VU Kamerkoor: Mendelssohn - Richte mich, Gott (Psalm 43)

[Akee1990]

Good job in keeping the pitch up.

[Marzipancat]

Nice! Small correction about Mendelssohn: he did not live in Paris. In fact, although he spent time there he did not care that much for the city or its musical culture which he considered too superficial. However, he did live in Düsseldorf and, I think, Frankfurt for a time.

[ichmalealsobinich]

nice performing :)

[lamarian22]

we are singing this for all region in arkansas and its awsome you all did an excellent job!

[hminkema]

@lamarian22: Thank you so much for your compliment! The song is indeed awesome, a true statement, sung with blatant fervour. That all gives the necessary energy to sing it out loud, to pronounce it as it should be heard, and to reach out to the listener.

And yes, there are many ahteists and agnosts in our choir. You don't need to believe in god to send out a message of hope and dare.

[vabemouton]

The pronunciation is better than most german choirs :-D And it's very well sung. Good job!

[hminkema]

@vabemouton: Thanks, Vabemouton. That really makes us blush. Our director usually puts a LOT of effort into our pronunciation. At present, we are singing a Russian-Armenian programme, and we have both a Russian and Armenian language coach. So if you believe our pronunciation is good, it means our efforts pay off!

[aquaria85]

good pronounciation for non-native speakers. not perfect, but almost ;). also sung with great passion!

[cdsnjs]

my only issue is that its hard to hear the low basses, though that is probably because of the recording

[hminkema]

@cdsnjs: Definitely because of the recording. The sound of this video was recorded by a distant vidcam. We also recorded the audio by means of a stereo microphone and DAT-recorder. That sound is obviously much better. Maybe one day I learn to combine these two: video and audio. You will notice by then.

[LuvHopeDream]

This is the best recording I could find...you really captured the Eastern European vowel and the cold color of the piece.

[mcouzijn]

Thanks, Luv' (:-))

BTW, Brahms came from the northern (Hamburg) area. That is not really 'eastern Europe' (apart from the fact that Europe is so large that even Poland is 'central' rather than 'eastern' Europe).

You are right in that we certainly attempted to create a real 'Germanic' Brahms. Our director is a sucker for Brahms, for German, and for vowels and pronunciation (and he's great in promoting all).

Yes, the 'cold' or rather unembellished sound should be there, but also decisiveness.

[slepowronek]

OMG, this piece was written by Mendelsson!

[mcouzijn]

OYG, a stupid mistake on my behalf!

We sang a lot of Brahms with my choir, and their music apparently got mixed up in my memory... :-)

Nevertheless, it is not strange to associate this Mendelssohn piece with Brahms. Both are fabulous choral composers, of course. This piece reminds me of "Warum ist das Licht gegeven", "Unsere Väter" or "O Heiland reiss der Himmel auf".

And Mendelssohn is as 'Eastern European" as Brahms! (Both are from Hamburg; M. lived in Berlin, Paris and Leipzig).

[AmazingAce87]

I enjoyed this. In some earlier posts you mentioned blend. I've actually been turned off by the word 'blend' because some directors let their singers under-sing for the sake of ensemble 'blend' or 'balance.' But, that doesn't seem so in this case - thank you for letting them sing! Thank you for displaying the fact that you do not have to compromise your unique timbre in a choral setting. Why mute good voices?

[mcouzijn]

Quite right, AmazingAce. It is an offplay between being 'safe' and being ambitious. In a not-so-good choir with not-so-good-voices, it is wise to temper the loudest not-so-good-voices in order to get a pleasant, balanced sound. Conductors who have better voices at their disposal may loosen such restrictions in order to have all voices adapt to the better (often louder) voices. There is a risk in this approach, but also an interesting promise. We're not afraid of risks. Cheers from sunny Poland!

[AmazingAce87]

Right. As you said, better voices are often louder ones. Well, some of my past directors have tried to restrict those voices to "blend" with the voices with no training. They're tempering the wrong voices! It makes it difficult and sometimes painful for the singers who usually sing with ease. I appreciate your risk taking. It's not the easy way, but we can see the result is a fuller, rich, HEALTHY sound, and I bet your singers enjoy the experience and each other's company. Cheers from the USA!

[jacktaterman124]

oops, I missed an 'e' and the ending of "note"

[jacktaterman124]

DUDE! That last first tenor part was amazing, simply, utterly, perfectly AMAZING. Sir, Miss, what ever gender you are, please tell that man who belted out that not he has a heavenly voice.

[mcouzijn]

Hi Jack, can you tell me which moment (or text) in the performance you are referring to? It is always a bit tricky to hear individual voices in a choir. The idea is to blend the various voices into one big megasound. But'I will thank our first tenors Rob, Jasper and Henk (from left to right) for somehow creating the sound that you like!

I see that you like both Yngwie Malmsteen, Johann Sebastian Bach and Paul Anka. A nice taste, in all its variety! Which style does your own music resemble?

[jacktaterman124]

it was from the 2:50-3:00 minute mark

my musical style varies a lot. choral music to thrash metal. all music is beautiful to me.

[mcouzijn]

The sound you hear is indeed the blend of all tenor 1 voices; yet I admit it contains a strong deal of our 'rocket tenor' Rob (on the very left) - a true stayer among choir members whom we can always rely on for the projection of strong, round high notes. He'd be most happy to receive your compliment (or read it here on YouTube)!

[jacktaterman124]

He's got quite a voice. As a tenor, I always love to hear a great tenor voice. Your group is truly great, keep it up! :D

[cwein93]

sehr gut. nur etwas zu hoch in einigen momenten. aber dieses problem gibt es in jedem chor. die intonation ist nie perfekt. also ich find aufnahme & chor sehr gut :)

[mcouzijn]

Hi Cwein, we're happy to read your compliment. Keeping a good intonation is one of the great challenges for any choir, that is true. And specially in a demanding a capella concert programme that lasted well over 90 minutes... Definitely killing - but at times killingly beautiful, too :-)

The problem is too in the dilemma of singing either technically perfect, but motionless - or singing with emotion and thus taking risks on technical perfection. It is not easy to find the middle.

[billybee]

unbeliavable... You all must be professionals :|

I so wish I could be there with all of you singing such praises.. it would be an unforgettable experience. I'll spread this around to my choir members. God Bless!

[mcouzijn]

Hi Billy from Australia, thank you for your nice compliments! I see you are a chorister too (or director?) so we share the feeling for such great music. No, we're not professionals at all. Just amateurs from various directions (economists, linguists, medics, sales(wo)men, theologists) who love to make good music. This was an exceptional concert programme, consisting of 12 psalms from 7 composers (Lassus, Monteverdi, Sweelinck, Schuetz, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Spohr). Great to do indeed! Cheers!

[bpewien]

Good intonation, but the sound quality of the video could be improved.

Anyway a very nice performance. :-)

[mcouzijn]

Quite right, Bpewien! I mean about the sound quality (*of course* you're right about the performance quality, too ;-)

We usually record the concerts with digital audio and two mikes. This time I also made a video recording, but the audio from this distance is clearly lacking. I still need to combine video with the (much better) audio recording. Yielding the ideal YouTube vid. As soon as I've gottem hold of the audio recording I will replace it for you (and others) to enjoy!