Some Purcell

19 09 2008

Hasn’t been a decent English composer since… don’t even get me started on Benjamin Britten!

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8 responses

19 09 2008
Sean (04:55:36) :

Dido and Aeneas is my favorite opera. My wife was impressed with the counter-tenor in this video.

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19 09 2008
Robert Thomas Llizo (05:32:18) :

I especially love the Te Deum and Jubilate.

“Hasn’t been a decent English composer since… don’t even get me started on Benjamin Britten!”

I gather from this that you are “agin ‘em.” ;-)

But I must make a plug for Vaughn Williams’ Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus! Simple, wistful, but soaring in each of its movements.

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19 09 2008
Visibilium (16:28:39) :

I like the Gordian Knot Untied, Faerie Queen, and Abdelazar. Prior to Elgar, Purcell was Britain’s “most-revered” composer.

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19 09 2008
Andrea Elizabeth (17:09:01) :

This reminds me of Handel’s “How Beautiful are the Feet”. Wikipedia just told me that Handel was very influenced by Purcell.

Contra-tenors make me nervous. I don’t mind if men and women do the same things or say the same words, but I’m more comfortable if they look and sound different. Is that social conditioning, or an innate response which some people are desensitized to for whatever reason? If it looks like a duck and quacks like a … wait.

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19 09 2008
Visibilium (18:26:28) :

I remember thinking as I was watching the video that I could match that singer’s upper range, if not the quality. I was wondering whether I should approach the choir director of my small parish and offer my services as a born-again countertenor, in addition to regular bass and tenor.

Andrea Elizabeth, after your comment, I’m not so sure. LOL

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19 09 2008
The Scylding (19:02:57) :

You mean you don’t like Britten?? Actually, I have an inherited taste for Vaughn-Williams – my dad was quite the fan. And even a little (repeat little) Holst (he was more English than anything else). And don’t forget Elgar.

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19 09 2008
Andrea Elizabeth (19:11:01) :

It’s not the range so much as the style. Countertenors seem to explicitly and purposefully mimic female vocal quality. Many tenors can get up there, but they still sound like guys. John Denver music is in my range, but I hope I sound like a girl when I go low. And his Calypso has some of those high notes too. But I guess, Vis, that the Valaam tenors, or maybe some of the Greeks you may listen to, would be more the ones you would want to emulate than John Denver. :)

Another perhaps contradictory thought, for some reason soprano young boys in boys’ choirs seem more neutral and angelic – in a peaceful way.

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19 09 2008
Arturo Vasquez (20:05:17) :

People, are you kidding! Elgar and Vaughn-Williams were precisely who I was thinking about when I posted this. Yuck! Double yuck!!!

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