My alma mater, Wartburg College, was noted for the very high quality of its vocal music groups — still is, I suppose. Chief among these was the Wartburg Choir. I had the privilege of going on tour with the Choir in my freshman year, as they did a piece that actually included a small brass ensemble. It was a setting of my least favorite hymn of all time, “A Mighty Fortress”, but that was a small price to pay to get to hear these people on a nightly basis.
The choir closed out each concert in the same way, offering this unimaginably gorgeous setting of a spiritual as their encore. I couldn’t find a video of the actual Wartburg Choir doing it, but I did find this amazing high school chorus doing the piece. Here’s “Give Me Jesus”.
I don’t often associate pieces of music with things — even the Star Wars score has become an abstract entity for me over the years — but this is one of the rare works that transports me back to another time and another place.
Its interesting. Soprano, Alto and Bass seem to sound the same regardless of age, but tenor seems to noticeably change. Fantastic way to start the day. Thank you .
Whereas a good 70% of music for me takes me to a specific time and/or place. My choir, BTW, has sung Give Me Jesus; great song.
Did you ever consider graduate school and going into teaching?