If you like to sing, then come join the award-winning Debatable Choir! The choir performs choral music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance at SCA events, both in the Pittsburgh area and around the Kingdom of Æthelmearc.
Rehearsals: We practice on Tuesday nights from 7:00 to 8:30 pm at a private home in Stanton Heights, in the East End of Pittsburgh. See the calendar for details. Rehearsals are a fun opportunity to learn songs for upcoming concerts and also to practice vocal and choral techniques to improve our singing, both individually and as a choir. Rehearsals include monthly birthday cake for choir members and an annual December holiday party.
Membership: While it helps if you can read music and have prior experience singing in a choir, the Debatable Choir is open to anyone who enjoys singing. We provide a supportive environment for beginners and a challenge for experienced singers. Music is posted online in the choir’s Google Drive, including audio files that choir members can use to practice their parts between rehearsals. We also use a Google Group to post updates on practices, concert details and music for choir members. No audition is required to sing with the choir – everyone is welcome!
Visit the choir's Google Group here.
Performances: We sing major concerts at the Pennsic War each August and at Baronial Twelfth Night in January, along with two or three other shorter concerts over the course of the year. We also provide processional music for courts at a variety of SCA events.
Music: For over 35 years, the Debatable Choir has sung music by such composers as:
- Thomas Morley (Though Philomela Lost Her Love, Sing We and Chant It, Since My Tears and Lamenting, Dainty Fine Sweet Nymph, April Is In My Mistress Face)
- Orlando di Lasso (Audite Nova, Quand Mon Mary Viens de Dehors, O Occhi Manza Mia, Cor Meum, Margot Labourez les Vignes, Ich Weiss Mir Ein Maidlein)
- Josquin dez Pres (In Pace, Scaramella)
- Guillaume Dufay (Ave Regina Coelorum)
- Jacques Arcadelt (Il Bianco e Dolce Cigno)
- Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (Exultate Deo)
- Guillaume de Machaut (Qui Es Promesses)
- Thomas Weelkes (We Shepherds Sing)
- Tomas Luis da Vittoria (O Magnum Mysterium)
- Hans Leo Hassler (Tanzen und Springen)
- Michael Praetorius (Alleluia, Es Ist Ein Ros Entsprungen, Psallite Unigenito)
- Salomon Rossi (Hashkiveinu, Halleluya Haleli, Kedusha)
- Anonymous (Agincourt Carol, Pasa el Agoa, Alle Psallite, Dindirin, Coventry Carol)
Awards: The Debatable Choir has been honored by the Baron and Baroness of the Debatable Lands with the Comet Azure-Argent for arts and the Gold Comet for service, and by the Kingdom of Æthelmearc with its Order of the Sycamorefor arts and its Order of the Keystone for service.
Contact our choir director, Arianna of Wynthrope, for more information.
Here's a sample of the choir's performance