We had our Carol Service at Christ Church today, which means I am feeling thoroughly descanted, always a pleasing feeling, and in a mellow sort of mood. And also as though Christmas really is close, which is definitely where this music fits…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7ktvmY6lTI&w=420&h=315] Continue reading
Today is Gaudete Sunday (Gaudete is Latin for “Rejoice”), which is notable for the fact that the liturgical colour is Rose, which means priests in pink vestments and great swathes of hot pink fabric draped over the purple that was covering the cross at the Catholic church I sometimes sing at.
This is clearly a reason to rejoice, and who better to rejoice with than the Mediaeval Baebes?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmbBjvsHng0&w=420&h=315] Continue reading
I was going to do another Magnificat, this one by Purcell, but I felt that after yesterday’s appalling contribution to Advent, a bit of penitence was in order.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d4b0dio3b0&w=560&h=315] Continue reading
It’s Friday, which means it’s time for some silliness, and this is kind of impressively silly. And also brilliant. Though I imagine Tchaikovsky is spinning in his grave right now…
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeQfKyzvte8?rel=0]
Another Joseph carol, a bit less well-known than the various iterations of the cherry tree. This is a traditional French carol which I haven’t been able to find a provenance for, but certainly sounds like it’s from the Renaissance (not weird enough to the modern ear to be medieval, but the instrumentation and tune is definitely pre-baroque. Also, it sounds like incidental music from any Shakespeare play you’d care to mention, which is definitely Renaissance or pseudo-renaissance…)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFbneUGHfhA&w=420&h=315] Continue reading
Time for a Magnificat after all this penitence, don’t you think? And you can always rely on Schütz for something gorgeous.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rv0RrHC4lUE?rel=0] Continue reading
Today’s song is, I think, the first piece of music I ever sang with the Wesley Choir, about ten years ago. It amused me no end at the time. It still does, somewhat.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEjFIiGMXOk?rel=0] Continue reading
See, now I am absolutely cheating by looking up lists of Advent music and seeing what I like. But it’s not really cheating in this case, because while I haven’t actually sung this particular verse anthem before, I was looking for a different Michael Wise anthem for Advent quite recently (this was the path that led me into the pit of smutty Elizabethan Madrigals a couple of Sundays ago). So when I saw that he had written another Advent anthem, I braved YouTube again, to see if I could avoid the smut, and found this.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4ZeM1KLMlM?rel=0] Continue reading
A few months ago, when I was preparing for my exam, I sent the Bach alto aria I was learning to my German theologian friend, Anna, to check that my translation wasn’t too wildly wrong. She sent back the translation with her comments, and also mentioned that in Bach, the alto soloist is usually the voice of the believing soul. I thought that sounded gorgeous, and set out today to find some advent-suitable soulfulness to share with you.
And I found some. But this isn’t it, because what I also found in my travels was that Bach, being the excellent church musician that he was, had actually written a cantata for the second Sunday in Advent – which is today. I am not an excellent church musician, but I am a conscientious one, and having found beautiful music that was actually written for this precise day in the church year, I am incapable of choosing something else.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRiVFPPgjVo?rel=0]
After yesterday’s travesty, I thought you deserved something really gorgeous, and what could be more gorgeous than the King’s Singers? I was fortunate enough to see them in concert earlier this year, as well as attending one of their masterclasses, and they really are the most perfect ensemble I’ve ever heard – their tuning is so perfect that you get harmonics, and the balance between parts is just amazing. And they also seem to be lovely people, which is an under-rated skill…
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXH7062QOBg&w=560&h=315]