Watch us sing!

[wiseheart]

On April 28, we took part of the annual music festival of the 11th district of Budapest. Some of it even made it to YouTube!

The grand beginning, with 200 schoolkids and us (I'm the chubby woman with the glasses and the very wide, lacy collar on the far right, seen at the beginning of the clip):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNzkXWbP3dY

Several clips from our children's choir:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwdRL6T9lnc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jb2C-EdbeTM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwSvhGtcYy0

And, last but not least, the choir consisting of us, teachers, and some of the parents (I'm the third one from the right in the front row):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEKPwWkGPJk

Comments

[artemis10002000]

You're a very musical school indeed!

The singing is lovely *hug* You must've had so much fun singing with such a huge choir!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, not the entire choir is ours, of course. Only the kids with the blue or green ties. Altogether, nine schoold took part in the festival, and at the beginning, everyone sang together one number: "O Filii" by Franz Liszt. It's Liszt appreciation year in the world of music, and since he was of Hungarian origins, we try to give him all the honour he so richly deseves.

[artemis10002000]

Cool! It must've been an amazing experience.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It was lovely, yes. I like to sing very much. Even if we contraltos rarely get to shine. :)

[rcfinch.livejournal.com]

Good singing, especially in the last clip!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Thanks, we tried our best. :)

[lissas-elves.livejournal.com]

Aww, those children are precious. :-)

But I think the grown-ups' choir was technically better. Lovely singing!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Well, the children are very young - between 7 and 12. And since after that age they usually stop coming to choir, Monica has to rebuild the choir in every second or third year. Considering that, they're not bad at all, I think.

We, grown-ups, have been singing together for quite a few years by now. And while the fluctuation is heavy at times, we've managed to soldier on so far. :)

What fun!

[lhun-dweller.livejournal.com]

Thanks you SO MUCH for posting these clips. Not only did I enjoy the thrill of seeing you singing (YAY!), but I also got to hear some interesting music. Where does that last song come from? Not only are the melody/harmony a bit unusual, but the rhythm was definitely not classical Western European. Köszönöm!!!

Re: What fun!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

It is an old Hungarian folk song, reworked for a female choir by 20th-century Hungarian composer József Karai. He's done fantastic work writing dozens of such pieces, and I'm proud to have met him while I was still in college.

If you liked this, you'll like Evening Songs even more. It's a quartet of Transsylvanian songs, very old-style. We're not the one singing on this clip, but we did sing it, and it sounded quite like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUqNjQP0ehQ

The great thing with Karai is that his piano pieces to his choir pieces almost have a life of their own.