|
A Holiday from Reality?
The ESOC Chorus Summer Vacation
What does your holiday mean to
you? Are you heading south
for sun, sea and sand during the school holidays?
Or are you too busy to have a real holiday and spend your time
imagining you’re in a different world, different situation, or a
different time? Indeed, is a
holiday a cultural or spiritual journey of importance to your
intellectual and emotional health? We
have all the travel advice you’ll need for an excursion into your
imagination. In fact, we can
even help you have a holiday from reality.
We have all the advice you will
need for your upcoming
summer vacation, in English Partsongs, Italian and French Madrigals and
American Spirituals. As the
school holidays in Hessen are coming up very soon, we decided we could
help you enjoy your vacation by giving you a guide to the holidays in
four parts: I: Anticipation
of Departure; II:
Weather, Landscape and Nature;
III: Other Romantic
Destinations; and IV:
Holiday Activities.
Our repertoire this summer tells
us everything we need to know about where to go and what to do on our
vacation. We’ve included a
choral song by the great English modern composer, Gerald Finzi, on a text
of the English Poet Laureate, Robert Bridges.
This song reflects our happy anticipation:
“My spirit sang all day”.
We have pieces regarding the climate by the eminent Victorian
composers, John Goss: “List! for the breeze”, and Charles Villiers
Standford: “The blue bird”, Op.
119, No. 3. And by the
almost unknown Georgian composer Richard John Samuel Stevens we have one
of our favourite compositions, “Ye spotted snakes”, which mentions
every sort of creepy-crawly we need to watch out for when visiting
foreign climes.
Besides the famous holiday
destinations of France and Italy, we also visit the Czech Republic (“Až
já pojedu”) and Mexico (“La cucaracha”).
Our activities include dancing (“Chi la gagliarda,
donna, vo
imparare”), drinking (“Merrily push round the glass”, and flirting
(“Au joli jeu du pousse avant”).
And, since the Euro is so good
against the dollar just now, we’re visiting the United States in three
American Spirituals: “Way
over in Beulah-land”, “Lily of the Valley”, and, just in case we
get into a bit of trouble on our holiday, “Fix Me, Jesus”.
Bon voyage!
|