Jacob Hammonds

Men's Chorus
December 8, 2014

A Cappella Concert Report

November 18
It was a smart programming choice opening with from Drei Psalmen, Opus 78 by
Mendelssohn. The powerful male intro served as a good pick up into the concert. A Cappella choir has
great intonation. It is impressive to hear a choir that can maintain pitch so well with the absence of
instrumental accompaniment. This piece has a good contrast of powerful forte sections and lush lyric
sections. I enjoyed the interpretation of this piece.

I Am the Rose of Sharon by Ivo Antognini was harmonically interesting and the first few
chords caught my interest. The text of this piece was beautiful and I think the composer did a goog job
of not over word painting. It is cool that this chorus gets their starting notes from a member of the
chorus with perfect pitch.

From Sunrise Mass by Ola Gjeilo is a beautiful piece. I am surprised a work so space could
hold my attention so well. The conductor did a great job controlling the chorus in such a sparse work. I
enjoy the overall shape and structure of this piece. The work flows well and the chorus did a good job
providing structural clarity with dynamics.

I wasn't a huge fan of From Tre Mottetten, Opus 55 by Carl Nielsen. I think the choir
performed the piece well, I just didn't enjoy the composers use of counterpoint and thought it was a bit
overkill.

I always enjoy works by Poulenc and from Sept Chansons Poulenc was no exception. The
chorus seemed to have a good handle on the language. I've unfortunately had to take four semesters of
French at UNT, and I really appreciate good french. The second Chanson caught my ear and I really
enjoy that piece, as well as this section as a whole.

I enjoyed from Il quarto libro dei madrigali cinque voci by Claudio Monteverdi.
Monteverdi's madrigal are fun pieces and A Cappella sang the snot out of this piece. I am always
impressed by Dr. McCoy's ability to control multiple sections of the choir at the same time.

From Three Nocturnes was my first exposure to works by Daniel Elder. I liked this piece a lot.
The harmonic content was interesting and I liked the declamatory parts that would break out into more
lush chords in the piece. I liked the antiphonal sections where content was passed from the male choir
to the female choir. And then would unite on particular phrases.

I liked the piano part of Keep Your Splendid, Silent Sun by Barlow Bradford, but the text
didn't do it for me. I thought for the amount of words in the text the vocal part could be slower. This
piece didn't really show off the choir strenghs.

The Yellow Rose of Texas was a little cheezy for my taste. The piano part for this piece was
well played and composed. It seemed as if the chorus wasn't as into this piece as they were some of the
more serious sections of the concert.

The arrangement Loch Lomond was very well done. The soloist killed his solo and this was
generally I good piece.

Canta! By Guido Lpez Gavilnwas interesting I liked some of the afro cuban rhythms but
overall this piece became corny quite quickly. The chorus obviously did a good job and piece seemed
difficult but it seemed over the top.

Everybody always loves a good spiritual. City Called Heaven and 'Rock a My Soul were both
solid in arrangement as well as performance. I really liked the piano part for City Called Heaven. The
soloist on this piece did a good job and the finish was extremely well done. I liked Rock a My Soul,
but I think that City Called Heaven would have been a better end to the concert.