Handel's Messiah a cappella
  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,100
    not all of it....
    "For Unto Us a Child is Born" arranged by Mikhail Barashev
    >> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_9KslwvJcU
    where could one get the sheet music for this?
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,611
    Print out the orchestral score from imslp.org. (free)

    Highlight the parts for each singer in the orchestral part they are to sing, then highlight where they are to jump down to their vocal part. Then back up, then down, till FINE.
    Thanked by 2mmeladirectress francis
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    Delightful!
    Sort of reminds one of the Swingle Singers.
    (How many here remember them?)
    Thanked by 7chonak CharlesW noel jones, aago melofluent mmeladirectress CHGiffen eft94530
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    Way too bumpy for my taste.

    However, Mozart's arrangement is lucid and lovely: in a word, wunderbar! His genius sensibility for the interplay of ensembles (which is why many musicians - professional or home amateurs like families on Sunday afternoons of yore - enjoy performing his music) is illustrated to good effect.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpT6hdeGv7U
    Thanked by 1mmeladirectress
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    ...arrangement is lucid...

    No doubt it is.
    But! When I wish to hear Mozart (which is very often) I will listen to something that he wrote the way he wrote it.
    When I wish to hear Handel (which is often) I will listen to his music the way he wrote it.
    Nor would I care to hear what Liszt did to Beethoven's ninth, as if Beethoven himself could be improved upon.
    Such tinkering is gratuitously arrogant and a presumptuous condescension - even it's a genius in his own right doing it.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • mmeladirectress
    Posts: 1,100
    thank you !!
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    "Nor would I care to hear what Liszt did to Beethoven's ninth, as if Beethoven himself could be improved upon. Such tinkering is gratuitously arrogant and a presumptuous condescension - even it's a genius in his own right doing it."

    That sentiment is quite 19th century. It was foreign to Handel and Bach, not just Mozart. Bach and his peers happily repurposed works of others. I can easily imagine Handel taking what Mozart did as a generous tip of the hat.
    Thanked by 4CharlesW M. Jackson Osborn MarkThompson CHGiffen
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    Good answer, Liam.
    Very good.
    But for one thing -
    namely, it would be difficult to pigeon hole 'that sentiment [as being] quite 19th century'. For reason: the 19th century saw probably history's most grotesque and gratuitous 'improvements' by just about everybody on just about everybody's work, both contemporary and historical.

    And, I'll grant you that Bach and Mozart may have thought such tampering with their work to be 'a generous tip of the hat'. But Beethoven??? I rather doubt that we would have wanted to be present at the resultant explosion of temper.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    MJO

    You make my point in your reference to Beethoven. What I meant was the 19th century advent of the composer as an agonistic hero, with Beethoven being chief in mind. Agonistic struggle is ego-drama - and that's what triggers the "tampering" sensibility. Whatever Mozart's faults, ego-drama is relatively removed from his music. I mean that as a deep compliment: to my mind, much of spiritual life is learning to detach from our own attachment to ego-drama. This seems to be one special vulnerability of church musicians.

    In any event, while Handel (unlike Bach) was a master of the medium of opera, that medium evolved between his peak and that of Mozart (with opera being Mozart's supreme medium IMO), and Mozart's reassigning of the florid lines of FUUACIB to a quartet (and later taken up by the choir only in the recapitulation) is more emblematic of that evolved operatic practice - and it does add a further contrapuntal texture against which both the orchestra and the choir are brought into more lovely relief. I am not saying it's *better* than Handel's original approach, but it *illuminates* Handel's work in a masterful way that I believe Handel would have been delighted by.
    Thanked by 4M. Jackson Osborn MarkThompson CHGiffen MarkS
  • MarkS
    Posts: 282
    On the other hand, and possibly wandering even further afield, there seems to be a general acceptance of transcriptions nowadays by at least a large segment of 'classical' (I hate that we call it this) both performers and listeners that drives me crazy. If the playlist of our local 'classical' station can be used as evidence, it appears that folks would rather hear piano pieces on guitar, or arranged for odd chamber groups; they like their arias played on 'cello, or flute (or guitar) rather than sung; and they prefer mostly anything arranged for harp (or guitar) rather than whatever the original was. And guitar, guitar, guitar. I joke these days that someday I will turn on the radio and hear a transcription of the 'Tristan' Prelude arranged for guitar quartet. (At least I hope it's a joke—otherwise I would never turn on the radio again!)
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Richard MixRichard Mix
    Posts: 2,799
    In the 80's the Tokyo Koto Ensemble's version of K. 550 was at the top of KDFC's playlist, for reasons one assumes had to do with payola. Shudder. But does one really have to spend one's time trying to decide if BWV 592-597 are halal or haram?
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVu6RvnGIto
  • irishtenoririshtenor
    Posts: 1,325
    As a father of young children, I actually laughed out loud at the VeggieTales link from sideways-Adam Wood
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Of course, if we're talking about a capella arrangements...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHMyZ4rJXHk
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    .
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    .

    Indeed.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    And we can't forget this gem...

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXbBlh-hNZM
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
  • Chaswjd
    Posts: 269
    The thread is about a cappella arrangements rather than the organist losing his or her place during "And the glory of the Lord . . ." and just dropping out while the choir continues . . . Right?
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,415
    The thread is about...

    Interesting question - (I hope this didn't happen to you!)

    Actually, my impression was that this thread was about musical spoofs that were a capella. Somewhere! along the line it got hijacked by non a capella non spoofs which were in the most agonising and difficult to believe tastelessness on the part of popular entertainers. Truly, I had not known that it was possible that such totally depraved heinousness could be visited upon such beautiful musical icons. Screwtape has been at it again. He never stops.

    again.
  • Chaswjd
    Posts: 269
    M. Jackson -- It did happen and on Christmas Eve. The expression on my director's face was quite memorable. He urged the choir on. We continued. Several measures from the end, the organist found where we were and decided to come back in. The baby Jesus was smiling on us. We were still on pitch.
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen
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