Program

Rossini William Tell Overture arr. Eschliman
Pachelbel Canon in D arr. Chillcot
Schubert Standchen arr. Parr
Mozart Marriage of Figaro Overture arr. Swingle
Debussy Clair de Lune arr. Hamilton
Ravel Pavane pour une infant defunte arr. Van Blaricum
Grieg Hall of the Mountain King arr. A. Winters
Intermission
Abba Dancing Queen arr. Sharon
Arlen Over the Rainbow arr. Turner
Sondheim Send in the Clowns arr. Meader
Starland Vocal Band Afternoon Delight arr. Rishel
Newman Texas Girl at the Funeral of her Father arr. Chilcott
Fogerty Proud Mary arr. Sharon
Van Morrison Moondance arr. Ajack
U2 MLK arr. Chilcott

This concert brought to you in part by a generous grant from The Martha Lee Cain Tranby Fund.</4>

 

Should Have Been Choral 2008

 

The voice is a unique instrument; the only instrument that you carry with you at all times, whether you want to or not. It is also one of the most unpredictable and malleable instruments; no buttons to push, no spit valves to shake out, no strings to replace; you can’t buy a new one, can’t get it tuned, can’t get it rebuilt. What you have, you have. Luckily, the eight singers of Octarium have it. In spades. So it only makes sense to have these eight talented singers offer their voices to pieces that no one ever imagined as vocal pieces. There are pieces on this concert that you may be expecting. But there are also pieces that may make you go “hmmm.” However, the concert as a whole should allow you to walk out the door after the final piece with a new respect for the voice and a new way of hearing every song on the radio, in the concert hall or in the background of a movie or T.V. show.

I wrote the above for last season’s inaugural “Should Have Been Choral” program and, frankly, not much has changed.

But the Should Have Been Choral concert of 2008 is different in one big way; there is no printed program. What you are holding in your hands is ostensibly a program, but it is missing most of what you might expect to find; a concert order and program notes. In homage to the less-than-classical roots of the majority of tonight’s music, we’ve got a playlist. A playlist that changes. A playlist that has probably changed several times since I wrote these notes. And may change again while you are reading these notes.

The choral art (especially the a cappella choral art) too often ties singers and, by extension, their audiences, into a straight-jacket of “shoulds.” One should always sing serious music. One should always be edified by the music. One should only sing known and respected composers or new and unknown but certainly scholarly composers. One should never, ever feel like dancing or clapping unless one is wearing sequined vests at a show choir concert, which, of course, every connoisseur of the choral art knows is not really choral music.

Tonight will change all that. This is a pops concert you can take seriously. Or not take seriously. Your choice. But the artistic quality of the arrangements and the performances is undeniable; it’s just easy to forget how difficult some of these arrangements may be to sing, because, listening to them, they just sound like a big bowl of fun.

And that’s what we want. We want tonight to be a big bowl of choral fun.

So get comfortable.

And remember; if ever there was an a cappella choral concert where you could tap your feet or clap your hands or yell “Freebird,” this is the one.

Krista Lang  Blackwood, Artistic Director