Some positive quotes about singers and singing
The previous post would not encourage anyone to take up singing!….but there are some positive attitudes expressed by some great people…
St Augustine….. ‘Sing with your voices and with your hearts, and with all your moral convictions, sing the new songs, not only with your tongue but with your life’
Berlioz……’A singer able to sing so much as sixteen bars of good music, in a natural, well-poised, and sympathetic voice, without effort, without affectation, without tricks, without exaggeration, without hiatuses, without hiccupping, without barking, without baa-ing —such a singer is a rare, a very rare, an exceedingly rare bird.’
William Byrd….’The exercise of singing is delightful to nature and good to preserve the health of Man’
Tyrone Guthrie….’God in his Almighty Wisdom and Fairness has not always given the greatest voices to the persons with the greatest intellect, or the best education, or to the most beautiful of his creatures’
James Joyce….‘Tenors get women by the score’
Mozart….I like an aria to fit a singer as perfectlyas a well-tailored suit of clothes’
SO I THINK THERE IS A BALANCE !
Negative quotes on singers and singing
Maybe they should take a 'paws' for breath!
Many worthies have made comments on the bad singer and singing, but I’m not sure what made some of them so vitriolic. However,let’s have a look at the ones I found, and with any luck, I will find an equal number on the other side!
SAMUEL COLERIDGE…..Swans sing before they die -’twere no bad thing should certain persons die before they sing!
FREDERICK the GREAT….. A German singer! I should as soon expect to get pleasure from the neighing of my horse!
GEORGE GERSHWIN…..My voice is small but disagreeable
HANS von BULOW…..A tenor is not a man but a disease
THOMAS CARLYLE….Let a man try the very uttermost to speak what he means before singing he has recourse to.
CHARLES LAMB….. I even think that I am organically disposed to harmony. But organically I am incapable of a tune. I have been practising ‘God Save the King’ all my life; whistling and humming it over to myself in solitary corners; and am not yet arrived, they tell me, within many quavers of it.
FALSTAFF (Shakespeare) ……For my voice, I have lost it with hallowing and singing of anthems.
OLIVER HEREFORD…..Definition of Song: the licensed medium for bawling in public, things too silly or sacred to be uttered in ordinary speech.
HORACE…..The fault, common to all singers, is that when their friends ask them to sing, they’re never willing, but when they’re NOT asked, , they will never leave off!
Can you add any more?….put them into the Comments section
And again….and again….and again
Many of our hymns have a refrain which follows every verse. Now this a surely a strange word to use, considering the other meaning which is …to NOT do something!….).
It is actually an organist’s nightmare! To keep me in touch with where I am in accompanying a hymn, I keep listening to the words of the last line of each verse, just before the refrain comes along. I remember once losing the place, and was unsure where I was in the hymn. Luckily I guessed correctly and stopped at the right place.
On one other occasion, I started playing another verse and when I noticed, I just took the opportunity to extemporise, and was complimented later for it….talk about serendipity!
But why do we have refrains?…….I don’t think a refrain, when repeated so often, adds anything to the value of the wordage, and smacks slightly of Sunday School Choruses….but maybe someone has other ideas!
The Bells, the bells !
One of our members (Gill, the artistic one) has provided us with this lovely little drawing, as a sort of logo for the Angelus Singers. I especially like the bell, and, of course, the flared trousers! It has a wonderfully-peaceful and, dare I say it, angelic, feel about it.
I suppose that’s why a lot of us sing….it gives us a bit of inner peace, even if we are struggling putting the words and notes together!
If you like church bells, click on some of the links below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvn3ftWVAb4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5RtN3urZiDk
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=7372425122532402557&ei=st34SJmjIJOwiALisYXsDg&hl=en
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogQrUvJrWy0
The Good, the Mediocre, the Bad, and the Awful
The example in my last post explained the reason why a certain hymn-tune appears to me as high-quality, from a musical point of view, at least. It set me to thinking if there is a definitive method of assessing if a hymn is ‘Good, mediocre, bad or awful’. I don’t believe there can be an ‘absolute’ value of quality, because we all come from different backgrounds, with various experiences, and personal preferences and dislikes……..but it’s maybe useful to put together some guidelines
- It has to have excellent poetry, and tell some form of story
- It has to have a recognisable and valid theology
- It should cause SOME challenge to the instrument player and the choir or soloist to play and/or sing, and provide sufficient satisfaction and enjoyment to make the practising worthwhile.
- The music and words should be original
- The age of the performers/listeners need to be taken-into consideration
- They should be suitable in, and appropriate for, the environment in which they are to be performed
- They must be capable of hitting some sensitive nerve in the listener and/or performer
If all or most of these criteria are fulfilled, then we may say that we have hit the jackpot.
There is some drivel out there, poorly constructed music, inadequate vocabulary, requiring repetition of words (which, having been said once, do not bear repetition within the same hymn), and poor or dubious theology.
We are lucky that there is such a variety of hymn books available that it IS possible to select a good number of excellent pieces…a few from each book to produce a list of the best.
I can understand why many churches now do not hand out a hymn book, but have a service sheet or use overhead systems. We might yet see the demise of the conventional hymnal. As long as there is someone looking critically at what congregations and/or choirs are to sing, then, hopefully, quality will rise to the top……but I’m not convinced it will happen!
‘Angel voices, ever singing…’
At Aberfoyle, we sang one of the most satisfying tunes in any hymn book, as far as part-singing is concerned. It has a tremendous ‘vertical’ feel about it, in that every chord is wonderful, and each part feels important. Even the repeated notes, when they occur, are not boring. As your part remains constant, the other parts ’slither’ in steps through a sucession of rich chords.
The words were written by Rev Francis Pott who was born in 1832 in Southwark, taking Holy Orders in 1856. He wrote several original hymns including the above. However he is better-known for his translations. He was on a committee which compiled Hymns Ancient and Modern. He retired in 1891 with deafness, and died in 1909.
The tune was written by Edwin George Monk (no relation to W.H.Monk), who was born in Somerset in 1819. He was organist and choir-master at Radley College, Oxford, followed by a move north to be organist at York Minster, where he stayed for nearly 25 years. He wrote church music, and he spent much time as editor of hymn books, and chant books (remember them?). He died back in Radley in 1900.
Now if he had only called it ‘ANGELUS VOICES, EVER SINGING’ !
At St Mary’s Aberfoyle, again
October 5 2008….Sung Evensong
Aberfoyle is often rightly called the Gateway to the Highlands and is visited by probably tens of thousands of people every year. Unfortunately many simply go to the shops and the ubiquitous Edinburgh Woolen Mill (whose Head Office is in the Borders!). Many others go to the David Marshall Lodge for the stunning views.
And yet one of the things which draws me back, is the lovely little St Mary’s Church sitting proudly on the shoulder of the village just as you enter it……a haven of tranquility. Although it bears the same name as our Cathedral in Glasgow it is totally different, and is ideal for the service of Sung Evensong. (If you don’t know much about this Service, click on the link ‘Evensong….the story’ under Categories.)
This is the second time we have been involved in Evensong here….last time we had a retired Bishop preaching, this time the local Church of Scotland Minister, Rev Linda Stewart took the Pulpit, with a contemplative sermon on the Marriage at Cana.
It boasts a wonderful Willis organ, played by Jean……who is a very self-effacing but most competent and sympathetic accompanist. The Church is about to have major structural work carried-out, so we were pleased to be able to come on a beautiful star-lit evening to join with the faithful in the delightful words we have heard so many times before, but which still have so much meaning.
Introit:- ’A Touching Place’ to the tune ‘Dream Angus’ (see the end of this post, for the original words of Dream Angus (a Scottish Lullaby)
Angus is here wi’ dreams to sell o
Hush my wee bairnie an’ sleep wi’ oot fear
Dream Angus has brought you a dream my dear.
A’ the wee bairns are sleepin’
Birdies are nestling, an’ nestling’ the gither
But my bonnie bairn is waken yet
Angus is here wi’ dreams to sell o
Hush my wee bairnie an’ sleep wi’ oot fear
Dream Angus has brought you a dream my dear
An’ the echoes dyin’ o
Even the birdies are cuddled up sleepin
But my bonnie bairn is weepin’ greetin’
Angus is here wi’ dreams to sell o
Hush my wee bairnie an’ sleep wi’ oot fear
Dream Angus has brought you a dream my dear
Welcoming the coming dawn
Lambies coorie doon the gither
Wi’ the yowies in the heathe
Angus is here wi’ dreams to sell o
Hush my wee bairnie an’ sleep wi’ oot fear
Dream Angus has brought you a dream my dear.
