Tri-County Honors Chorus 1989
Charles, Calvert, and St. Mary's Counties in Maryland
| Song Title | Arrangement by |
|---|---|
Laudate Dominum* |
(Unknown) |
Something in Latin 1* |
(Unknown) |
Something in Latin 2* |
(Unknown) |
Something Foreign* |
(Unknown) |
She Loves her Lover** |
(Unknown) |
The Turtle Dove |
(Unknown) |
Go Down Moses |
Mark Hayes |
*Best Guess
**"She Loves Her Lover" or "She's like the Swallow"
Tri-County Honors Choir
In the 80's, the group of Three Southern Maryland Counties would get together for "Honors" choirs and bands.
If you want to know more go here to More About Honors Choirs
1989 Specifically
Again, I don't have any memories from this concert. I remember being extremely proud to have snagged first chair, but that's about all. And once again it might be the music, or the fact that I hand made it to "All Eastern" which was the highlight of the year.
On the plus side the recording is good. Not over processed and clear. I can hear tape hiss, so I'm assuming none of the high frequency sounds are missing.
So let's take a closer look at the music. Ok, this is not promising. The "song titles" that I wrote down for the first 4 songs are. As follows, and there is not much to go on.
Latin 1
Latin 2
Latin 3
Foreign
After lots of searching, I'm still coming up blank. I was able to track down most of the song titles and even arrangements for the 87 and 88 choirs, but without a much better familiarity with Latin, I can't even determine the words.
Something else that jumped out at me since I can view this digitally, is the song lengths. The combined length of the songs in a Foreign Language is 15:15. The rest of the concert is 9:40. So 60% of the entire concert is in a Foreign Language. This choice makes very little sense.
Song Titles
How hard is it to find the title of a song?
Interestingly, this has become my favorite part of the process. Nothing like a good detective story to peak your interest.
And then, this concert. Four songs in a foreign language and no hits on anything.
Skipping those, the two songs of interest are "She's like the Swallow" and "The Turtle Dove". I really thought these would be easy to find, but both have been elusive. Both have multiple titles, and multiple arrangements, and finding the specific arrangement we sang is difficult.
"She's like the Swallow"
She's like a swallow who flies so high
She's like a river a that never runs dry
She's like a sunshine on each morn
She loves her lover but love is no more
"Fare Thee Well" or "The Turtle Dove"
Fare thee well my dear I must be gone
And leave you for a while
For though I know I will come back again
Though I roam ten thousand miles my dear
Though I roam ten thousand miles
Auditions
What is the Audition like?
I happened to have my audition form, and it seems they grade you on Voice Quality, Intonation, Diction, Breath Support, Posture, and Volume while you sing America (My Country, 'Tis of Thee).
Then you get some Sight-Reading and Phrase Repetition tests.
And to round it all off, 10% in "Other".
History and Technical Specs
If you have read this far, why not take the red pill and go all the way?