I'd suggest doing something else. This is certainly a great work for string orchestra (or as originally written, for string quartet), but it's a dreadful work for chorus, especially if your sopranos are likely to be screechy up high.

Jim,

 

As a singer of an auditioned chorus, our director gave us midi practice files and recordings of both the string and various choral recordings.  It's a real "sink your teeth" into deal, but I felt great having the resources to practice on my own and really get into it.  Good luck!

 

Joe Park

 I sang it many years ago with the Pacific Chorale. It is extremely difficult in tessitura and breathing and, pretty though it might be, I don't recommend it for any but a semi or full professional chorus.

 

Bill Paisner

Director, Southwest Women's Chorus

Jim,

You have to sell it to them as you do with every piece. It is simply how a director builds the ensemble for the next thing.

Your choir will gain greatly in the struggle.

S

...and, adding to my previous post, I would not volunteer to sing the Agnus Dei again.

S

I'm afraid I have to agree with Allen.  I think the piece is nearly unsingable, though I did hear a very fine performance by the University of Maryland Chamber Singers led by Ed Maclary at the recent National Collegiate Choral Organization conference at Yale.  I always get nervous when I hear the piece, because I know the vocal challenges often stymie even the finest choirs.  The best performance of it I ever heard was Dale Warland's with his Singers--but that's a sizeable chorus made up of professional singers, so it's a little easier to pull off.  I asked several other conductors at the conference their opinions on the piece and I was surprised at the large number who thought the piece was not meant to be sung and was best not performed.  I don't mean to rain on your parade, but if you're dealing with an amateur chorus, trying to get the piece up to performance level might be painful for all concerned.

 

Frank

Hi, Jim.

 

Just to restate the obvious, this piece was NOT written for voices.  It was written for a string quartet.  It survived being re-arranged for string orchestra (which was a bigger job than you might think, since not only was a bass part added but all the other parts were written divisi).  It was NOT written for voices.

 

Barber himself, if you aren't aware, was a very good singer and premiered a number of his own songs, so he certainly knew how to write for the voice, but in this case he did not.  He transcribed parts concieved for strings, with indifferent success.

 

John

 

 

I agree with what everyone is saying above (including the beautifully sung U Maryland performance under Ed McClary - the best I've ever heard) - not originally intended for voices (I've often thought of looking into the circumstances surrounding why it came about, but have been afraid to find the obvious answer), very un-idiomatic for voices to sustain, etc, etc.  Yet my singers, both students and community people keep asking me if we can do it - the piece is an icon, plain and simple, and speaks deeply even to people who weren't around for the JFK funeral when it attained its iconic status.  So I'm coming very close to doing a performance with my college choir doubled by a string quartet or string ensemble - combining the two versions- has anyone tried this before?  My expectation is that it would remove the obstacles of sustaining power and maintaining pitch while giving the students an experience of a piece that is an signature part of American culture.  Any thoughts? - Tom

Having done the piece very recently, I have a somewhat different perspective. First, I want to thank Frank Albinder for his kind words concerning the University of Maryland Chamber Singers' performance at the NCCO convention. It is a difficult work, no doubt about it and I avoided it for many years, citing many of the reasons that I have read in the other responses. However, if you have singers that you think can do it,  I say at least give it a reading before you decide. I have to admit that I was completely taken aback at how quickly our singers learned it and made it work in their individual and collective sounds. They relished the chance to sing it.  In fact, my whole rehearsal sequence for our program was thrown a bit out of kilter because I had planned to spend much more time on it in rehearsal than was actually needed. I believe it may have something to do with the fact that this music seems to be in our "cultural DNA" at this point and if you have the vocal and musical talent within the ensemble to sustain it (the issues of range, tessitura, dynamics, intonation, and balance are 100% real), then the ensemble almost immediately begins to vocalize its intuitive knowledge of the work. I must respectfully disagree that it is not a vocal piece. It is a very vocal piece, that is perhaps more easily realized on string instruments, but the concept of the music is most definitely a "singing" one. With all of that said, I would certainly tread with the most extreme caution into these waters with an 80 voice community chorus.

I've got to agree with most of the posts here. I also did this piece with a large volunteer community choral society a few years back and it was not a good choice. The composition is wonderful and has evolved via the composer from string quartet to string orchestra to voices. It's very hard to do justice to with voices, and in my opinion is ot a good choice for anything except maybe a very good, medium to large chorus that is ready for lots of work with it. It's hard to sustain, make the necessary long lines, keep up pitch etc.

 

good luck

 

steve

 Jim,

 

I sang this piece with my collegiate choir several years ago.  The piece is brutal.  I think we pulled it off, but it completely fried our voices.  I sang baritone, and the tessitura was very difficult.  I know that for me as a singer, I'd prefer to never perform the piece again.  Even some professional groups (like The Sixteen) have made recordings of the work that, to my ears, sound screechy.

 

It's certainly up to you, but as the director of a HS choir, I have been thinking a great deal lately on the importance of programming successful repertoire.  There's lots of it out there.

 

Best,

Dan

 I have to disagree with the people who point to this piece as unsingable.  I had my rather small church choir (about 25 singers) prepare this piece and we sang it accompanied by the string quartet version, which does not have divisi,   Maybe it was easier to achieve with the smaller group than a larger choir...that I cannot say.  I do have some amazing sopranos who can easily achieve the high range with beauty, and enough members on each part to take turns with the breathing.  I don't think we would have been successful without the strings, but for us, it was a wonderful experience and something I intend to repeat in the future.

 

Nan

Well, we are soon to perform it, and all of this talk about it being unsingable scares the hell out of me!  We are performing it with a small string orchestra (on a program with the Durufle Requiem).  We read through it years ago - a cappella - and I thought it was not for us.   We are better now, but we could not tackle it with the string support.  I think it will work but I don't really know.  Adding strings helps a lot but adds some other difficulties, notably balance issues.

 

I have to admit that I've done some re-scoring here and there to make the piece more singable, like switching SII and AI in some spots, adding tenors to low alto notes and altos to high tenor notes, and so on, the kind of thing we do all the time.  It's made it much more singable for my group.

 

If anyone is in Albany NY on Jan 31, come hear if we are successful! (:-)

I've done it twice with my college choir, once unaccompanied and the second time with strings.  Both were successful, I believe, because I had the sopranos and vocal leaders in all of the sections. Once students heard it, they begged to rehearse and program it.  And although we're an auditioned group, we have mostly non-music majors.

I am interested in this piece.  I wonder if anyone would tell me if there is only one arrangement of Barber's Agnus Dei?  Is this the one that everyone sings:

Does a simplified version exist for 4 voices or maybe 4 voices and a soloist?

Thanks

Wow.  I'm working on the piece also this semester and reading these comments makes me want to call David Janower up and the two of us go hide out somewhere.

 

However, unlike many of you, I program almost exclusively from an educational standpoint, not worrying about whether or not some prospective student (or colleague) will hear it and decide to never come here because my choir sounds so dreadful - the benefit of teaching only unauditioned non-music majors at an institution where students come for other things. I programmed it because it *is* something that my students should be exposed to (like H1N1, evidently) and, as long as I watch their vocal health, it will be a growing experience for them.

 

Having written all that, I try pretty hard to not stink up the joint with my choirs.  The best piece of advice I've received is from Jerry McCoy via Philip Copeland.  Jerry performed it with a doublebass backing up his bottom basses.  Makes a lot of sense and I'm doing that.  Sounds like several of you have come to the same conclusion.

 Try Octarium's recording ... http://www.octarium.org/cd3.html or http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/octarium3  

 

8 voices.  Unaccompanied.  It can be done but it's a larnyx raiser.   Acoustic of performance space makes all the difference.