Concert Choir, Women's Chorale to perform Nov. 5
Contact: Christina Chapple
10/26/07
HAMMOND – Southeastern Louisiana University’s Concert Choir and Women's Chorale will present a wide variety of choral landmarks and 20th century works as well as selections by composers from France, Mexico and Norway Monday, Nov. 5, at Hammond’s First United Methodist Church.
The free concert, scheduled for 7:30 p.m., will feature numerous solos by Southeastern vocal students, said Alissa Mercurio Rowe, director of choral activities.
Rowe said the women's choir will perform French composer Leo Delibes’ "Messe Breve" with strings and a rousing Mexican “huapango” piece titled "Las Amarillas," arranged by Stephen Hatfield. The huapango is a Mexican musical style popular in the lands along the Gulf of Mexico characterized by a complex rhythmic structure.
“This piece is rhythmically very complicated with the voice parts contrasting in both their rhythmic and melodic patterns,” said Rowe.
Senior Southeastern vocal education major Brian Martinez of Montz will conduct the chorale in a movement from Libby Larsen's "Today This Spring."
Rowe said the second half of the concert will feature the Concert Choir, Southeastern’s premier vocal ensemble, opening with "Prelude" by Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilo.
“Its rousing mixed meters and dissonant, but intimate middle section make for an exciting performance,” Rowe said. “Gjeilo has said that he conceived the piece as a concert opener, a type of introductory or entrance music."
The choir will also perform "Trois chansons de Charles d'Orleans," three pieces by Claude Debussy.
“The pieces are from a 1908 collection, although two of the three movements were written earlier,” Rowe said. “The set was written early in Debussy's life and attempts to create a medieval atmosphere rather than his later impressionistic harmonies and rhythms. The works connect the styles of the past with the harmonic techniques of the time. The texts are by Prince Charles d'Orleans who was imprisoned in England after the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.”
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