The featured image above, Thomas Cole’s Voyage of Life, Youth (1840), is an outstanding painting that reflects the ideals of Romanticism. Can you describe the style characteristics that are embodied in the work that are also central to the choral music we’re performing this semester?

Final Printed Program

romantic-interludes-in-song

CHORAL UNION

Brahms: “How Lovely is Thy Dwelling Place” from A German Requiem (Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Mack Wilberg, conductor, Richard Elliott, organ)

Brahms: “Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen” from Ein Deutsche Requiem (Westminster Choir and the New York Philharmonic, Kurt Masur, conductor)

CHORALE

Brahms: Waldesnacht (UniversitätsChor München)

Schumann: Wenn ich ein Vöglein wär (Angelika Kirchschlager and Christiane Karg)

Schumann: Herbstlied (Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Peter Schreier)

Brahms: O schöne Nacht (The Monteverdi Choir, John Eliot Gardiner, conductor)

Tormis: Excerpts from Seventeen Estonian Wedding Songs (Estonian Radio Choir, Toomas Kapten, conductor)

(1) Waiting for the Wedding

(2) When Will We Arrive There?

(3) Eat, My In-laws!

(4) Home is Crying for the Bride

(5) Wedding Ride

UNIVERSITY CHOIR

Mendelssohn: Verleih’ uns Frieden (Northwestern University Chorale and Orchestra, Donald Nally, conductor)

Beethoven: “Hallelujah” from Mount of Olives (Atlanta Symphony Chorus, Robert Shaw, conductor)

CANTILENA

 Bach: “Wir eilen mit schwachen, doch emsigen Schritten” from Cantata No. 78

The first recording features two soloists (a boy treble and a countertenor) with conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt and organist Gustav Leonhardt. Throughout the performance, notice the wonderful life, musicality, personality and (most importantly) the impeccable German diction. This is the style and diction we want to employ.

http://swf.tubechop.com/tubechop.swf?vurl=6AeXN0MIE9E&start=3127&end=3428&cid=8841728

This second video is a choral instrument more like yours, featuring the Wheaton College Women’s Chorale, Mary Hopper, conductor.

Mendelssohn: “Lift Thine Eyes” from Elijah (Atlanta Symphony Chorus, Robert Shaw, conductor)