Wednesday 13 February 2013

♪♫♩Ubi Caritas in Perth

Rehearsals are ongoing for our April concert of Missa Gaia. One of the pieces is this one, Ubi Caritas, composed by Ottawa organist and musician, Paul Halley.
We did this at the NAC in 1985, the Choral Society with the Paul Winter Consort, Paul Halley, and Susan Osborn. They were a new age group, hippies! There was much love and joy!


Today we spent some time on this piece. I did a bit of audio to give you an idea of the sound.
Glorious. Ubi Caritas begins with the Gregorian Chant, "Where there is love, there is God", which Paul sang as a choir boy in Ottawa. He juxtaposes this with the African chant, inspired by a drumming group who would rehearse in the basement of his New York church while the choir rehearsed.
Oba ye, Oba yo batala. Yemanja. 

Part of the African chant, in Ubi Caritas, by Paul Halley. Oba ye, Oba yo from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
 It's going to be a fabulous concert!
Brad Mills was away with rehearsals for The Spelling Bee. Instead, his alter ego, Peter Woodwark took the rehearsal. Val is on the piano - she is amazing. Just listen to her!



Both parts together: Ubi Caritas and Oba ye from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.
Here are the two parts, in a rough rehearsal. You get the idea!

Ottawa boy, Paul Halley
Paul Halley  
MA(Cantab.), FRCO, ARCT 

      
Five-time Grammy-winning

      composer, conductor, and performer

It's going to be a fabulous concert!

It is good, hard work. You go in tired, and come out energized.
Singing does this for you!
From Missa Gaia rehearsals in Perth, ON

Brad at the piano last week!

1 comment:

Red said...

A very satisfying experience for the singers and enjoyable for the audience.