MUCS/MonUCS/ROCS Combined Concert and nethack quiz

Mozart - Haydn - Rutter (three universities - three choirs - three great choral works)

Well, it's that time of year again, and in preparation for Melbourne InterVarsity Choral Festival, MUCS (Melbourne University Choral Society), MonUCS (Monash University Choral Society) and ROCS (RMIT Occasional Choral Society) are putting on a joint Christmas concert, of Mozart's Vesperae de solennes de confessore K339, Haydn's Te Deum Laudamus, John Rutter's Gloria, and a few selected Christmas Carols (no, not the really commercial ones).

The MUCS website currently has the description of the concert, which will occur on Saturday 11th December 2004 at St Mary's Star Of The Sea Church, corner Howard St and Victoria St, West Melbourne. What you need to know, of course, is that you can buy tickets from me (or seedy_girl) for much cheaper than the official ticketek price. $23 for full price tickets, and $18 for concession. If you do want these tickets, you will have to confirm with me definitely by 17:00 or so on Wednesday 8th December 2004. Please post here, or email me at thorfinn@tertius.net.au, or use the send thorfinn a text message LJ feature.

As for the music we're doing? Seriously, the Mozart Vespers is one of Mozart's best works - composed well before he became completely drug-fucked and ill, in the height of his abilities. For those that don't grok my obsession with Mozart... Mozart's godlike shtick as a composer, which I have yet to hear from anyone else, is that not only does the ensemble sound good, but each individual musical line sounds good on its own, without the rest of the music around it. And that's without cheating and using the identical tune just transposed around a bit here and a bit there. Oh, and whilst he requires the choir to be precise, and the orchestra to be good, that's all he requires for it to sound good... It's not hard to learn. The Haydn Te Deum is quite good... and an interesting contrast to the Mozart - Haydn sounds like somebody trying to be Mozart, but not quite pulling it off. It's a very good work nevertheless, don't get me wrong... Just that nobody ever manages to be Mozart. Not even Mozart's student who wound up writing about half of "Mozart's" Requiem. The Rutter Gloria is neat too. Even though Rutter is a British guy, this thing sounds distinctly USian in nature... Kinda "Marching Band". We've completed all the choral-only rehearsals (next week is with the orchestra), and we're sounding damn fine, if you ask me.

Edit: Err, it occurs to me that we are likely to want front-of-house people... send email to conman@mucs.aicsa.org.au to get in on that action. And yes, that's concert manager, not conniving human.

nethack quiz

( acid blob or floating eye? )