By now everyone has seen the flash mob Hallelujah Chorus, so I'm not going to imbed it here. Follow the link if you haven't seen it.Oh, and make sure you are at maximum tissuage*.
A few things that struck me after watching it a (ahem) few times. I wonder how many people we see singing aren't the ones who practiced for the event. I, myself, could have sung any of the parts, having worked out a simplified, four-part version for kazoo that was to be performed one Christmas Eve a very VERY long time ago that never came to pass because of the refusal on the part of
Anyway, this time of year, every church tries to whip its choir into shape enough to wow the Christmas Eve crowd with a passable version of the Handel classic and, thereby, inspire the once-a-year folks to sign on for the duration. So I figure there had to be a few church choir members in the food court crowd who, upon seeing the spontaneous outbreak of a piece they knew, stood and joined the singing.
Then there is the standing thing. I've seen a lot of comments on the internet about how rude it was that so many people didn't stand. Standing during the Hallelujah Chorus is a tradition, not a sacred rite. If this had occurred at my local mall, the lack of standing would have been the same. Most men don't around here don't bother to remove their hats during the Star Spangled Banner either.
It made me laugh to see the people in the background actually fleeing the area, as if they were terrified they'd be charged for listening to Handel without having to choke up a "love offering."
What did touch me, though, were the parents with children. I got a little weepy watching parents make some gesture or sign to their children telling them to pay attention -- "this is special; this is a moment." Watch how many parents reach out and touch their children in some way; they're so aware that this mundane shopping day suddenly became a gift that would never leave either memories.
I have to admit, if this were to occur in our local mall, while Dirtman and I would enjoy the performance, just about every other Linguini would be heading for the door. John Boy would be afraid a sing-along was about to break out. Dark Garden would balk at the idea of sacred music being inflicted upon him while he was doing a chore he hated in the first place. As for the Small Assorted Cratchits (which is what we call the Heirs and the Twins this time of year), duct tape over their mouths might be be wisest course of action.
In stark contrast to the organized and grand version of this perennial classic that is sweeping the web, I offer this older, more rustic version by the Roches (whose Christmas performance in Northern Virginia I swear I will attend one day when I grow up). It's not quite as full-bodied as a mall full of singers, but mesmerizing by its own merit.
*"Tissuage is a word because I say it is.
9 comments:
I think you're right about casual passers-by joining in. You can tell the choir members by their pose: stand up straight, shoulders back, head either tilted slightly back or moving from side to side, mouths open fully. There were people sitting at tables joining in who didn't act like trained singers but who obviously know the melody and lyrics.
I loved the boy who looked absolutely dumbfounded by the performance. It must have been quite something to be in the middle of it. I'm not noticeably religious but I've always loved this piece.
About standing up during the performance: There is a comment on the YouTube page with the video that at the beginning of the original performance in London the king was startled by its loudness and stood up. As a result everyone in attendance stood up with him and the tradition started. In this case, if everyone in the food court had stood up the singers wouldn't have been able to see each other and the singing might have fallen apart.
Wow Sis. I haven't seen it. WOW...
It was really neat (checking your blog) on top of taking today and deciding I WOULD decorate and jump into the spirit.
I didn't know there was a tradition of standing up. I don't know what my reaction would have been. Probably extreme humor at first followed by joyful emotion.
I don't recall refusing to do anything w. a kazoo, however, I remain greatful that I did.
Wait a tick...
Christmas eve.... Years ago...
That would mean... a performance at... ROSEWOOD DRIVE!!!
SLOOOOOOOWLY I TURRRRNED....
Perhaps another Holiday Tune from Rosewood Drive is in order. Coming to a BLOG near you soon!
It never even got that far. It either followed or preceded the year we did the slide show of The Night Before Christmas -- that era. But it fizzled very quickly. We may not have even made it to December.
Tim: Thank you for finding that out. A friend and I were going back and forth on whether it was a religious thing or not.
I've watched the video a couple more times, and not to trash it (it's wonderful), but I suspect the audio was recorded separately. The quality is just too good to have been recorded in a mall food court. Normally you can hardly hear yourself think in one of those. The choir is well rehearsed and apparently has performed the piece many times, so it would not have been that hard to match up audio from a previous performance to the video of the food court event. Still, the staging was very nice, and the actual event must have been pretty amazing.
I've read a couple people make that comment and I think the first few bars were genuine (you can hear the soprano's echo, though I think she, the bass and that couple were probably miked). I'm sure the quality wasn't too bad if you were there, so I can't blame them if they canned the music in for the actual video.
I shoot and edit video as part of my job and I often split the audio recording the way you describe: the first part is on camera to establish sense of place, then I switch to audio recorded separately in a quiet room (I'm working pretty low-budget and don't have a real studio). It just sounds much better. Fortunately I don't have to lip-synch: in my videos the speaker switches from an on-camera actor to an off-camera narrator. If the speaker on-camera wears a wireless mike with a cardioid pickup pattern and speaks at a normal conversational level it can work, but if it's a singer projecting the way those people were I think you would pick up an echo. Food courts have a lot of hard surfaces that bounce sound around.
The more people you mike, the more complicated it gets recording the audio. Wireless mikes work on a series of frequency bands. You can't have two mikes using the same band and you don't want the frequencies too close together. Four people wearing mikes is more complicated than I would attempt. And they had multiple cameras. They did a nice job. And the singers staged it wonderfully well.
I saw on the news that the video was meant to be a "Christmas card" to the customers of this photography company. In that respect, it would explain the attention to production. Still, the crowd reaction was genuine.
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