, and thanks to our guides in all this, conductors Sheila Thompson and Oliver Raymond and wonderful accompaniment from pianist Jenny Kain. We're on leave for a few months then there's tons to learn in the NY.

Harmonia Monday choir performed Palestrina, Byrd, Charpentier, Handel, Mendelssohn, Stanford, Clausen, Whitacre and Durante attrib. Pergolesi at All Saints under Sheila Thompson (conductor) and Oliver Raymond (conductor) with accompaniment by Jenny Kain (piano).