Roundsinging for credit...

[meanfreepath]

It seems that the Swarthmore musicanship instructor, Dr. Jan Hamer (who I believe conducted the Bi-Co Chorale a number of years ago), likes rounds as much as any of us do. There was, of course, that infamous Smetana conducting assignment near the beginning of the term. This week's sightsinging assignment included a luscious 4-part round by Michael Haydn, "Domine Deus, salutis meae." This afternoon in class we took turns singing it in quartets and conducting. We also sang through it as a class with two voices per part. The sound is absolutely wonderful, with a plaintive quality befitting the text; I'd put this one up there with the Schickele "Dona nobis" or "Est ist ein Ros." An internet search revealed an online copy, here.

Alas, this is a rather difficult round. It is quite long, with one or two melodically tricky spots. But this sounds like something that would be great to try at the next Advanced Roundsing, when the constraint of another class having to come in doesn''t prevent us from singing through this continuously several times.