Word: choraled
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Actually, it was a resurrection. The singers--housewives, ex-punkers, Evangelicals, atheists, Jews and Buddhists waiting for their usual venue above a local bar to open--were devotees of a Christian four-part choral style called Sacred Harp (the name refers to the human voice and a songbook published in 1844). Once America's dominant religious music, it was eclipsed after the Civil War. By 1960, say scholars, as few as 1,000 people clustered in the Deep South knew the style...
...otherworldly open fifths--has been obsolete for more than a century. Its notation, in which triangles, circles and squares indicate pitch, looks like cuneiform. Yet it exudes power and integrity. Five people sound like a choir; a dozen like a hundred. It is one of the most democratic choral forms: no audience, no permanent conductor--just people addressing one another...
...Choral Fantasy” started with a cadenza-like, improvisatory section for unaccompanied piano. Elkies’s dramatic opening begged for more dynamic contrast, but by no fault of his own. For logistical purposes, the top of the grand piano had been removed, which drastically reduced the projection of its sound into the audience. However, this shortcoming did not severely diminish the introduction’s effectiveness—especially since Elkies was very sensitive to the ends of his phrases, often tapering off in delicate pianissimos...
...There were noticeable intonation problems throughout “Choral Fantasy”—especially in the brass and violin sections—and minor issues with the ensemble of the piece, particularly during the performers’ entrances...
...However, the overall effect of the work was almost mythic. The waves of sound continued to build to the end of “Choral Fantasy” with the full grandeur of the choir’s pure harmonies, the strings’ furious tremolo, and Elkies’s intense scales and arpeggios. The evening as a whole was similarly fantastic...