A&E

Masterworks Chorale brings Hamilton and surrounding community of musicians together

By Audrey Darnis ’18

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On the night of Nov. 29, at 7:30 p.m., The Hamilton College and Community Masterworks Chorale and Symphor!a performed Johann Sebastian Bach’s Mass In B Minor. The concert took place in Wellin Hall, in the Hans H. Schambach Center for Music and the Performing Arts. The audience, consisting of students, faculty, community members and people from Clinton and neighboring towns, nearly filled the seats of Wellin. 

The performance was directed by Hamilton’s very own Marjorie and Robert W. McEwen Professor and Chair of Music G. Robert Kolb (the mystery of what the G stands for is yet to be discovered), the performance was quite beautiful and powerful.

The Mass itself is a “collection of diverse compositions that Bach compiled into a single volume, with four separate title pages, in the final years of his life,” as described from the program distributed at the event. The Mass is divided into three sections, “Missa,” composed in 1733, “Symbolum Nicenum,” composed near the end of Bach’s life in around 1748 and “Sanctus,” written in 1724.

The choir, consisting of the locals, professors and a few Hamilton students, stood in an arch behind the orchestra as they sang. The Symphor!a members were also arranged in an arch to beautify aesthetic and accoustic effect. 

The orchestra consisted of the typical array of modern instruments, but also featured a harpsichord (perhaps the coolest part of the performance, played by Hamilton’s own Lecturer of Music Sar-Shalom Strong),which lent a more authentic feel to the performance. 

Featured soloists on the flute and French horn, as well as a trumpet section that included a part for picolo trumpet, shone brightest throughout the show. 

The concert was full of strapping moments, most memorably when Mezzo-soprano Soloist Danan Tsan, accompanied by Soprano Soloist Sarah Ziegler, soared above a minimal orchestral background, or any instance the Tenor Soloist Carl Johengen performed, as his voice was very pure and beautiful. There was an oboe solo, which stood out as another grand moment. 

Lastly, the moment when the choir sang melodious harmonies, accompanied only by the harpsichord and a swooning, hollow cello. There were only two breaks for applause in the entire two-hour performance, but both were greeted with ample energy and enthusiasm from the audience. 

Overall, the concert made for a wonderful evening of classical composition, which brought together much of the Hamilton and surrounding communities.

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