At 10am GMT on each day of Advent I am posting a video of a piece which, in my opinion, celebrates the best of music made by the human voice – with the occasional quirky video thrown in for good measure! You can catch up with the full Choral Christmas here.
Jerry Herman:We Need A Little Christmas, performed by the Muppets
This performance by elite ensemble ‘The Muppets’ is a titanic clash of western choral styles, and deploys bewilderingly complex counterpoint to create a layered choral construction of mind-boggling complexity. The opening of the second movement carries clear echoes of the Lutheran school of sacred music as the work hurtles towards its riotous conclusion in a triumphant major chord. It is, quite simply, one of the greatest pieces of choral music ever written.
Also, if you aren’t one of the 12m who have already watched it, this is a well funny video:
For the rest of this series I’ll be publishing an hour later, at 10am GMT on each day of Advent. I am posting a video each day of a piece which, in my opinion, celebrates the best of music made by the human voice – with the occasional quirky video thrown in for good measure! Today is the beginning of the third week, and you can catch up with the full Choral Christmas here.
This performance makes me cry. Every, every time. Which is absurd when you think that it was only very recently that I listened carefully enough to realise there are passages of English to be heard. There are still sections where I have no idea what the words say, or what the intended sentiment is.
In the absence of a shared understanding, we are free create our own. This can be a wonderful thing, and I know exactly what this piece means to me. It’s thrilling that my meaning resonates closely with the words you may pick out from the one minute mark about ‘this winding road… no matter what it takes this road will take me home.’
There is no information on YouTube as to what this piece is, and I think I detected at least three languages in the performance. Posting this entry up, I tried to find more information and I suspect a recording of this work can be found on the album Simunye, and that this is the cover blurb:
When we were preparing for the exchange project, I Fagiolini asked whether the SDASA Chorale knew of any traditional African chant which could be compared with Gregorian chant. Mokale immediately thought of Zulu amahubo music, and played us an example which had been recorded by the revered Princess Magogo (mother of Chief Buthelezi) in the 1970s. I Fagiolini was fascinated by the recording and Bheka decided to make an arrangement of the chant that could be sung by both groups.
Bheka says: “That tape took me back home and reminded me of the olden days, those terrible days, which saw the destruction of the Zulu nation.” It is indeed about the destruction of Shaka’s nation that Princess Magogo was singing, and so I asked Bheka why he wanted to sing the song with a group of English men and women, descendents of an empire that played such an active role in that process. “They liked the song,” he replied, “and I thought that it would be nice to sing it together; it would show unity. We can all share our fruit of life.”
If that’s not a sentiment appropriate for Christmas and Advent, I don’t know what is.
At 9am GMT on each day of Advent, I am posting a video of a piece which, in my opinion, celebrates the best of music made by the human voice. You can access the full Choral Christmas here.
Rodolfo Delarmente: Dum Belle, performed by Institut Teknologi Bandung Choir
I started this video series with the intention of using only performances which could be found on YouTube, so that anyone could play them anywhere – on PC, Mac, mobile device, TV. YouTube supports all those channels. Right at the beginning of the series I thought it would be nice to include a song by a Chinese choir, and I may be slow but it took me a little while to remember that YouTube is banned in China. So, sadly, there is a dearth of Chinese song on the site. A timely reminder that not everyone celebrates Christmas, and not everyone buys in to western model of sharing creativity.
So today’s choral christmas leaves YouTube, and features a performance by an Indonesian choir and their rendition of an “animated arrangement of a Philippine’s traditional rain chant.” The performance was recorded at the fourth World Choir Games, which took place at the Xiamen Convention Centre in 2006. You can find more information on the World Choir Games here.
At 9am GMT on each day of Advent, I’ll be posting a YouTube video of a piece which, in my opinion, celebrates the best of music made by the human voice. You can access the full Choral Christmas here.
Monteverdi: Dove, dov’è la fede, performed by Concerto Italiano
This video contains the final two movements of Ariadne’s Lament, by Monteverdi, though it is particularly the third movement (the opening bit of this video) that I wanted to play.
Is this how you set me on the high throne
of your ancestors?
Are these the crowns
with which you adorn my locks?
Are these the sceptres,
the jewels and the gold:
to leave me, abandonned
for the wild beast to tear and devour?
Ah, my Theseus,
will you leave to die,
weeping and calling in vain for help,
wretched Ariadne,
who trusted you and
gave you glory and saved your very life?
Alas, he doesn’t even answer!
Alas, he is deafer than a snake to my cries!
At 9am GMT on each day of Advent, I’ll be posting a YouTube video of a piece which, in my opinion, celebrates the best of music made by the human voice. You can access the full Choral Christmas here.
Orff: O Fortuna, from Carmina Burana
Tonight in the UK sees one of the televisual events of the year – the final of singing competition, The X Factor. I am not, it must be said, a huge fan. However, anything that unites the country in a celebration of singing can’t be all bad, and even I must concede The X Factor is (only marginally) more popular than this Choral Christmas series of blog posts.
I have watched the occasional episode of The X Factor under duress, and was not massively surprised to hear a popular passage from one of the most played pieces of classical music of all time being used as incidental / background music when the contestants enter the arena. The final section from O Fortuna (beginning at 02:40 in the video above), part of Carmina Baruna, rings out to give a hint of gladiators entering the modern-day equivalent of a roman coliseum.
X Factor contestants might pause to reflect on the meaning of the section played to their entrance each week on the results show – fate, in health and in virtue, is now against me!
For today’s Choral Christmas I recommend clicking play and then heading over to Wikipedia (new window/tab) to follow a translation. After the second section is performed for the first time, it goes back to the beginning. You can also find more information about the piece there.
It’s a riotous, huge, chorus of despair. Speaking of which, good luck to tonight’s X Factor finalists, and congratulations on your almost inevitable UK Christmas number 1 single.
