Tenebrae

Our choir sang tonight; every year we do a special performance on the evening of Palm Sunday which is an adaptation of a Tenebrae service.

It's one of my favorite times to sing, because we do very complex pieces that we start practicing right after Christmas and not to brag, but we do them really well. Ok, that's bragging.

I still feel like the new kid after five years; many of these people have sung together for 30 + years. They are awesome, and I continue to learn more and more about reading music and singing.

(Pange Lingua was my favorite this year:

Pange lingua gloriosi Corporis mysterium, sanguinisque prestiosi, quem in mundi prestium fructus ventris generosi Rex effudit Gentium.

Tantum ergo sacramentum veneremur cernui et antiquum documentum novo cedat ritui praestet fides supplementum sensuum defectui.

The verses correspond to Sing, my tongue, the Savior's glory; but the arrangement we use is very different. It's nothing like the melody of what you might sing in English. It's also much much slower, four part harmony, very meditative, and monklike. Click on the link above, to see the music and hear a midi approximation of the sound. )

The service itself involves readings and progressively extinguishing candles until the church is in complete darkness. The last song we sing before darkness is "God so loved the world". Unlike some Tenebrae services, we don't stop there. In the dark we sing "Because He Lives" and slowly the lights come back on. It's a beautiful, hopeful ending.

I've been sick (hasn't everyone?) and I am happy to report my voice is fully back (as good as it gets, hah) and the singing went very smoothly for me tonight. My goal is to conserve my voice this week. I'll take Thursday and Friday off and sleep in, and recline on the couch sipping tea.

Now if only I could push a certain Icky choir member over the rails so he would stop trying to conduct us all... sometimes he gets started and I just hold up my sheet music so I don't have to look...