As a member of the RCS Chamber Choir I will be taking part in the performance of Handel’s “Dixit Dominus” in a choral concert to be held at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Glasgow on the 8th December 2015.
George Friedrich Handel was born in Germany in 1685 and after studying in Germany and Italy he eventually moved to England 1712 where he settled and lived happily eventually becoming a British subject in 1727. Handel was considered a brilliant composer whose works covered a wide breadth of music genres such as operas, anthems, oratorios and organ concertos.
“Dixit Dominus” is a setting of the Latin text of the “Psalm 110” which Handel completed in April 1707 whilst living in Italy and under the patronage of the Colonna family who were a powerful and influential family in Italy at that time.
The score was not published until 1867 over 100 years after his death.
Handel was accomplished at bringing both the voice and instrumentation together in his works, this piece is no different requiring five vocal soloists ( two sopranos, an alto, tenor and bass ) along with chorus and instrumentalists.
Our conductor for the ensemble is Timothy Dean Head of Opera who is being assisted by James Slimings a fellow student.
We rehearse for two hours each Tuesday evening, initially we practised together but recently we have been split into two groups, male voices and female voices. This helps us to work on the musical lines within our voice types before bringing it all back together as a single ensemble.
It is great to work with everyone on these projects as there are so many talented singers and musicians here at the Conservatoire. I can’t wait to see how it all comes together over the coming weeks and should prove to be a fabulous evening for all those that can make it along to the performance.
The image for the post was taken from a new Facebook header that Pascal Barnier very kindly created for me, based on this being the start of the final and fourth year of my undergraduate degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. Lots happening I’ll keep you posted :).
Just a quick update, as you can see our indoor garden is flourishing with the exception of the chives which I think we cut back a little too enthusiastically 🙂 So fingers crossed they will continue to thrive as we go into Winter.