Choral. In rehearsal. The clip below is from a music clinic conducted by Jester Hairston in 1981 in Odense, Denmark. The song the mass choir is rehearsing is Hairston’s “Mary’s Boy Child”–a song much butchered by soloists and choirs. It’s just s short section of the rehearsal, and I did cut out much of his oral directing, although some is left in. (No, sadly I never attended a clinic/rehearsal directed by Hairston, although I have enjoyed his music a lot over the years. It’s always a real treat to attend a rehearsal conducted by the composer of a piece, though, and just eavesdropping a bit is enjoyable for me.)
[audio:Jester-Hairston-in-Odense-Marys Boy Child–edited.mp3]An Inclusive Eclecticism Can Go Too Far…
…and become simply a mish-mash, a hodgepodge, a collection ruined by a few real stinkers. Witness my failure to exclude John Prine from my Christmas playlist:
[audio:Silver-Bells–John-Prine–excerpt.mp3]If the dude were at least able to reproduce pitch accurately, it’d almost be as good as some Helmut Lotti stuff (at least instrumentally). As it is, it’s nothing less than painful to listen to, cruel to inflict on others and a canker on the butt end of my 2012 Christmas music playlist. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve heard worse, but it’s bee a while since I had a stomach strong enough to play anything worse than this.
Thank me for just playing an excerpt.
Once Again, With Poem
I posted a snippet of the song featured below the other day. The video here features also the poem cited on that post, as narrated by DFD:
Stick It
Christmas Pipes
…and more. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqmYN5gif7s
A Christmas Carol
This simple song really speaks to me, and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (with Jorg Demus accompanying) just makes it all the more powerful. Listening to DFD, is it any wonder that I first began appreciating the German language when I heard him sing, 40-*mumble* years ago?
[audio:Weihnacht-DFD-excerpt.mp3]Weihnachtslied
(Christmas Carol)
Carl Reinecke (1824-1910)
Es senkt sich hehr und leise die heil’ge Nacht herab,
die Nacht, die uns vor Zeiten der Welten Heiland gab;
und Orgelton und Glockenklang ertönen weit und breit
und bringen uns die Kunde: “Christ wurde uns geboren heut!”(Sublime and quiet, the holy night descends,
The night that, ages ago, gave to us the worlds Savior;
And organ tone and ringing bells sound far and wide
Bringing us the tidings: Christ was born for us today!)Und Scharen sel’ger Kinder umstehn den Weihnachtsbaum,
der jetzt im Glanz der Kerzen verklärt manch schlichten Raum;
und in der Glocken Töne mischt Kindersang sich ein:
“Gott in der Höh’ sei Ehre und Frieden soll auf Erden sein!”(And crowds of blissful children stand round the Christmas tree,
And now the glow of candles transfigures many a simple space;
And the song of children mixes with the sound of the bells:
Praise be to God on high and there shall be peace on earth!)
DFD also recorded a collection of Christmas poetry, “Weihnachten mit Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau” and this poem suits the carol above very well, IMO:
Über die Geburt Jesu
Nacht, mehr denn lichte Nacht! Nacht, lichter als der Tag,
Nacht, heller als die Sonn’, in der das Licht geboren,
Das Gott, der Licht; in Licht wohnhaftig, ihm erkoren:
O Nacht, die alle Nächt’ und Tage trotzen mag!
O freudenreiche Nacht, in welcher Ach und Klag
Und Finsternis, und was sich auf die Welt verschworen,
Und Furcht und Höllenangst und Schrecken war verloren!
Der Himmel bricht, doch fällt nunmehr kein Donnerschlag.
Der Zeit und Nächte schuf, ist diese Nacht ankommen
Und hat das Recht der Zeit und Fleisch an sich genommen
Und unser Fleisch und Zeit der Ewigkeit vermacht.
Der Jammer trübe Nacht, die schwarze Nacht der Sünden,
Des Grabes Dunkelheit muß durch die Nacht verschwinden.
Nacht, lichter als der Tag! Nacht, mehr denn lichte Nacht!Andreas Gryphius (1616-1664)
And a very decent translation done by Leonard Forster:
On the Birth of Jesus
Night, brighter-than-bright night! night brighter than the day;
night brighter than the sun, in which that light is born
which God, who is light, dwelling in light, has chosen for himself:
O night, which can defy all nights and days!
O joyous night, in which wailing and lamenting
and darkness and everything that conspires with the world,
and dread and fear of hell and horror all were lost.
The sky breaks open, but no thunderbolt falls now.
He who made time and nights has come this night
and taken upon himself the law of time and flesh,
and has given our flesh and time to eternity.
The dismal night of sorrow, the black night of sin,
the darkness of the grave must vanish through this night.
Night, brighter than the day! Night, brighter-than-bright night!
I’ve Resisted Temptation Long Enough
For a couple of years now, I’ve been tempted to post a version of this with a brief commentary. It’s time. Our culture is so debased, now, that this is one of the BEST pieces of music to have been written recently. As music, it stands head and shoulders above ANYTHING else I’ve heard from contemporary pop culture manufactured “music” industry.
Why, the “hamster” can even reproduce pitches better than 99% (plus) of contemporary pop “music” so-called “artists”. Is it any wonder that a culture so debased that THIS would be among the best music that it produces has chosen to inflict the national government such as we now have on everyone?
‘Nuff said.
In the All Time Top Ten Best Songs…
The All Time Top Ten Best Songs of the last 300 years? Has to include the aria “Ombra mai fu” from Handel’s Serse (Xerxes). No kidding. Sure, the single best song of the 20th Century is “Nessun Dorma” (video link)–Puccini’s 1920s hit from Turandot, indisputably (no matter what some with tin ears and dulled mental capacities might think) THE “last great song written”… to date.
And ANY of Schubert’s lieder (preferably sung–at least most of them–by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau–simply and inarguably THE greatest baritone voice of the 20th Century. Just sayin’ :-))can hold down ALL the places for “best songs of the 19th Century.” Go ahead: pick any one of them. Apparently, Schubert just could NOT write a clinker of a song, never blew a clam onto manuscript paper, wrote only solid gold songs. Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart even? Yeh, some great solos. But they just didn’t seem to have Schubert’s ear for song. YMMV, but whatever you think, I’m right. *heh*
But while the 18th Century had tons of singable, memorable and even great songs, this one’s my own fav, and as hundreds of recordings of it from the 20th Century on can attest, it has an enduring appeal. I collect recordings of this song–have tons of them. I’m in awe of David Daniel’s counter-tenor performances of this song; I absolutely love Bryn Terfel’s deft treatment of the song; my fav living tenor, Placido Domingo, also sings it beautifully, as do a number of good sopranos. But Jussi Björling’s 1959 Atlanta performance before a live audience just blows me away:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex8Ja68Hc_U&feature=watch_response
The man’s talent was a one-of creative act by a God who loves music. And yeh, the video link above to “Nessun Dorma” is a Björling performance, too. Lesser performances aren’t on the same planet. Heck, the recitativo preceding the aria’s good, and usually a pleasant enough experience, but Björling singing the recitativo makes the hairs on my arms stand up and brings tears to my eyes. Really.
And “Ombra mai fu” is just a song about a (plane?) tree! Yeh, a flippin’ tree! (But hey, Nessun Dorma’s just a sort of “lullaby”–more or less. *heh*)
For All Time Top Ten Songs, nothing from pop music does it like the folks with real chops–writing and performing–can.
Frondi tenere e belle
del mio platano amato
per voi risplenda il fato.
Tuoni, lampi, e procelle
non v’oltraggino mai la cara pace,
nè giunga a profanarvi austro rapace.
(Tender and beautiful fronds
of my beloved plane tree,
let Fate smile upon you.
May thunder, lightning, and storms
never bother your dear peace,
nor may you by blowing winds be profaned.)
Ombra mai fu
di vegetabile,
cara ed amabile,
soave più.
(A shade there never was,
of any plant,
dearer and more lovely,
or more sweet.)
The only thing that might have improved on this concert performance would have been to have the strings accompaniment Handel scored. Some really subtle stuff going on in that. Listen to (Oh, go ahead and buy it! It’s just a buck) Bryn Terfel’s rendition (a third lower in pitch) for an appreciation of the stringed accompaniment. Very nice.
I Don’t Do Book Reviews, But I Do Rant
Really. Well, I do discuss some books with my Wonder Woman and sometimes other family members from time to time, but actually reviewing the books I read would cut too much into reading time to do it. 😉 And, frankly, the voices in my head have spent so much time over the last seven years escaping from my control and putting words down on this blog that I sometimes begrudge the time they’ve stolen from my reading.
But, just read another book Dead Wood by Dani Amore, on the Fire (really nice reading experience, BTW), and one thing really hit me. From my own limited experience with people in the “recording industry” in combination with a better understanding of how music (no, the real stuff) is made and just music knowledge in general, the portrayal of the dirty underbelly of the “music industry” is spot on.
And it’s not pretty. In fact, it’s just as ugly as the crap it churns out and feeds to the ever lower, most common denominator of society, dragging sense and sensibilities ever lower in a never-ending spiral into the sewer of faux “art”.
In case you’d missed it before, I have about two ounces of respect and appreciation (combined) for recording “artists” nowdays, and I reserve that respect and admiration for the very (very, VERY) few who deserve it. Clue: you’ll not find ’em on anyone’s Top 40 list. In fact, most of the increasingly brain dead public wouldn’t even recognize what real musicians produce as music, or if they did would in any way, shape, fashion or form be able to appreciate it, let alone grasp the least bit of it, since it would take a soul not completely seared by lapping up the toxic sewage common in the offerings of the contemporary “music” industry.
rant /off
BTW, How sweet it is to have all my fav recordings of all my fav artists and their performances available to stream to the Kindle Fire while WiFi-ed to any network. Combined with either some very nice ear buds or (the other really excessively nice Xmas present) the Grado headphones, it’s only about three orders of magnitude less enjoyable to listen to them than doing so live. That’s a plus, really. Sweet, sweet, sweet. *ahhh*
Exceedingly Fair* Fare
Those of you familiar with the tune (Holst’s CRANHAM) will automatically hear the words it’s usually associated with**. For those who don’t *sigh*, well, there’s always Google… or, here ya go.
The tune always reminds me that it really needs an artist (no, not what passes for an “artist” with the typical recording industry exec, a real one) to make it work for me with Christina Rossetti’s words, especially since singing the tune with the last verse of Rossetti’s poem is problematic. The meter of the tune and the meter of that last verse do not marry well, you see. But, Tine Thing Helseth makes me forget all that.
An absolutely beautiful performance. It’s from her Christmas album, My Heart Is Ever Present. It’s a strong argument of the presence of imago dei in real art.
I could listen to this all day long.