Originally posted by DracoM
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James MacMillan didn't invent grace notes... -
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Not entirely sure where I said that James MacMillan 'invented' them? After all, folk / rock / jazz have been using them for ages well before MacMillan et al. I just don't happen to think they work in the Truro Service. The music is perfectly able to speak without them.Comment
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They are part of the music. If you don't like them, fine.Originally posted by DracoM View PostComment
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I think the whole thing works v well, Gabriel. Can't believe these people have the temerity to suggest a composer what works and what doesn't - in his own piece.Originally posted by Gabriel Jackson View PostComment
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I expect i'll be told off by "sir" for being off topic again
but I do find it interesting that some people treat grace notes and ornaments as something that one applies TO music and not part of the music itself. I was taught this way and have found that it leads to some great misunderstandings about music. If one "note bashes" a piece then applies dynamics and "expression" , grace notes etc TO it one often ends up "missing" the music entirely. When I learn't the Sitar I was taught a whole gamut of what in western music one would consider to be "ornaments" but these are very much essential characters of the music NOT something that one "applies" afterwards. I think this is also true of much Western music so to say something like
"The music is perfectly able to speak without them" would seem to miss out on what the music IS. (as the composer points out !)Comment
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Indeed!Originally posted by MrGongGong View PostI expect i'll be told off by "sir" for being off topic again
but I do find it interesting that some people treat grace notes and ornaments as something that one applies TO music and not part of the music itself. I was taught this way and have found that it leads to some great misunderstandings about music. If one "note bashes" a piece then applies dynamics and "expression" , grace notes etc TO it one often ends up "missing" the music entirely. When I learn't the Sitar I was taught a whole gamut of what in western music one would consider to be "ornaments" but these are very much essential characters of the music NOT something that one "applies" afterwards. I think this is also true of much Western music so to say something like
"The music is perfectly able to speak without them" would seem to miss out on what the music IS. (as the composer points out !)Comment
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Thanks, Paul!Originally posted by paul duggan2 View Post
So far this year the choirs of Truro Cathedral, Wells Cathedral, York Minster, Västerås Cathedral, St Paul's Cathedral, St Mary's Cathedral, Edinburgh, Ely Cathedral, Guildford Cathedral, St John's College, Cambridge, Selwyn College, Cambridge and Trinity College, Cambridge, have been happy to sing grace notes not written by James MacMillan, as will choirs in Bermuda and Sydney next week so, grateful as I am for the online composition lesson, I think I'll leave the piece as it is.Comment
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When I go hunting for unfamiliar music, I generally look first for arresting texts and then for arresting music, which often means that I miss beautiful settings of the canticles and masses. ('I've heard those words so many times, though!' is the slightly immature thought.) Happily for me, though, I do occasionally stumble across a setting of a service that really sticks, and GJ's Truro Service is, I think, first among them. I first encountered it as recorded by the choir at St Mary's, Edinburgh, and I'll admit to having been moved nearly to tears upon hearing it. There's such a bold clarity to the voices on that particular recording; and perhaps I'm too easily led, but the grace notes, particularly from the soloists and/or trebles, did recall folk music for me and gave both the texts as well as their greater context an air of being 'of the folk', which made my humanist little heart swell. (Sorry if I've missed your intent with the pieces, Gabriel!)Originally posted by Gabriel Jackson View Post
St Thomas' performance of the service on the 8 March webcast is beautiful— but then, would I really expect otherwise from John Scott and his choir? i don't know that I've ever heard anything less than lovely from them. The last time I had the good fortune to attend a St Thomas evensong in person, an older gentleman behind me spent about twenty minutes before the start of the service grumbling to everyone who would listen that the choir as a whole just wasn't up to par, that the boys were growing lazy and had bad attitudes, that the men were undersinging, etc. Unsurprisingly, the ensuing service—which included a short solo by the same chorister who I believe appears as a soloist in the Dresden Requiem video linked earlier by DracoM—put a stop to all hand-wringing, and the same man and his companions left doing some praise-singing of their own.Comment
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No, you really should make the Db in bar 23 a semiquaverOriginally posted by Gabriel Jackson View Post
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Originally posted by DracoM View Post
No but it has to do with me, whose name YOU brought into this thread! Maybe...just maybe...he thought this concert might be of interest, following YOUR mention of my work.
Dear, oh dear...Comment
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Quite. I've just joined this board and, reading through various postings, am really shocked at how arrogant and lacking in knowledge many posters are. Shouldn't a board like this be about informed discussion?Originally posted by Gabriel Jackson View PostComment
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Welcome to The Choir, paul duggan2
Hope you enjoy contributing to discussions.Comment
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