O ME A HUGE FAVOR and don’t show this video to Dr. Calabrese or Maestro Clark. When they come to Los Angeles to conduct at Sacred Music Symposium 2019, I don’t want them to know we’ve been practicing the music. The theme this year is “everything to do with hymnody,” and the Mass by Palestrina is based on a marvelous ancient hymn tune. 1
Somebody placed an iPhone on a pew during rehearsal, and here’s what it captured:
So let this be our little secret!
Because I want the conductors to be surprised at how well the Los Angeles singers know their music—and I will respond: “Well, you know…we work on sight-reading a lot.”
If you haven’t signed up for the Symposium, what are you waiting for? There are still openings in some of the voice parts.
NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:
1 The melody itself has been used for many texts over the last thousand years. Here’s an organ accompaniment I composed for when it we sing it here in Los Angeles.
