Above is a minute-long video from my older singers of the Delta Youth Chorale as they have just begun working on Bach’s Cantata 61 (Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland) which is translated as “Now come, Savior of the heathen (or nations).” This is an advent cantata based on a chorale hymn tune written by Martin Luther, and Bach set it for the first Sunday of Advent when he worked in Weimar in 1714.
This is our tenth year of the Delta Youth Chorale. We rehearse two times a week in the afternoons. This choir is a “y’all come choir” because there are no audition requirements. It is made up of 7th-12th grade singers. That’s why we must bite the elephant one bite at a time if we are going to sing rewarding and challenging repertoire by Bach, Handel, and others. By singing it on the solfege, the singers can sing out the many notes that happen simultaneously. The solfege lets them sound out the music similarly to how young students sound out words with phonograms/phonics. Interesting, you can also “sound out” the rhythms as well. It’s just not as rewarding to record and demonstrate.
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We will perform this as part of our December 15th Concert here in West Monroe, Louisiana. We will have polished the solfege and added the German on this and other works in a concert with Advent and Christmas tunes that will be a joy to present and hopefully to hear.
Solfa, So Good