Another reason I hate Beyonce

I hate Beyonce for numerous reasons. For example - I hate her because she doesn't wear enough clothing.
Seriously, there are things we don't need or want to see. Ever. Save it for Jay-Z.

My latest reason is the fact that she molested one of my favourite songs.

No, I lie. She Catullus 16-ed one of my favourite songs.

Vois Sur Ton Chemin, initially sung marvellously by Jean-Baptiste Maunier and the cast of Les Choristes, was killed by Beyonce.

I was alerted to this travesty by my friend Julianne, who is a fan of all things French. And like me, not a fan of Beyonce ruining the French stuff we are fans of.

I am unimpressed.

Vois sur ton Chemin

Vois sur ton chemin, gamins oubliés égarés.
Donne leur la main pour les mener vers d'autres lendemains.
Sens au coeur de la nuit l'onde d'espoir, ardeur de la vie, sentier de gloire.
Bonheurs enfantins trop vite oubliés effacés.
Une lumière dorée brille sans fin tout au bout du chemin.
Sens au coeur de la nuit l'onde d'espoir, ardeur de la vie, sentier de gloire.

That was Vois sur ton Chemin from Les Choristes. It is quite easily one of my favourite songs.

It also has the most beautiful lyrics. They translate as such:
See upon your path, childhood forgotten and lost.
Give them a hand to lead them to further tomorrows.
Feel in the heart of the night the wave of hope, the spirit of life, which marks the way to glory.
Childhood joys abandoned and forgotten too soon.
A golden light shines endlessly at the end of the path.
Feel in the heart of the night the wave of hope, the spirit of life, which marks the way to glory.

It's certainly a stark contrast to one of my other favourite songs: No Leaf Clover by Metallica.
The chorus goes:
Then it comes to be that the soothing light at the end of your tunnel was just a freight train coming your way.

They both deal with the concept of the light at the end of the tunnel, and they're both fantastic songs. One just manages to be so much more optmistic than the other.

Ce Que J'aime Écoute

I've been on the internet for a while, waiting for pages to load, and so I think I'll spam a bit by writing down each song I listen to, along with any thoughts I have regarding it.

NB: I'm on the only computer at home which has internet, which has a pretty limited music library. I'm skipping any songs I didn't listen to.

Du Hast - Rammstein

I've loves this song ever since my history teacher played it for us. Till Lindeman (the singer) has a pretty fantastic set of vocal chords, and I love the mix between synth and the heavy guitars and drums.

Rammleid - Rammstein

Because everyone needs a bit of thrash every so often. I'm particularly a fan of the choir in the background of the verses.

Hallelujah - Handel

My sisters and I refer to Handel as 'Handi' because we've all done a hell of a lot of his stuff (we also refer to Purcell as 'Percy', but lets not go there). The Hallelujah chorus from Messiah just has that special something which makes a great choral work.
There's the perfectly balanced SATB score, with the parts playing off each other to create some fantastic layering; there's the rather small selection of orchestration (Harpsichord, Violin, Viola, Cello, Bassoon, Trumpet) which somehow just works perfectly); and there's the way that the accompaniment works with the music, filling gaps, and making it one of the most recognisable choral works ever.

Hot Stuff - Donna Summer

I got this song off the soundtrack of 'The Full Monty'. Good movie. Good song.
There's something fantastic about all the songs which are stereotypically drag queen songs (I Will Survive, I Need A Hero etc.).

O Fortuna - Orff

No comment necessary. Awesome incarnate.

Mrs Robinson - Simon and Garfunkel

I got this off the soundtrack of Forrest Gump before my sister Sarah had the brilliance to buy the 'Best of Simon and Garfunkel'. Whimsical guitars, and some of the best harmony you'll find anywhere, paired with surprisingly quirky and deep lyrics. I love it.

Empty Chairs At Empty Tables - Boublil and Schönberg

One of the most depressing songs of Les Mis. It really encapsulates all of France;s student revolts (May 68, anyone?). They thought it was a good idea at the time, and then looked back at their actions in retrospect and went 'Hmmm. Well. That was a bad course of action.'
To quote Raymond Aron: Once again Paris almost had a revolution, and then finished it as usual by voting conservative.
It was true then, and it's true now.

Valley Girl - Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention feat. Moonunit Zappa

This song is Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention at their art rocking best with Moonunit Zappa's inspired parody of a Sun Vally bimbo in the 80s.
This song encapsulates the entirety of Amy Heckerling's 'Clueless'.
This song encapsulates commercial America.
I grew up listening to this song.

Morgenstern - Rammstein

A choir singing Mass-like cadences in the background. A strong Bass voice in the forefront, underscored by some good industrial metal. Rammstein's great.

Rejoice rejoice. The sheet music of Les Choristes has finished downloading.
Now, should I be granted a school choir, I shall have music for them. Along with Michael Bojesen's 'Eternity', I'll be set (I would have also liked to use his 'Gloria', but that would be far too difficult for one of the school choirs).

Huzzah for downloading PDFs.

More Les Choristes

After listening to the song 'In Memoriam' from the soundtrack a few times, my suspicions are confirmed. They are singing a Kyrie.

I told you so, Mimi.

Movies I've Seen Recently

It's the holidays, which means my sisters watch movies when they're not off enjoying the lack of HSC.

So: Marigold.

This was Hollywood's attempt to cash in on Bollywood. Unfortunately for them, this movie came out before the Bollywood craze started. Oops.

I kept expecting the movie to grow a plot. But it didn't. When it ended, I just sat there going 'wow. That was surprisingly worse than I had ever expected. Never again.'

Basically, it reaffirmed my hatred of Bollywood movies.

I then watched 84 Charing Cross Road.

It was mildly humorous to see Anthony Hopkins with hair that wasn't grey playing someone who wasn't a cannibal (Oh Hannibal, you great hunk of psychopathic murderer, you).

Otherwise, it was a very slow movie, which ended ridiculously depressingly.

I also watched Rent.

I basically spent the entire time trying to work out what other stuff the actors were in, and chuckling at my younger sister Mimi's expense at the character named Mimi who was a heroin addict stripper. Oh the lols.

As it also turns out, I already knew most of the songs from hearing them a few times (one of the useful parts of having had eleven years of intense choral training is that after hearing a song a few times, I've pretty much memorised it).

The only thing that still rankles me about Rent is the fact that it's referred to as a 'Rock Opera'.

Rent is a musical. In no way is it anything approaching an opera. Don Giovanni is an OPERA.

Here's a quick way to differentiate between an opera and what isn't an opera.

Work out who's not a soprano. Now: if they're playing a witch, bitch, priest, statue or gigolo, then it's an opera.

Or at least an interesting one.

Or one that doesn't go on for SIXTEEN HOURS, WHAT THE HELL WAS WAGNER THINKKING?!

Or one that involves the life of the main character being so utterly crap that he ends up going insane just to get some peace. Wozzek. Most depressing opera EVER.

But I digress.

Last night I watched Les Choristes.

The subtitling was quite good, but not as brilliant as it could have been. Otherwise, wow.

I still have Vois Sur Ton Chemin in my head. I'm contemplating asking to conduct the junior choir at school and making them sing it. Not the senior choir. They're a lost cause.

There's just something about a good choir movie. There have been some crap ones (namely anything which came out of America involving a choir), and there have been some movies which use choirs in the soundtrack, and the music itself is good, but the movie's shit (Hey Hey It's Esther Blueberger is case in point. Three six hour days of recording with Australia's top children's choir - yes, I'm talking about the Sydney Children's Choir. Those were the days. Or Happy Feet. In order to get 'In My Room' sounding as though it were being sung by toddlers, we all had to sing down a fifth and our voices were taken back up digitally, which made us sound more like chipmunks. For the Alto 2s (The greatest section), that meant we had to sing B flat two below middle C. That's not even officially in Tenor range.)

I love a good movie involving any kind of high level music performance.

Admittedly, most of the soundtrack is variations on either Vois Sur ton Chemin or Caresse Sur L'Océan, but they're good songs. And it's a good soundtrack. And now it's on my USB. I love the internet.

Avenue Q was wrong. The internet isn't just for porn.