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was a remarkably enjoyable pleasure. 
Choral music in a mixed choir is usually polyphonic - sung by many women and men who are often divided into four sections of singers according to their voice type, from high to low voices in descending order of vocal range - they are, sopranos, altos, tenors, and bass
voices.
The conductor Conducting a choir is not easy, since the singers have varying levels of musical ability and aptitude, they learn their parts at different speeds. And, and on top of that, all members of the choir including the conductor/director have to juggle their personal schedules, earn their livelihoods, manage their careers; their family and household responsibilities, and still make it for choir practices, regularly.
Yet, the conductor, assumes responsibility of the choir and the setting the overall sound and texture of the choir, while training the choir singers.
The conductor keeps the whole choir aware that pitch matters, and rhythm matters, that is, for choir members to reproduce notes accurately, and to keep time accurately. All this while coaching and suggesting how the choir controls their cadence, tone and breathing while they learn to sing their different parts in harmony.
To those of us in the audience on the evening of the 7th of December 2024, it looked like the singers in The Tabernacles choir sang from their hearts - out pure love for singing, and for the wonderful experience it is to be part of a community of singers who sing their parts and create harmony with other singers who are singing different parts.
The evening’s performance started off with the Little Rocks Band, a children’s choir, who capably, and with confidence, performed a few songs and set a up a happy foretaste of the evening of music to come.
The main section of
the evening which came next, was started off by the ‘The Tabernacles Chamber Orchestra’ and the ‘Genesis
Chamber Orchestra’ that together performed W. A. Mozart’s Symphony No 40 in G
Minor, under the baton of Zubin Gibson, the performance was rather good, and
one didn’t hear those irritating screeches and squeals from the violins. They
were much more polished than was expected. So far so good, we thought.
The choir and the
orchestra jointly performed the rest of the evening’s programme which was
divided into five sections, which were called packages. One of the packages was
a few songs by the Men’s Ensemble. And in another one of the packages the orchestra
performed under the baton of the founder and director of the Genesis Chamber
Orchestra, Keerthan Robert, who brought out good expression from the orchestra
while he conducted.
The orchestra and the young
and talented pianist who stalwartly and sensitively accompanied the choir,
complemented the choir so well that it seemed like a natural partnership. Moreover, the orchestra sounded very good throughout the evening performance.
A soloist who was introduced as Mr Chang from Pune, and wore a white tie and tailcoat as opera singers sometimes do, sang Cantique de Noel (O Holy Night) at almost the end of the programme. Mr Chang from Pune, was an exemplar of how classical singers should sing, he was in complete control of his voice and expression, his secure bass-baritone had heft and command, it was full and resonant, and was so musical we really wanted to have heard more of his voice.
As a member of the audience at The Tabernacles concert who has sung in choirs, I simply enjoy harmony whether it is created by multiple vocal parts in a choir or by multiple instruments in an ensemble. So, I appreciated the swells and ebbs in the choir. For those who have never sung in a choir before, these swells and ebbs are called dynamics, when the choir goes loud or soft to express the music. And so, while listening to The Tabernacles it was pleasing to hear the dynamics in the sound of their interwoven voices which spread harmoniously through the venue in good balance.
