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Post by housesparrow on Sept 2, 2009 17:50:18 GMT
How do I get Gareth Malone to come down here and start a choir? The man should be cloned and copies distributed freely throughour Britain.
(BBC2 Tuesdays, for those who missed it)
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Post by jean on Sept 4, 2009 14:26:58 GMT
He's had an amazing response to his latest effort, hasn't he?
Do you think they came along just because they'd be on TV?
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Post by housesparrow on Sept 4, 2009 16:46:44 GMT
It would put me off, I think: maybe not in a huge chorus like that, but I admire those who tried singing the solo last week!
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Post by jean on Sept 4, 2009 17:05:12 GMT
Yes - the not-very-good ones were very brave,
Unless of course they didn't realise.
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Post by housesparrow on Sept 4, 2009 18:55:50 GMT
On the other hand, they might have just been suffering from stage fright. I go to pieces when I know someone is watching me.
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Post by jean on Sept 5, 2009 8:32:53 GMT
I could never act, and I can't play an instrument in front of people - but singing is different. If I sing solo in public I can do things I never dreamed possible. A bit like exams.
Everyone ought to sing - it really is the most wonderful thing, and it is very sad that children aren't being introduced to it at school. Sometimes we are drafted into the University choir because the students - even the music students - won't do it.
And those who do are nearly all girls - what's that about?
But singing has to be available at appropriate level. I would get very bored with the sort of 'community choir' Gareth has set up here, excellnt though it is for those who've never done it before. That's why I have to live in a fairly large city.
"[Singing] is a knowledge easely taught and quickly learned, where there is a good Master and an apt Scoller.
The exercise of singing is delightfull to Nature and good to preserve the health of Man.
It doth strengthen all parts of the brest, and doth open the pipes.
It is a singular good remedie for stammering in the speech.
It is the best meanes to procure a perfect pronunciation, and to make a good Orator.
It is the onely way to know where Nature hath bestowed the benefit of a good voyce; which guift is so rare as there is not one among a thousand that hath it; and in many that excellent guift is lost because they want Art to express Nature.
There is not any Musicke of Instruments whatsoever comparable to that which is made of the voyces of men, where the voyces are good and the same well sorted and ordered.
The better the voyce is, the meter it is to honour and serve God therewith; and the voyce of man is chiefely to be employed to that ende.
Since singing is so good a thing,
I wish all men would learn to sing.”
(William Byrd)
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Post by percyplum on Sept 7, 2009 22:32:58 GMT
I love that programme. He is so enthusiastic.
I can't carry a tune in a bucket - well, not since a tonsilectomy at age 8...and it was always my father's biggest disappointment that I didn't take after him musically. He could play just about everything.
I used to do non-singing am-dram though.
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Post by aubrey on Sept 9, 2009 8:26:49 GMT
Kingsley Amis once said that "singing in the school choir was the apex of non-sensual pleasures."
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Post by jean on Sept 9, 2009 9:27:18 GMT
I wonder what he meant by that?
It's one of the most sensual things there is.
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Post by percyplum on Sept 9, 2009 12:38:32 GMT
But just the sort of pretentious stuff he'd come out with!  |
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Post by aubrey on Sept 9, 2009 17:22:10 GMT
Not fair. He didn't want to say most fun you can have with your clothes on because he didn't go for cliches.
Have you ever read the madrigal scene in Lucky Jim? I think the comment was to someone who said that he obviously didn't like singing in a choir because he nailed it so well in that scene; all he was saying was that he was a novelist, and that he made things up (in the same book there is something about "Filthy Mozart," though in real life Amis actually liked Mozart, a lot).
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Post by riotgrrl on Sept 9, 2009 18:54:59 GMT
Can't believe you people are raving about 'The Choir'. Haven't you seen 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey' or 'What Katie did next'? These are the kind of hard-hitting reality documentaries that we should be discussing!!!  |
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Post by jean on Sept 9, 2009 21:23:13 GMT
If you are not careful I will start a Box & Fiddle thread.
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Post by riotgrrl on Sept 9, 2009 21:38:35 GMT
If you are not careful I will start a Box & Fiddle thread. That's right. Embarress me more. Tonight we decided we are moving to London. And I will no longer have to deal with the shame of being Scottish . . . |
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Post by jean on Sept 9, 2009 22:37:39 GMT
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