By Megan Ruge Living and arts editor
The Susquehanna University Chamber Singers will present an educational concert on March 4 at 7:30 in Stretansky Concert Hall.
The chamber singers are a Susquehanna extracurricular choral group comprised of students from the University Choir. The group is under the direction of Associate Professor of Music Julia Thorn. Thorn said the concert will feature two parts; the first will last about two minutes and the second will be between 15 and 20 minutes.
Though this concert is meant to showcase the chamber singers, the concert will open with a smaller student choir led by senior Tyler Miller.
The chamber singers will follow Miller’s group.
“It’s going to be two pieces. One is a motet which is a really short piece… that was composed in the Renaissance period by [Tomás Luis de Victoria],” Thorn said. “And then the second piece is a longer piece…and it’s a mass, same composer. He took all of his ideas from the motet that he wrote many years earlier, and he took those ideas and reworked them to make this mass. So the little short piece created all the ideas for the longer piece.”
Thorn explained that the idea of creating a mass out of a motet was a common practice in the time in which Victoria was composing.
She added that the concert will contain an educational component, calling it a “lecture concert.” Thorn explained how the educational portion of the concert will take place.
“I am going to have the chamber singers first sing the motet, the short piece, and I am going to talk about the compositional process, and I am going to show a power point of the examples. ‘Here it is in the motet, measure such-and-such… and here it is in the mass.’” she said.
Thorn said that for some of the examples, she is going to have the chamber singers sing the piece to show the way an example sounds in the motet as well as how it sounds in the mass.
After the demonstration portion, the chamber singers will then sing the mass in its entirety.
“You’ll kind of hear that motet all along in the mass, but it’s a totally different piece,” Thorn noted.
While teaching this piece, Thorn wanted to show the students how something they have already sung could be used to create something bigger, in this case a mass.
“Most of the music that [the chamber singers] do is contemporary, you know, written by living composers, but they also sound really great in Renaissance or early music,” she said. “We did the motet for Christmas and so I decided I wanted them to learn how this motet created the mass.”
Miller will be conducting a small group that will be performing three pieces that all pertain to the theme of light.
“I feel that with our current culture and world climate we all could use a little light,” Miller said. “Light is always present amidst the darkness whether it is moonlight, stars or a spiritual light. To me light represents hope.”
Thorn said there are a lot of pieces that pertain to light, but Miller chose just three to represent his theme in his groups’ performance.
“I chose these pieces because they have varying musical ideas,” Miller said. “For example, the first piece, ‘In Your Light,’ has percussion and uses a repetitive ‘La’ to bring focus on the text light and love. The second piece, ‘O Nata Lux,’ is representative of a chant with a beautiful motif that is present throughout the piece. The final piece is an arrangement of the Dolly Parton song, ‘Light of a Clear Blue Morning,’ which has a gospel vibe.”
Thorn said that Miller’s project is similar to that of a capstone project but is not something he was required to complete. She said that Miller’s project is something he chose to do above and beyond the requirements of his program.
“As an aspiring music educator [me] and my peers at [Susquehanna] are always looking for more information on teaching and more practice teaching and rehearsing an ensemble,” Miller said.
“One of things that I think [Susquehanna] does a really great job of is giving multiple opportunities for music education students to teach before their student teaching and graduation,” he added.
“The ensemble for my portion of the concert is voluntary,” Miller said. “These students volunteered to help and have been dedicated to the process; without them it would not be possible.”
For Miller, this project is more than just an opportunity to produce a performance under his direction. It captures what he has gained from his time at Susquehanna.
“This project encompasses the ethical, educational and cultural values that I have learned over the past four years,” he said. “Ethical in the meaning I see in the text. Educational in the rehearsal and performance process. Cultural in the fact that music is a cultural thing. Without culture or people to listen, participate in, and create meaning in the music it would simply be noise.”
