Tuesday, February 19, 2002

Volunteers for Mozart Requiem Sing-a-long: Set-up for the sing-a-long is pretty simple (no risers). We need volunteers to help set-up & strike the orchestra, and help with refreshments at the Mozart Requiem sing-a-long. Please sign-up in the back, and reassure the board that we won't be alone. Many hands make light work!

Attention December 2001 Bella members: We have a professionally edited CD of our performance(s) from last December. In order to cover the cost of recording, we are asking for $10 if you would like one. Please sign-up on the sheet if you are interested in getting a copy.

Are you a people person? (I'm STILL looking for you!!!) We are planning to have a phone drive to increase concert attendance and raise money. Let Erica know if you might be interested. (Just talking to me doesn't constitute a commitment - ask me about it. Send me email about it, call me about it...).

Marcelle reminds you to think about your posture: Sit on your (ahem) butt bones at edge of your pew. Avoid 'sway back' (this cuts off support). When standing keep your knees loose & your pelvis tucked.

(not so) Random Music term defined: The 13th and 14th century term hoquetus (hocket) refers to a composition technique by which a single melodic line is distributed between 2 voices in such a way that as one sounds, the other is silent or holding a note.
In the 16th century, the term was applied to a certain type of cadence in which one voice, approaching the tonic from above, fails to reach its destination, and instead has a rest at least one beat long. The leading tone in another voice reaches the tonic and has at least a whole-note value, over which the theme of the next section begins.
Check out the Bach, m72 in the bass/tenor parts to see this in practice.

Meet the composers: Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was abbess of a convent at Rupertsberg near Bingen in Germany. When she was in her forties, Hildegard started to produce remarkable works of theology, science, healing, drama, history and music. She advised religious and secular rulers as well as undertaking preaching tours. Hildegard presnted her work as the word of God, told to her through intensely dramatic visions, which was probably the only way that, as a woman, she would have been allowed to communicate her ideas to a wider public.
Music, which Hildegard saw as a way of recapturing the beauty of paradise and reconnecting the human to the divine, played a vital part in the mystical atomosphere of her convent. Her main musical work is the Symphonia harmoniae caelestium revelationum ('Symphony of the Harmony of the Heavenly Revelations'). This is a collection of 77 liturgical songs for which she wrote both text and music. The vividly individual lyrics are matched by sensual and unusually elaborate melody, always a freely composed single line. Hildegard also wrote one of the earliest surviving morality plays which music, Ordo Virtutum which depicts the battle between the Devil and the 16 Virtues for the human soul.*

"Shameless Plugs"

Bella Musica is being represented in the "First Annual" Berkeley Choral Festival, "In Praise of Music". Tickets can be purchased at a 20% discount for you, friends & cohorts of performers ($12(student) $20/$30/$40). The concert is Monday, March 4, at Zellerbach Hall. Proceeds to benefit the Musicians' Pension Fund. Ask for a form or visit www.berkeleysymphony.org for more details. (tell them you are with Bella Musica, to get the discount). We'd love to see you there!

The fourth annual Mozart Requiem sing-along benefit concert is coming up Saturday, March 9, 8pm at St. Joseph the Worker church (1640 W. Addison) Admission is by donation, suggested donation $12 general, $10 students & seniors.

Julian White BCCO Benefit Recital Concert pianist, composer, Julian White will give a benefit recital at 8 PM on Friday, March 8th at the Berkeley Piano Club, 2724 Haste (between College and Piedmont), Berkeley. Julian White has performed as an orchestral soloist and recitalist nationwide and has appeared on radio and television on numerous occasions. Tickets are $30 (see Lyrie (sop) for tickets)

SF Bach Choir performs Bach's b-minor Mass in the grand acoustics of St. Ignatius, March 9 & 10. (See below and visit www.SFBach.org.) We're over 100 strong this time around. Special discount for all BCCO & Bella Musica members, $5 ticket discount (net $17, $12 student) by contacting h3m@juno.com via e-mail or at (510) 527-9964.