This thread was split from the Bible Translations thread in Tol Eressëa. Please let me know of any misplaced posts. Crucifer, you can rename the thread if you wish, by editing this first post. —Prim
________________
solictr, I hear you. Nothing against women singing, really, but there is nothing, nothing in the world so beautiful as a properly trained trebles (boy soprano to the lay person ) voice. I was one myself once. Then my voice broke, so I'm a bass.
Nyhoo, back on subject... I've forgotten what I was going to say...
I didn't go through it. I went to bed one day as a soprano, all chuffed having sung a difficult solo, and my first really proper performance (the youth in Mendellsohns Elijah. A high A for 2 bars as loudly as possible. Not easy, and on the reording it's damn good. The worst bit is that I was supposed to sing it again 2 months later.)
The next morning, I was supposed to be sining at a wedding, and I was a tenor. Two weeks later, I was a Bass. I never squeked once.
That's what happened to both my guys, although the one who's a singer did go through a two month period where he completely lost the first four notes above middle C—his high voice couldn't get down to them and his low voice couldn't get up to them. Nothing but air.
The choir he was in then was led by an expert in the male voice change, so he made sure my son didn't damage his voice by trying for what wasn't there. Now he's a happy bass with a decent higher range learned by work with a voice teacher (so, he says, he can try out for more than just villain parts in musicals, and sing solos that aren't about coal mining).
Ummmm. . . . How 'bout that NRSV. . . .
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
And deliciously wicked Pizzarro, and Hunding, and Dr Bartolo, and Rigoletto's Duke, and and and. Not to mention Don Giovanni, though that gets a bit high for me.
But a bass also gets lumbered with tedious bores like Sarastro and the Commendatore and King [brain-fart] in Parzifal.
Er, well, not—he's not got that kind of voice. But good enough to be in school shows and good high-school choirs. He won't have a career in music, but I'm sure he'll always have fun with it.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Crucifer wrote:The villian parts are the best ones. They get to be all nasty to the goody two shoes. I love playing villains. Especially Javert.
Except Javerts not a villain.
Javert is a highly honourable man who genuinely believes he is doing the right thing in hunting down a criminal. When he finds he's wrong, he takes his own life.
Javert's a great example of the distinction between an antagonist and a villain.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Alatar, having played for les mis *counts on fingers* 12 times now, I know Javert is'nt really a villain, but he is certainly not "the good guy", as such. He has wonderful songs. His first entry is absolutely fantastic, while "stars" ir the most spine tingling song in the whole thing.
People get confused with me sometimes. They hear me sing, say, Vatliant for truth (written specifically for me and my voice) and come up to me and say "You can go really low for a tenor" But I'm actually not really properly either. I'm a baritone with a range of nearly three octaves.
And KJV is only good to listen to or read out. It's riddled with mistakes and things, and it's nearly impossible to get one with the apocrypha included.
Its funny, I've always wondered why there's no musical societies in Cork. Largest county in Ireland and not one Musical Society (that I know of). Wierd.
Alatar wrote:Its funny, I've always wondered why there's no musical societies in Cork. Largest county in Ireland and not one Musical Society (that I know of). Wierd.
The Cork Arts Studio, tho they don't really do musicals, but put on an absolutely fantastic performance of Les Mis recently is all I can think of.
It's mostly Choral societies and orchestras.
And the highest standard of music examinations in the country = Cork School of Music.
But musical societies (I'm presuming you mean groups who put on musicals, as opposed to societies of musical people.) are non existant, I think.
) voice. I was one myself once. Then my voice broke, so I'm a bass. 
