Learning Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem

By Christina Sunstone, Alto, Magnolia Chorale

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At our December concert, Magnolia Chorale performed the beautiful and moving Requiem composed by Gabriel Fauré. I’d never sung anything by Fauré before; I’d never even listened closely to anything he’d written. But there’s no better way to know a piece of music than to learn it and perform it, and by the time of our concert, I’d come to love Fauré’s peaceful and hopeful funeral mass.

The same thing is happening to me now, with Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem. British composer Vaughan Williams wrote this cantata in 1936, when World War I was a clear and recent memory—especially for Vaughan Williams, who served as an ambulance driver on the front lines—and another global conflict was clearly rising. The music is at times plaintive; at times dissonant, almost violent; at times soaring and hopeful. It could never be mistaken for something written in any century but the 20th.
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It's been a challenging piece to learn. Filled with tight and sometimes dissonant chords, with abruptly shifting tempos and time signatures, with unfamiliar language (albeit all of it in English), it’s taking work and practice to learn it and do it well. The altos in the choir have taken to gathering weekly for sectional practice. One of us has a home with a piano, one of us knows how to play it (so helpful!), and all of us want to do justice to this dramatic, passionate, inspiring piece of music. As it turns out, that’s all you need to have a productive practice session together.

I hope you will come and hear us when we perform this and other pieces, including Naomi LaViolette’s "Racing the Moon", winner of our inaugural “Call for Scores”. Be sure to mark your calendar and buy your tickets now!

When:    Saturday May 3, 2025, 7:30 pm
                Sunday, May 4, 2025, 2:00 pm
Where:   Magnolia Lutheran Church
               2414 31st Avenue West
               Seattle, WA  98199

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