February 8, 2012
Whistling while you work a lost artistic form
Daily Illini (IL):
There is a musical skill accessible to almost anyone, and it crosses nearly all genres of American music — the simple art of whistling. From the soulful ‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay,’ the effortlessly cool ‘Pumped Up Kicks,’ to Snow White and her woodland creatures’ sunny tune, ‘Whistle While You Work,’ — whistling is part of the musical experience.
“Whenever I’m walking around this campus, I’m always whistling,” said John Wagstaff, head of the Music and Performing Arts Library. “Maybe it’s because I’m a musician, but I’ve always got music going through my head. And sometimes, I’m just so excited about the pieces going through my head, that I have to go and externalize it by starting to whistle.”
Wagstaff said whistling is a great form of self-expression, and is a wonderful, cheerful activity that lifts one’s mood. Whistling’s benefits include the fact that it is great lung exercise, a mood elevator and a stress reducer, according to professional whistler Robert Stemmons in an NPR interview.
While whistling has made its way into mainstream music, such as Maroon 5’s ‘Moves Like Jagger’ or Britney Spears’ ‘I Wanna Go,’ whistling seems to not be held in as high esteem as it was during its golden age in early 20th Century Vaudeville. “I almost think there is a little bit of a revival of whistling in some music, but it may be viewed a little more casually than it used to be,” said John Sterr, senior in FAA.
According to the music periodical BRIO, whistling was a popular form of variety entertainment on the music hall and Vaudeville scenes of Europe and America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Many professional whistlers would whistle songs as well as do birdcalls and other wildlife impressions.
“I think people liked hearing the whistling because they all felt like they could do it, and if they worked hard enough at their own whistling, maybe they could be just as good as that person on stage,” Wagstaff said. Read more.
February 6, 2012
Electile Dysfunction: The Kinsey Sicks for President!
Washington Post:
Can dragapella save a presidential campaign that suddenly seems to be hitting the skids, entertainment-wise? The Kinsey Sicks hope so. The Sicks are four men in red-white-and-blue drag, a “beautyshop” quartet singing a cappella parodies. Their new show at Theater J, “Electile Dysfunction: The Kinsey Sicks for President!”, is a mock political rally pushing the red-meat buttons of the right as this frisky foursome tries to become the first corporation to win the White House.
“I’ll defend ya/ From Kenya /Through the millennia,” the Kinseys sing, with the backup harmonies goofily emphasizing that they are “Not from Kenya /Not from Kenya.” Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Modern Major General’s Song” from “The Pirates of Penzance” gets rendered as “I am the very model of a moderate Republican,” even though the Sicks gradually agree that “The ‘moderate’ in ‘moderate Republican’ is silent, like the ‘p’ in ‘psoriasis.’ ”
It’s a show in which Mitt Romney is gleefully referred to as Mitzi. So what’s not to like? Read more.
February 3, 2012
How Low Can You Go?
The hunt is on to find a singer with a seriously low range to record a new composition. Decca has launched an international talent quest in the hopes of discovering the lowest-voiced singer in the world.
The classical label was set to record a new album of works by Welsh choral composer Paul Mealor, whose radiantly beautiful motet Ubi caritas was commissioned by Prince William and Kate Middleton and premiered at the royal wedding last year.
But there's a minor hitch: he's written a choral work, De Profundis, that features the lowest note ever notated for the human voice. The offending E resides almost three octaves below Middle C in the nether regions of a standard piano keyboard, and sounds at 329 Hertz to be exact.
Basses wanting to give their vocal cords a workout in the competition may be daunted by the fact that the E is six notes below the lowest ever written for a choral piece (a pesky B-flat from Rachmanivov’s Vespers) and a whole tone lower than the Guinness World Record-holding F-sharp.
It is thought that this pitch has never been voiced in the history of Western music – Decca may have to import a Mongolian throat-singer if the recording is to go ahead without revisions to the piece. More info.
February 2, 2012
Children's choir to sing at Super Bowl
A group of children from Indianapolis get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to sing during the Super Bowl on Sunday. The Indianapolis Children’s Choir will provide 45 young singers to back up Kelly Clarkson during the National Anthem on Sunday. The choir’s founder, Henry Leck, says he was working with the Super Bowl Host Committee for two years in hopes of playing a role in the festivities. The kids found out that they would be singing nearly two weeks ago, but they have had to keep it quiet until now. Leck says they have created a special four part arrangement for Clarkson to sing.
January 31, 2012
A cappella Superbowl ad
Here's an advance look at the latest Hyundai ad that includes an a cappella rendition of the Rocky theme song. It is due to be aired during the Superbowl.
January 28, 2012
Arranger Clare Fischer dies at 83
Los Angeles Times:
Clare Fischer, a Grammy-winning pianist, composer and arranger who crossed freely from jazz to Latin and pop music, working with such names as Dizzy Gillespie, George Shearing and Natalie Cole as well as Paul McCartney, Prince and Michael Jackson, has died. He was 83.
Fischer died Thursday at Providence St. Joseph's Medical Center in Burbank of complications from a heart attack he had two weeks ago, said family spokeswoman Claris Dodge.
Although he entered professional music through jazz, his expansive creative perspective quickly grew to embrace many other musical areas.
"I relate to everything," he explained in 1987 in The Times. "I'm not just jazz, Latin or classical. I really am a fusion of all of those." He went on to describe his fascination with Stravinsky, Schoenberg and Bartok, as well as Duke Ellington, Bud Powell, Lee Konitz, Tito Puente and boogie-woogie pianist Meade Lux Lewis.
Regardless of genre, Fischer's arranging and composing invariably possessed a rich harmonic palette, one that attracted and influenced other musicians.
"Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept," Herbie Hancock said in a statement on Fischer's website. Hancock credited Fischer's arrangements for the 1950s vocal group the Hi-Lo's with significantly influencing his 1968 recording "Speak Like a Child." Read more.
January 27, 2012
Singing Valentines
Time to book your singing valentines. A great surprise for a loved one and a good fundraiser for your local barbershop chorus.
January 20, 2012
Jonathan Harvey: spirits soar in the hands of a master
The Daily Telegraph (UK):
What does “spiritual” music sound like? Walk into any big record store, or turn on Classic FM, and you’ll find a fascinating variety of answers. It can sound like the surging, soaring choral harmonies of Eric Whitacre, the American composer who is literally the pin-up boy for new spiritual music (he used to be a male model). It can hail from the native English choral tradition, in such older figures as John Rutter or younger ones such as Gabriel Jackson. It can sound like those innumerable “Music for Healing” CDs (which you can buy in a job lot with some nice pyramidal “healing crystals”), or the atavistic drones and chants of John Tavener.
Much of this music makes my heart sink. For one thing, it tries to raise us up by looking back. In its desperate efforts to be timeless, it simply sounds old-fashioned. The other problem is that the idea of a musical genre stamped “spiritual” is deeply suspect. All music (or rather, all good music) is spiritual, in that it defies the mechanical ticking of the clock, aligns our being with its dancing motion, and gives us a delicious sense of being freed from tedious rationality. As T S Eliot put it, “You are the music, while the music lasts.” This is as true of a humble Haydn minuet or a Cole Porter song as it is of a lofty sacred piece by Tallis or Palestrina.
By that measure, much of this “spiritual” music is a dismal failure; a noxious blend of nostalgia and narcosis. Only a few composers manage to rise above its limitations. At the end of this month, the BBC offers a Total Immersion in one of them: Jonathan Harvey. His music never harks back, but neither is it self-consciously modern. It glories in the present moment, which it makes real by transfixing our senses, in the same way a rosy dawn makes us forget everything else.
How does Harvey pull off this remarkable feat? By making glowing musical images that carry an instantly perceptible symbolic value. Read more.
January 19, 2012
Hamas likes barbershop
Associated Press:
Organizers of the Palestinian version of "American Idol" said Thursday the Gaza Strip's Hamas rulers have banned residents from participating in the popular reality show.
The organizers said Hamas told them the program is "indecent," in what appears to be a new attempt by the fundamentalist militant Muslim group to crack down on behavior it sees as contrary to its conservative interpretation of Islam.
Hamas permits male barbershop style singing groups that do not use musical instruments and sing of the glory of Islam and to fighting Israel. Young, prepubescent girls also perform in their own singing groups, but teenage girls and women are never seen singing in public. Many devout Muslims believe singing by women is provocative.
Al-Abed said he was told by the head of Gaza's government press office, Hassan Abu Hashish, that the local singers could not compete because the program was not in compliance with the territory's culture and it was not morally acceptable.
So much for that Kinsey Sicks tour of the West Bank I was considering...
January 18, 2012
Vasari Singers, Kings Place - review
Evening Standard (London):
Take the instruments out of music and what's left? The singing voice in all its glory. The London A Cappella Festival embraces as many instrument-less possibilities as three days of music-making allow, and began last night with a solo, half beat-box, half doo-wop, by Albert Hera.Then the Vasari Singers took the stage. After a slightly tentative opening in a Crucifixus setting by Antonio Lotti, the Vasaris's precision-tooled harmonies and crisp enunciation took over. Pierre Villette's Attende Domine proved an unsettling blend of ancient and modern, while the clipped phrases and rousing "Amen" of Francis Poulenc's Gloria (from his Mass) suited the hall's short echo. The most moving pieces were contemporary British. In Gabriel Jackson's I Am The Voice of The Wind, the women's wordless evocation of the wind was devastating while the consonant-free ululations of Will Todd's Angel Song II were more sinister than angelic.
January 13, 2012
"Moves Like Jagger" - Pentatonix
At 3 pm Tuesday Pentatonix posted a request on their Facebook pages for suggestions on what song they should sing for their first YouTube video. They selected Maroon 5's "Moves Like Jagger" and then over two hours did a speed arrangement and recorded the song. Already as of end of day Thursday the clip has already received over 125,000. views. This is a very talented group.
How Singing Can Reduce the NHS Budget
Huffington Post (UK):
What song do you sing in the shower? My default tune is Rule Britannia. I particularly relish the trill of notes on the word 'first' ('When Britain first at heaven's command') not least because I have recently learned the correct musical term for a syllable sung with several notes in succession is 'melisma'. Warbling first thing in the morning lifts my spirits so much that singing should be prescribed on the NHS! That may not be as daft as it sounds because singing is good for physical and psychological health.
Singing improves circulation and digestion, and being an aerobic exercise also increases oxygen levels in the blood. Lung capacity is expanded and when airflow is enhanced in the respiratory tract, bacteria have less chance to flourish so this can counter cold symptoms. And because it requires deep breathing singing is a stress-buster, lowering blood pressure, and is good for the nervous system. It boosts immunity by producing proteins that function as anti-bodies. Even muscles in the face and the stomach are toned and it improves posture. Forget Pilates - just join a choir.
And there's more - the psychological benefits. Singing triggers the release of feel-good endorphins which make a person feel happier and more positive. Those endorphins are also natural pain-killers, and natural anti-depressants. Happier people often have fewer physical health problems. All that just by opening the mouth, and it doesn't matter if you're out of tune. Sing hallejuiah come on get happy! Read more.
January 11, 2012
The Primary Season, A Cappella
Working away in the a cappella warehouse this afternoon listening to NPR's All Things Considered and news of the primaries when out of the blue came this segment. Cool.
"The next 40-some weeks are going to be a screaming tower of political babble; a cacophony of accusing and boasting, pandering and slandering. I watch the news these days with the mute button permanently depressed, lest I fall into a permanent depression myself. There's only so much contention and vitriol a sensitive soul can bear.
Fortunately, I've developed a sonic antidote to the nerve-rattling chorus of pundits and office-seekers: a cappella music. Human voices singing solo melodies or merged in harmony. Best of all, they rarely sing about downbeat temporal matters like unemployment, budget deficits or gun control.
So here's the prescription for election-year sensory overload: Silence the devil television and turn up the angelic strains of human voices united in harmony. As it turns out, we can all get along."
Barbershop Virtual Chorus
After seeing Eric Whitacre's Virtual Choir British barbershopper Peter Nugent decided to create a virtual barbershop chorus. After emailing barbershop singers around the world Peter released today this video of the chorus singing the David Harrington arrangement of "If I Had My Way".
January 10, 2012
House Jacks Pair with Sony for New Soundtrack
Rolling Stone:
Starting today, Sony is kicking off the 2012 Detroit Auto Show on an unexpected note, courtesy of a cutting-edge audio system. Rather than using pounding bass lines or sinuous grooves to illustrate the 12-speaker, digitally-amplified Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound system that adorns the Ford Flex crossover, they are instead highlighting the human voice's power to mimic high-end instruments.
"You hear so many demos that default to drum loops, horns and Seinfeld-style ditties as a listener showpiece," explains Austin Willacy, singer/songwriter for the a cappella rock band the House Jacks, which provided supporting vocals for this project. "What people are unused to hearing is how the fidelity of today's sound systems can capture the harmony and intricacy of the human voice, especially when multiple singers apply their talents together. It's a singularly fresh approach."
Rather than compose a stiff-sounding technical demo, the Bay Area group – whom fans of The Sing Off and Monday Night Football may recognize – instead created a more relaxed two-and-a-half minute teaser illustrating the system's capabilities. Using their elastic esophagi to replicate the sound of guitars, swelling melodies and toe-tapping percussions, Willacy says the group has assembled a funked-out, soul-tinged showpiece that pans around drivers' heads in surround stereo. Comparing its recording process to classic funk and pop albums ("like mixing a Sly and the Family Stone record"), he claims the work more elegantly underscores the innocuously-titled Audio System from Sony's reach than any computer-generated sampler. Read more.
