Baroque Mexican Music Concert Report

The concert I attended was a recital of Mexican baroque choral music. There were 5 main pieces played, each one having its own unique style and function. The recital was held at University of South Carolina School of Music recital hall room 201 on Tuesday, March 22, 2005 at 6:00pm. The group that sang was the graduate vocal ensemble and was conducted by Daniel S. Clark. The group of singers did an excellent job capturing the music and it was very hard to notice any major mistakes. The concert in a whole was a very soothing to me because when I went there I was very hyper and tense, but as the pieces were being played out, I became very relaxed and sleepy. This concert was a little different because in the beginning, the conductor went through a lecture of the Mexican baroque period. After he went through all of the material, they sang 5 songs and left. It was very interesting to learn about the music as it was heard and I think this is a very effective way to teach people about music and let them learn through personal interaction. Most of the songs were sang mostly by the higher pitched singers so it made us very sleepy. I had to wake up my friend who came with me because he was snoring!

The first piece that was played was “Beatus Vir” with Brian Glosh as the cantor. A cantor is the person who leads a congregation in singing. At the end of the performance, the 2 cantors were given special recognition because of their remarkable presentation. In “Beatus Vir,” it started with both guys and girls singing, and ended in jus guys singing. The melody of this tune began slow and then got faster and faster as it progressed. There was a wide array in the dynamic of the piece. Sometimes they would be singing softly, then abruptly they would all get loud all together and that added to the variability which is essential to musical piece. Also, in the first two pieces, including this one, one person one sing (the cantor) and then everybody would sing after he did one line.

The second piece they sang was “In Inventione Sance Crucis,” with Ryan Matthew Headley as the cantor. Just like the first piece, the cantor would sing a few lines, then everybody would join in and sing together. All of these pieces were sung in Mexican so it was very hard to understand what meaning they were trying to get through to the audience. They did not sing very loud throughout this piece and the melody was a little bit fast.

The third piece that was played was “Pange Lingua.” This song reminds me of when I am in church. Everyone sings loud and there is no one person that sings first and is followed. There is a lot of confusion in this song because everyone is singing something different and they are all very loud. I did not like this piece for that reason. I don’t know if that is how it’s supposed to be played, but I think it would have sounded better if only some people sang loud and other people sang soft so the attention could be focused on the people singing loud.

The fourth piece played was “Nobis Datus.” The third and fourth pieces, the cantus firmus