As my journal shows, I spent the last three days of my trip to Heidelberg in a beautiful, medieval church. Singing. (No surprise there.) Many thanks to the folks at the JesuitenKirche, who graciously allowed me to do this.
The reverberance in the church is very long, and I spent most of my time experimenting with this question: What does it take to sing the chant so that Word, the text, is foremost?
It became clear to me that in order to make this happen, many long tones must be held really long, letting the sounds catch up with themselves. Many other connecting tones must be sung very lightly, sometimes fast, so that they do not obscure the main tone, but decorate it, or stretch it, or amplify it, or harmonize with it.
I'm posting two files. One, Pater, si non potest is almost well-done. I can't hear the "s" in transire, but otherwise, ok.
The second, Ascendit Deus," is out of my league. I don't have the vocal skill that it takes to pull it off well. But, my daughter heard the recording and was fascinated by it. She didn't think it was a chant, but just "Mom playing around with the echoes in the church." And she likes it enough to learn it herself, which is good, because she IS a good vocalist.
This is the piece I was so excited about elsewhere in this blog (you can search for 'Ascendit Deus' if you want to read more.) It's expressive to the point of being medieval movie music, with God swooping up thru the clouds and trumpet calls playing in the distance.
Anyway, I'm putting this here so I can access it if I need to, but I hope some of you excellent vocalists will tackle the piece and record your own. I want to hear it.
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