by Eva Dameron
Daily Lobo
UNM choirs are mixing ancient texts with modern music in a performance called Gospel Mass and Gospel Magnificat.
Music professor Bradley Ellingboe prepared the women's choir and University chorus to perform two pieces composed by UNM's composer-in-residence Robert Ray from the University of Missouri.
The University chorus, made up of students, faculty, staff and community members, will perform the Gospel Mass.
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"It's a mixture of the old and the new," Ellingboe said. "The mass is the text that is said in the Catholic church, and is an ancient set of words that many composers have set to music. The new way is to do it in the style of the African-American church."
The Gospel Mass is 40 minutes long, while the Gospel Magnificat is only 20 minutes.
"That's another ancient text," he said. "'Magnificat' is Latin for 'my soul magnifies the Lord.' This is what the Virgin Mary said when she learned from the angel that she would be the mother of Jesus."
He said this performance is also a mixture of ancient and modern times.
"Both the mass and magnificat will be sung in English," he said. "The texts, of course, go way back, and were originally in Latin, or maybe in the case of Mary it would be Aramaic, but it's set in the modern style of music."
Ray said he composed both pieces 25 to 30 years ago.
"That's part of the miracle of it - that it's still being done, and they still want to do it," Ray said. "I came in to show them what I had in mind while I wrote it. I showed them the possibilities of what I wanted to hear when I actually wrote it."
Ray said while Ellingboe teaches the choir, he will conduct onstage for the main performance.
His pianist for both pieces is John Helgen from Minneapolis. Helgen also composed a piece called "Laughing Song" for the new UNM Children's Chorus, which will debut at the concert before the two main choirs go on.
UNM music education professor Regina Carlow has been working with the children ages 7 to 12 since January, she said.
"I said to the kids, 'You bring in your favorite poem, and we'll have a contest and select a poem, and we'll have a composer set it to music,'" Carlow said. "And six children brought in poems. We chose 'Laughing Song' - a poem by William Blake."
Carlow said the children are excited about performing "Laughing Song."
"When they sing it, they ask to sing it again," she said.
The children's chorus will perform three other pieces.
"We'll start with a piece 'The Wind,' and that will have special sound effects," she said. "There are special percussion instruments that some of the kids play - wind chimes and hand drums."
The main reason for the Popejoy performance is to endow a scholarship for African-American students majoring in vocal performance or choral conducting. Ray said the aim is to raise $15,000.
