Dies irae: rumblings from the bass section of the SMF Chorus #1

This beautiful 1920s art deco stained glass window, by Oscar Paterson (a contemporary of Charles Rennie Macintosh), was installed in the west wall of the cathedral nave, at the north triforium level (that's the one below the clerestory!), following a bequest in 1903 of £60,000 by Sheriff Thoms (this bequest paid for very substantial renovation work between 1913 and 1930).

Is that a barn, or is it Noah's (or another) ark a float in the sea?



The opening words of the third movement (Sequenza) of Mozart's requiem are

Dies irae, dies illa solvet saeclum in favilla; teste David cum Sybilla

This is translated in the score as

Day of wrath and doom impending, David's word with Sybil's blending! Heaven and earth in ashes ending!

and (roughly) by Google translate as the less poetic (and less metrical)

O day of wrath, that will dissolve the world in embers; as foretold by David and the Sybil

I'm hoping to blog here occasionally as we rehearse the Requiem for the concert in SMF 2011 - and if I succeed in this, I will use the picture as a marker for this series of postings.

(Many thanks to Fran Flett Hollinrake, Assistant (and, over this past winter, Acting Up) Custodian of St Magnus Cathedral, for letting me look at and photograph the window.)

It must be February ...

Rehearsals started last Monday night for the St Magnus Festival Chorus, this year to perform Mozart's Requiem on 19 June. I've taken a spur of the moment decision to join in this year (after many years of absence from the Chorus), and it was great to see such a HUGE number of people at the King Street Halls! The sound was pretty good, too, for so early on in the rehearsal process.

If you are still wondering whether or not to take part, I am sure it is not too late: 7.30-9.30pm every Monday at the King Street Halls, Kirkwall! It won't be long until we are travelling home in daylight!