ASCENSION

It's been awhile, but the end of the semester stuff has been taking up a lot of my time. The Chamber Singers had their last real concert on the 6th at St. Albert's Priory. It was a blast. It was virtually a full house, with only a few seats left over in the balcony. We did our full repertoire, and most of the songs went off pretty good. Our past 5 winter concerts were recorded and next year a live Christmas compilation CD is going to be released, which will be our third CD so far. One song that was especially cool was "In Paradisum" by Edward Fissinger. The text reads:

"In paradisum deducant angeli
in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyrus
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem.
Chorus angelorum te suscipat
et cum Lazaro, quondam paupere,
aeternam habeas requiem."

Translated, it reads:
"May the angels lead you into paradise;
at your coming may the martyrs receive you
and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem.
May the chorus of angels receive you
and with Lazarus, once poor,
may you have eternal rest."

But what makes this one special is that there's a section in the piece, which was composed by Fissinger to 'sound' like what the ascension into heaven is supposed to be, an aurora borealis type of effect, but aural and not visual. It's really hard to describe except that you can feel the ascension and almost see it. Imagine what it would be like, with a chorus of angels welcoming you into the light. That's what this piece is trying to convey. My brother came to the concert and he especially liked that section, and he's not one to like choral stuff.

Anyway, "In Paradisum" is one of the songs we'll be taking to Germany/Prague in March, so I'm hoping some of you all can catch either our bon voyage concert or our welcome back concert. They should be excellent.

Now it's time for me to get back to end of the semester stuff.

Makin' Mine Music
~No Tations~