Today on Facebook, I somehow managed to drag myself to the group page for De Anza's Vintage Singers, the advanced choir that I proudly sang with for two quarters while I was there. About halfway down the page, I found that Pauli, one of my former classmates, had posted this video on the page:
It brought back so many memories from being in Vintage because a small group from within the choir performed this piece during my first concert in the group. The performed it a capella, and I've since fallen in love with the sound of the King's Singers. We've used their music several times in Vintage, including the arrangement for You Are the New Day, which was my favorite piece last Spring Quarter. I enjoyed it because it was a challenge: I'm what we lovingly referred to as a "Sopralto," which meant, thanks to the fact that I have about a 3 to 3-and-a-half octave range, (depending on the day) I can sing just about anywhere in Alto and Soprano. This usually meant I got to sing the Soprano II splits, which I loved. With this song, I had to switch between first Tenor and Soprano I range multiple times. I loved it. I always loved the sound of clear, high male voices, be they counter-tenor or tenor, and being able to sing the tenor part was just so great. This was our performance of You Are the New Day: (I'm the really short one sandwiched between two really tall people... Lol!)
Anyway, so back to Lullabye. I remember absolutely loving the song from the very first time I heard it in Vintage. I didn't realize until afterwards, when I started looking up videos of the song, that I actually had heard it before then, only a short time beforehand, sung by Joshua Madine in Libera.
I realized today that I haven't talked about Libera on my blog yet. Which is practically... sacrilege! Lol. Just kidding. But honestly, I really love the sound of treble voices. (To those who don't know, a treble singer is a boy soprano.) My favorite has got to be Libera, a boy's choir from South London. They do contemporary arrangements of both choir songs and popular music. They've even done the occasional classical music piece. Here's a showcase of some of my favorite work from them:
Sanctus: Set to Pachelbel's Canon in D. This is one of my favorite versions from them, with Tom Cully on the high note solos, and I prefer this ending to some of the other ones.
Salva Me: Ohmigod, Joe Snelling! It's such a shame he didn't stay with the group longer, but at least we have these: a testament to his gorgeous, clear high soprano!
How Can I Keep from Singing: Liam O'Kane, one of the original soloists, back when Libera was known as Angel Voices. Another soft, high tone that is so pure and clear. It's just beautiful. This video doesn't embed, so you can watch it here: Click!
You Were There: Tom Cully's beautiful voice, just a little lower than usual, since this was at the end of his time with Libera. Still, it's so beautiful. This is the song that I ended up singing over and over to comfort myself after my Grandpa passed away last January.
And finally, the song that started it all. This was the very first I ever saw of Libera, on a PBS broadcast - one of those specials where they ask you to donate. I think I was only like... 15 or so at the time, so obviously I couldn't buy it, but the style and the sound stuck with me all those years until I found them again.
Stay With Me: Ed Day's gorgeous soft high tone, and Liam O'Connery's incredible soprano riffs!
No comments:
Post a Comment