h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In one little choir I am in - we had our rehearsal tonight - we are doing a work by Robert Ray - a Gospel Mass. I can't find much about the man or the work on the web, and the only CD's I could find were recorded by amateur choirs. It would be great to sing this work with a decent choir - preferably a nice big one.

So far we have done the Acclamation which is a non-bombastic Halleluya - quite an unusual atmosphere, but very moving harmonies. I've played some of the other movements (what are the parts of a Mass called?) on the piano, but why does this guy write in C flat minor?

Is music sung by black people only supposed to be played on the black notes or something?

Anyway, if anyone knows anything about this work or a decent recording of it, I'd be pleased to hear about it.

Hi TC,
what does "flat" mean in C flat minor?
Unfortunaely, I haven't heard of RR before. May be I have heard something frm him without knowng it was of him?!?


HP
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C flat means a semitone lower than C. This note is also called B, although in the German naming scheme it is called H.

B Minor is written as 3 sharps in the key signature. How do you write C flat Minor?

That would be cis moll. I think it was that - I haven't got the book with me at the moment, but it had 6 or 7 flats

I am somewhat confused now
is a flat a "b" or a "#" ?

HP
»--.

A flat is a 'b' with a pointed base. It makes the note lower in pitch.

A sharp is a #. It makes the note higher in pitch.

F flat is one semitone lower than F, so it is E.

C flat is one semitone lower than C. In Germany it is called H but in the rest of the world it is called B.

Sorry, yes, Cis is c#. C flat is ces, I suppose. Not the sort of thing you say every day. However, it would have been far easier to write and not much more difficult to sing if everything was half a tone higher. So why do people do this? What is the point of having more than four flats or sharps?

I do see the point that D minor gives a certain tone to a piece or G major for example. Our conductor is always telling us things like that. And you often read that the mood of certain symphonies is dictated by the key it's in. But surely there aren't 24 moods? 5 or 6 must be enough? In jazz or pop you get riffs or tunes repeated a half-tone higher - maybe even a few steps up the scale, according to the arrangements, the range of instruments or voices, time available, whatever, so you'd need these fiddly keys to write that down in - they have to exist, I agree.

But it must be murder for the accompanist bashing out a piece over and over again in some obscure key, when most of the choir probably wouldn't even notice if it was singing a semitone lower. Or higher. I would be quite happy to sing these Hallelujah (sic) s as "d"s instead of d flats.

I'm not being anti-artistic, just practical!

And one of these days I'm going to have to turn round and tell them how to pronounce "breath" and "psaltry"

The words go: Hallelujah Praise the Lord
Everything that has breath ought to priase Him.
Praise Him with stringed instruments,
Praise Him with the psaltry and harp, praise Him with dance,

For this choir, they go to the effort of phonetically writing out the words for German speakers, as so many of them have no idea of English. So those who have those copies are OK (I helped with the phoneticising). Those who think they can speak English pronounce "breath" as "breathe" and pronounce the "p" in Psaltry which holds things up. AS the conductor is Russian speaking, he has no idea what they're singing about anyway or whether it's pronounced right.

You don't have to read this rant if you don't want to.

Anyway I'm off to Church now - a special Mass tonight for a couple celebrating their Golden Wedding Anniversary. We're trundling out the songs we usually sing at Weddings - but it'll be nice.

Thanks for all those explantions!

Well, why cis-minor then? Apart from the moods that might be expressed with the different keys, I would say that this should be a pretty easy strings key - expecially for guitars, I guess. I also think that (at least) cis-major would be pretty easy to play on the piano, as there often is almost nothing but black keys - it's called something like pentatonical music ?!?

I once arranged a (modern) German "gospel" song ("Siehe ich habe Dir geboten, dass Du getrost und freudig seist" from Joshua 1,9 [?]) in C major and modulated to cis for a repeat chorus at the end. That one was OK for the piano, I think.

HP
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The little choir I'm in is currently rehearsing too! Bit thin on the ground recently, I was the sole alto last week. Strangely often seems easier with only a few - perhaps we can hear each other better.
One of our pieces changes key from 3 flats to five, part way through - murder for the accompanist!

Our choir mistress (sounds odd, but can't think of a better title)has demonstrated how one note on the keyboard can actually be sung differently according to the other notes sung/played with it. So I suppose the key signature can be quite important to the overall sound of a piece.

I was always told the key signatures matter to the different registers, but hell - I'm a folk singer, you should see folk harmonies.

That piece you've given is very familiar, but I think thats because its from the Psalms (and there is a belter of a word for explaining silent P) or it might be the song of David.

Sounds familiar anyway.