Now be thankful

September 10, 2 pm, Tonstudio Tessmar

We begin our anniversary program with spiritual songs and motets. The texts on which they are based are all biblical and have their original place in the celebration of the Holy Mass by the Catholic composers Scarlatti, Bruckner and Gallus. Felix Mendelssohn comes from a Jewish family, but was raised as a Christian and was baptized as an Evangelical Reformed Church member in 1816 along with his siblings. From his baptism onwards he also took the middle name Bartholdy. Brahms, who was born in Protestant Hamburg, is the only composer in our first part who also used a Luther chorale in his motet “Why is the light given to the weary?” In addition to

What all the composers of the first part have in common over the long period of time is that they found their textual starting points in the Psalms. From the Psalms, the basis of the Jewish-Christian prayer tradition, you will hear Psalm 80 (Exultate Deo), Psalm 103 (Praise the Lord), Psalm 51 (Create in me God), Psalm 90 (Lord God, you are our refuge), Psalm 100 (Make a joyful noise to the Lord) and Psalm 37 (Os justi). The first Brahms motet sets the verses Job 3:20-26, Lamentations 3:41 and James 5:11 to music. We conclude the first part with the Lord's Prayer by Jacobus Gallus.

In the second part of the program we sing secular songs, seven of which are for men's choir and two for women's choir. This may not seem balanced, but there are very few original compositions for women's choir. The imbalance is due to the fact that men's choir singing, which emerged in the 19th century, became very popular and took on many folk motifs: musically, the folk song, in terms of content, motifs such as patriotism, homeland, wine, women and sociability, and in the Romantic era, the forest as a place of longing. This was accompanied by the emergence of a choir life with a club structure: the "Liedertafel Concordia", the "mother club" of Acûstico, also owes its origins to this tradition.ndsbacher

So that we do not lose ourselves completely in this world, a spiritual piece has also been included in the second part: Beati mortui in Domino morientes deinceps– English: How blessed are the dead who sleep in the Lord.

We conclude our concert with "Do you know how many little stars are there?", arranged for four-part choir by Friedemann Winklhofer. Along with Helmut Duffe and Emanuel Vogt, Winklhofer is one of the composers whose many wonderful pieces have been sung by both the Windsbach Boys' Choir and Acûstico. At the end of the concert, the little stars will not yet be shining, but that is not the point. We hope that our concert will inspire your hearts and minds - just like ours.Psal

We thank you, dear audience, for your loyalty and support during these first ten years of our existence!

Dr. Bärbel Husmann