Connecting sound with meaning

Torkard Ensemble, the choir of which I am part, will be performing Faure's Requiem at the Hucknall Makes Music festival in September. After performing Mozart's requiem a couple of years ago, it seems less but somehow more dramatic.

In my own experience, finding the drama in a song when it appears to be straightforward requires as much, if not, more work than one that appears more complex. So, the first thing that helps me to convey the drama is to think deeply about the message the song needs to convey to the audience. This preparation can make the difference between a good musical performance and an electrifying experience for audience and performer.

One method that I find useful is to think deeply about the meaning of the words. For example:

Faure's Introït et Kyrie

Requiem aeternam dona eis Domine: et lux perpetua luceat eis. Te decet hymnus, Deus in Sion: et tibi reddetur votum in Jerusalem. Exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet. Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison.

Means:

Rest eternal grant them, Lord our God, we pray to thee: and light perpetual forever shine on them. Thou, O God, art worshipped in holy Sion: unto thee the vow shall be performed in Jerusalem. Hear us, Lord; Lord, hear thy servants’ prayer: Lord, unto thee all flesh shall come. Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy.

The song is a funeral lament; the words are from the Catholic Mass for the Dead. It is asking God to bring the person who has died into God's light forever. The song appeals to God to hear the request and asks for God's mercy for the person who has died.

In order to capture the desperation and the peace of this piece, the meaning needs to be linked to something I understand about it. It is a good idea to write out the Latin on one side of a piece of paper and then write down my experience of the meaning on another. You don't need to share your story with anyone else, it helps you to connect.

Write it by hand- it helps us to own the thoughts (if it's good enough for Anthony Keidis, it's good enough for anyone!).

For example, Call the Midwife character Reverend Tom

might write this:

This is clearly fiction but I think it shows what I mean.

Without meaning connected to the sound we make, however beautiful, we will not give a convincing performance.

That's not to say we shouldn't focus on blending and smooth delivery- that will come with practise. At the very beginning, though, we need to immerse ourselves in the meanings and the emotion in order to feel what we are singing about.