Hillekes singing Wondrous King, All-Glorious

Hearing this tonight reminded me of the power of music in this setting. I would hope that more and more of us would think of this as a great way to encourage and minister to those who are ill and bed-ridden. This is exactly how I’d want to be encouraged. I’d want to hear the Psalms and the great hymns of the Christian Church to remind me in my time of struggle.

When you don’t know how to comfort someone with words, why not just sing to them. Then you don’t have to worry about saying the wrong thing. Just remind them in song of what the Lord’s promised to us and to them.

This singing was a blessing to us and it gave us something to put our energies toward. It also was a picture of our unity in wanting to see our brother be encouraged as he laid in that hospital bed. We weren’t each just offering our own solitary words of encouragement, but rather as an extension of the church we were unified in our encouragement and glorifying it in a way that our words just couldn’t do alone.

Karin has one of the most moving voices that I’ve heard in my 25 years upon this earth. She throws so much into her music. I don’t know if that is the total of my attraction to this group or if it is a combination of things. I can tell you that I like the mix of folk, jazz, & light rock. Linford Detweiler is quite the pianist and composer/arranger. There is enough piano and at all the right times.

The first song I heard by Over the Rhine (hereafter OTR) was their cover of Gillian Welch’s “Orphan Girl.” I played it for Sarah because she likes that song and the Gillian Welch version that is so popular. We both remarked that this live version was very moving. It was more upbeat and full than the isolating renditions by Welch and others. It was neat to see it in a more upbeat style and then be sung by such a soulful voice.

I write this post to commend them to you if you haven’t heard them. I really enjoy their original stuff as well as their covers of ballads. I’m a sucker for “live” and acoustic sets, so I went for their “Live from Nowhere” series of albums. But you might want to start with studio albums. I just like the Live feel and impromptu sound. Go, and listen and tell me what you think of that voice and song variety!

I was exposed to Bryn Terfel for the first time during my undergraduate voice study at Louisiana Tech University. There is a short list of singers that I will listen to for fun and Bryn Terfel is one of those singers on my short list. His warm and rich bellow-some sound leaves you wanting more. Whether he’s singing German lieder or American folk songs, Bryn Terfel is just that good.

Here’s a short repertoire compilation that will woo you and convince you in a short amount of time of Bryn’s seemingly effortless control of his voice. These are in no particular no order:

• “Madamina, il catalogo è questo“ (The Catalogue Aria)  from Mozart’s Don Giovanni.
• “Litanei Auf Das Fest Allerseelen, D 343“ by Franz Schubert is a great art song example of Bryn’s abilities.
• “Seventy-Six Trombones“ from Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man. His dramatic style of singing is just as enjoyable.
• “Thus Saith the Lord“ from Handel’s Messiah.
• “Send in the Clowns“, a Jonathan Punick arrangement of Stephen Sondheim’s song from A Little Night Music. This is another song that is more familiar to the average person. So, even if you are not a connoisseur of art songs and opera arias, you can get a feel for his abilities with this famous song.

I hope that you will download some of Bryn Terfel’s songs. These are just some songs to expose you to his singing style and voice. There are many more than this to enjoy. His albums, Simple Gifts and Bryn Terfel Sings Favorites are good if you like him singing English and American folk songs. His Handel Arias album and his Opera Arias are good if you want to hear him sing some of the great arias of western classical music.

Just in case you need more convincing. Here’s a YouTube video of Bryn singing, Danny Boy:

We all can sing, though. I tell my choirs that at the most basic level, if you can speak, then you can sing. All speech is melodic or musical in some sense. So, you have the equipment to be able to sing. But, how often do we hear people say about a friend or relative’s singing inability that he/she “just can’t sing.” I’ve stopped speaking like that. I believe it is more diagnostic to say that he/she doesn’t have the ability to mirror the sounds that they hear. Not everyone is capable of singing with a professional tone and quality. Not everyone is gifted with singing, obviously. We too often say singing is something that you are/aren’t born being able to do. So, we don’t pursue it or exhaust the possibility that this ability might just need hard practice or cultivation like playing the piano or the violin. The longstanding debate of genetics vs. environment as applied to music is hard to separate. It may be that those who sing well may have had a great environment that was saturated on many levels with music in subtle and overt ways. It may be that you need purposeful and direct saturation of music to help you. You may not have had that in your past.

Regardless, it is safe to say that more people, claiming that “they can’t sing,” could improve their singing abilities by training their ears with singing intervals and learning these patterns and structure of music. It takes a lot of repetition if you aren’t “aurally coordinated.” Just don’t be hasty to say, “I can’t sing.” You just may not have cultivated your ear and learned to work your voice accordingly. No one’s promising an opera career, but you might not be much practice away from singing in a choir at church or in your community.