I cant even begin to describe how amazing this performance is. We performed this in high school and it was a miserable failure. We were unable to capture the essence that is a heavenly chorus of angels like they were. Well done.
A decade later and here I am with the same observation I made when I sang this in the Michigan State Vocal Association SATB honors choir waaaaay back in 1992 or 93: this piece almost *requires* a very large choir. This is a well-delivered performance, but they just don't have the numbers to really give it the punch it calls for. They're very good as an ensemble, but did you notice how *short* that part of the piece was at 2:15? It's usually longer and slower to build to Clausen's intended effect, fifteen to twenty seconds at least before everyone is singing and another ten seconds or so of vocal chaos after. IIRC this particular piece calls for thirty seconds of that section in the printed score. The "chaos section" sounds like a mistake if it's rushed, but without the numbers- at least double the number of singers here or more; I think our choir was over 150- you just *have* to rush it or it sounds..... wrong. Smaller ensembles leave the singers too exposed as individuals, which is the exact opposite of the intended effect. You aren't supposed to be able to hear any single individual in that section because it's supposed to be on-key vocal chaos where you can only pick out a word here and there. She always writes the melody into these sections so the audience gets the cue that this is supposed to sound this way. It's ethereal if done properly, and it's hard to pull off. That's how our director explained it, anyway. He said he'd never try this piece or any of Clausen's pieces that have sections like this with a small high school choir or any smaller ensemble, however good they may be, because that section sounds like a mistake without lots and *lots* of singers to blur the sound sufficiently to reach the composer's intent. She does that in other pieces as well; I think we performed another piece by her once but I can't recall which.
Exceptionally well done. Two of our three girls sang this when they went to Michigan Christian College back in the early 90s but it was never sang quite as good as this!!!!!
A tenor/baritone/bass ensemble in my choir did this. Ah it was so beautiful!! All us girls were swooning it was so gorgeous! And the lyrics are so meaningful
I was on the University of Maine Singers choir and we performed this. Seeing this video brings me right back to those times. I haven't performed on a choir since then in 2016 and I miss it so much.
I'm all the way from Wisconsin and i LOVE the University of Utah singers!!! We did this song my sophomore year in high school and it came no where near as good as this. Very nice
OMG SHE DID A EXCELLENT JOB ON THE SOPRANO SOLO....WE ARE PERFORMING THIS AND I SO WANT THE SOPRANO SOLO PART BUT IDK IF I CAN DO IT!!! BUT AWESOME JOB U GUYS
Absolutely beautiful. We sang this in Treasure Valley Honor Choir in high school and it still has a special place in my heart. This choir knows what's up.
This is the way it was intended to be performed...fast! It was written by Rene Clausen from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN where I'm from. They did a PERFECT job! ♥
i absolutely LOVE this song. my choir sang this song for our last concert and i was given the solo. (this video really helped me practice, actually.) we sang it at a slower tempo though, especially the segment right after the solo. but i think we did alright with it. haha. and i'll probably still be singing this song for years
CRAAAAP!!! I, an eleven year old kid, am going to have to sing this song for graduation with the rest of the school. YOU GUYS DID AMAZING!!! But oh no for me! That is really complicated YET BEAUTIFUL! Help me...
Wow! Very nice! One of my favorite pieces I've performed... I went to Illinois State... The Soloist has an awesome sound and a great spin on her upper range! Thanks for sharing!
Very cool. the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay is performing this April 9th and 10th. Rene Clausen will be an artist in residence with us for that week. We also commissioned a new work from him which will have its world premiere in USF's new music building.
Wonderful sound. Thanks U of Utah for your many TH-cam posts. The quality of your performances is something to aspire to. -Mark Lathan, Waubonsee Community College (IL)
It is interesting to hear the different choirs and their precise take on a work. Utah is just about perfect, but I love all the choirs in the upper midwest where I live. It is glorious music however you slice it.
I sang in one of the most exceptional HS choirs in the country, participated in several All States, was invited to perform at a national ACDA convention in Chicago, at Carnegie hall with Craig Jessop etc., but I'm still not so naive to say that we compared to this level. Even with all the heart in the world and all the correct notes and rhythms, teenage voices will always fall short of this. I got all the feeling and heart the piece calls for in this video! Did you HEAR that soloist!?
yes i agree with some of you referring to this piece as rushed. Beautiful tone, wonderful choir. I've heard this Clausen several times and have conducted it myself with two different college choirs and although I have a great respect for this fine conductor I have to wonder on hearing it the recording whether he might have reconsidered the tempo. The rushed feeling also comes from not a well established tempo. It's hard to set a tempo that fast and have everyone really keep it solid.
@405232SING I think what you're looking for is the word "aleatoric". The specific part you're referring to is an aleatoric section. In Latin this refers to "chance" or part of the music being left to the performers to "compose". In this case it's the same line of notes and text but each individual sings it at different times and at their own tempo. The conductor just signals the beginning and the end of the section. Beautiful indeed! Thanks for the comment!
My highschool did it back in 05. They would be the same age as the group. I'm not saying that my school is more talanted. When i look at performances, I look at the heart in the piece and emotion. especially dynamics. We did a better job in that category, but if you look at the vocal skill, obviuosly we were not experienced singers like UTAH.
Our chamber choir performed this, and I asked my director if there was a name and he called it schizophrenic music. I don't know if thats right but that's what he said
Judgey, much? I did this with the high school mixed choir at Interlochen in '96 with Dr. Jonathan Reed (Professor of Music and Associate Director of Choral Programs at Michigan State) - with less than 2 weeks' worth of rehearsal, we did it with as much technical accuracy as this college chorus plus twice the heart. There ARE high school level choirs that are this good.
Is there a musical term for 2:11 - 2:28? Besides a round... Because the women are singing the same line but at different times... Whatever it is: It is beautiful.
Absolutely gorgeous! This is much better than the performance my choir gave of this piece 2 years ago. We couldn't get the aleatoric section to work, so we skipped it. Is there an mp3 of this?
@405232SING Idk eric whitacre does something similar in his piece called Cloudburst, it sounds a lot like babbling. Idk how one would write that but it sure does sound nice:)
Am i the only one who felt like this was rushed? It seemed like it was too fast and, as a result, alot of the very musical things that i LOVE hearing when our choir performs it weren't present in this rendition. Everything just seemed rush, but quality of sound was fantastic. Well done.
It's not remarkable, it's acoustics and human anatomy. It is impossible to sing at that range without some vowel modification, which does affect understandability. She is well above even her fellow sopranos in the choir, and their text is doubled by voices singing in a much lower range, making the choir as a whole far more understandable. She could have had crisper consonants (props to the choir for their diction) but generally a whole choir is going to be easier to understand than a soprano soloist any day.
Great performance! Most of the videos of this piece that I've seen take the piece *way* too slowly in my opinion, taking away from the energy of it. You guys definitely have the energy going for you, very engaging (good job soloist, btw!) The most impressive part of this performance though, for me, is the aleatoric section... That's hard to pull off and sound good, because it's hard for people to approach it boldly without feeling like they sound goofy. Great job, great performance.
Sorry, but no high school could possibly perform this piece better. These are mature voices and very accomplished musicians, many of whom are high school and college choir teachers themselves. Good luck finding another live performance online that is as good or better than this. I applaud any HS choir who can do this piece and I'm glad you're proud of it, but you should aspire to this, not think yourself above it. Play this for your choir teacher and ask which he/she thinks is better. :)
PRAISE HIM PRAISE HIM LAUDE HIM PRAISE HIM LAUDE HIM ALLEULIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA *HARD PANTING8 AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GODHDDDDD **TAKE IT FROM TH E TOP!!!!!!!!!!**
I was in this choir. We were downright amazing. I'm the fourth one in on the right from the really tall guy.
Holy crap that guy is like two heads taller than literally everyone else
Very modest
FYI this was a very good performance, my other comment notwithstanding.
@@hippityhoppity3720yes, he is.
I cant even begin to describe how amazing this performance is. We performed this in high school and it was a miserable failure. We were unable to capture the essence that is a heavenly chorus of angels like they were. Well done.
A decade later and here I am with the same observation I made when I sang this in the Michigan State Vocal Association SATB honors choir waaaaay back in 1992 or 93:
this piece almost *requires* a very large choir. This is a well-delivered performance, but they just don't have the numbers to really give it the punch it calls for. They're very good as an ensemble, but did you notice how *short* that part of the piece was at 2:15? It's usually longer and slower to build to Clausen's intended effect, fifteen to twenty seconds at least before everyone is singing and another ten seconds or so of vocal chaos after. IIRC this particular piece calls for thirty seconds of that section in the printed score.
The "chaos section" sounds like a mistake if it's rushed, but without the numbers- at least double the number of singers here or more; I think our choir was over 150- you just *have* to rush it or it sounds..... wrong. Smaller ensembles leave the singers too exposed as individuals, which is the exact opposite of the intended effect. You aren't supposed to be able to hear any single individual in that section because it's supposed to be on-key vocal chaos where you can only pick out a word here and there. She always writes the melody into these sections so the audience gets the cue that this is supposed to sound this way.
It's ethereal if done properly, and it's hard to pull off.
That's how our director explained it, anyway. He said he'd never try this piece or any of Clausen's pieces that have sections like this with a small high school choir or any smaller ensemble, however good they may be, because that section sounds like a mistake without lots and *lots* of singers to blur the sound sufficiently to reach the composer's intent.
She does that in other pieces as well; I think we performed another piece by her once but I can't recall which.
Exceptionally well done. Two of our three girls sang this when they went to Michigan Christian College back in the early 90s but it was never sang quite as good as this!!!!!
A tenor/baritone/bass ensemble in my choir did this. Ah it was so beautiful!! All us girls were swooning it was so gorgeous! And the lyrics are so meaningful
I was on the University of Maine Singers choir and we performed this. Seeing this video brings me right back to those times. I haven't performed on a choir since then in 2016 and I miss it so much.
I'm all the way from Wisconsin and i LOVE the University of Utah singers!!! We did this song my sophomore year in high school and it came no where near as good as this. Very nice
OMG SHE DID A EXCELLENT JOB ON THE SOPRANO SOLO....WE ARE PERFORMING THIS AND I SO WANT THE SOPRANO SOLO PART BUT IDK IF I CAN DO IT!!! BUT AWESOME JOB U GUYS
Absolutely beautiful. We sang this in Treasure Valley Honor Choir in high school and it still has a special place in my heart. This choir knows what's up.
This is the way it was intended to be performed...fast! It was written by Rene Clausen from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN where I'm from. They did a PERFECT job! ♥
Gorgeous.. I had the privilege of singing the solo with my high school choir. It gives me the chills!
Man i love this song. One of my fav songs that we ever performed!
Glorious! Performed this in 1999 at Carnegie Hall. Thanks for the memories.
Performed this in college, Judson College Choir in the 90s and crushed it! This was absolutely beautiful and totally brought back memories!!!
i absolutely LOVE this song. my choir sang this song for our last concert and i was given the solo. (this video really helped me practice, actually.) we sang it at a slower tempo though, especially the segment right after the solo. but i think we did alright with it. haha. and i'll probably still be singing this song for years
The University of Utah singers are AWESOME.
OMG!!!! I like have chills. This was a phenomenal performance. Bravo!!!
OMG I love this song! My choir is doing it this year and its one of my favorites! Great job sopranos! and Great job soloist!
CRAAAAP!!! I, an eleven year old kid, am going to have to sing this song for graduation with the rest of the school. YOU GUYS DID AMAZING!!! But oh no for me! That is really complicated YET BEAUTIFUL!
Help me...
howd it go
Don’t even fight me cuz this is facts- the soprano 2 part for this song is elite
Wow! Very nice! One of my favorite pieces I've performed... I went to Illinois State... The Soloist has an awesome sound and a great spin on her upper range! Thanks for sharing!
Bravo! Simply stunning performance, and the soloist is just heavenly!
We did this song in my choir and I worked so hard on the solo i got it but she did a fantastic job better than me
This is my comment from my old account. I sang this song my senior year of high school.
This was just pristine!
the soloist did a beautiful job. the choir was great too but she made the song for me
The soloist is amazing.
Very cool. the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay is performing this April 9th and 10th. Rene Clausen will be an artist in residence with us for that week. We also commissioned a new work from him which will have its world premiere in USF's new music building.
The soloist is superb! I can never reach those two notes!!
Performed this today at contest at Ritenour High , we got a 1 :D aww we made my choir teacher cry !!
Very nice! -Hallef Rodrigues LAHS concert choir
Wonderful sound. Thanks U of Utah for your many TH-cam posts. The quality of your performances is something to aspire to. -Mark Lathan, Waubonsee Community College (IL)
Love! Love! Love! I cannot wait to suggest this song to my chorale director. You guys do an amazing job on this song =)
Truly magnificent
It is interesting to hear the different choirs and their precise take on a work. Utah is just about perfect, but I love all the choirs in the upper midwest where I live. It is glorious music however you slice it.
Amazing!
I sang in one of the most exceptional HS choirs in the country, participated in several All States, was invited to perform at a national ACDA convention in Chicago, at Carnegie hall with Craig Jessop etc., but I'm still not so naive to say that we compared to this level. Even with all the heart in the world and all the correct notes and rhythms, teenage voices will always fall short of this. I got all the feeling and heart the piece calls for in this video! Did you HEAR that soloist!?
yes i agree with some of you referring to this piece as rushed. Beautiful tone, wonderful choir. I've heard this Clausen several times and have conducted it myself with two different college choirs and although I have a great respect for this fine conductor I have to wonder on hearing it the recording whether he might have reconsidered the tempo. The rushed feeling also comes from not a well established tempo. It's hard to set a tempo that fast and have everyone really keep it solid.
i kinda like this song but then i dont but then i love the song......
GAHHH!!!! i love this!
@405232SING I think what you're looking for is the word "aleatoric". The specific part you're referring to is an aleatoric section. In Latin this refers to "chance" or part of the music being left to the performers to "compose". In this case it's the same line of notes and text but each individual sings it at different times and at their own tempo. The conductor just signals the beginning and the end of the section. Beautiful indeed! Thanks for the comment!
muito bom, que benção!
Beautiful! I would have loved to be apart of this performance!!!
It's really taken at a CLIP! St Olaf does not take it nearly that fast, nor does any other Lutheran choir. But WOW, what perfect singing!
That's an inaccurate statement. Many Lutheran schools/colleges take it that fast or faster. Even Concordia
The tempo suits the joy of the words.
So Wonderful... :)
I have this solo for assessments and I am finna die
it’s 3 years later but i’m here to ask you how’d it go? 😂
yes I want to know too I want to know how'd it go?
Loved it!! Amazing! Soloist, amazing voice, just slow it down, haha, make them wait. But wow I loved it!
Just got the sheet music Friday! as a New Chorus student (Like, new,new xD) Im really excited because this piece is amazing :D
My highschool did it back in 05. They would be the same age as the group. I'm not saying that my school is more talanted. When i look at performances, I look at the heart in the piece and emotion. especially dynamics. We did a better job in that category, but if you look at the vocal skill, obviuosly we were not experienced singers like UTAH.
Our chamber choir performed this, and I asked my director if there was a name and he called it schizophrenic music. I don't know if thats right but that's what he said
Judgey, much? I did this with the high school mixed choir at Interlochen in '96 with Dr. Jonathan Reed (Professor of Music and Associate Director of Choral Programs at Michigan State) - with less than 2 weeks' worth of rehearsal, we did it with as much technical accuracy as this college chorus plus twice the heart. There ARE high school level choirs that are this good.
NICE!!
Holy cow, that man is TALL!
I feel him. I'm 6'10! Always stand out in a choir! :)
This is really awesome! I so wanted our choir to sing this! Can anyone give us a copy? Please..
Yesssss😍😍😍😍
好厲害…
omg my choir is singing this. all i looked at was the front page and i was like "psht this looks so easy" and then i was like "wtf!?"
SO AMAZING! tbh...our choir plus another choir sound similar to that......umm...yeah...
Is there a musical term for 2:11 - 2:28? Besides a round... Because the women are singing the same line but at different times... Whatever it is: It is beautiful.
Did anyone else here that C6 at the end, or is it just me?
I didn't hear it.
I can totally hear it. Overtones, man.
Overtone.
@KarisJD The original tempo is doted quarter note = 78. it changes afterwards, I cant remember, i don't have the score in front of me,
Absolutely gorgeous! This is much better than the performance my choir gave of this piece 2 years ago. We couldn't get the aleatoric section to work, so we skipped it. Is there an mp3 of this?
They sounds GLORIOUS! I just wish they'd loosen up! They're so rigid and stern in the face and body.
@405232SING Idk eric whitacre does something similar in his piece called Cloudburst, it sounds a lot like babbling. Idk how one would write that but it sure does sound nice:)
awesome. my only complaint is that it could use more alto, that part got lost a lot of the time.
i think he should have taken 1:40 and on that section SLOWER.
but i'm impressed by the vocal quality
Their blend is beautiful. Felt like the word "life" needed to be sung better, but overall a stunning performance!
Perhaps you are looking for the word "Canon". Check out Wikipedia's entry.
Agreed. I like the fast tempo in the A section, but without a good contrast it's not as powerful near the end.
Am i the only one who felt like this was rushed?
It seemed like it was too fast and, as a result, alot of the very musical things that i LOVE hearing when our choir performs it weren't present in this rendition.
Everything just seemed rush, but quality of sound was fantastic. Well done.
Remarkably the words of the whole choir were clearer than the brief soloist! Very well done though.
It's not remarkable, it's acoustics and human anatomy. It is impossible to sing at that range without some vowel modification, which does affect understandability. She is well above even her fellow sopranos in the choir, and their text is doubled by voices singing in a much lower range, making the choir as a whole far more understandable. She could have had crisper consonants (props to the choir for their diction) but generally a whole choir is going to be easier to understand than a soprano soloist any day.
Great performance! Most of the videos of this piece that I've seen take the piece *way* too slowly in my opinion, taking away from the energy of it. You guys definitely have the energy going for you, very engaging (good job soloist, btw!) The most impressive part of this performance though, for me, is the aleatoric section... That's hard to pull off and sound good, because it's hard for people to approach it boldly without feeling like they sound goofy.
Great job, great performance.
Why did it modulate
@Ashlyn Frederick I’m glad I’m not the only one who noticed!
sperti mendengar kidung nyanyian surga
It's called a canon
Sorry, but no high school could possibly perform this piece better. These are mature voices and very accomplished musicians, many of whom are high school and college choir teachers themselves. Good luck finding another live performance online that is as good or better than this. I applaud any HS choir who can do this piece and I'm glad you're proud of it, but you should aspire to this, not think yourself above it. Play this for your choir teacher and ask which he/she thinks is better. :)
Kelly Nelson I would assume that a university or college can perform a choral piece better than a high school choir.
cacaphony?
PRAISE HIM PRAISE HIM LAUDE HIM PRAISE HIM LAUDE HIM ALLEULIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA *HARD PANTING8 AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GODHDDDDD **TAKE IT FROM TH E TOP!!!!!!!!!!**
fantastic choir. They did manage to move UP a half step during the soprano solo. Oops.
My highschool did a little bit better than this. It's still very beautiful.
This was performed WAY too fast, but great soloist! But personally I think this song sounds better when done with just men.
agreed. WAAAYYY too fast. Its way too rushed, no time to milk those juicy chords. Other than EXCELLENT job!