On Saturday night I was in the audience for the Monash University Choral Society’s Music Through Time concert. It was fantastic.
Each time I go to one of these I’m reminded of why I keep going. It’s so wonderful to watch friends and other choir members perform songs I know they’ve been working hard on all semester and seeing them having fun whilst doing so. The songs alternately moved me, roused me and entertained me. As I said to a few people after the concert, they all “gave me feels” and it was awesome.
MonUCS introduced me to songs I hadn’t heard before and to new arrangements of old favourites. They sang songs ranging from 12th-century classical through the centuries to 20th-century jazz and pop/alternative, right to 21st-century pieces. There were whole-choir pieces, sung acapella and with accompaniment, as well as solo and small-group works, and pieces with all of these.
Some of the pieces we were treated to included (but were not limited to): Gloria Ad Modum Tubae (Dufay Guillaume) – whole choir piece; Say Love If Ever Thou Didst Find (John Dowland) – a lovely quintet performance; Jesu, Meine Freude (J. S. Bach); Jerusalem (Parry); an SATB version of Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen); a well-carried and embodied Affirmation (Savage Garden); The Longest Time – with a fine tenor melody; finishing with a rousing Sing! (Pentatonix). I’ve taken the title of this review from a lyric of the latter.
Of course, it ended with the after-party, singing more songs until some of us were a bit hoarse, snacking and chatting and playing games, well into the wee hours of the morning.
In short, it was a lovely night out.
Bravo, MonUCS, and thank you! 😀
I’m looking forward to next semester’s concert already.
myzania 