Written by Alexandra Alama
Music can never be superfluous; it is medicine given in the most sacred way.
Under the cloud cover, the dark ones have turned into steel, but the leading edge can be bright white as if the pages of a new book were prepared for curious eyes. Her earphones are split into two speakers as she plugs them into her left and right ears. She started by opening her phone and going to the “UCC Chorale” page. Horizontal wrinkles appeared on her forehead when she read the description of a recent video presentation on the page titled “Sicut Cervus.”
The University of Caloocan City Chorale is the official vocal ensemble of the university. On January 22, they held a special quartet presentation entitled “Sicut Cervus.” It is a Latin song frequently performed by church choirs, composed by Palestrina. It’s known as one of the incredible melodic masterpieces of the church and an illustration of “outstanding” Renaissance art. It is a motet for four voices based on Psalm 42 by famous Italian Renaissance composer Giovanni Pier Luigi Palestrina in the 1600s. The motet is composed of four voices, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. The motet has been described as the expression of “serene but fervent spiritual yearning”.
Singing together, online
As per Mr. Mark R. Salvador, the honorable conductor of the UCC Chorale, the objective of the song “Sicut Cervus” is for those students who are losing hope, mentally or even physically drained for all the things they are facing right at this moment.
“Originally, we performed the song as the prayer of the choir as we face 2022 with lots of surprises for the faculty and students as we celebrate our anniversary of the new generation of the group,” he added in an interview with TNCN.
In preparation, the UCC Chorale had a week to prepare for the performance last December according to Mr. Salvador. The hectic schedules of each member caused the editing of this video presentation to be halted. They need to divide the songs into different parts per voice because the language is being written in Latin. He also added that the run of the song is challenging especially for those members who don’t have chorale experience.
In-person but still apart
A choral activity that requires breathing escalation, frequently whereas crowded into little rooms – is one of the highest-risk activities for the spread of COVID-19. But the longer the pandemic has worn on, the more innovative solutions were created to assist choirs singing together once more, from a typical room hall to tech solutions.
As stated by their conductor, they’ve been considering the time frame for the preparation and orientation of every presentation they will do considering the members’ class schedules and time to internalize the given songs.
“Grateful enough to say that most of them have the initiative to conduct online sectionals to finalise the things to consider,” he said.
Prayer, Love, Thanksgiving
As 2022 begins, the UCC Chorale is preparing something worth watching for in the future. Aside from that, this project is meaningful to their group but they can’t disclose any information about the plan for now. They assure us that they will prepare something that would help us find ourselves in deep Prayer, Love, and Thanksgiving.
Music is teaching the brain how to be so peaceful because music can never be superfluous; it is medicine given in the most sacred way.
TNC of the North 