Concert at Myles Hall, Wesley College
5th November 2005
Gershwin: Porgy and Bess medley
Mascagni: Easter Hymn
Wagner: Pilgrims’ Chorus
Faure: Cantique De Jean Racine
Mozart: Ave Verum
Jenkins: Agnus Dei from The Armed Man
Gilbert & Sullivan: When the Foeman Bares his Steel (Pirates of Penzance)
Beatles: Medley
Carpenters: Medley
(arr Rutter) When the Saints
The function of music is to release us from the tyranny of conscious thought.
Thomas Beecham 1879-1961
Einstein said that `the most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious’. Then why do so many of us try to explain the beauty of music, thus apparently depriving it of its mystery?
Leonard Bernstein 1918-1990
So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning.
Aaron Copeland 1900-1990
Composers should write tunes the chauffeurs and errand boys can whistle.
Thomas Beecham
A melody is not merely something you can hum.
Aaron Copeland
Three things belong to composing, first of all the melody; then again melody; then finally, for the third time, melody.
Saloman Jadassohn 1831-1902
To some people music is like food; to others like medicine; to others like a fan.
The Arabian Nights Entertainments. C. 1450
When music and courtesy are better understood, there will be no war.
Confucious 551-478 BC
Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast
To soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.
William Congreve 1670-1729
Mary Byrne
1st April 2012
National Concert Hall
A wonderful evening!
A big “Thank You” goes out to all the DCC’s supporters who attended our performance of Dvořák’s “Requiem”, a gorgeous piece which had not been performed in Ireland in many years, at the National Concert Hall on 1st April 2012 at 8pm.
Antonín Dvořák composed this Requiem mass for choir, soloists, and orchestra in 1890, at the beginning of his peak creative period. The construction of the mass is not typical: the composition is divided in two basic parts (conducive to an intermission – this piece is well suited to the concert hall), each of which begins with the original interconnection of several liturgical sequences. Likewise, Dvořák inserted between the “Sanctus” and “Agnus Dei” a lyrical movement, “Pie Jesu“, created on the basis of the final text of the “Dies Irae” sequence. Its basic melodic motif is created by two ascending half-tones and a very sorrowful diminished third, which begins the opus and continues in many variations as the main motif running through the entire work.
Dvořák himself conducted the first performance of this work in Birmingham, England, on 9 October 1891, shortly after it was written. Now, 120 years later in Dublin, you can experience it yourself, as performed by your own Dublin County Choir, the Orchestra of St. Cecilia, and all our talented soloists, under the baton of our director, Colin Block.
Credits: Wikipedia & YouTube