#brahms requiem

[strattseva]

Der 2. Satz vom Brahms Requiem ist immer noch so total überwältigend. Ich hab Gänsehaut

[runningawaymode]

Herr, lehre doch mich dass ich davon muss

[narrativerehearsal]

The RSNO (Royal Scottish National Orchestra) has started doing a ‘Come and Sing’ event every season. I went to the first one when 900 of us turned up to sing Mozart’s Requiem for a day, which was just insane. We filled the entire damn stalls of Glasgow’s concert hall, the audience for the informal performance had to sit in the choir stalls.

The second one happened today and nearly 400 of us turned up to sing Brahms’ Requiem. In a smaller venue this time but again the choir was in the audience seats and the audience (of about 100 people) was in the choir stalls. I thought Mozart was tricky but I can now say that Brahms is fucking hard and I loved it but I am so tired.

Apparently the whole thing was just a crazy idea their chorus director suggested and then it kind of...took off.

[libearyn]

All Flesh is Grass

 for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.”And this word is the good news that was preached to you.                       ~ 1 Peter 1:24-2 “Everything that is really great and inspiring is created by the individual who can labor in freedom.”                      ~ Albert…

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[necarion]

I love the Brahms Requiem, but dear god does it thrash the tenors. It's hard in all the voice parts, but the tenor section is going wildly flat during the last movement. This is movement 3.

Like, yes, it is high in the soprano range as well. But I think As are higher, relatively speaking, to tenors than they are to Sopranos. I've talked to some altos and basses and while the stuff goes mildly high for the altos, they don't seem to find it vocally fatiguing in the same way that it is for the tenors.

I was taking it super easy, not singing the high notes, etc., during rehearsal, and I was exhausted. (I'd tried really hard to convince the tenors to take it easy during rehearsal, and everyone agreed. And then promptly forgot when the conductor asked for MOAR SOUND. Which also irritates me because he acknowledged to me directly that the tenors needed to take it easy during the rehearsal.)

[necarion]

Brahms' "Ein Deutsches Requiem" ("A German Requiem") was about the language, that is, a mass for the dead in the language of the people. It was not a nationalism thing.

In fact, its first performance was not in Germany, but in Bremen*!

* In 1868, Bremen was recently a part of the North German Confederation, which was not entirely a true federated state at the time.

[necarion]

After our second (of three) dress rehearsals for the Brahms Requiem, I called a huddle of the tenor section and told everyone to, effectively, slack off during the third dress rehearsal.

"Guys, this is one of the most fatiguing pieces we'll ever sing. The only thing that matters here is how you sound on Friday and Saturday, so aim for, like, 80% for Thursday's rehearsal."

I could really hear folks blowing out their voices during the rehearsal and who were super flat by the last movement. I was having trouble too, and I was even taking whole passages off and not even attempting half the high notes. In part because I was blending with folks who were actually shouting.

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I also gave advice to not try to give 120% of their loudest discomfort-free volume, even on the big ff passages, but that's not going to stick because I'm not their conductor. But that's actually a slightly different problem. Basically, a choir attempting to give 120% will actually sound quieter than one aiming to max out at 95%, because they'll be effectively shouting, and as such won't end up blending vowels properly. Proper vowel blend means that not only does the fundamental pitch match, but so do the higher harmonics. And exact frequency matching results in constructive interference and louder volumes.

This effect is why a really good choir of 16 people can often sound louder than a mediocre choir of 50 or more. The singers really aren't a lot louder (certainly not 4x louder), but they do get better harmonics (which carry) and better harmonics-matching (which allows the sound to be perceived as louder).

A really funny result of all of this is that sometimes, if a (usually orchestral) conductor asks a choir for MORE SOUND, the correct approach is to back off a little bit, because it's likely you actually been shouting a tiny bit. This allows you to get back into better technique, which sounds louder. (It also sounds better; shouty-singing sounds really unpleasant, unless it is used as an effect (in which case it still sounds unpleasant, but deliberately so)). And as a bonus of not shouting, your voice will be in better shape for later in the concert (when you need to not go super flat because you blew out your voice) and later in life (when you want to not sound like you regularly blew out your voice).

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All this to say, I have the personal authority as an alum of this choir to strongly recommend that the singers take it easy next rehearsal. They all know that they're hurting their voices, so having someone articulate "save it for the big event" is helpful. But I'm not their conductor and can't meaningfully tell them (especially not in a 2 minute huddle) about backing off in the concert as well.

[necarion]

I'm hoping third time's a charm and I get to actually successfully sing the Brahms Requiem with the Berkeley choruses in December. I tried singing with Stanford last fall but got COVID week of the concert, and tried to sing with a different choir last spring until they uninvited all outside singers for unknown reasons. I have an annoying commute, with many trips over 2 weeks. But the Berkeley choirs are by far the better of the Stanford Symphonic Choir (minimal audition, open to the full community) and the other one.

Also, the music remains really good.