Rehearsal

We are rehearsing for a mass.
These are two bits of  the work of  Francisco López Capillas .A Mexican composer of the 17th century.
The first is part of  'Magnificat', my teacher told us that Catholics consider it the most powerful prayer.


You can hear our teacher (and director) singing the part of the bass at the beginning, then he goes over the alto part with us. The words say:

  "Deposuit potentes de sede, et exaltavit humiles"*
*(He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly)
The  Second thing we sing is actually a complete piece, "Alleluia" I'm just learning it.
Each voice has a beautiful melody and I find amazing how this incredible explosion of joy and light takes place when they are assembled together


The pictures are of the choir, the convent and some signs of the choir's recitals.

Coro de Santiago

A few weeks ago I brought my camera to choir rehearsal.
I had been wanting to do so for a very long time but I kept on forgetting.
I finally got to take a few pictures of the choir and of the beautiful convent where we rehearse.
Since I first set foot inside it all I have eyes for are the frescoes on the walls and ceilings of the cloister.
I made 3 videos with the pictures I took and with some songs from a recital we had on March at that very convent.

Un Sarao de la Chacona

The first picture is of Angelina, one of our sopranos :) Isn't she beautiful? Even as unprepared as she was for this picture, I surprised her with it. I love the texture of the adobe wall behind her, there was a tarantula web in it, which of course I didn't include on the video but you can see it here:

Tepoztlán is such a beautiful town to visit! And, no, it's not crawling with tarantulas!

The next picture in the video is the entrance of the Convent and main church. The decorative arch with "aztec" motifs is made entirely out of seeds and grains.

The last pictures are of Patricia, one of our new sopranos, she's wearing a hat, I don't know much about her yet.but she's very nice to be around and has a lovely voice. And 2 of our altos, Susana and Alicia, Alicia is the one sitting on the stairs and smiling, she is a remarkable artist. Susana is always joking around and making us laugh and has a very nice accent, she's from Argentina and has a wonderful voice!. The last picture is of Odiseo, our youngest tenor, he's 15 years old.

Teresica Hermana

On the particular day I took this pictures we were moved back to a different room which was were the choir used to rehearse before I joined them and there was a garden next to it! It's been "chained" ever since. I guess they didn't appreciate to have us wandering off into it. It smelled of guavas, citrus and mango. The Guava tree has a pinkish hue to its bark.

If you have any insights about this song I'd love to hear them since there's been many hypothesis about it at the choir but I'd sure love to know the exact story behind it.

Con qué la lavaré

"¿Con qué la lavaré, la tez de la mí cara? ¿Con qué la lavaré? Que vivo mal penada.

Lávanse las galanas con agua de limones"

I've heard longer versions of this piece, but these are the only lines we sing. It's so beautiful!

Just like a Tepoztlán evening, Look at the wonderful color of that night sky.

This is the sign that was made for this recital
I like it a lot.
I must say I have always been very impressed by the choir members and I feel so happy to be a part of it.
I remember the first time I heard them rehearse at the convent, it was glorious and amazing!
I'm looking forward to September being over because then I believe we will have a different repertoire, we've been rehearsing other traditional mexican songs for the 200 years celebration of the independence such as "La Adelita" and I miss this other kind of songs, (meaning the ones on the videos) plus the 17th-18th century Spanish Christmas Carols they sang last year were delightful and I'm very much looking forward to rehearsing them! <3

(Specially "Vaya Vaya de Cantos de Amores" and "Es Nascido")

The other pictures of the choir are from a recital they had in Cuautla just before I joined them. Only my foot appears once or twice because I took the photos but I do sing in all 3 of them :)

About National Anthems and other random thoughts...

Tomorrow we're singing the anthem of Asturias, and it sounds like a love song to me. My National Anthem talks about war and I've always felt (with all due respect) that it's violent having children sing it. And even as a grown up I really wish I could instead sing something beautiful and inspiring!
I was thinking all this as I was drawing and I came up with the idea of making up my own words for the fictitious anthem of a fictitious land that says only sweet things if possible.
So I was attempting to make my version of an Etruscan horse again, except mine came out as an undefined beast. Perfect for a fictitious land!
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I think my beast looks a little Greek.
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It will need plants and waterfalls!

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And whirls of wind to sing through the water and purple sunsets, if it matches the color scheme I have in mind... Maybe I should make more than one.

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This is what I was able to do for today, I hope to be able to make many more things tomorrow before the choir sings!
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I don't really feel like writing over my drawing anymore, I will make a bookmark with it for my Etsy shop and perhaps will continue to explore the idea I had when I started. Days seem to speed by and I feel so tired right now, but that's good, it means I will be up early in the morning :)