I just heard a wonderful (and sometimes very odd) mass by Hector Berlioz yesterday, and it struck me that I've never heard the MoTab, supposedly one the great choirs of the world, sing a latin motet, or beautiful polyphonic works by, say, Palestrina. Even if I'm agnostic, I'm moved by the emotional mystery that kind of music evokes of things unseen....

But the MTC can't be singin' that great and abominable stuff now, can it...?

Reformed Egyptian. Beautiful.

I remember Ave Maria but just checked and it's in a English. I can't recall otherwise.

Here they are doing Antonin Dvořák's "Gloria," from Mass in D, op. 86.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdNTXBAHzCI

There is another one by Schubert, which I think is in Latin but I didn't listen to it. I don't care for them. They are a nice big choir, but they come out sounding a bit muddy. Kind of soft and rounded too. I don't know how to describe it. Also, I can hear their accents.

I grew up listening to a recording of Mozart's Requiem that I thought for years was the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but when I went looking for it I found that it was done by Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. It is so much better than anything I've ever heard by Motab. It just knocks my socks off. I can't even imagine them doing Palestrina. I have a recording by the Westminster Cathedral Choir that is so good, I close my eyes and feel like I'm floating into the clouds.

Still, I wish they would do selections like this at General Conference. I could just die when I hear a big trained choir like that doing Primary songs. Just shoot me.

Apostle Boyd K Packer insists that Mormon music be from the approved hymns of the restoration. Maybe things will change once the ole grizzly bear is gone for good and the MoTab can sing some real music at general conference.

This Boyd talk was given in 1973, so it was a big deal for us growing up at that time in the youth program.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1973/10/inspiring-music-worthy-thoughts?lang=eng

My favorite line: "I would remind all such that it is not the privilege of those called as leaders to slide the Church about as though it were on casters, hoping to put it into the path that men or youth will be safe within it."

I remember that quote whenever anti-social mormon doctrine disappears, and is replaced with "we love everybody."

We can only hope. It's a waste of a choir.

The Tabernacle Choir doing Palestrina? Not to my knowledge, and I don't think I would like to hear that. The choir is a remnant of the up-scaling of choral and orchestral forces in the late 19th century, epitomized by composers such as Mahler and Wagner whose works required hundreds of musicians to perform. In contrast, during Palestrina's lifetime choirs tended to be small, and a sharp distinction was drawn between choral music, mainly religious (what we now call unaccompanied choir music, a capella, means "at the chapel") and instrumental music, although these distinctions would be blurred less than a century later in compositions by other Catholic Italian composers working in important churches. If you want to hear Palestrina's music as he heard it performed, a small choir is better than the "cast of thousands" at the Tabernacle.

Well count me in as one of the saps who can ditch the silly stuff but can't quite let go of the non-spoken word.

More holiness give me.....how great thou art.

I disagree with mormons who claim mormon tab is a world-class choir. I reply that just because the choir is big, doesn't make it good. Everything about it is vanilla. Other world choirs sing in different (original) languages, and will do dark and edgy music. So, regardless of how talented Mormon Tab is, their hands are tied due to the limited works they can perform.

jpt Wrote:
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> I disagree with mormons who claim mormon tab is a
> world-class choir. I reply that just because the
> choir is big, doesn't make it good. Everything
> about it is vanilla. Other world choirs sing in
> different (original) languages, and will do dark
> and edgy music. So, regardless of how talented
> Mormon Tab is, their hands are tied due to the
> limited works they can perform.

yes, Yes, YES!

Big does not make it good. Mediocre at best.

they could be singing in any language as far as I am concerned, I cnt understand a word they are saying. All the oooooh aaaaaaah's melt the words together and you are left with incomprehensible chatter.

I don't know, but I so know they sing in the language of Jesus and his prophets. Victorian English.

If you take the time to wade through the sea of MoTab CDs available on Amazon.com, you will find an occasional recording in Latin. Most of what you will find, however (there are hundreds of recordings), is a vast wasteland of dumbed-down maudlin pap, created to appeal and sell to middle America's legions of Pharisaic religious and pseudo-patriots. And sell, and sell.

As someone pointed out earlier, choirs throughout most of music history were very small by comparison, and made up of academically qualified performers. The MoTab model, often touted for its size, fails to give due credit to its 350 bellicose housewives and Amway distributors.

All that being said, the Choir has been consistently directed by eminently qualified musicians (Wilberg, Jessup, Condie, etc.), who undoutedly studied the great historical choral literature and personally performed it in Latin when they were students. I'm certain they have imparted some of that legacy to MoTab Choir members over the years.