There's going to be a lot of fa-la-la-la-la during the Silly and Sacred Songs of Spring, the Nove Voce season-end concert, held Saturday at 8 p.m. at Our Saviour's Lutheran Church.
"A lot of people don't know why the music is silly and sacred," said Robin Norman, Nove Voce's choral director. "If you take the time period the music is coming from it's all from the Baroque period, where really there wasn't much in between fa-la-la-la-la with a-hay-and-a-hoe-and-a-hay-nonny-no or it was that really serious beautiful Latin church text. It's bizarre that there is this gap in the middle. So either you were totally subversive or it was the church commissioning the other part of it."
The choir ensemble of about a dozen singers has invited two of Prince George's leading musicians to perform with them. Prince George Symphony Orchestra's oboist Erica Skowron and noted pianist Maureen Nielsen will be appearing.
To showcase one of the guest performers Nove Voce will perform one piece called She Weeps Over Rahoon composed by Erik Whiteacre with text by James Joyce. This is a song that requires an English horn to be played and Skowron, who studied voice and oboe at the University Of Waterloo, Ontario, plays the long obo-like instrument.
"It's a really haunting piece where the English horn almost sounds like a sad voice," said choral director Robin Norman. "Having Erica there, who is an excellent English horn player, makes it possible to perform the song. It wouldn't be the same without her. It would just be lacking something."
Maureen Nielsen, who grew up on Vancouver Island and studied piano at the University of Victoria, will be accompanying the choir.
"It is such a huge advantage to have Maureen play for us," said Norman. "She is just brilliant. She makes everything so easy."
Nove Voce is a smaller ensemble called a chamber choir, so they are designed to be between eight and 12 voices.
"You expect more of the young people in a choir of this size," said Norman. "When there's a big choir and five people sing the same part it makes it a little bit easier but in our group we do pieces that have six and eight parts. We expect people to hold their own line all by themselves."
Spring has been the one of the most referenced seasons musically since the dawn of time. The choir will be performing Dancing and Springing, It was a Lover and his Lass, Now is the Month of Maying, and April is in my Mistress Face.
This program will also include composers such as Mozart and Bach and will also range to modern composers like Canadian composer John Burge and Sting.
The women of Nove Voce will be performing traditional minuets and dancing them along with some of the most challenging 20th century music they have sung to date.
"People will see all the traditional bobs and curtsies included in a minuet," said Norman. "And it's going to be really fun."
Tickets are available at Studio 2880 for $15.
