BY: CALEB LONGGREAR
A cultural feast of German psalms was performed in the J.C. Williams Center on Friday, February 17, in the Gentile Gallery. Nineteen students from Franciscan University's music department participated in presenting songs from the early nineteenth century from the German culture, called a "Liederaband".
A 'Liederaband' is an "evening of songs", in which a group of artists gather in their homes and sing and play for one another. Throughout the nineteenth century, this practice grew in popularity and was quite a cultural occurrence.
The handout provided for the audience states that the Liederaband grew in popularity in that time and the "demand for new song literature remained high for most of the century."
Of all nineteen singers who presented, twelve were music majors while others were either music minors or simply students taking classes that participated in the event.
When asked whether or not each student was required to speak German, Alanna Keenan, assistant professor of music and director of the voice program at Franciscan, said that each music student is expected to be able sing in French, German, Italian, Latin and English.
When asked whether or not they were expected to know these languages fluently, she responded that they were expected to be able to sing them and did not have to learn them fully. She described that music students are instructed in the pronunciation of each word and required to do a literal translation of each song they perform.
Julia Germain, both a soprano and student at Franciscan University, sang, "Aus meinen groBen Schmerzen". She commented on the work of translating song from foreign languages. She said that after one does the necessary work translating the lyrics, one then goes and studies the emotion inflected in each word and phrase. This is done in order to properly present the genre of the song when singing it to the audience.
Presenting an emotionally inflected song is what Rebecca Corbell, a senior music major with a voice concentration, did well. She sang "Mausfallen-Spruchlein" with an inflection that immediately caught the audience's attention and provided an amusing amount of expression. As soon as the song started, she perked up and proceeded to convey the feeling of the song through her body language and facial expressions. It was very entertaining as well as musically engaging.
In all, nineteen singers presented, and their names are Matthew Grote, Amanda Enriquez, Annie Sauer, Chase Cloutier, Jessica Wasko, Allison MacDonell, Marie Eger, Olivia Meldrum, Matthew Zwilling, Joseph Andreola, Mary Bonadies, Julia Germain, Johanna Hadac, Elizabeth Michalski, Amanda Dichtl, Cayce Smits, Rebecca Corbell, Madelaine Mentyka and Nathan Mauer. Pianists included student Leigh Gaines, and professors Christopher J. Warwick and Paul M. Weber.