Olympia Choirs Place Fourth in National Music Competition
The Olympia High School choirs were announced as the Fourth Place winners of the national musical competition known as the American Prize. The American Prize seeks to celebrate excellence in the arts wherever it is found in America. The competing choral categories include: Youth Chorus, High School Chorus, College/University Chorus, Community Chorus, and Professional Chorus. The competition requires 30 minutes of music submitted of a live performance. Olympia High School submitted a digital video recording of their performance of Schubert’s Mass in G, under the direction of Debbie Aurelius-Muir . The Choirs were accompanied by a string ensemble and tympani.
The Mass in G is a beautiful piece written for chorus and orchestra comprised of 5 movements. The opening movement of the Kyrie featured all of the Olympia Choirs and soprano soloist Jessica Nicholas. The next movement is the Gloria. This movement is a triumphant selection which begins with a choral segment followed by a dialogue between soloists. Ashley Litwiller, soprano, and Eric Hansen, baritone were our soloists. Movement three is the Credo which musically depicts the Nicene Creed - the oldest confession of faith of the Christian Church. The chorus did an excellent job of conveying the musical enactment of the crucifixion which occurs in the middle section of this movement. At this point in the piece, the orchestra’s relentless octaves brought to the listener’s mind the image of the soldiers pounding nails into the hands and feet of Christ. Above this throbbing rhythm, the chorus is heard pouring out the words “crucifixus etiam pro nobis” – [crucified for us]. Next, the orchestra strings begin to descend lower and lower in a decrescendo as Christ is musically sealed in the tomb. Then suddenly the chorus explodes with the majestic “Et resurrexit tertia die secundum scripturas”- [And rose again on the third day according to the scriptures]. Following the Credo, the next movement is the Sanctus which begins with all of the choirs and continues with the Chamber Choir singing the challenging contrapuntal Osanna section. The Benedictus follows which features three soloists intertwined in some of the most beautiful melodies ever written in sacred music. The singers were Tiffany Tackett, soprano, Rob Park, tenor, Matthew Henry, baritone. The Olympia Chamber Choir finishes the movement with a reprise of the fugal section of the Osanna. Then Jessica Nicholas, Ashley Litwiller, and Kent Graber finish the piece as soloists in the Agnus Dei. The composition ends gently with the words "dona nobis pacem" [Grant us peace].
The instrumentalists were Heather Delong, violin I, Dana Kurzka, violin II, Sarah Cornish, viola, Wendy Muir, cello, John Muir, piano, and Jonathan Gordon, tympani. The DVD was recorded by music parent Gordon Hansen.
