AMATORI CHOIR & ORCHESTRA
SING FOR JOY – OLD GODS AND NEW
Amatori Choir and Orchestra present excerpts from Mendelsohn’s Oratorio ‘Elijah’ and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.
That Mendelssohn was a lover of Bach’s music is obvious not only because he was instrumental in reviving Bach’s music nearly a century after it had fallen out of fashion, but because his own music is riddled with high quality counterpoint. Like Bach, having begun a melody, he can’t restrain the impulse to treat it canonically or fugally. This invariably makes the music more complex, exciting to listen to (and often difficult to sing).
Given the current situation in the Middle East, some may feel uncomfortable about the Old Testament text, but we present it not as a political statement but a dramatic theatre using biblical texts. And Mendelssohn is giving the most exciting music to the Ba’al worshippers as they call on their god to ignite their sacrifice. Amatori have given the prophet’s Ba’al taunting recitatives to all the men in the choir of this reduced version of the Oratorio.
In the Christmas Oratorio, the idea of a new type of god is celebrated which, hopefully, will be felt in the counterpoint of the master himself, J.S.Bach. As he does so well, these choruses and solos burgeon with the positive emotions and joy which words cannot manage.
And Respighi’s “Adoration of the Magi” interposes a meditative orchestral interlude perhaps on the wonder of a new child, a new hope.
Mullumbimby
St John’s Hall, 11 Murwillumbah Rd
SATurDAY, 8 March, 7.30 PM
TICKETS
NORMAL $25 CONCESSION $20 CHILDREN FREE
BALLINA
THE MUSIC ESTUARY, 38-42 Norton St.
SUNDAY, 9 March, 3.00-4.30 PM
‘The Pitjantjatjara showed me that to sing and dance the lives of one’s ancestors and to pass these forms on to others is a meaningful way to live a life’.
‘By virtue of the singers, players and audiences who share this music appreciation, I have a very happy life, much of it as a community musician.’
IAN KNOWLES – DIRECTOR
Ian played piano from the age of seven, gained a B.Mus. in music Education at Adelaide Conservatorium and studied cello for many years afterwards to pursue chamber music, especially the large string quartet repertoire.
Following an opportunity to work on a cross cultural music program via Adelaide University’s Dept. Ethnomusicology, he spent many years learning to sing and dance Pitjantjatjara corroborees.
However, after many years learning from his Pitjantjajtara teachers, it became imperative to find his own totemic ancestors and thence he plunged back into the culture through which one can grow most deeply, the culture of one’s birth and training, which meant Bach, Beethoven and that tradition of the most demanding and rewarding of Western music masters.
Hence the starting of the Amatori singing group and later Amatori orchestra in Mullumbimby, with the two aims of providing an opportunity for singers and players to enter more deeply into the better known works of the top composers, and to provide local audiences with opportunities to hear this wonderful music live.