This was such a fun song to sing! I remember asking my best friend what she thought of the song from the audience, and she said, and I QUOTE, "It sounded like demon babies screaming at me."
I performed this with my Junior High Choir when I was in 9th grade in 2002. We did it along with 3 other songs at the Best In the Northwest Competition at Portland University and won first place! We were amazing, I wish I could've gotten a copy of it you guys would be amazed and wouldn't think we were a junior high choir. Our director had very high standards for us and gave us very high difficulty songs. We also performed so well together, we weren't just a choir we were a family. :)
I love this piece- I sang it in high school and will always remember the joy of learning and performing it. On another note, something about the way this man does the narration makes me laugh. His reading is kind of like hearing Shakespeare being poorly performed.
Agreed. Probably a theater or speech comm major/prof/whatever with a big voice, great stage enunciation, then overmiked so it ends up sounding way too...much.
True and creepy story about this piece: Back in 1991, we sang this at District Choir. As we were beginning the piece with the narrator and it began to build. When the narrator said, "And unclean spirits were being cast out," there was a loud bang. I looked to the girl next to me, and she had collapsed, but she was face up. She was seemingly unconscious, but her eyes were WIDE open, as was her mouth. We kept singing as some teachers revived her. Scary.
i sang this in county choir a few years back and regret not getting the cd of the original performance. Such an amazing, epic song! I think of it one of the best choir songs i ever heard/sang!
Same here. I've never seen it fail to _really_ move an audience, some of them to tears. It's quite an experience live. Can't begin to duplicate it on a video. Genuinely emotional, even spiritual for some. It just devastates people.
I remember singing this in High School. I initially remember it not being the prettiest thing I've ever heard but like all music like this, it really grew on me and I loved it after practicing it so much. It's a really difficult song to sing due to the awkward time signatures and vocal range capacity necessity of all the parts.
Same here (but in college). It's hard to do without real musicians. You need a high percentage of people who have, if not actual perfect pitch, at least sufficient pitch memory through repetition. But if you can stay away from any train wrecks, _man_ is it effective.
Great song, and a great performance. But the recording here is not as good as it really needs to be for this song to give you the chilling effect that you get when you hear this in person.
I get what you're saying, but the truth is that no recording can come close to a live performance of this piece anyway. It's interesting on video, but it's absolutely devastating live. I've never seen this performed without at least a few people being brought to tears over it. I'm not sure I've heard any choral piece more powerful or more affecting in a live performance.
This was such a fun song to sing! I remember asking my best friend what she thought of the song from the audience, and she said, and I QUOTE, "It sounded like demon babies screaming at me."
I did this piece my senior year in high school.... challenging but it was definitely one of my favorite pieces I ever did
I performed this with my Junior High Choir when I was in 9th grade in 2002. We did it along with 3 other songs at the Best In the Northwest Competition at Portland University and won first place! We were amazing, I wish I could've gotten a copy of it you guys would be amazed and wouldn't think we were a junior high choir. Our director had very high standards for us and gave us very high difficulty songs. We also performed so well together, we weren't just a choir we were a family. :)
I love this piece- I sang it in high school and will always remember the joy of learning and performing it. On another note, something about the way this man does the narration makes me laugh. His reading is kind of like hearing Shakespeare being poorly performed.
Agreed. Probably a theater or speech comm major/prof/whatever with a big voice, great stage enunciation, then overmiked so it ends up sounding way too...much.
True and creepy story about this piece: Back in 1991, we sang this at District Choir. As we were beginning the piece with the narrator and it began to build. When the narrator said, "And unclean spirits were being cast out," there was a loud bang. I looked to the girl next to me, and she had collapsed, but she was face up. She was seemingly unconscious, but her eyes were WIDE open, as was her mouth. We kept singing as some teachers revived her. Scary.
whoa.
i sang this in county choir a few years back and regret not getting the cd of the original performance. Such an amazing, epic song! I think of it one of the best choir songs i ever heard/sang!
Someone said my name?
several times, yes... better pay attention, too
;-)
This is easily one of my favorite choral pieces
Same here. I've never seen it fail to _really_ move an audience, some of them to tears. It's quite an experience live. Can't begin to duplicate it on a video. Genuinely emotional, even spiritual for some. It just devastates people.
I remember singing this in High School. I initially remember it not being the prettiest thing I've ever heard but like all music like this, it really grew on me and I loved it after practicing it so much. It's a really difficult song to sing due to the awkward time signatures and vocal range capacity necessity of all the parts.
Same here (but in college). It's hard to do without real musicians. You need a high percentage of people who have, if not actual perfect pitch, at least sufficient pitch memory through repetition. But if you can stay away from any train wrecks, _man_ is it effective.
Egil Hovland died on February 5th just two weeks after his friend, the renowned choral conductor Frank Pooler
I love this piece. I sang it with my high school choir my junior year at a choir festival.
Why oh why can't people with coughs stay home from choral concerts?
Great! Very proud of yall!
Nice work Jarrod.
I miss hearing Dr. James' voice :(
@mydogbarry We had a concert tonight & we did that exact same song without the sheet music. Props for lake nonaa:))
Great song, and a great performance.
But the recording here is not as good as it really needs to be for this song to give you the chilling effect that you get when you hear this in person.
I get what you're saying, but the truth is that no recording can come close to a live performance of this piece anyway. It's interesting on video, but it's absolutely devastating live. I've never seen this performed without at least a few people being brought to tears over it. I'm not sure I've heard any choral piece more powerful or more affecting in a live performance.
The ONLY thing two musicians can agree on is the incompetence of a third..!!!!
Makes me laugh.
If you want your diction to be clear and understood. Lips and teeth and tip of tounge will help it too be good.
A -MEEEEN. 💔💔💔