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Come, sing Noël
9 December 1988
University House

SCUNA history » Concerts » 1988 - Christmas

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Review

Transcription follows

Canberra Times review by W L Hoffmann of SCUNA Christmas Concert 9 December 1988. Transcription on this page.

Transcription

Full-tonal quality to Christmas choral concert

Last Friday night in the Hall of University House the ANU Choral Society, directed by Brian Hingerty, presented its annual concert of choral music for Christmas.

Most of the works presented were for a capella choir. Sustained unaccompanied singing becomes more difficult as the number of singers increases, and with the ANU Choral Society at present consisting of more than 30 singers, there were some problems of intonation and of maintaining pitch over the span of longer items. But the choir produced a nice, full-tonal quality, with good dynamic control, and these few discrepancies did not greatly diminish the overall effectiveness of the singing.

The program opened with two advent motets by Spanish composer Franciscus Guerrero, and in both of these there were some initial uncertainties, although the singing settled down as each proceeded. Guerrero was a lesser-known contemporary of Palestrina, and this first group concluded appropriately with a Christmas motet by the great Italian in which the singing displayed greater assurance and was thereby more effective.

Three carols, one written by Martin Shaw and the others arrangements by him of traditional French carols, made a pleasant interlude, and were attractively sung. Between the motets and carols there was an interesting inclusion - an extended setting of the old German carol Es ist ein Ros entsprungen written in 1933 by the German composer Hugo Distler. It was sung well and made a pleasant contrast to the other works.

This substantial first half concluded with a performance of the Messe de Minuit by the 17th century French composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier. A midnight Christmas mass, based on French noels, it has a popular and lightly attractive basis. Given a well-shaped performance with some pleasant solo contributions, it provided an attractive finish to the formal part of the program.

After interval, choir and audience joined in the singing of carols.

- W.L. HOFFMANN

Programme

Guerrero Canite Tuba in Sion
Rorate Caeli
Palestrina Dies Sanctificatus
Distler Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
Shaw (arr.) Noel Nouvelet
I sing of a Maiden
Patapan
Charpentier, M.-A. Messe de minuit

More information

Conductor: Brian Hingerty
Organist: Sheila Thompson
Venue: University House

Eleven carols were sung in the Fellows' Gardens after the concert. There was a four-page programme. The author of the programme notes and the translater/s of words were not acknowledged. There were 33 singers in the choir:

Acknowledgements & sources

Thanks to Maggie Shapley, ANU Archivist, for providing a scan of this article. Thanks also to the Canberra Times for permission to reproduce reviews.

Thanks to Dr Peter Campbell for the programme above, and for the first paragraph of information (both attributed to the SCUNA archives, but the review is all that remains).

Thanks to Jeff Christensen for keeping the concert register, which gives the title of this concert and confirms Peter's information, and to Dr Michael Sawer for his annotations, which provide the second paragraph of information above.