Wiltener Sängerknaben - CD liner notes
Posted: Fri Jan 22, 2016 3:55 pm
The CD "Arvo Pärt - Babel" by the Wiltener Sängerknaben and Johannes Stecher (Col Legno, 2015) is the first recording of composer Arvo Pärt's vocal music by a boy's choir. Besides being a delight to listen to, the liner notes are also worth reading. This excerpt in particular I found quite touching:
When you get the sound just right
Notes on the inspiring task of performing Arvo Pärt's songs with children and youths
By Johannes Stecher
The kids arrive at the evening's rehearsal with their smartphones and iPads, after a day filled with ringtones, WhatsApp messages and the like; in other words, they get here straight from school and Facebook, and if you, the choirmaster, don't end up as the protagonist in a video posted on Youtube after the rehearsal, you should count yourself lucky. At first they refuse to put away their tablets, explaining that they need them to look up the score.
You sing a folk song with them, followed by Bach and Bruckner; as you get to Arvo Pärt, they calm down even more, having become aware of their own distractedness. It is fascinating to see how intensely the react to Pärt's music. You demand a lot of them - conscious breathing, poise, concentration, calm, intonation, legato, piano - and you explain the texts. Before long the kids are familiar with the stories of Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, of Simeon and Hannah, of the Babylonian captivity, they know where to find Fatima, and that the sermon on the mount is one of the most beautiful texts in the Bible. They take in the music, and for a moment they create and feel something very special, something calm, a kind of spiritual dimension. You're glad, delighted, grateful for this gift. But then their attention begins to waver again - some of them are not older than six, after all - and it irritates you that they're unable to stay focused for longer. Yet at the next rehearsal you find that not only they haven't forgotton a single detail, but they master the passage you practised last time even better, have become comfortable with it, greet it like an old friend.
It then goes on in further detail about the singing techniques, the musical challenges and experiences in performing this music. I found this to be a moving account of the way young people react to such spiritual and profound music as Pärt's motets.
The CD has been on replay for days on end now
When you get the sound just right
Notes on the inspiring task of performing Arvo Pärt's songs with children and youths
By Johannes Stecher
The kids arrive at the evening's rehearsal with their smartphones and iPads, after a day filled with ringtones, WhatsApp messages and the like; in other words, they get here straight from school and Facebook, and if you, the choirmaster, don't end up as the protagonist in a video posted on Youtube after the rehearsal, you should count yourself lucky. At first they refuse to put away their tablets, explaining that they need them to look up the score.
You sing a folk song with them, followed by Bach and Bruckner; as you get to Arvo Pärt, they calm down even more, having become aware of their own distractedness. It is fascinating to see how intensely the react to Pärt's music. You demand a lot of them - conscious breathing, poise, concentration, calm, intonation, legato, piano - and you explain the texts. Before long the kids are familiar with the stories of Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, of Simeon and Hannah, of the Babylonian captivity, they know where to find Fatima, and that the sermon on the mount is one of the most beautiful texts in the Bible. They take in the music, and for a moment they create and feel something very special, something calm, a kind of spiritual dimension. You're glad, delighted, grateful for this gift. But then their attention begins to waver again - some of them are not older than six, after all - and it irritates you that they're unable to stay focused for longer. Yet at the next rehearsal you find that not only they haven't forgotton a single detail, but they master the passage you practised last time even better, have become comfortable with it, greet it like an old friend.
It then goes on in further detail about the singing techniques, the musical challenges and experiences in performing this music. I found this to be a moving account of the way young people react to such spiritual and profound music as Pärt's motets.
The CD has been on replay for days on end now