This video is exclusive, it is from my personal archives and not even my coworkers have it. It is one of the most special moments in the city of Úbeda, Spain, when the dark voices of the choir performed the Luceat Eis of Timothy Takach. This week only string and sectional rehearsals were done, meaning I have several days without hearing the girls, only my fellow tenors, basses and baritones, and boy have I always admired our sound without them.
Music has many colors and shades, and one of my favorites is listening to academic choral music with only obscure voices. I love Gregorian chant, but we have done very little of it over the years which makes it more exclusive. I feel this sound very spiritual, the low sounds of a great baritone chorus resonate in the soul, and it never ceases to amaze me how sharp and delicate the tenors are in this kind of repertoire, it is a contrast between light and dark coexisting in the same place.
I also admire the sound of light voices when they sing alone, but the two give me different feelings. One of the earliest memories I have of dark voice choirs comes from traditional African songs, used to evoke and worship God, and I think that's why it's so meaningful to me, plus my dad directed a dark voice choir for almost 30 years, of which I only belonged to it for two years before moving out of town to pursue music.
Most of my colleagues study opera singing, in fact it is a requirement to belong to this group, although some stand out more than others, but in general we are all very talented musicians, I always talk about the admiration I feel for each one of them, although not all of them are my friends; but I confess that there is more peace in a week with only dark voices than when the girls are there, sometimes I don't know how they survive among them 😅 Our rehearsals are very relaxed and at the same time very precise, in fact I think the only thing we find difficult is to respect the pianos when we do the reading of the music, we always want to sing with a lot of power, but the string leaders manage to calm us down with repeated reminders.
It is very rare to find girls who emulate the bass sound of a man, the good thing is that those who excel in it are very popular and we can all appreciate their work, but in the case of men it is very common to find those who emulate the female sound, some with natural treble and others with falsetto, in fact I love my falsetto and when I sing the lines of a mezzo soprano. This allows us to achieve many nuances in the interpretations where we are the only ones, maybe not this music in the video because it does not deserve it, but other works do.
We have just finished reading the Gesang der Geister über den Wassern, D.714 by Franz Schubert, a wonderful work for two choirs with dark voices, and it promises a lot, but for the moment the concert has been postponed because this month is our anniversary, so we will do a normal repertoire for mixed voices, but I think all the guys agree that when we are alone we achieve something almost unique, at least in our country where it is so difficult to find bass and baritones, the best ones come to the group and we achieve ecstasy. I don't know if the public feels the same way, but the personal and sonorous satisfaction feeds our souls.