austin_tycho | (no subject)

Kirby brought me the cd for 'Holy Well and Sacred Flame' today. I really enjoyed this play last year. As you may recall it was all about the goddess Brigit in her many guises. I'm not otherwise attracted to the Celtic gods, but this play was gorgeous and I was happy to get the cd. Overall, I like it. I have perfect pitch (or close to it), which sucks because I know it's hard to sing perfectly in tune when you're doing a play, so while I don't hold it against anyone when I hear it, it does make me wince.

1 Holy Well and Sacred Flame- the intro chant. It is very repetitive, which works well as a chant but on a cd out of context, might come off as boring. So it helps if you went to the play and realize that context. Some of the singers were out of tune in parts.

2 Brigit Buadach- the spoken parts are hard to hear. The lead singer on this one has a beautiful voice, and this song shows it off nicely. The song does have sort of a feel about it that they wanted to cram as many descriptions of Brigit in there as they could, so it sounds like a laundry list at times.

2.5 There's an uncredited chorus in what I assume is a Celtic dialect. I get a little twitchy when people speak in a language I don't understand in a ritual setting (and this was a ritual play); there was a part in English which I guess was a translation, but it seemed a lot longer. It sounded nice though.

3 The Lap of the Mother- Content sings this one. She has a rough voice, and wandered out of tune a couple of times. But it was a rousing drinking-song style (a reel?) so it was fine. I remember this being a very energetic part of the play. It's fun to listen to. It's also the song that got stuck in my head for weeks and weeks. And weeks!

4 Earthshapers- the beginning is partly spoken and partly sung in an amusing overdone way. The instrumental behind it was haunting and effective. Some of the spoken part has that over-emphasized 'Acting! Theater! Genius' feel to it which is a little grating to me.

5 Creative Split Screen- a short studio instrumental piece. I don't remember when it was in the play. Well-done.

6 Hammered on the Anvil- a rousing bluesy-gospel bit. I remember it being a lot of people's favorite but I didn't like it as much. I think they went too fast, and people seemed to be stumbling over the words, or rushing to get them out. There were more tuning issues. You could also tell people were getting sick of clapping too. Plus you just can't sing 'shimmer with dew' and sound manly, and the 3rd grader in me wants to go *snork* Mick has an amazing stage presence but is not a terrific singer. He's got a big flair for comedy though.

7 After the Mad King Died- mournful and haunting- another studio instrumental. Organ-keyboard stuff with a lot of sustained minor chords. Beautiful.

Somewhere in here Content did a piece about Boudecea (sp?) that I remember being very shaken by; this very violent and angry story suited her voice really well. I am guessing there was no actual song associated

8 Fire Priestess Chant- a round, and people seemed to be trying to outsing each other to be heard, so a lot of the words were hard to understand. Neat chant though.

9 A Letter from Da- another instrumental, strings (or keyboards that sound like strings) this time- sounds like a ballad. Another beautiful piece.

10 The Death of Ruadan- Edmund's very depressing song that a reviewer called 'ponderous'. Think someone in an opera dying. Is that going to be bouncy? No, stupid reviewer, it's going to be slow and dirge-like. So if you don't get opera you won't like this. I thought it was really effective, and remember being moved almost to tears when I was there. The female who sang with him seemed really out of tune in parts; I think she was not sure of herself but who knows. Bummer.

11 The Day Jesus Left Home- another very depressing song, again well-done (it was spoken-word with synth accompaniment) in my opinion. It indulged in some Yahweh-bashing, which was evident elsewhere, but it wasn't surprising in pagan ritual theater. I remember it being extremely striking visually as well.

12 Brigid of the Forge- the last instrumental. It starts off atonal, but gets more, um, tonal about halfway through and overall sounds a lot like Vangelis. I always loved Vangelis (especially in his 'Cosmos' days) so I love this song.

13 Deep Peace- a slow, minor call and response. Some of it sounded a little stumbled- too many words crammed into too small a period of time. But this is a minor complaint. Overall I like this one. It's hypnotic. The spoken parts at the end seemed a bit over-emphasized (Acting!), but it's another minor complaint.

14 Say It Is So- the 'doo-wop' exit song. It doesn't sound as forced as the Hammered piece, and it does sound like the singers are enjoying themselves which is nice. You can hear a lot of audience noises; people were ushered out with blessings while this was sung. I remember feeling sort of cheated- I wanted to stay and keep listening to this song! Now I get to listen to it all I want. It's a very comforting song. The Jesus guy gets to sing about 3 minutes into it- and he signs really well! I had assumed that since a lot of his other stuff was spoken that he wasn't comfortable singing. Content wanders off pitch a little. I think Edmund was doing the 'ooo' part, and by gosh he did it really well. As one who knows how challenging it can be to play upbeats through an entire Sousa march, let me tell you it's harder than it sounds.