Wish us luck…the choir needs about three more rehearsals before we are completely comfortable with it, but tonight’s the night! Lillith Fair will be at the organ, and I will be in the alto section, trying to block out the woman next to me who sings a half-beat behind and just under pitch. Fortunately the orchestra part is exciting enough to drown us all out, at least until the a capella part, where we all go horribly flat.
Should be fun! Has anyone else here sung this?
Yes kittenblue. I’ve sung Rutter’s *Gloria * several times. It’s a lovely work. I hope it all goes really well.
I adore Rutter. I haven’t sung “Gloria,” (I want to!) but his Requiem is one of my favorite works ever.
How did it go kittenblue?
Oooh, I sung it in college. It was fun.
How did it go?
You know what?
I wrote a parody PDQ-Bach-esque “Gloreya in Excelsis” [sic] way back in High School, which was 1983.
I had the basses sing “Whoa, yeah, excelsis!” to the tune of the opening motif from the 3rd movement of the Rutter Gloria. (F, D, b-flat, F, low f)
It went very well. One of the basses even told me it was the first time he sang his entire part right! He’s like, 80, so the fact that he can even still see the music is great! The one trumpet player didn’t bother to polish his horn, and I sat right behind him, so that tarnished thing just bugged me, but at least the tuba was in tune.
I wasn’t feeling very well all day (had the runs) so I told the director I was changing seats…didn’t even give him a chance to protest…to the first row on the end so I could sneak out if needed. The second row is enclosed by a railing, and the back row…well, I couldn’t boss anybody around from back there like I could the women I had to move around in the second row, so I moved to the front row next to the person I like to sing next to (I can actually hear her, and she sings the right notes, and on pitch! Woo Woo!). It made such a difference! I know he likes to spread the strong singers out amongst the weak to help them, but all that seems to do is make us weaker. Singing next to another strong singer really helps to keep the pitch up, to get the phrasing right, to make the dynamic changes and catch all the cut offs. It was so nice to have that support given as well as received.
And I made it through, though I was glad I was closest to the door after the end!
I truly wish I hadn’t been the only one (apparently) to conjure up this mental image of the choir’s performance:
Gloria (Gloria!)! I think they got your number!
I think they got the alias that you’ve been livin’ under!
The Phonetic Rutter Gloria
(from memory, c. 1995)
We got a six-piece horn ensemble and a pipe organ to accompany us; we numbered 16 select and strong singers (who learned it inside and out, and performed it accompanied by organ only a few times), and about 32 additional singers who practiced it four times the week of the big concert. I love the little horn flourishes after the really quiet et in terra pax section.
snarf Oh, that was beautiful.
I sung it back in high school - our high school choir was invited to New York City with a mess of other high school choirs from around the country, to sing it in some beautiful church on Park Avenue (forgetting which atm). We had a few days of practice together ahead of time, and our conductor was Sir David Willcocks, who’d been a teacher of Rutter’s. It was a wonderful experience.
My wife cracked up at the “phonetic Rutter Gloria”! 
She was a part of a choir that sang the entire Fauré Requiem in 1991 (and has a tape of it), and we attended an Evensong where most of the Rutter Requiem was sung a year or two later.
Beautiful music!
We were friends, 20 years ago, with an organist/choirmaster who was convinced that Healey Willan was a saint, and were exposed to a great deal of his music.
Slightly OT, but something I want to say: there is a 12-year-old girl soprano at our church with an ethereal voice, whom I’ve requested to sing Mozart’s Ave Verum Corpus at my Funeral Eucharist – on the grounds that that piece of music in her voice is the closest I’ll ever come on earth to hearing the Angelic Choirs in their full beauty, and it’s what I want to send me off.
I tend to be rather steadfastly old-fashioned about choral music, and haven’t much cared for most of the modern pieces my choir has done. But the Rutter Gloria was a notable exception.
I still get chills down my spine when I listen to the recording and hear the soprano soloist singing the miserere nobis.
Her voice can walk through walls?
(Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
By the way, I’ve sung so many different settings of the Gloria that I can recite the entire Latin text in under 30 seconds!
Gee Ell Oh Are Eye Aye
Gloria
Gee Ell Oh Are Eye Aye
Gloria
I’m gonna shout it all night!
Gloria
What? What do you mean that’s not the one you’re talking about?
OK, OK, I know the difference between Rutter and Van Morrison.
So, who would win in a fight between
John Rutter’s Gloria
and
Puccini’s Gloria
?
Puccini’s opening might be a little lackluster, but his Et in terra pax out-Plagals anything John Rutter can throw out.
Having sung them both, I think Puccini’s *Gloria * would win by a knock-out.
And (just IMHO, of course) Vivaldi’s Gloria would beat the winner of Rutter vs. Puccini in the final round of the All-Gloria Tournament.
Dammit, Stibbons! You beat me to it…
I can hear Polycarp chuckling to himself after the Mairzydoats incident now…
Maybe the Domine Fili movement, but the rest of the Vivaldi Gloria is just plain booooooooooooooooring.