Special!--"Though Philomela"

Well, I was thinking about what to do today, when I realized that something ELSE I could do for this blog was music based on classical stuff, as well. It might be considered a "modern adaptation" sometimes, but what do you do for genuinely OLD music?? Therefore, I've decided to make Friday a sort of hodge-podge between Pic of the Week and Music of the week. That way, I have more material, and I'm not always scrounging around for stuff, all the time.

Anyway, today we're going to look at a madrigal written by a man named Thomas Morley entitled "Though Philomela." For more information about the actual myth, read here. What I'm going to do today is link to three renditions of this song from Youtube and give you what I think about their performances.

Here are the lyrics:

Though Philomela lost her love,
fresh note she warbleth yes! again;
Fa la la la.
He is a fool that lovers prove:
and leaves to sing, to live in pain.
Fa la la la

Version 1:

Yes. That IS a male soprano. I actually thought this was a really good version of the song, but then, I'm biased towards choirs that make use of male sopranos. I don't have much to say about this version, except that it's an all around good rendition. I'd give it an A.

Version 2:

Uhm... what? Seriously, they took a LOT of liberties with this song. Like, what was up with the tempo during the "falala" part?? (and yes, I've performed this song, so I know how it's supposed to sound) And WHAT IS UP WITH THE BOUNCING GIRL?! Seriously, stand still during a choral performance! She'd be great if this was a solo competition, but it's not. Also, I felt their vowels were a little spread, though I think only choral fanatics would notice that. I understand that they're German and not native English speakers, but that doesn't give them the excuse to go spread. This was the worst version that I found, though I only looked at these three versions. Seriously guys, don't perform like this. I'll give this performance a C.

Version 3:

I think I like this version the best, mainly because you can hear the alto part best of all in this version, haha. They have great pronunciation, too! The one major downside I see in this particular version is the bouncing. I'm particularly harsh on bouncing because I've been repremaned for doing it about 20 million times. Yet, at least the bouncing in this version seems controlled and on beat... the bouncing in version 2 seemed out of left field. Also in this version, you have another song right after it, so keep listening! They do a good job on that one, too. This version gets an A.

~~~

Alright, so maybe this one wasn't the most educational blog post I've ever had, but eh... you got to listen to (mostly) pretty music, right? If you like this song, here's a link to the choral wiki. There you can find midis and the sheet music.

And I know, it seems pretty mean of me to rip on other people's performances, but that's what choir people do. We're all generally mean like that. =P

You guys okay? Alright then. I'm going to go... do something else. Yes.

CARTHAGO DELENDA EST!