Choir! Choir! Choir!

Welcome to Wondercafe2!

A community where we discuss, share, and have some fun together. Join today and become a part of it!

Mendalla

Happy headbanging ape!!
Pronouns
He/Him/His
Just discovered this group from Toronto. What a great concept. Bring people together to learn a choral setting of a pop-rock song, then record it and post it on YouTube. They've even had some celebrity guests. Rufus Wainwright joined them for Cohen's Hallelujah. Patti Smith fronted the group on "Because the Night" (a song they have done several times, including at a TedX event where they included the audience) a hit of hers from the seventies. The writer of Pat Benatar's"We Belong" introduced their version of it. And so on.

Their other thing is mega-choirs where they assemble 1000+ people in a venue to learn and sing a song. Their tribute to the late Prince, for instance, had 1999 people (if you know Prince, that number is significant) assembling to sing "When Doves Cry".

And there are really just two guys behind the whole thing, too. One director and a guitarist who accompanies them. From their website:

home

This is not a slickly produced professional choir. This is ordinary folks living the joy of music and that comes through in spades in their videos. I don't sing and I would happily join a session.
 
And now, some music:

A tribute to the late Walter Becker of Steely Dan:


One of my all time favorite songs and one that I have always wanted to hear as a choral piece:


The aforementioned team up with Rufus Wainwright:


That gets us started.
 
What great arrangement. "Sweet Child of Mine" is one of Guns'n Roses best to start with, but this arrangement takes it in a different, but also very good, direction.

 
They are a remarkable group. I have a friend who has been with them regularly for several years - she's usually right in the front row in the videos on the left side, bigger person, blonde, glasses :) She says it has become her new 'church' in the sense of community that she gains from it. People in the choir looked after her when she was ill - she is a widow. The choir raised funds and sponsored a refugee family as did many churches a few years ago. At Xmas they raise funds for charities. As you can see in the videos - it's all ages, all walks of life, they gather in a pub to learn the music - new song every week I think, which they then tape & put up on the web.

Another friend joined in the big luminato festival singing of Halleluljah at the decomissioned generating station & said it was quite extraordinary. They sing (for a fee, which goes to charity) at various big community events around Toronto - like Nathan Philips square for the lighting of the big Xmas tree - that sort of thing.
 
I think I know which one you mean. The Hallelujah you mention is the third video in my second post.

I have long been a fan of Roxette's "Must Have Been Love". One of the most beautiful breakup songs ever written. And Choir! nails it.

 
Yes Mendalla - that's exactly the Hallelujah concert :) It was such a powerful moment for all involved.

This is also a favourite of mine - "I Can't Keep Quiet" with MILCK - written for the women's march in washington earlier this year. Proceed from this sold out event were donated to ACLU :)

 
I have always thought Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve would make a great choral piece. Choir! to the rescue:

 
Yes. Inappropriate for a Christian church choir though.

Would God that created the wholly thing reject a fine song despised by picky people?

Perhaps that was the devil doing rejection ... so he could pick what heh thought best contrary to the norm outside heis temple ...

The devil's temple may be bigger and more po' ly understood by those with confiscated intellect! Thus occult BS ... what the religious doesn't get ... God's other side? This happens with one way perspectives when God has a large perspective ... especially for building testable prototypes for learning nu things ... kind of a mental trap with loops ... ð ...

Could this be a icon of de light in de hole ...? The domain between mankind's Eire ? It follows like Shadows ...
 
??? I didn't say it is.

No, you didn't, but your remark did sort of come out of nowhere. No one ever suggested the music was suitable for a Christian church, certainly not the post of mine you quoted, so her confusion about your remark is understandable.

And back to music. Choir! celebrated the late Gord Downie last week with a setting of The Stranger from his album Secret Path.


And this week, a more cheerful (if still bittersweet given the recent passing of Tom Petty) post, Handle With Care by the Travelling Wilburys.


Love how they left the guitarist's bloopers in.
 
No, you didn't, but your remark did sort of come out of nowhere. No one ever suggested the music was suitable for a Christian church, certainly not the post of mine you quoted, so her confusion about your remark is understandable.

Right, thanks, I get that. I can't recall why I said that. It was some time ago.
 
Why stop there? Never been a big fan of New Wave even when it was big, but Melt With You by Modern English breaks that mold. And Choir! covers it with joy and passion.


Another song that screams for a choral setting.

 
Right, thanks, I get that. I can't recall why I said that. It was some time ago.

Is such a thing a norm with people having faint recall of their proposed myths? Thus love leaves in a dance to leave assertiveness and reaction to naïveté ... and so it goes ... natural process ... and eventually we're all s**t and a strange essence ...

It'll shock those that fall into this state and find so many of their despised friends there ...

The pits of alternate cognizance ... or a wholly bra-en syndrome simulating a bust ... these may appears as tit mouse ...
 
Back
Top