Tag Archives: choir

Mozart Mass with Motet choir

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On Sunday we attended a concert at Sct Marie Kirke by the church’s own motetchoir with two of our friends. We didn’t know what a motetchoir is (in case you are wondering, a motet refers to choral musical compositions), but we thought it would be a good way of ending a long weekend.

Motet concert in sct. Maria church

The concert started with Egil Hovland‘s Jubilate followed by John Rutter‘s The peace of God, both of which were sung in the church’s nave. At this point the choir moved to either side of the aisles, singing Heinrich Schutz‘s Jauchzet dem Herren alle Welt as a double choir (half on each side of the aisle). The choir then got a rest for an organ sonata by Josef G. Rheinberger, before they got to the main focus of the concert, Mozart‘s Missa Brevis in F major.

I thought the choir was very accomplished, especially considering that they are a church choir rather than a professional one. I particularly appreciated the way they moved around the church, since I felt that the different locations actually did give something special to the songs being sung in them, rather than being just an added frill to the concert. The musicians also nicely accompanied the choir (although I could have done without the organ solo).

All in all a concert I wasn’t expecting much out of and which I left pleasantly surprised. The choir will be repeating this concert on Saturday, so if you are at a loss for what to do I would eagerly recommend it (am trying to obtain further details on location and time and will post them here when I do).

Play Danish Music Day

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Tomorrow October 27th is the annual “Spil Dansk Dagen” (Play Danish Day) a day where Danish musicians are celebrated across the country and on the radio waves. It’s a day of celebrating music that has a Danish link either through the performer, songwriter, composer or producer.

Rev Billy

Broadcast through the radio at 11am will be communal singing across Denmark which I think is the best part of the day. People in schools, at workplaces, at home or in the car will be joining together to sing in Denmark’s biggest choir across the country. You can join whereever you are by tuning in to P2 or P4 online or on airwaves. It starts at 11.03 and lasts till 11.30. Here is the list of songs that will be sung.

In Sønderborg there are also three live events taking place:

  • Free classic concert at the main library from 4pm to 5pm with Alskvartetten. The ensemble consists of two violinists and a cellist from South Jutland Symphony Orchestra. The library is offering free coffee and presentations of the newest books and they are giving introductions to their internet services.
  • Musikorkesteret will play at 8pm. I’ve never heard of them but apparently they were quite popular in the 80s.
  • More interesting to me are Alcoholic Faith Mission and Deer Bear that will be playing at Sønderborghus at 9pm. They are both Danish bands singing in English.

UPDATE 26/10: Since we wrote this post we’ve spotted a couple more events:

  • Two of the guitar teachers from the local music school will be playing at venues around town hall. They will play from 10 to 17. In the same interval different people will play at the town hall.
  • It’s only for the 1100 employees of Sauer-Danfoss but I thought it was cool that SMUK (the regional military band) will give three concerts in the production hall for the workers. First concert is tonight at 21.30 for the night shift and then there are two more tomorrow at 13 and 15.

Upwards of 1200 musical events will take place across the country. For an updated list go to the event site at spildansk.dk:

Tomorrow is also the date of the annual Expat Dinners where Danes and expats get together for a dinner at their local library. However Sonderborg Library is not taking part so the closest Dinner is in Kolding.

The Nordic Movement has a great post with some cool Current Nordic music – not all artists in the list are Danish but quite a few are.

Photo by Sina Basila.