As you may have seen on facebook, it's Holiday Festival weekend in Boulder -- which means that all the good little choristers (and instrumentalists galore!) are putting on four big shows....the current count is three down, four to go. This is my fifth year of Holiday Festival involvement, but because of the gap between degree #1 and #2, I've been watching the whole thing evolve since 2002. I must say, it's a good show. Lots of different things happening, lots of visual interest and genre diversity (my personal favorite act is the jazz combo performing a Latin rendition of "Rudolph"...it's quite sassy!), and the audiences are very appreciative. However, anyone who has ever done four of the same show in three days' time (especially at the end of a semester when you can think of 120,980,354,309,870 really important things you ought to be doing during each of those shows) knows that it's a little hard to keep up an ideal attitude through the full gauntlet. So, knowing that many of you are in similar boats at this time of year, this posting will be part assignment, but mostly refreshment.
Let's start with refreshment....it's the fourth night of Hanukkah as I type this, and I found this on YouTube today while looking for something else, but I was so struck by its sweetness that I decided to use it instead....the second half of the video is a little weird, but I do find the singing quite touching. So, take a few minutes and just listen and enjoy:
Now, a little combo of refreshment and light work. My choir is singing this piece for the aforementioned Holiday Festival:
But, you may be more familiar with this tune for the text (which is a little grisly...for the Feast of the Holy Innocents):
So, what are the obvious differences between the two tunes? Can you solmize both versions?
And now, though it was my intention to include a YouTube rendition of "Wassail, Wassail", I cannot find one that does not set my teeth on edge (if you find a good one, please send it on....the piece is deceptively difficult -- we're doing the Ralph Vaughan Williams SATB unaccompanied setting). So, instead, some alternative Vaughan Williams (sung by some cool Dutch people):
Take a stab at solmizing that melody as well...it's not so hard.
I'm including this one because it makes me smile....if you're feeling particularly ambitious, take a rhythmic dictation of just the chorus:
And now, finally....some gratuitous humor:
Keep your chins up, my friends...
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