I’m bringing this series back! Woo-hoo. I really love choir, and I really love choir songs. I’ve got so many songs I want to share. Unlike before, I’m not going to post these on specific days. Instead, I’ll post a song whenever the hell I feel like it.
Today’s song is Tantum Ergo, arranged by Gabriel Fauré. I sang this with Women’s Glee Club, Fall ’04 (senior year of undergrad at UNC-CH). The choir singing in this video is a high school choir, but they sound absolutely beautiful. This song is one of my favorite choir songs of all time. I sang alto here. It just works so well with my voice (I love those low notes). However in the past few years I’ve learned the Soprano 1 & 2 parts in my own time, so now I sing along with whatever part suits my fancy at any given moment.
Fun fact — every January, the Women’s and Men’s Glee clubs go on a tour at UNC. For our January ’05 tour, I auditioned to sing alto as part of a trio of 3 women for the first verse. I ended up getting picked to do the part, but since we never got to rehearse, on the day of the concert our director turned the trio into a sextet (2 women on each of the 3 parts). Unfortunately, I was SO NERVOUS during the performance that I was visibly shaking. Oh well. It was still a fun experience and I’m glad I at least took a shot at it.
In this video, the entire choir sings the first verse instead of a trio. Also, we sang slightly different lyrics for the first verse, but otherwise, it’s close enough to our version.