Christ Lag in Todesbanden Chorale (J.S. Bach)

Leave comments and feedback please! Arlington High School Colt Chorale singing Christ Lag in Todesbanden by Johann Sebastian Bach. This is one of the songs we performed at the 2009 TMEA convention in San Antonio. We are being directed by the AMAZING Mrs. Dinah Menger.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Christ Lag in Todesbanden
• Arlington High School
• Bach
• Colt Chorale
• Choir
• concert
• piano
• classical
• singing
• choir
• religious music
• opera
• ensemble

[1banders]

Thye have a good sound. But why are they dressed in Medieval and Renaissance costumes? Do they really this is music of those periods? An why are they lurching and swinging like they were singing some hideous rock or pop tune or gospel music? And why the rigid 1234,1234,1234? Do they think this is a rock tune?

[christyloveslamp]

@1banders Our selection was limited to what we could get at our local costume shop. Luckily, there were no European History majors in the audience. We got really into our music, thus explaining our swaying. We could all read music. Getting into the choir requires an audition which includes extensive sight-reading. The 'rigid 1234' comes from the fact that we had only gotten the music 3 months earlier and had 3 - 4 1/2 hours a week rehearse, not to mention we had 15 year olds in our choir.

[1banders]

@christyloveslamp BTW, I was 15 when I studied European history in my public high school in California. In addition to their other studies, the young students (many 15 and under) of Bach's choir at the St. Thomas School had to learn a new piece every week in time for the Sunday church performance, and they didn't perform it in a "rigid 1234", something which would have been completely foreign to their ears. Your choir needs a canned 70s disco beat to reinforce the "1234". LOL

[1banders]

@christyloveslamp But high school students today have easy access to the Internet, so I'd hope that if the students in your choir had more curiosity than a thumbtack, they might have taken a few minutes to browse Wikipedia to get a little historical context (e.g., dates) about the music they perform. Or maybe the director, who surely knows something the historical context of music she selects, could have given her class some little clue.

[1banders]

@christyloveslamp I guess some other party had rented out all the early 18th c. costumes, leaving your group nothing but medieval, renaissance, and 17th c. costumes. I majored in math, computer science and law, not European history. But when I was in high school (before the Internet), we studied European history and I learned enough about it in class to realize that people of Bach's era (the early 18th c.) didn't dress like Robin Hood, the 3 Musketeers, court jesters, or Renaissance princes.

[1banders]

@NorbertZF Had you had dressed as Bach, you would have been the only performer wearing costume of his era. These Renaissance and Medieval period costumes are completely anachronistic.

[1banders]

@Knoxtenor 1. Madrigals originated in the 16th century, so your explanation doesn't account for the medieval constumes. 2. As you say, the "song" (actually a chorale fantasia) is a blast. But what a shame it's being tainted by the ugly culture of hip-hop & pop music. 3. I suspect that most of these kids barely read music. The only way they could do this music at all is to memorize it.

[Knoxtenor]

@1banders In order. 1. Because it's probably at their Madrigals. 2. They're probably swinging and lurching because the song is a blast to sing and they're in high school and obviously not trying to be overly professional, 3. This song is really difficult to learn - the fact that they are doing it without music is pretty impressive on its own. Don't hate, dude. They did well.

[Takhilin]

Such a good job! We're doing this in choir next week for our fall concert. Such a difficult song and so rewarding when done well!

[ArthurManhattan]

cool

Bach in Medieval time ))))