third world county

One of the best Christmas gifts I’ve recieved in the past several years was a “stocking stuffer” from my Wonder Woman, Songs of Joy & Peace, Yo-Yo Ma & Friends In addition to being full of songs appropriate (though not always “Christmas” songs) to the Christmas season, it’s an example of how real musicians aren’t constrained by any particular style or genre but only by their own well-developed musical “chops,” good taste and the drive to impeccable performances. Try these examples on for size:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUm_Gs2SDOo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=-5jufFWvp4w

And a video featuring a recording session for one of the cuts on the album:

Note that Alison Krause makes some vowel choices I’d drill (if necessary) a voice student or a choir to avoid, but… she appears to have made them with an understanding–conscious or unconscious–of her own unique vocal characteristics, and so they mostly work quite well, especially within the genre. *shrugs* That’s just part of talent intersecting with LOTS of hard, hard work of the “blood and toil and sweat and tears” variety that’s necessary for music to be made at this level of excellence.

For further demonstration of crossover excellence, an exploratory session with one of the instrumentalists from the album–not a recording session so much as a jam session with a classical cellist, a bagpiper and an accordianist–among others. Yes: a bagpiper and an accordianist can gift us with musical excellence.

Fo gigure.

Lastly, one more from the album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_-5gfsDOiA

Oh, just click on over to Amazon.com and buy the album. You know you want to. (Nope: I’ve not “monetized” the link to “gimme a payoff”.)

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]

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:

…and more. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqmYN5gif7s

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!