not singing

[calimac]

I still have not enough voice to sing with, but I went with B. to the annual carolling party anyway. Spent most of it trying to croak out the bass part as inconspicuously as possible; fortunately it was being conspicuous that would have been difficult.

One cool thing: since the melody of "O Come, O Come Immanuel" is a Gregorian chant, somebody suggested that we could give it that real old-timey flavor by abandoning the harmonization altogether, and just singing the melodic line in two parts in parallel open fifths. The result was impressively and even eerily stark.

Those of you buried by winter storms might consider relieving your feelings by trying this arrangement for such carols as "Winter Wonderland", "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow", or even "White Christmas".

Comments

[k6rfm.livejournal.com]

Well, I think the stated goal was to have some people singing the melody too, so it would be melody+up a third +down a third throughout, rather than all open fifths around the melody. Trying to sing the whole thing as open fifths would have been fun (I love open fifths) but in a crowd like that somebody (like me) is going to find it feels right to sing the middle third.

("say your prayers! 'cause Santa Claus comes tonite.")

[asimovberlioz.livejournal.com]

Aieee! Parallel fifths!

[pcw-rcw.livejournal.com]

calimac, are there any recent CD recordings of Christmas music (any type) that you can recommend highly? A little late for this year, but there are always future Christmases. Our current Christmas music is all on records (which require frequent changing) and are beginning to sound more and more dated.

[aradiva.livejournal.com]

I dig parallel fifths... I'm a fan of parallel organum. But the professors will give you lots of red marks if you put them in your counterpoint homework... (I got a few back in undergrad)