Last night we virtually conquered our first Consort Week rehearsal, so now things start to get serious, especially for those songs for which not everyone actually has “all notes firmly in place.”
The goal of Tuesday’s rehearsal is to rehearse the songs in the repertoire we didn’t get to on Monday night, so we know how much work still needs to be done on every piece. But we don’t always reach that goal. The only contingency plan is to work on the remaining songs during the next two days of sectional rehearsals.
And that was the reasoning behind today’s selection, Paul Mealor’s “Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal.” Just listen to its tight harmonies! There can be little doubt that this would have been included in the sectionals.
| Persons of the Day: Program writers Tuesday is typically the day when we start writing the program for Sunday’s concert. From the beginning, this has been done by Allan Petker. But in 2019, writing the program was taken over by Mago Huffman. Each year, the cover for our programs has been based on the concert flyers created by Bob Friestad. Our 2019 flyer was designed by Kevin Jones. By Tuesday we know what songs will be in the concert and we have most of the additional information needed for the program, including the names of all the orchestra members, volunteers and donors, so we can thank them, and any other announcements we need to make. Information about the songs and composers is collected, edited, and reviewed by our members with musicology backgrounds, including Martin Hillyer, Mago Huffman, Alexandra Amati, and Suzanne Young. Final reviews of the program are completed by Friday when it is sent to the printers for pick up on Saturday. A group of volunteers then assembles them late Sunday afternoon, in time for the concert. |
Paul Mealor is a Welsh composer of primarily choral music. He became more widely known when his motet, “Ubi Caritas et Amor,” was performed at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton in 2011. He later composed the song “Wherever You Are,” which became the number one Christmas song on the UK Singles Chart.
Poem by Alfred Tennyson
Now sleeps the crimson petal, now the white;
nor waves the cypress in the palace walk;
nor winks the gold fin in the porphyry font:
The firefly wakens: waken thou with me.
Now droops the milk-white peacock like a ghost,
and like a ghost she glimmers on to me.
Now lies the earth all Danaë to the stars,
and all thy heart lies open unto me.
Now folds the lily all her sweetness up,
and slips into the bosom of the lake:
so fold thyself, my dearest, thou,
and slip Into my bosom and be lost in me