(For politics, please scroll down)
For the second Sunday of Advent 2015, the twelve voices of Chanticleer:
About Chanticleer, which debuted on June 27, 1978.
The group's home page is HERE.
On November 28, 2015, I had the the opportunity to attend A Chanticleer Christmas. What a delight! A feast for the ears!
Chanticleer's arrangement was terrific. Great selections AOW. Much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteChanticleer's extraordinarily high quality rivals that of the best English Madrigal groups including The King's Singers. A cappella singing of such refinement, subtlety and depth of expressive understanding is a rare treat.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for bringing this to our attention, AOW. Very possibly this may be the finest Christmas Treat we could hope to receive in this troubled year of Our Lord, 2015.
I may well be a "musical extremist," but music of superb quality –– both sacred and secular –– has always been the main reason why I have been able to maintain and increase a still-childlike faith in the ultimate healing power of the Holy Trinity.
IF we are fortunate enough to be guided early on to develop a capacity to LISTEN and APPRECIATE it, such music truly does transport us away from mundane considerations and lift our spirits high above earthly cares.
If just LISTENING to it can do that, imagine what great joy it must be for those privileged to CREATE and PERFORM it.
This may sound odd –– even blasphemous –– to some, but I have long understood the composition, study, practice and performance of great music to be a form of prayer.
Nothing else in my poor experience seems able to keep us in closer touch with the Holy Spirit, but I imagine that must be so for all forms of inspired creative endeavor and the production of life-enhancing things of all varieties that keep our thoughts away from negativity, violence, addictive appetites, and vulgar, selfish passion.
May our days be merry and bright,
And may Christmastide be filled
With the beauty of Heaveny Light.
I bought the audio CD pictured in the second video of this blog post. What a glorious CD! Worth every penny of the purchase price.
DeleteI have the CD playing in the van as Tammy, Mr. AOW, and I travel to and from our destinations during this Christmastide.
This link to an article on Male Sopranos and Counter-Tenors should prove interesting and informative as to how many of the sounds this glorious group produces have been made.
Deletehttp://music.stackexchange.com/questions/26733/are-adult-male-sopranos-trebles-counter-tenors
In addition to Alfred Deller and Michael Maniaci you might want to look up Russell Oberlin as well. These references should easily lead to others in the field if you are interested enough to pursue the subject in depth.
Our modern-American ideas as to what constitutes "proper masculinity" are extremely narrow. We should remember that in earlier times all of Shakespeare's heroines and villainesses were portrayed by MEN and never by females.
The same was true in pre-nineteenth-century Opera as well, and certainly no CHURCH on the Mediaeval period or the Renaissance and well into the Baroque Era would have considered allowing a female of any age sing in public at either a Mass or Service.
While Princeton was still an all-0make school, the Princeton Triangle Club produced an original musical comedy every year written, produced, directed and performed entirely by students. Female impersonation was the norm in these productions. I have no idea whether the Triangle Club still exists or not, but it certainly did when my uncle went there in the 1920's.
I've seen Deller perform live, and when he spoke to us between numbers, he sounded like a perfectly normal British male, which I believe he was.
Strange though a male soprano may sound to our modern-American ears, I don't believe it necessarily has anything to do with sexual orientation.
FT,
DeleteStrange though a male soprano may sound to our modern-American ears, I don't believe it necessarily has anything to do with sexual orientation.
Probably true.
Many in the group Chanticleer are openly gay, however.
Beautiful music, thank you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the music!
ReplyDeleteAlso, how's Mr. AOW doing with the teeth situation?
Z,
DeleteThanks for asking about Mr. AOW's tooth situation. So far, so good with the root canal. No pain! He's still taking antibiotics, of course.
$3800 bill to pay. **sigh**
Absolutely beautiful! (Even though I had to sit through an ad for the $15/hour 'fair' minimum wage in Santa Monica first!)
ReplyDeleteBaysider,
DeleteSorry about the ad!