Don’t get me wrong. I love the King’s Singers and Chanticleer, with their SATTBB arrangements. But I just heard (again) on the radio Chanticleer’s recording of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ arrangement of “Loch Lomond,” and there is nothing like that gorgeous TTBB (or TTTBBB) sound.
Give me pieces that were composed (or arranged, but not barbershop — GAAAH!) for men’s voices – Sullivan’s “The Long Day Closes,” Schubert’s part songs for male voices.
What wonderful pieces/recordings do you have to recommend?
Yes, absolutely. I just love it when we sing TTBB stuff. We did several Welsh male choir type arrangements of various hymns last year that were just wonderful. And when we did *the Damnation of Faust * back in 2005 there were some great extended male chorus passages. But I think the most over the top male chorus bit that I can recall was in Gurrelieder, where there was a passage scored TTTTTTTTTB. Fantastic!
What is that brief song, sung a cappella by a male choir, that is a tribute either to the Air Force or the Navy fliers? The lyrics are something about touching the sky.
I suspect you are asking about High Flight by by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. I know that it was the sign off for some television station in my life. It was probably LA or the bay area. Here’s Sacramento’s version of it. My station’s version was mercifully much shorter that this one.
I sing in our local Gay Men’s Chorus, and I’m also on the Music Committee, which selects the pieces that we sing. It’s amazing, with all the men’s choruses out there, especially the gay men’s choruses that are everywhere, that there’s so much music that hasn’t been arranged for TTBB. I’ve been trying to find a TTBB arrangement of Rachmaninoff’s *Vocalise *for years. It’s not unusual for our director to arrange, or at least re-voice, music himself, but this is extremely time-consuming.
But it does get done, and we put on an amazing show (including lots of dance), and always get rave reviews. Plus, we’re in the process of producing our 4th commercial CD.
This is our 20th Anniversary season, and we ***might ***be getting Bernadette Peters as our guest star in April. We should be hearing any day now. In our June concert, we’ll be joined by Armistead Maupin.
NCMC?!?? 20th anniversary. Must be! How cool is THAT! I used to freelance for the PD a number of years ago, and I was assigned to write a pre-show story about a semi-staged production of “The Wizard of Oz” by NCMC. I did not get to write the headlines for my stories, but when I sent it in, the title I used was “Ding Dong, the Witch is Queer.”
I’ve never been to a concert, durnit. Now that I’m more west-ish and east-ish, I have to go. Or at least buy a CD!
Yes. I was in that production of the Wizard of Oz (multiple roles, including one of the Lollipop Guild guys). The chorus has enormously grown in numbers and quality since then. You’ve gotta come to our concerts. You’ll be amazed.
I digitized the old vinyl of Robert Shaw’s With Love from a Chorus, all that schmaltzy gay-90s stuff like “Wait for the Wagon” and “My Grandfather’s Clock”. Yeah, there’s something about a male chorus that’s like sitting next to a crackling campfire or having a purring kitty cat in your lap or something.
