Description

1. Moses Hogan: I’m Gonna Sing ’til the Spirit Moves in My Heart
2. Moses Hogan, Edwin B. Hogan: God’s Gonna Set This World On Fire
3. Moses Hogan: Abide with Me
4. Moses Hogan: Wade in the Water
5. Egon Ziesmann: Joshua fit the battle of Jericho
6. Moses Hogan: Ain’t That Good News
7. Moses Hogan: You Better Min’ How You Talk
8. André J. Thomas: Rockin’ Jerusalem
9. William L. Dawson: Soon Ah Will Be Done
10. Philipp Lawson: Down to the River to Pray
11. Jack Halloran: Witness
12. Moses Hogan: Hear My Prayer

 

Our premium offer is for those who are not just spiritual-fans: During the last five years of our chamber choir we were singing several plays that we will record on CDs too. Some of these were sang and we were surprised how beautiful they succeeded – in spite of the fact that we sang them only once. If you are curious for them, we are honoured, if you choose the premium offer – in case of this we will send these recordings as well via email. So what are these songs? 6 of our favourite ones:

13. Viktor Magyaróvári: Spring fairy
14. Zoltán Gárdonyi: Your meek eyes
15. Zoltán Kodály: Te Deum of Sándor Sík
16. Péter Tóth: Dormi Jesu
17. Zoltán Gárdonyi: Where you go
18. Felix Mendelssohn: Psalm Nr. 100

 

Vox Insana Chamber Choir
Soloists: Kriszti Uracs (4), Anna Foris (6), Péter Hargitai (7)
Conductors: Dóra Orosz (1,4,7,8,10,11)
Csaba Tőri (2,3,5,6,9,12)

Recorded in June 2019, in Béla Bartók Unitarian Parish Church, Budapest.
Sound engineer: József Weisz

 

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Most of the spiritual literature stems from the African American tradition, which is based on the folk music of those people who had been taken to America.
These people who lived in America, mostly as slaves, weren’t provided with even the chance to learn writing and reading, so their history and traditions could on be preserved through verbal communication. At the same time their captors also insisted that they leave their original beliefs and join the white community’s religion, so in the end the Christian cultural background, the Biblical events’ knowledge had a great impact on their lives.
Their folk music is based on this heritage, which is an individual mix of Christian texts, African music: African tribal elements and rich rhythms merge together with a sort of familiar, religious mood, in which the concrete stories are connected to the African memories.
In most cases the lyrics of the melodies are based of symbols, so the slavery’s emotional attitude could descend from generation to generation without having to confront white population because of the texts: when they sing about a river or the other side of the great water, they usually use it as an analogy of the Atlantic Ocean, just like they use certain Biblical figures as their own, sometimes imagined heroes.
It is not difficult to imagine how much the children, who grew up in slavery, longed after a leader, who would be capable of freeing them or their descendants, and leading them to a better world. Joshua is the embodiment of this figure, who destroys the walls of Jericho with the sheer fury of people, so that the true(!) people may live there afterwards.
After a time water become the symbol of the Orinoco river, which is located between South and North, after the African Americans became free in the North. We know several stories in which they tried to flee from the South using tunnels or chariots, which had an important role in their songs: if a chariot arrives, everyone tries to get on it, in hope of finding a happier life by the next week. Unfortunately these acts cost the lives of both the slaves and the helpers on many occasions, so the stakes were really high.
With this disc we aim to create a selection from the Hungarian more and more popular spiritual literature, which contains pieces of both outstanding quality and of song that can be easily performed by amateur choirs.
Moses Hogan: Feel the Spirit is a great album for finding songs in this regard: it contains wonderful pieces which cover a broad spectrum of feelings: beside being creative covers of the original folk songs, it can provide a challenge or easily sung pieces to the different choirs.
Other than the Moses Hogan pieces, which serve as the basis of this disc, we tried to showcase some quite important composers for at least one piece, so André J. Thomas, William L. Dawson both had a symbolic song as part of the program.
We couldn’t exclude the worldwide known Down to the River cover by Philipp Lawson, which he had written for the King’s Singers. As our tradition dictates you can hear it performed by a sextet formed by the chamber choir’s members.

 

 

Vox Insana Chamber Choir

The Vox Insana Chamber Choir started its journey in 2009, when a group of friends decided to create something new and unique. Under the direction of lead choirmaster Csaba Tőri, a recipient of the Rezső Lantos prize for young Hungarian choirmasters, the choir has become a regular performer of the choral scene in Hungary. Co-conductor Dóra Orosz, another Lantos-award recipient, joined the choir in 2016.
The choir’s repertoire includes pieces from a multitude of musical eras – they are eager to perform anything from Baroque to Romanticism, from medieval to the most recent contemporary pieces.
Over the last years Vox Insana participated in a number of choral competitions and festivals.

Their awards and achievements include:
– Golden diploma and special award – The Bridge of Music Festival and International Choir Competition, 2014
– Golden diploma – Keszthely Song Festival, 2015
– Golden diploma – IV. Vándor-Révész Festival and International Choir Competition, Budapest, 2016
– 3rd place – Cracovia Cantans International Choral Competion, Category for Chamber Choirs, Krakow, 2018

Part of the choir’s mission is to help audiences get better acquainted with choral pieces and styles, to turn them into “active listeners”. Concerts given by Vox Insana often include short lectures, communal singing, and other experimental forms of musical interaction.

 

Csaba Tőri

Csaba Tőri was born in 1987 in Budapest. From the age of 14 he studied at the Béla Bartók conservatory of music, where his teachers included Gábor Ugrin, Tibor Szabó, and Lenke Igó. He then obtained a university degree in choir conducting from the Liszt Academy, where his professors included Péter Erdei, István Párkai, and Csaba Kutnyánszky.
Since 2008 Csaba Tőri is co-conductor of the Budapest Academic Choral Society lead by Gábor Hollerung. He is also founding choirmaster of the Vox Insana Chamber Choir (since 2009) and the MediCantare Mixed Choir (since 2011), and conductor of the independent company MoltOpera (since 2011).
From 2011 to 2014 Csaba Tőri also worked as a high school music teacher at Fazekas Mihály Secondary School. Since 2014 he teaches music theory at the Bartók Béla Conservatory.
As a conductor he performs regularly with the MoltOpera company. In 2012, he conducted Mozart’s Magic Flute in Palace of Arts in Budapest, and since 2012 they performed for three years at the Hungarian State Opera House’s Royal Stairs.

Csaba Tőri is a recipient of the following awards:
– National Competition of Young Choirmasters, 2010 – First prize (Rezső Lantos Prize) and audience award
– III. The Bridge of Music Festival and International Choir Competition, 2014 – Golden diploma and award (Vox Insana Chamber Choir)
– Vándor-Révész International Choir Competition, Budapest, 2014 – Silver diploma (MediCantare Girls’ Choir)
– Vándor-Révész International Choir Competition, Budapest, 2016 – Golden diploma (Vox Insana Chamber Choir)
– Cracovia Cantans International Choir Competition, Cracow, 2018 – Chamber choir category, Third Prize (Vox Insana Chamber Choir)

 

Dóra Orosz

Dóra was born in 1986, into a family of artists. Having studied music from the age of 6, she enrolled at the Liszt Ferenc Music Academy’s Teacher Training Institute, where she majored in music theory and choir conducting. Her teachers included Zsuzsanna Kontra, László Norbert Nemes, Gabriella Thész, and László Matos. She received her masters degree in choir conducting from the Liszt Academy, where she took classes from Éva Kollár, Csaba Kutnyánszki and Gábor Horváth.
As a long-time chorister, Dóra is currently a member of the the New Liszt Ferenc Chamber Choir, and formerly a member of the Angelica Girls’ Choir (2000-2008) and the Liszt Academy’s Alma Mater Choir (2006-2010). As a conductor she has led the Budapest Show Choir (2008-2010) and the Vác Harmony Choir (2009-2015), currently she is co-conductor of the Vox Insana Chamber Choir.
Dóra is experienced in performing and conducting contemporary choral music. An example is her graduation concert in 2010 where she led the University Choir performing Georgi Sztojanov’s great choral piece.

Dóra is also the recipient of the following awards:
– National Competition of Young Choir Masters, 2008 – Third place (Rezső Lantos Prize) Frigyes Juhász Scholarship
– Keszthely Song Festival, 2017 – Gala choir category award and highest score (Vox Insana Chamber Choir)
– Chamber Choir Competition Székesfehérvár, 2017 – Vox Mirabilis Prize (Vox Insana Chamber Choir)
– Cracovia Cantans International Choir Competition, Cracow, 2018 – Chamber choir category, Third Prize (Vox Insana Chamber Choir)