Robertson-Wesley United Church gets Romantic
By Jayme Hagen
EDMONTON – A west Edmonton church was filled with the beautiful sounds of German Romantic chamber music Sunday, to help a local choir raise money for their trip overseas.
The United Voices of Edmonton choir, a group of choir-members from a number of different churches around the city, raised funds for its upcoming trip to England at their performance the at Robertson-Wesley United Church at 10209 123 St.
On their trip to England, they plan on singing at Gloucester Cathedral for a week.
“(We’ll be doing) a couple of services at Bath Abbey, which is a gorgeous little church and a little concert near Stratford,” said Tammy-Jo Mortensen, Robertson-Wesley’s music director. “It’s sort of all coming together fundraising-wise, in order to get us all over to England.”
Sunday’s performance featured an oboe, a French horn, a piano, a violin and a church organ. They group performed classics by Mendelssohn and Brahms, among others.
This romantic era of music, which took place from roughly 1815-1910, still captivates audiences and players alike.
“It’s great for the audiences, but it’s fun for the players,” said Laura Snyder, a French horn player at the concert. “So, it’s probably the players that keep this kind of music going, because they just like playing it.”
The music is very challenging to play. Snyder said she’d wanted to play the Johannes Brahms piece since she was in high school more than 20 years ago.
With complicated key changes and tempo fluctuations, it’s a workout every time these pieces are played.
The music itself evokes emotion without the use of words.
Through the music you get an idea “what the composer was experiencing,” said Snyder.
“It’s music that still draws people in,” said Tammy-Jo Mortensen, the music director at the church, as well as the piano/organ player. “It works in a larger setting like this or it works in a smaller setting — a salon or a chapel.”
In this case the venue was the large, beautiful Robert-Wesley United Church. The ambience was perfect for the show; the stained glass windows and a gigantic church organ added to the feel of the music. The music played that afternoon has been performed in similar settings for a long time.
As for the task of playing a church organ two stories tall, Mortensen said there are just a few different challenges in conquering the instrument.
“I liken it to an airline pilot: they know how everything works, but they have to have training on each specific plane. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a two-seater or a big 767,” said Mortensen. “It’s just a matter of adjusting every time you go to a different instrument. You can sit at a piano, they’re all kind of more or less the same, but organs tend to have their own personalities and their own quirks. Luckily I play this one often, so I’m pretty well-adjusted.”
The music itself can be enjoyed by almost everyone, she said.
“It’s very accessible.”
The Robertson-Wesley United Church offers a choral program and a hand-bell program as well; nearly all the performers from Sunday are involved with the programs in one way or another.
On Friday, April 1 at 8 p.m., there will be a Graduate Choral Conducting Final Recital going on at the church. It is an eclectic concert of choral music created around the theme of “Darkness & Light.” There is free admission to the event.
A podcast for the United Church concert can be found here.