I love this anthem by Thomas Tallis:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1WwNSfCom8
It happens to be from today's Gospel, John 14:15. "If ye love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter, that he may bide with you forever, even the spirit of truth."
The group is The King's Singers. It appears that it was done by means of Zoom, or something similar. Which is quite an accomplishment, to keep the harmonies and timing so well coordinated.
The piece was composed approximately 460 years ago, it is still timeless.
It’s a lovely composition. I know my hearing is wacko, but just listening and not looking at the faces I would swear there was a soprano. None of those young men looked young enough for that!
ReplyDeleteJust looking at the sheet music, the top line is listed as contratenor 1, and in parentheses 1st alto. The highest note is C above middle C. Which is well within 1st alto range but does seem pretty high for a tenor. Most of them would be straining to reach it .
DeleteI sang alto and my high note was C above middle C.
DeleteThere seems to be a British tradition (and I'm sure it's not only British, but it's strange to us in the US) of boys and even men singing soprano and alto parts in all-male choirs.
DeleteI think they have to employ a falsetto method, not even sure how it's done? Signing through their sinuses, I guess.
DeleteMy top note is e flat, an octave and change above middle c, and that's if I'm standing on tip toes. There's no way I can cheat it higher. So maybe women can't sing falsetto.
The Washington National Cathedral has a boys’ choir and they can sing soprano. Sometimes they sing alone, but often with at least a few older boys or men. They frequently sing Evensong on weekdays during the school year. They are usually on music scholarships at the cathedral boys’ school.There is a girl’s program and scholarships also to the girls’ school , but the girls’ voices simply mature as they become teenagers, not the radical change that the boys’ voices have. The schools are on opposite sides of the cathedral- of the Cathedral Close - but they can take classes at either school. I sometimes go to Evensong there. https://cathedral.org/music/musicians/chorister-program/
DeleteIf I'm properly warmed up, I can get to an F above middle C, or even a G or, if my life depends on it, an A-flat. But I can't live in that tessitura. In high school, I was a 2nd bass. Decades of asthma inhalers have left me sort of a baritone.
DeleteYes, the Albuterol inhalers, chemo, and steroids have eroded my range and control considerably. I used to sing at clubs as a teenager to make a few bucks, but singing is downright painful now. Even my speaking voice will only last for an hour or so, one of the reasons I quit teaching. One of the guys at my high school reunion last year had some kind of hootenanny organized and asked me to sit in. I told him not unless you want to drive people away.
DeleteMy range and control have disappeared without help from asthma inhalers! In high school I sang in the girls’ chorus (alto and second soprano), in the full chorus ( male and female where I sang alto), a co-Ed madrigal group and a group of nine girls called the “ Triple Trio”. I was one of the three altos in that. Now I don’t sing at all, including in church. My voice is awful, what remains of it. Sometimes I try to sing to my young grandchildren but it’s pretty hopeless.
DeleteAnne my voice isn't what it once was either ( not that it was ever that great!) But I've found that time of day and warm up matters a lot. It's much easier for me to sing in the morning. But sometimes our group sings for the 5:00 pm Mass. We do an hour and a half practice ahead of time. It helps, none of us are spring chickens.
DeleteAnd Happy Mother’s Day to Katherine, and to Theresa, Betty, and Jean!
ReplyDeleteThose voices and the blending are velvety-smooth. The King's Singers have been around for decades, I think? This must be their newest iteration?
ReplyDeleteBetty received an unusual mother's day gift yesterday. We usually listen to Heart and Voice. They played Meditation (from Thais)
ReplyDeleteby Jules Massenet. That was one of her mother's favorite songs.
Her mother played it on the violin from memory. She had heard it once and could play it thereafter. Betty and her family have some unusual memory powers. For example, anytime I am looking for something, Betty can tell me the last place she saw it. If that is not sufficient, we have to resume the search after she resorts to Saint Joseph or Saint Anthony for help.
That sounds like a great Mother’s Day. I will try to find the piece from Thais online.
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