three interpretations.....

[thoreau]

adding to my last post...

here are three distinctly different interpretations of "The Way You Look Tonight"

(THREE mp3 files in a .zip file here (17M))

a) Chris Botti - trumpet solo
b) Doris Day - goddess solo
c) Westminster Barbershop Chorus - mens chorus tight harmony

Botti is so smooth and actually very sexy, Doris is so goddamned happy you can hear her cakewalking this song in the recording studio because was on the list of standards the label wanted her to sing... (but I love her - and this version of this song) and the barbershop chorus - is simply heartwrenchingly beautiful - the arrangement soars to these peaking barbershop harmonies - everytime the "because I love you.." lyric is sung - absolutely beautiful.

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Footnote:
I thought of bearfuz for some reason when listening to it.. how interesting. Chip? Have you ever sung in a barbershop quartet?

Comments

[major7.livejournal.com]

I'll take a listen on the plane. Thanks.

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

Wow! I almost missed reading this post, and therefore almost missed the chance to answer your question!

The short answer is yes, though I've done far less barbershop singing than I'd like. I would do well at high tenor, lead or baritone, but obviously (for people who know my voice) the bass would be out of my range. I adore properly-written barbershop music — which means I also prefer arrangements of tunes that are appropriate for barbershop; I've heard some that should have been left alone, often contemporary songs, Beatles, 70s pop, that sort of thing — and I've often dreamed of forming a little quartet just to do some of that.

Two long-ago experiences: When I was in college in Utah, a local community theatre company was putting on The Music Man and they auditioned the barbershop guys by putting all of the would-be barbershop singers in a room, teaching them the first two lines of "Wait Till the Sun Shines, Nellie" and then mixing and matching. I was there at the audition to accompany a friend who was going for the role of Harold Hill (he didn't get it) but I stuck around for the barbershop audition. I got to sing high tenor with a few different combinations of guys. Didn't get to do it, which is probably just as well (I was very busy with school) but I remember how fun it was.

2nd experience: I went to one — I thought it may have been two, but it was probably only one — rehearsal of the barbershop chorus in Provo, Utah, the local chapter of S.P.E.B.S.Q.S.A. Barbershop choruses are interesting to me, too, since they take the quartet idea and expand it, with results that vary from really effective to really lame. Still, it's a really American kind of art form, and just folksy enough to attract me. I guess I had to stop going because they rehearsed on Tuesday nights, and I was the accompanist for another community chorus that rehearsed on Tuesdays.

Way more than you asked for, isn't it? ;-) Now I need to go unZip those files and listen to them.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

well then I wasn't far off I guess. Singing barbershop has always appealed to me - and its strange that my first encounter with it was the barbershop quartet from Music Man as well. I played in the band (clarinet) for a production in Jr. High at the local community theater. and hadn't decided I wanted to sing at that point - so didn't audition - but the quartet was my favorite of favorite things.

I love the old fashioned stuff.

thanks for giving me such a complete answer. :) woof!

[scream4noreason.livejournal.com]

I emailed you the Wendy Matthews version,hope you like!She has one of my favourite voices ever.

[low-fat-muffin.livejournal.com]

my email is
robert@robertmcdiarmid.com

I didn't see a file. :) resend?

[tonethbone.livejournal.com]

Billie Holiday, Sinatra, The Lettermen, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan GEtx (instrumental) and Tony Bennett...all have great, but different versions of this song

But my favorite would be Erroll Garner