Thursday 23 September 2010

A little bit of Culture....

I know my regular readers may imagine that I am the very acme of sophistication, rubbing padded shoulders with East Anglian celebrities such as Alex & Hackney Marsh and spending my spare time doing stuff that you would only normally read about in the Telegraph "Weekend" supplement. When I'm not translating Proust I'm attending concerts in Swaffham with a copy of the French Horn parts bulging from my expensive Linen Jacket or producing the village production of the Scottish Play.

Well I hate to let you down but the last time I saw a little bit of culture, it was in the bottom of my fridge.
Take Choral Music, for example. My idea of perfect Choral Music is the middle eight from "God Only Knows" by the Beach Boys - it goes "Da da Da da Darrr, da da da da da da Darrr" etc. Beautiful.

However, I was listening to Today (Today) and they had a feature on Eric Whitacre and his Virtual Choir. It was quite a revelation (after I'd got over the shock of how identical to me he is visually). He arranged for hundreds of people to contribute their singing of his composition over the internet and put the whole thing together in a 6 minute concert which has had over a million viewers on YouTube.

What do you make of it?

12 comments:

Dave said...

'East Anglian celebrities'. There's an oxymoron if I ever heard one.

Sarah said...

My Mum wanted to take part in this!!!
I think it's a fantastic installation. I love the internet!

Rog said...

Dave: Thanks for reading the first sentence.

Sarah: I'm waiting for someone to organize a World "All along the Watchtower" Dylan version that I could get involved with.

Rosie said...

This is so beautiful. I am in such awe I still have my headphones on. I would love to participate in something like that.

Z said...

I loved it when he said that anyone who couldn't do it well enough wouldn't send in their recording. He obviously has never watched the early rounds of X Factor.

Madame DeFarge said...

Awfully impressive. Let's leave your bulging French horn parts out of this conversation. Some things are meant to be hidden.

Rog said...

Rosie: I hope you've taken the headphones off now!

Z: Tee Hee!!! very good point!

Madame DF: I was merely pleased to see the concert.

Macy said...

Pfft.. without speakers on Ye Anciente PC I can only see the concert!
Memo to self... upgrade sometime soon.

Rog said...

Macy: try the earphones. There, I've saved you £400.

justin said...

Wow, this is sensational, Rog. Thanks for sharing this bit of culture with us. What next ... virtual orchestras, perhaps? But then hundreds of musicians will be joining the dole queues.

Rosie said...

What? Hello?

Christopher said...

An extraordinary sound, like a choir singing in a vast cathedral. And yet if it's virtual the multi-echo acoustic must have been deliberately engineered, and I wonder if this is to mask the untidy beginning and ends of phrases and total inaudibility of the words? Here they are, if anyone was wondering:

Lux,
calida gravisque pura velut aurum
et canunt angeli molliter
modo natum


['Light, warm and heavy, pure as gold, and angels sing the newborn in a gentle way' - I suppose: the Latin seems a bit dubious to me.]

*rambles off to chew more jalapenos*