Ode to the Male Ensemble

So, I quickly felt bad about denigrating the male ensemble in my earlier post. Let me make it up to myself and to you. There's Cantus, The King's Singers, and a youth ensemble I have recently grown to love...it didn't take me long. Here's a link to a clip of The Prayer of the Children (Kurt Bestor) performed by the guys of Amabile Youth Singers of London, Canada.

And the Mormon Tabernacle Men are fabulous as well. Battle Hymn of the Republic video. This is an SATB piece, but there are sections where the men are glory, glory, hal-le-glorious...I don't care if they are mormon and pray to the angel Moroni or Joseph Smith.

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The female voice

Why is the female voice impeccable? Especially in an ensemble. They just sound so great. I mean, I've heard some not-so-great female voices, like ones-that-can't-match-pitch-bad, but aside from those experiences, a female ensemble is just stunning. Guys don't, in my experience, make it sound so easy. It seems like it takes male voices a bit to get cranking. I've also heard my share of male ensembles that sound remarkably jaw dropping, but those experiences don't come from lazy learning environments.

I don't know...maybe this post comes from listening to The San Francisco Girls Chorus and other female ensembles lately. But they just make it sound so easy to do. And it's absolutely beautiful.

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Boyz II Men

So I thought I'd take a second to expound on the marvelous musicianship of Boyz II Men. This is a clip of their arrangement (actually I don't know who to credit for the writing of it) of The Star Spangled Banner. This is only the end of it because of copyright, but this is enough to talk about their musicianship.

1. It's a capella. You have to know what you're doing to sing these harmonies a capella.
   
2. GREAT chord on "night."
3. I can live with two "T's" on the "night" cut off.
4. The word "that" in the phrase, "O, say does that star spangled banner..." is rhythmically out of this world. Hemiola! Bass voice and inner two voices are on triplets, and the upper voice is on sixteenth notes. Well done!
5. THEN after that rhythmic fiesta, they open up to this shimmery chord on "star" in that phrase, characteristic and very fitting of the word.
6. "Wave" of that same phrase is colored with some R&B stylistic beauties.
7. Nice chord building on the word "free," THEN they crescendo, which isn't easy to do with an ensemble, out of the beautifully built chord.
8. Nice bass ending.
9. All of this while singing with great vocal technique - nothing pushed or sounded tense. The first tenor has a great falsetto.
   

I hope you enjoy this as much as I do!!

Tuneful Tuesdays

Well...it's been an eclectic week. I have the choral tunes, of course, but I have some things that perhaps will strike those who've known me a while as different.

First, I'll talk about a piece of Electronic music by Nico Muhly called Mothertongue. "Born in Vermont in 1981 and raised in Providence, Rhode Island, Nico Muhly graduated from Columbia University in 2003 with a degree in English Literature. In 2004 he received a Masters in Music from the Juilliard School, where he studied composition under Christopher Rouse and John Corigliano" (http://nicomuhly.com/biography/). With those credentials, a music listener should expect something. I liked it, unlike a few reviews I read on iTunes about this piece. Of course, it IS iTunes, afterall, and how much validity can you expect in those other than opinons of non-music majors? Not to be egotistical or demeaning, but face it, most iTunes listeners expect things from composers, and if listeners don't get it from their music they click the "next" button.

I have also found a new respect for radio music. I have come to terms with the fact that if I am going to cope with the radio and most everything on it, then I have to separate it into another genre of art. And I shall call it...Recording Art. I'm sure it's already in the books as that, but I like to think that I have a few original thoughts... These guys, though not lyrically thought provoking and often sexually explicit and down right vulgar, they do work hard at what they do. I guess this side of me spawns from my recent interest in podcasting and that process, because I have tasted the flavors of that sometimes hard-to-swallow genre. Studio recording is hard. It takes a lot of listening, some difficult decision making, second guessing and often third guessing yourself...anyhoo...I'll jump off of this stump and get to what I've listened. I've been driven by some hip-hop: Ludacris is genius, Fergie, a little Beyoncé, and an Atlanta guy named Sam Rhansum (who I know personally, actually). In this same stage, but teetering toward vocal music more is the group Boyz II Men, who are really quite great musicians.

Enough appetizers. Meredith Monk's "Astronaut Anthem" from her opera Quarry (1976) was on the choral plate this week. Interesting. I listened to The San Francisco Girls Chorus' entire album entitled Voices of Hope and Peace. Stunning. The centerpiece of the album is Anne Frank: A Living Voice, by Linda Tutas Haugen, and it's written and performed altogether deftly. The composer commissioned this work for the organization's 25th anniversary. The album is simply amazing. These young ladies have been trained exceptionally well. They could certainly show up some college choirs, and I'm sure they have at some point in their 25 years of existence. The opening piece of the album, Vivos Voco by Joan Szymko, is a six-part (SSSAAA) vocal piece with piano and handbells, and well, it's quite an opener. Grandioso in every way, and it's spectacular. Completely worth your time and money. I sat down with some John Rutter scores today: 1) Te Deum, and 2) Magnificat. The Te Deum is a piece i have listened to a bit, as I bought the recording many moons ago, but I have not been introduced to his Magnificat until this afternoon. I used to sort-of like Rutter; he had some pieces that I thought were just ok, as I think they are on the Te Deum recording. Then I sat down with the score for Te Deum. Great stuff! THEN I sat down with the Magnificat score. Oh man. There's a reason it's "Magnificat," other than the liturgical reason - the canticle of the Virgin sung at Vespers. It is AMA-ZA-ZING! Truly great, and a torment for a young conductor (maybe a torment for an old conductor...)to conduct.  If you are inclined to shy away from Rutter because you haven't heard his compositions beyond church anthems and his Gloria, not to say those are bad but I don't think they're the most exciting (except the Gloria...I like it a lot), you should most definitely listen to Rutter's Magnificat and if at all possible sit down with the score. It's about 40 minutes long, and you can get a score for about 8 bucks.

Well, this post has been long enough. TTYL, TTFN, BFF, or whatever text shorthand you wish to insert...

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The Pup-pups

Tuneful Tuesdays

This week I've listened to The King's Singers a bit. I listened to their album Street Songs, where they have recorded several multicultural pieces. One of my favorite pieces is "Horizons." However, I don't think this is a piece for them. I mean, I like the King's Singers; they've been a premier group for decades and earlier. But I think this piece needs a more beefy tone to it. The group has a wonderful sound for early music, they do 20th century pieces well, and overall they are good at applying certain tonal characteristics to the literature they do. Maybe "Horizons" is a piece for them, but the way they've recorded it on this album is not as primitive in color as I think this piece should be performed. It's a bit too proper...if that makes any sense...

I've also listened to a long time favorite band, Over the Rhine. Ah...good stuff. Particularly their album Good Dog Bad Dog.

Nessun Dorma was in the mix this week. I'm not sure what it is about that piece, but it brings me close to tears nearly every single time I hear Pavarotti perform it. It's just so vocally magnificent for his voice. Maybe this is a "Bandwagon" piece - one that you can talk about a little bit or nod your head saying "I know this piece" if you dont know much about music of this genre - but it truly is one that gets to me a lot.

Now get out there and be healthy by listening to music regularly!

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The Pups!

Here's an update on our doggies!

All things musical...

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The FUNNIEST thing I've seen all day, possibly all month, debatably all year.

Tuneful Tuesdays

I've listened to U of Miss. Gospel Choir - "Lift Him Up," and "Tell Somebody" in particular. The vocal technique is...well, I'm not sure it's healthy. But these two pieces have a rhythmic element to them that I just like. Good stuff.

I sat down with the recording and the score of Jenny McLeod's Childhood. Genius. Hard to get a hold of, but worth it if you can.

I continued my Bach and Mocnik obsessions as well.

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Tuneful Tuesday...except this is Sunday.

Everyone in the world NEEDS to sit down and listen to the Bach Magnificat. You just haven't lived until you do.

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Choral sound...

I don't like the word "blend." I think it's too cheap for what we do. I've heard the phrase "homogeneity of sound" lately, and I like this better; it has a better quality to it. But even this term, I think, bleeds too much - it doesn't really seem to allow each section to stand on its own. What if it's described as a conglomeration of SATB homogeneity of sound, meaning each section "blends," if you will, within itself while retaining its own identity that stands, not too distant, but in the next cubicle from the other sections.

I guess this is the wordy definition for combine, coalesce, mix, or meld.

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Tuneful Tuesdays

So, I'm stealing the brilliant ideas my wife has and having a cute, catchy title for certain blogs...hey, it'll help me blog at least a little bit once a week.  What I'm going to do every Tuesday is blog what I've been listening to a lot or a little during the week, and hopefully it will go beyond choral music...but not too far.

This week I've listened to a couple of pieces by Damijan Mocnik - The Prayer and The Beatitudes. He's a Slovenian composer, and these two pieces are amazing. He has written a lot more than these, but I only have recordings of these two by the Atlanta Singers on their album entitled Antiphonica. On that same album is Missa Antiphonica by Henk Badings, a Dutch composer. All three pieces are amazing.

I've also listened to John Adams' Shaker Loops. Great stuff! I recommend listening to these daily.

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Bach...

I also recommend Bach's Mass in B minor, even if you can't get to it everyday. Once a week might fulfill the void for you.

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Beethoven...

If you haven't had your daily skimming of Beethoven's  Missa Solemnis score, or at least daily listening, I highly recommend you get right on that...

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