Pragmatist
Pragmatist

Last night I watched a show on PBS  called Celtic Woman.   It was a group of women, sopranos, and a few men for backup.  I was struck once again by the Celtic voice.  Singing voices are trained as musical instruments, and they are marvelous!

Voice in choir should sound as one voice, but most frequently they don't.  I have yet to hear an Irish (Celtic) group that doesn't sound as one voice.  All of them were solo-quality voices, but they all blended as one voice.

Some songs, a women would take a line to sing, then another voice would take the next line, or complete a line.  If I hadn't been watching, I would not have been able to tell that they were different people singing.  And in choir, it was impossible to identify an individual voice.

Even the men sang as one voice.

Brings to mind a church choir I was a member of many years ago.  When I had a voice.  The pastor's wife had a so-so soprano, but she sang as if she were the soloist.  All the time.  She had a broad vibrato, too, which didn't add anything to the soprano.  In fact, it made her sound off-key about half the time.

Anyway...the choir director admonished the choir (sopranos especially) to get rid of the vibrato.  They all did except for...yeah...the pastor's wife.  But what are you going to do?  She's the queen bee of the congregation and above all admonition.

Come to think of it, that might be the idea behind no choir voices in Orthodox services.  

It was enjoyable, and the program was a mixture of old Irish songs sung in the mother tongue, and some in English, some modern songs, and of course Danny Boy.

There were two drummers, each on his own stage.  Not a pedestal.  A stage, or maybe more accurately, a large dais.  I couldn't count the number and types of drums each one had.  The drumming was as energetic as any rock drummer or Japanese drummer.  

There was a solo violinist, a woman with blonde hair to her waist, who was quite the showman.  (Showwoman?  Showperson?  Whatever)  She danced as she played.  And not delicate little steps.  She bounced and twirled and jigged, and never missed a beat.  She did a brief duet with one of the drummers.  I forget the name of the small drum carried by hand and beaten with a double headed stick.  Fascinating to watch!  And the intricate rhythm is a marvel!

The women were beautiful and the men were handsome.  The voices blended as one and the soloists sounded angelic.

I should have recorded the show.

Shalom