To laugh at onesself

[mundungus42]

Last week Pacific Women's Chorus had solo auditions. I was recovering from being ill and was hanging on to what remained of my voice for dear life and fighting through congested brain. I felt that I did reasonably well, considering.

The big work that everybody wanted a piece of was Franz Biebl's incandescent Ave Maria, which has three solos (alto

Comments

[mundungus42]

I love this idea! For fun and upbeat, I wholeheartedly recommend choral tracks from the Spike Jones Christmas Album, which is the best novelty Christmas album ever recorded (and all choral arrangements are luscious, jazzy, and very, very funny (except for a few serious numbers). The Jingle Bells Medley is fabulous (there's even a bit in Pig Latin), and "Nuttin' for Christmas," sung by a childrens' chorus, is darling. It's hard to go wrong with Britten's "Ceremony of Carols" ("This Little Babe" is fast, martial, and freaking awesome, "Balulalow" is beautiful). Messiah is almost obligatory (a "Hallelujah!" sing-along is obligatory during Christmas breakfast at my parents'), though you could be sneaky and put in "All We Like Sheep" or something unusual like that ("For Unto Us" is my favorite, though). Chanticleer and Anonymous 4 tend more towards the slow and medieval Christmas tunes, but they are super. If you'd like additional recs, I will be happy to ask my mom, who is the undisputed queen of Christmas music in my family. She loves everything from "In Dulci Jubilo" to "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer." :D Oh! And Vaughan Williams's "Folk Songs of the Four Seasons" has a fantastic arrangement of "The Wassail Song." Also "In Bethlehem City" if you like slower :D

[camillo1978]

Oh, you're a star! Thanks for the tips. I'll go and have a dig around ITunes and let you know how I get on :D