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

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

My favorite carol collection of all time is We Three Kings by the Roches - no longer all that recent, but it did come out within the CD era. Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band have done several good carols albums, and more recently Prior also did a peculiar but interesting one with her band Steeleye Span titled Winter.

For other Christmas music, there's always Part I of Handel's Messiah, and Arcangelo Corelli's Christmas Concerto.

[pcw-rcw.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Christmas music recommendations--we'll see which ones we can find.