Yesterday I had the pleasure of listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir (see http://mormontabernaclechoir.org/). The choir has about 230 voices supported by a full orchestra and an organ of some thousand pipes. I can't remember how many thousand but picture FIVE keyboards, the stops as well as the foot pedals. So the performance was big yet the Tabernacle is big enough to accommodate the music. It was also full for Memorial Day. Our group were honoured guests along with a young Czech director here for the film festival, two men from Tajikistan (I think I have the right stan) here to see how religious freedom works and the whole balcony was filled with some basketballers who had arrived earlier in an endless line of buses.
The performance is broadcast live for its half hour duration so we were lucky enough to LISTEN to two performances - the full practice as well as the live presentation.
Of course, being Memorial Day, there was America (those old enough to sing the anthem God save the Queen felt we should stand), The Battle Hymn of the Republic and the service finished with my favourite hymn "God be with you till we meet again". Unfortunately Randolph by Vaughan Williams wasn't used. Picture this being sung at twice the speed as we finally get out of school at the end of term: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWIIpMDhRZw.
This was the last performance before the service moves to the Conference Centre (capacity 23,000) for the summer tourist centre.
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