Dona Nobis Pacem / Chorale Concert / MSW

When you begin Choir school you also attend Chorale rehearsals at the same time in anticipation for a Spring Concert. These two programs run simultaneously. Choir School is held on Thursday evening and Chorale rehearsals are held on Tuesdays. Those who joined the choir the previous year are required to participate in the Chorale the next year.

The musical pieces we are singing for our Chorale come from Vaughan Williams and from Mack Wilberg.

The centerpiece is called Dona Nobis Pacem which in Latin is interpreted as Grant give us Peace. It was written after World War I as a plea for peace as rising tensions indicated another war was imminent. Williams uses text from Mass, the Bible, a speech given by John Bright and poems by Walt Whitman. It is hauntingly beautiful and filled with both somber and dramatic moments.

In 2006 Mack Wilberg was commissioned by Carnegie Hall to write two pieces, an introit and benediction, to the Vaughan Williams piece. The first piece is entitled Requiem Aeternam and the the final piece is called Let Peace Then Still the Strife. It is an amazing contribution to an already stellar work. It's one thing to create your own work but to create a work to accompany an already existing work that was written in 1936 is pretty incredible. Brother Wilberg was 3 years old when Vaughan Williams passed away, a continent and world away.

I was not familiar with any of this music before now. I don't imagine a lot of people are familiar with it either.

I learned the piece quickly and came to fall in love with the music.

Teaching and conducting us is Ryan Murphy, Associate Director of the Choir.

Rehearsals were filled with great opportunities to explore and expand our own instruments and music as a whole. Learning how to recognize cues, how to sing properly in a large ensemble. It was a very supportive environment. We laughed, we cried. We learned to project, to soften, to listen and to adjust. We learned to pay attention to pitfalls in music. We learned how to be better attuned to each other.

This is the set up for the Chorale Concert. We stood on bleachers below the loft. I was in the middle row, third seat in from the left.

Brother Murphy is an amazing teacher. Patient, open, willing to take a journey with the class. He would often provide levity to help us along. Despite our time constraints he would share a brief but relevant story that many times were things that I needed to hear. Sometimes he would say things like, "I don't know why I'm going to share this but I just feel like I need to..." and it would be something I could use. It was fun to watch him work with us as a group, with sections and with individuals. I felt like I was learning something new every rehearsal.

His expectations were high, very high.