Thursday, December 23, 2010

To Sing Mozart's Requiem - モツレクを歌う

今年のメサイア・プロジェクトが完了したら、次のチャレンジはモーツァルトのレクイエムにしようと目論んでいた。モーツァルトのレクイエムは相当昔からずっと親しんでいた音楽で、単に親しんでいた間は多分に和声的な曲くらいにしか思っていなかったのだが、後になってそのスコアを初めて見た時には「こんなにアヴァン・ギャルドな曲なのか」と唖然となった。単純な旋律なのに歌えば溢れるほどの情感がそこには込められており、しかも調から逸脱するような音階進行でハーモニーを織り込んでいく構造はラジカルに時代を超えていると思い知らされた。

あの節回しを会得するのは大変かも知れないが、自分には相当モーツァルト節が身に付いているはずだから、その変則的な波も結構感覚的につかめるんじゃないか、とやや楽観的に構えることにして、合唱団捜しを10月頃から始めた。
来年の演奏会をめざしている合唱団の中で、10月開始・2月完成の予定が組まれている団体に遭遇した。国際基督教大学の学生が集まって組織されたプロジェクト・ベースのオケと合唱で、学外参加も可能という。武蔵境はいささか遠いなあと思いつつ、短期決戦ならむしろ集中すれば良しと先月飛び込んでみた。遅れ馳せで参加して、残る1月はオケと合同での仕上げのみと急ピッチだが、若い人たちの柔軟さを肌で感じつつ、その輪の中での自分の役割確立に今は努力中。


Upon my Messiah project coming to its end, I had made up my mind to sing Mozart’s Requiem as the next challenge for the year 2011. Requiem was the church music I had loved listening to since quite long ago. I clearly remember when I first saw its score I was amazed by the fact how far “avant-garde” this music was. Its melody lines were a kind of the simplest but so emotional and romantic, and not only that, its counterpoints stride further to weave the harmony by going off the track of normal keys. Until then, I hadn’t thought about it more than an enjoyably harmonic music, but the composition appeared far beyond the music of any age radically. I felt it something unusual, like the head is a church while the body was an opium grotto or a secret society.

It might be some challenge to quickly master singing the Requiem’s unique progress of notes, but I tried to be optimistic because I guess I had been soaked in Mozart’s music deeply enough to feel his style automatically somehow, and I started practically looking for choirs. Among some that plan a Requiem concert next year, there was one with the schedule to start in October and finish in February: the project orchestra and chorus of International Christian University students mainly and they accepted outsiders. Musashisakai was a bit too far from my area, but the period that burdens me would be a matter of a few months from a different point of view, and I dove into this situation in November. I sense the contrast here, the young people’s flexibility, and I am trying to make myself function in this circle of singing right now.

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