On January 26th, VSO has hosted a big birthday party in Vancouver to celebrate its 100 years of musical journey. As a passionate choral singer myself, I watched two choral groups’ performances – one being Elektra Women’s Choir, for which I have written a journal on already; and another one being Vancouver Youth Choir, the relevantly new youth choir under the director & founder, Carrie Tennant.
Carrie Tennant was a good friend of my high school choral director’s. Many of my choral friends from high school are currently singing in Vancouver Youth Choir, so t was also a great moment for me to see my old friends who are still singing to perform at this very special occasion. I didn’t get to sit in the front for Elektra Women’s Choir, which I sadly regret about; but for Vancouver Youth Choir’s performance, I entered the venue quite early and got a seat in the third row.
The slot for Vancouver Youth Choir was also 30 minutes. Carrie started the performance with a short introduction to share her happiness of the 100th year celebration of VSO, and went into performance right after. The Vancouver Youth Choir sang six songs in total, mostly contemporary pieces. (There were no program that lists all song titles, but here is what I remember)
- 19th Century piece by Vaughan Williams, polyphonic
- An upbeat, tribal sounding song; involves with stomping
- A song from Georgia (the country, not the state) which featured the sopranos and the altos – used a lot of imagery of nature and symbolism of politics
- A Schoolyard chant which was sung in three different keys, involves clapping and a djembe. It was a very lively and cheerful song with high energy and alternating dynamics between each part. It captured the attention of the audiences very well, and it made me tap my feet along with the rhythms.
- An Atlantic folk song
- “North” by Sleeping At Last, performed with a piano; arranged by George Chung just for VYC – a contemporary arrangement to create a sense of home and belongingness. The song ended with an also solo singer, singing the melody beautifully with other voices accompanying (homophonically).
As we could see from this setlist, the Vancouver Youth Choir would not satisfy with just one or a few types of music style. Every song was different in terms of composition era, energy level, accompanying instrument, theme, genre, dynamics, the colour of the voices, etc. Each song creates a contrast with the previous song, which kept on surprising me further throughout their setlist.
Now in April, I am sitting down and revisiting my concert journals, recalling how amazed I was by their diverse range of music styles. I could not help on reflecting on the entire music evolution that has been covered in the course Musc 326A, making comparisons between medieval music and music from the 19th century, thinking of how music has gotten so sophisticated and complex. It does not stop here – as we are still hearing so many amazing music creations in the present.