I can never "get" what Purcell songs are about, really.
Christine Thomas,
Mezzo Soprano
"I love to sing-a, about the moon-a and the June-a and the spring-a!"
----- Original Message -----
From: Karen Mercedes
To: vocalist-temporary@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 11:26 AM
Subject: [vocalist] Purcell Harmonia Sacra
Is it me, or are these songs a little "weird" musically?
I find that Handel, Bach, Schuetz, Pergolesi, and Monteverdi all wrote in
musical idioms that are pretty easy to grasp and internalise, making the
music relatively "self-learning". But I'm finding that these Purcell
songs - specifically "Blessed Virgin's Expostulation", "What is Man?", "We
Sing to Him", and "Evening Hymn" - are just kind of eluding me. I've read
through them all several times each, and nothing seems to "stick" in my
memory. Contrast this with Handel arias, which I can read through once,
then generally reproduce fairly accurately. Schuetz has been more
challenging, but it still hasn't taken me this long to "get" what the
music is about, where the melody is going, etc.
I love Purcell, but I just can't figure out what I'm missing in these
pieces - what is the "key" that will make them make sense to me musically.
Even listening to a recording (something I never like to do when learning
a piece, but which I've started to resort to with these out of
desperation) doesn't seem to be helping "break the code".
Has anyone else sung these pieces. Was there some "lightbulb on" moment
that happened that made you finally be able to internalise the music - or
was it pretty clear to you from the start.
What is it about certain pieces of music that make them so much harder to
learn than others, anyway?
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
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One must be something if one
wishes to put on appearances.
- Ludwig von Beethoven
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