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

I'm sure I've said this before. For a choir I am in we have just been sent infos for the huge ecumenical service we are singing at in January. I shan't be able to go because I have all my family together under one roof for once, which we won't be doing at Christmas.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^



Links were included for two of the works - one by Eric Whitacre and one by William Byrd. I was listening to the Byrd and let the clip run on. The next work was by Palestrina.

http://youtu.be/PQo_LirQY-k

When I hear Palestrina, it is as if someone has wrapped me up in a blanket, given me a cup of hot cocoa and said that the world is fine and everything is lovely and I don't have to be in charge for once.

So - how does he do it?

The Byrd is lovely, too - but too pure and ethereal. Palestrina gets to the body as well as the soul.

As I say, I've probably said this before, but it just overcame me again.

People have spent their lives studying how he worked and listing the rules he seemed intuitively to keep to, but no one has got to the bottom of it, as far as I, with my limited knowledge, can tell.

Now I can get on with Christmas Eve and will feel more prepared for it, having heard this music.

That's the feeling I get when I listen to Richard Strauss. Not all of it is like that but there are plenty of hot cocoa moments. Strauss even wrote an opera called 'Schlagobers'.

Mrs G described Strauss as "Music for Ents" - you have to have a long musical attention span to appreciate the harmonies, as he does things like suspending a chord for 20 or 30 bars.

I've sung Palestrina and it is very easy to sing - it doesn't do many unexpected things, but is masterly crafted. Our choir will usually sing a Palestrina mass after two or three runs through.

Ah, Palestrina. I could listen to his music till I fall off the chair. And that reminds me - I have a copy of a documentary about him with, I think, Simon Russell-Beale, which would be perfect Christmas watching if I can find it, so thanks for the reminder

Or perhaps it was Simon Russell Beale

I sang his mass "Aeterna Christi Munera" a long time ago. After Palestrina, where else could the musical world go except into a different style, namely the Baroque [though it wan't called that for a long time...]?

Palestrina's contemporary, Lassus, is for me the composer most worthy of the description "Classical". Everything he did is exemplary, and he covered a much wider range of styles than Palestrina. Just saying.

Palestrina has the feeling of always-rightness, but he has his quirks... just enough to make him recognisable.

I like Lassus, too. Praetorius as well. For lute songs I love John Dowland.