It’s long been a favorite of mine said Dr. Weale. It’s wonderful music, which carries a magnificent message.  The whole approach to life and death, which Brahms has illustrated with selected Bible verses is, for me, a wonderful way to contemplate what we – all of us- are doing here on earth.  It moves me to think that Brahms was thinking this way and feeling this kind of music 150 years ago.”

Dr. Weale’s vision for NCS has far surpassed what community choruses are usually able to accomplish, and under his leadership NCS has performed the greatest of the choral masterpieces, commissioned new choral works, and went on three European tours.  Betty Gillette, a charter member of NCS 78 years ago, describes Dr. Weale as “the best conductor I’ve ever known and I’ve sung with a lot of them. He opened up a new era for NCS and has given us 25 years of superb music making. He is a master teacher and we have profited from his vast knowledge of music from all ages. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to sing under his direction”

Dr. Weale cites some of the best moments of his years with NCS as “the great repertoire we were able to perform such as the complete Bach B Minor Mass, the Brahms Requiem and the Poulenc Gloria among others, but particularly the Verdi Requiem since most choruses never get the opportunity or have the finances to present that work.  And we did a spectacular job.”

NCS singers have come to know “Jerry” as a gifted storyteller who brings composers, their works, and their histories to life, and who radiates an enthusiasm for musical excellence that is captivating. It has inspired the Choral Society to achieve professional level performances of choral masterpieces from the Renaissance to the 20^th century.

In a quarter century of conducting the Newburyport Choral Society, I have been unusually blessed with the enthusiasm and commitment of the members.  This is a group of people who understand the power and exhilaration of making great music. It has been a great pleasure and a personal gift to direct this artistic force for good, and I am forever grateful for having the opportunity to conduct the great masterworks in Newburyport.

When Dr. Weale walks down the aisle of Belleville Church, audience members know they are in for a resounding musical experience. So please join us in celebrating Dr. Weale’s 25^th Anniversary at the Spring Concert featuring the Brahms Requiem and Song of Destiny and come wish him Happy Anniversary at the post concert reception.

Mary Ann Lachat

NCS Member 1987–2012

The Newburyport Choral Society will announce the winner of the 2012 Betty Gillette Scholarship in May. A high school senior who is planning to major in music in college will be awarded a $1,000 scholarship at the Annual NCS Meeting.

Click here for more information on the NCS Scholarship program.

Rehearsals are Monday evenings at the Rupert A. Nock Middle School in Newburyport from 7:30-10:00.

Registration is held on the first three Mondays of September and January from 6:30-7:30 pm before rehearsal.

Take a peek at the The Newburyport Choral Society in rehearsal for the upcoming spring concert, May 5th & 6th on YouTube. Enjoy a sample of the Brahms Requiem as the chorus practices at an evening rehearsal. It promises to be a wonderful concert celebrating our Music Directors 25th Anniversary and we look forward to sharing it with you.

Click here to listen Newburyport choral society – YouTube

Purchase Tickets Now!

May 5-6, 2012 The Newburyport Choral Society brings the much loved  Brahms Requiem to the community. This promises to be a spectacular event that is as much a pleasure for the chorus as it is for the audience. This beautiful piece promises to be memorable long after the concert on May 5-6, 2012 has ended. Ticket and Outlet Information

Johannes Brahms: Requiem, Opus 45

Completed in 1868 when he was 35 years old, this work established Brahms’ reputation as a composer and is one of his greatest works.  Brahms may have had his friend Robert Schumann in mind when he began the Requiem, but he surely was thinking of his own mother, who died in 1865, by the time he finished the work. It is interesting to note that two greatest sorrows of his life up to that time, his master and friend Schumann, and his mother, are both here memorialized. Unlike liturgical requiems, Brahms’ German Requiem offers no prayers for the dead, takes its text directly from the Bible, and is sung in the vernacular, in this instance, English, not Latin.

The text, selected and organized by Brahms himself, speaks solely to the living, to those who mourn. Brahms expressed his willingness, on one occasion, to change the title to “A Human Requiem,” but he held firm that the words should not reflect any orthodoxy, but his understanding, his own personal theology.

Musically, we have a very specialized cycle of accompanied part-songs. The movements follow the form of their texts, just as his songs do. In this case, however, because of the scale of the composition, what might be small touches in a part-song become magnificent  large gestures. Think of the grim funeral process, which opens Movement II, or the glowing conclusion to that same movement! The great fugue, which closes Movement VI is the perfect counterpoint to the uneasy mystery with which it begins. And finally, the last chorus takes its theme from a motive heard in the first chorus. Even further, Brahms finally quotes, in the last chorus, the music, which ended the first chorus, bringing the work full circle in such a way that those who find comfort (Movement I) share the same music with those, finally, who die in the Lord.

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