sheep are nice
I went to a performance of Handel's Messiah last night. It was very good (although, I'd much rather have listened to a nice alto soloist instead of a countertenor and it was a little disconcerting to see the partial exodus after the Hallelujah chorus). Anyway, all day today I've had bits of the music running through my head, but unfortunately my knowledge of the words and music is severely limited so my personal version goes more like this:
For unto us a child is born,
unto us, a son is giv'n,
unto us a child is born,
For we like sheep,
we like sheep.
(Repeat)
At least it's replaced the remix of the Cherubini and Brahms requiems (possibly even some Verdi, since the only way I can distinguish requiems is by language and Cherubini and Verdi are both in latin) I've been making up since seeing Beethoven's 9th symphony.
posted by Lucy @ 5:26 PM
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6 Comments:
I totally do that with things like the Messiah. And as an alto, I always slightly disapprove of countertenors - as taking away an opportunity from an alto! - although I have to confess that a good countertenor is an incredible sound.
Think I may have to go put the Messiah in the CD player...
We do like sheep, even when they have gone astraaaaaaaaaaay.
:)
New Kid, I'm an alto, too, which may account for some of my preference. I don't think I could have ever heard a really good countertenor, though...
Sing it, y'all. We do indeed like sheep!
I grew up listening to Messiah every Christmas, played LOUDLY on a set of old, scratchy, LPs. ("And he will sha-a-a-a-a-ke-skip-sha-a-a-a-ake-skip...")
I, too, thought that the sheep song was about our love of animals. But then, I grew up in farm country. :)
I have to admit a fondness for countertenors. But I'm weird that way.
I kept wondering during the performance if Handel ever noticed how the sheep part sounds. Was he that attached to the rhythm that amusing ambiguity was worth not dotting the first note, or making the rest of the line stand out more?
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