100

I was complaining one day about the lack of web sites where people were discussing boy choir music. I had found a couple of discussion groups but not much was happening on them so a friend said, “Why don’t you start a blog?”

I wasn’t sure how to start and it took a while to find my voice but soon I got fairly comfortable with it and now this is my 100th post, a goal I had not thought about reaching.

Besides the enjoyment that I get from doing this there is the added bonus that people actually read it and talk to me about it, too. You have all been really kind and helpful and you’ve taught me a lot so I would like to say thanks.

Since this is a special post I wanted to dedicate it to my favorite boy choir, Libera. These kids must have the most loyal and ardent fan base of any choir in the world. Their fans span every age group and every continent (with the probable exception of Antarctica) and there are tons of fan sites on the internet. Even after a couple of years I still feel that excitement, that magic that they bring.

An excellent CD to own is Libera Eternal, the Best of Libera. It’s a double CD with 32 of their best songs. Most of them were recorded for previous albums, some are new versions of previous recordings while some others are remixes of older tunes.

The remix of Heaven, this time sung by Josh and Liam, is especially pretty. Steven Geraghty did the remix of Sempiterna with vocals by Tom and Joseph Sandros Wilde.

There are two totally new songs. One is You Were There, the theme from the Japanese movie “Nobody to Watch Over Me”, with a solo by Tom Cully.
I haven’t seen the film but I watched the trailer and it’s pretty cool to hear them on it.

The other new song is Taverner’s Mother of God, a soft, slow song that showcases their special harmonies.
I can't wait to for their next CD. I hope they do one sometime in the coming year.

It isn’t always easy to find these CD’s especially since I don’t understand foreign languages enough to safely order them on the internet. More than once I have misread the description and received something I didn’t care for.

On top of that I worry about putting my credit card number out there in too many places because of the chance of some hacker getting it. It happened to me once several years ago when I foolishly used my debit card on-line and a few days later found that my checking account was short $3,000. The bank replaced it but I’m still a little gun shy.

That’s why I prefer to buy from a few central sources and one that I found recently is Lammas Records. Looking at their web site you might wonder if they are still in business because none of their stock is newer than 2006. They explained that Lance Andrews has retired and will be issuing no more CD‘s on the Lammas label and they will not be replacing any of their stock, but they continue to sell what remains. Plus a lot of their music is available as downloads from the internet.

I ordered a couple of CD’s and was happy with the transaction. They only charged $30.00 for the two and that included shipping.
One of the CD’s from them is a 2005 release from the Truro Cathedral Choir titled Peace On Earth, Sacred and Secular Music by Orlando Gibbons. I’m not that familiar with Gibbons’ work but I did recognize a couple of pieces, Song 46 and This Is The Record of John, both of which I really like.

The choir sings with just the organ quietly supporting them so their voices are not obscured, just the way I like them. Treble soloists Max Spreckley and Matthew Oddy do a beautiful duet on If Ye Be Risen and it’s fun to listen to the interplay of their voices. Young Patrick Windsor sounds great on Nay Let Me Weep.

It may not be a really special thing but I like it when the organ and a boy’s voice hit the same note and the sounds are so similar that they blend together seamlessly. It makes me smile.

The Truro Cathedral Choir consists of eighteen boy choristers and twelve gentlemen. They all sound wonderful. They tour every two years so maybe they will come to the states sometime soon.
An interesting note about Orlando Gibbons is that he was once a chorister at King’s College, Cambridge until 1598.

For someone with a liberal arts education I sure do have a lot of holes in my learning. I’m always finding out about things that I probably should have known already. I thought about asking the university for a partial refund for the things they didn’t teach me, but I’m sure they would just tell me that I should have paid more attention in class.

I’m trying to learn more about famous composers like Sir Edward William Elgar who was most famous for his Pomp and Circumstance Marches. Everyone knows the tunes but not so many know the man behind them.

That’s why I picked up the CD titled Elgar, Sacred Choral Music from the Choir of St. John’s College, Cambridge. The CD was recorded in July, 2003 so many of the boys who sang on their 2002 DVD, Ave Verum were probably still in the choir. I feel as if I know them.

There are thirteen songs including a version of Ave Verum Corpus and one of Ave Maria. There is also Light of the World, Ave Maris Stella, O Harken Thou and more. An interesting one is Rossetti’s translation from Italian of the poem Go Song of Mine, by Cavalcanti.

It's always enjoyable to read about someone’s rise to success in the art world especially if they come from humble beginnings like Elgar. His father was a piano-tuner, organist and shopkeeper but it was from him along with his own studies that Elgar learned music.

He began as a freelance musician but when he was thirty he wrote the Imperial March and that was his first success. Over the next few years he continued to grow in prominence with his Enigma Variations and The Dream of Gerontius.

He wrote the coronation music for King Edward VII and was awarded honorary doctorates along with a knighthood and in 1931 he became a Baronet.

I won’t say this is my favorite CD but I always like hearing the Choir of St. Johns College. They have a rich, full sound with those sweet trebles that rise above the warmer, deeper voices of the men.

Eleven-year-old Laurence Kilsby from Tewkesbury Abbey in Gloucestershire, and Jaquelyne Hill from St Andrew's, West Tarring in Sussex are the winners of this year’s Chorister of the Year competition from the BBC. Congratulations to both of them. Their performances were outstanding and the duet at the end was really moving.

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I've been making my Christmas fruitcakes. Each one takes about a pint of bourbon and they have to age for a few weeks before they are ripe. Maybe it was sampling the bourbon (to make sure it had not gone bad) that made me feel Christmas-y so I put on some carols.

One of my first and favorite Christmas CD's is The Choirboy's Christmas by that charismatic little chorister, Anthony Way. I like this album for a number of reasons, he's young here so his voice is pretty and he's backed up by the St. Paul's Cathedral choir and the English Chamber Orchestra, two fantastic groups.

Also, most of the songs here are traditional English carols so they were new to me. I wonder why these songs are not more well-known over here, or at least, why I had never heard them before I bought this CD a couple of years ago.

Everyone knows carols like Joy to the World, Silent Night and Away In a Manger, but I fell in love with songs like Sussex Carol, Dancing Day, In the Bleak Midwinter and The Holly and the Ivy.
I can never get enough of Balulalow but then who can? Too bad I can’t say the same thing for The Twelve Days of Christmas.

The Brits have grown up with these songs but for the Americans who haven’t discovered them it’s really nice to add some new songs to your Christmas carol repertoire.
This album has especially powerful versions of O Come All Ye Faithful and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. The choir of St. Paul’s brings something special to all of the songs.

I watched a new video from Libera’s tour of the Philippines and here is a link to it on YouTube. The song is called Banyan Ko and the video is shot from a single view at the back of the theater. It’s a pretty song and it would sound even prettier if the audience would be quiet so I could hear it.
Maybe it’s an ethnic thing but they break into applause and cheers eight times throughout the 3-1/2 minute number. If the entire concert was like that it would have been annoying.

The good thing is that Libera sounds great. The change in members didn’t affect their special harmonies. Too bad there were no close-ups, though. It seems like they were over there for a long time and during some bad weather so I'm really glad they made it home safely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vCTcEN-tBA

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I’m not like the rest of my family. I never was. When I was a boy I believed that I had been switched at birth and I had faith that someday my real family would pull up in a limo and take me home to our mansion. I think I was 11 when I realized one day that I looked just like my mother and those hopes were dashed.

My family is not very sophisticated. They are happy with gifts in bags that say Sears on the outside. I always wished that mine said Nieman Marcus.

I always look forward to November because this is the time of year when I start my Christmas shopping. The family laughs at me because I buy presents for myself, but I have to, it’s the only way I can get any really good stuff.

I to go to Amazon and start stuffing things into my ‘wish list’. For most of November I load it up with books, DVD’s and lots of music. Then when I get my Christmas bonus at work, which is sometime around Thanksgiving, I start dumping my wishes into the shopping cart. I make sure that they all come in groups just large enough to qualify for free shipping so there will be lots of boxes and when they arrive I wrap them and stick them under the tree. By the time Christmas morning arrives I will have forgotten what I ordered so each box will have nice surprises in it and it’s always something I really wanted.

So, when it comes to CD’s I’m open for suggestions.

I really wanted to write a post for Halloween that has to do with choir boys and spooky stuff, like un-holy ghosts. I went all over the net trying to find ghost stories about choirboys, but I didn’t find much. It looks like choirboys lead exemplary lives and don’t leave behind much unfinished business.

I encountered a lot of ‘dead ends’, like it turns out that the Dead Boys Choir is a hardcore metal group. Boring.
Here are a few things that I did find. This post is a little longer than I usually like. I hope you don’t mind.

In Edmonton, Alberta at Concordia College - On certain nights you can hear a choir sing in the boy’s dorm areas. Doors slam even though no one is around. A female teacher has also been seen wandering the halls.

At the St. James' Theatre in Wellington, New Zealand, built in 1912, there have been numerous reports of several ghosts in the theatre. … A boy's choir is said to haunt the theatre also. The choir played their last song at the St. James during the Second World War before beginning a tour. The ship they sailed on was never seen again and patrons and workers alike often hear their music in the seating area. The excellent Ghost Hunt group of New Zealand held a night investigation here which resulted in some incredible paranormal evidence... This has to be one of the most haunted theatres in the world.

This is from a church in England. “In December 1920 a choirmaster along with two choirboys had gone into the church to rehearse at 6 pm one evening a few days before Christmas. They had been singing for around twenty minutes when they noticed an old lady standing about 8 feet away from them. So real did she appear that one of the boys walked over and placed a chair for her to sit on, the woman nodded her thanks and sat down. She was dressed… in old-fashioned clothing. Her hair was grey…
Their strange visitor mystified the choirmaster. He had most certainly locked the door when they had entered. He had heard no footsteps on the stone floor and, furthermore, the heavy, creaking double doors that led from the main body of the church had been silent since he and the choristers had passed through them.
Then suddenly, just as the practice concluded, the mysterious visitor vanished without trace. They searched the church but could find no trace whatsoever of the woman. Furthermore, when they went to leave the building, the door was still locked.”

I’m sure I’m not supposed to just lift other people’s photos from the web so I’m just including the link to a site that shows a possible choirboy’s ghost appearing on a television. If you ask me though, it’s the little girl in the picture that’s scary. Check it out.
http://paranormal.about.com/library/bl_choirboy_ghost_lg.htm
　
Finally, A neighbor of mine, an older man, once told me about something scary that happened to him back in the 1930's. His family lived in a very rural area and they used to walk to church. One evening he and his brother and their mother were coming home from choir practice. They knew it would be dark, as usual, when they finished so they always brought a lantern.
They had to walk more than a mile to get home, but this time there had been a storm and the bridge was washed out on the road they usually used so they were taking the path through the woods. This path went past the old logging camp and was not used much since the camp had closed.
He and his brother sang some songs as they walked, but when they stopped singing the boys could hear footsteps behind them.
Their mother told them it was nothing, just the wind or something, but a few minutes later they heard it again. Their mother shined the lantern behind them and said again that there was nothing there.
Finally, they were nearing their house when the footsteps became louder, as if they were closer. They were scared so their mother held the lantern up and looked back again.
She told them she didn't see anything but they should hurry and get to the house because their father would be worrying about them. They walked really fast and were relieved to get inside and lock the door. The boys told their father what they had heard but their mother said it was their imaginations. Still, she seemed to be nervous and distracted.
Later that night, when the boys were in bed, he could hear his mother telling his father about it. In a frightened and trembling voice she told how she held the lantern up and didn't see anything until the last time. "That time I saw it, Henry. It was a man standing right there and, oh God Henry, he didn't have a head!"

And finally, I can’t prove it, but I’ve been told that Casper is the ghost of Richie Rich.

As I mentioned last time, I have another Vienna Boys Choir DVD that I really like a lot. It is titled A Mozart Celebration. This DVD is bigger than the previous one in every way. It’s longer with a larger orchestra and more singers, and it’s also filmed inside a huge cathedral, the Domkirche St. Stephen in Vienna. The opening shot is of the outside of the cathedral and it’s massive and really impressive.
The inside is breathtaking with every surface textured and lavishly ornate. There are a lot of large paintings that are very beautiful, especially the one behind the altar, and there are lots of chandeliers and sculptures. Unfortunately the camera seems to spend more time panning around the interior than focusing on the boys.

2006 must have been a good year at the Palais Augarten because the boys were outstanding. They sang Ave Verum Corpus again and my favorite Mozart Mass, the “Coronation Mass” in C major (I can’t believe I actually have a favorite Mozart Mass). The two boy soloists were really sweet and fun to watch.

There is something I have yet to figure out and that is the purpose of the numbers after the names of the compositions. For example, here they have two versions of the same tune, Church Sonata in C Major, K. 278 and Church Sonata in C Major, K. 317. Could they not think of another name?

This time the men were from the Chorus Viennensis and the music was by the Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien.

I know I shouldn’t say this because it probably makes me look shallow, but there is one thing about this DVD that I don’t care for very much. They have a soprano, Sandrine Piau, who somehow annoys me. She looks quite elegant and has a good voice, but I just wish she would hold still. Instead, she constantly sways left and right while bobbing her head back and forth and making these odd facial contortions.

I think that all singers should emulate Josh Madine and always sing with a big smile on their face (unless they are singing something like I Pagliacci, of course). Anyway, my solution is to simply close my eyes when she’s on and that makes it much better.