Purcell - Sound the trumpet - J. Bowman, A. Scholl

[Annie79488]

I am doing this song for Seattle Girls Choir! I love this song!

[Gwendo1423]

Why this song was wirtten ?

[lauriejulia]

Dans quelle circonstance cette oeuvre a t-elle était écrite?



[powertool360]

Ähm, there nö Girls. Two Men. Countertenors....

[paulinethegreat1]

Thank you for posting this. I'm doing this forr my choir class, so thank you! Thhese girls are awesome!

[SuperVideodave]

@paulinethegreat1 ....? Girls????

[Fozzymaple]

This is fabulous. I do however think that the Dellers were a little better matched.

[Pyrrha108]

Thank you for posting this !

[MrDominiccooper]

SO GOOD!!!!

[FREEASTHESTARS]

Great song and great singing! But wtf is with the stupid clapping at the beginning? Guess people haven't learned that you clap at the end of a piece yet....

[MrDominiccooper]

i really love this!!!

[XxAlisonNassifxX]

I'm Doing This Song In Choir :/

[helenferrieux1]

A pure joy. James Bowman sang in my town some years ago and I was priviledged to sit in the very front row. His voice, with that of Andreas Scholl, makes a purely heavenly sound.

[LULLYxoxo]

i love it ! thank you very much !

[sunsdomain]

it's just super to hear Mr. Bowman's contribution!

[Guichotpresident]

The two greatest...

[LaTruieLaineuse]

Bowman is my favourite countertenor cf for example : Vivaldi's Stabat Mater

[Gentario]

@LaTruieLaineuse

This Stabat Mater is one of the best of all time, IMHO.

[Absoluteg0]

fucking claps

[serenaluce]

Beautiful! Especially Bowman. Much better than the Dellers!

[velazquezjop]

maravilloso

[patoa94]

warum lacht denn das publikum am anfang?

[celestevt]

I have heard this sung by a male alto and a countertenor (two different sounds) - it was beautiful.

[tritonusgesang]

Wunderbar! - Ein Traum ist dieses Duett! :-)

[gadella1985]

unless they sound rather like women, i still want to have their babies.... lol ;-)

[DuetForCats]

Love this interpretation, this can be a rather fierce and stompy piece, but they make it whimsical and cute.

[musicfariy]

it such a pain when people start clapping during music! it pisses me off.

[DuetForCats]

Yeah expressing enjoyment is such a nuisance. People should stop it!

[jgonnerman85]

As I understand there was good reason. I believe this is the concert where this was sung as an encore to a concert of Andreas Scholl. James Bowman introduced Scholl, but it was Scholl's concert. So, when the harpsichord started up, Bowman (who, I believe, is more or less retired, actually), sings the first part of the duet, from within the audience, and Scholl responds from stage. It was clearly intended to provoke such a reaction.

[nicoleonXdynamite]

@musicfariy hahaha it's funny when people clap after musicians test their instruments in unison.

[TobiOpfa]

I agree to you...but still better than the people who do not admire this music^^

[amarkanable]

@musicfariy Wow if it sends you into such a spittle-flying juvenile rage then there are millions of studio recordings out there to listen to.

[Cerulean0987]

You aren't trolling this thread too are you Kholman? I think you made your point abundantly apparent in the last video you posted on. Must you repeat?

[marsvltor2]

Just don't fall into the trap of replying - he'll soon tire of insulting the counter-tenor voice...

[kholman1994]

I laugh everytime I hear this

[musicalbanana22]

I just sang this in choir! I was a soprano. It was a very fun piece to sing! Quite beautiful.

[yamiyugikun]

two best most amazing countertenors ever!

[mflv2]

*D major

[mflv2]

The music is excelent!!! Thank you for putting this on youtube! :) This contra-tenors are the best! I just have one small thing to say: the contra-tenors are singing a half-tone lower, in D-flat major, than written piece on the video wich is in E major. :D thanks.

[conbracchiassai]

They're using baroque tuning. A is 415 Hz, not 440, so everything sounds a semitone lower :)

[musicfariy]

:D that is just one of the many cool things about baroque tuning - you need a diff tuning fork, just because it's special!

[PoleyUK]

I was there! It was a fantastic suprise! Thanks for posting it! :o)

[midgetme01]

This is so good.

My music teacher played this to us and was like which type of singer is singing this and we were like Alto and Soprano and she was like no, they are men and we were like what??? But way good

[toffeebicuit]

The term is Falsetto.

[barliman2001]

Actually, they are not singing falsetto, but are true countertenors. There is a world of a difference.

[olialto7]

No, it is more or less exactly the same thing.

[musicfariy]

Male singers who sing higher music are userly called Countertenors however they are sometimes called Alto's as they have the same range as Alto's. Often on CD's of oratorios (eg- Messiah & Samson by Handel & St. John Passion by Bach) where it lists the different aria's/air's etc. it says...

Air: Alto...blah blah blah. even if a countertenor is singing of that recording.

Bowman & School or true countertenor's - some "countertenor's" do purely us there falsetto.

[desireelikesmonsters]

lmao. im singing this song in choir.

[nclysander]

Why the laughter at the beginning?

[civileso]

The reason for the laughter is (as explained before in the older comments) Bowman singing unexpectedly. He was the presenter of this recital by Scholl, not the performer. So, when he suddenly started singing this duet at the end of the concert, the surprised audience let out a laughter. :)

[Mangasakka]

@civileso I can see the scene in my head when you describe it. I wish I saw it. Was that on tv?

These are a fine couple of voices, my word, and this thingy is really well arranged by this mister Purcell, isn't it? ;-)

I guess we all agree that James Bowman and Andreas Scholl are the Farinellis of the 20th century.

[Yesquiet]

@civileso he wondered . . . maybe . . they laughed at Him . ? . . your answer ,civileso , perhaps is "better"

[AlyandErin]

were performing this for the ensamle contest for case choir =D

[xoxpenguinxox]

The way this piece should be performed!

[blairerox]

thank you

i wanted to do it with another countertenor for solo and ensemble but they didnt let us :(

[Queenesy]

I agree!!!by the two best contra-tenors ever!! this preformance is brilliantly done

5*****

[Jamaleen]

My two favourite counter-tenors of all time! Lovely to hear them together in this piece.

I remember seeing James Bowman first in the 1970s with the Early Music Consort at the Proms and have been a fan ever since. And what can I say about Andreas? - he's a joy.

[musicfariy]

awesome - you saw him at the proms!!

[grafvondritten]

gente como Purcell no deberian morirse nunca!

[MGZolyn]

i love that you posted the music with the video! even though it's in a different key than my version, it totally helps me follow along my part for practice. thank you so much!

[saintandrews84]

Awsome , the Deller brothers are excellent too !

[lalagonegaga]

Wrong. Mark was Alfred Deller's son. :) But I'll agree with you that their version is lovely too... P.S. Bowman and Scholl sound fantastic together.

[saintandrews84]

Ooops , yes quite right there !

[acanthe83]

Andreas scholl est inaudible

[emmachambers14]

who sings first is it andreas scholl or am i wrong?

[civileso]

It is Bowman.

[emmachambers14]

thanks

[achantus1]

@emmachambers14 No, that's Andreas Scholl.

[AndyMcIntyre]

They're actually singing this a half step lower, which is, I think, because Baroque tuning was a half step lower (ie A=415 as opposed to 440). Just so you know.

[MehdiCaps]

This is not technically a semi-tone lower... lower than what? It's simply played on a different pitch than the one commonly accepted today. A equals there 415 Hz only for practical reasons, but it could be 423 or anything else. An A is an A, whatever the pitch is, so it's played like it's written.

[AndyMcIntyre]

Well by today's scientific pitch notation, A4 is 440 Hz. By today's standards, the sustained A that's written should sound a 440 Hz. However, they're using Baroque tuning so a written A4 has a pitch of 415 Hz.

[MehdiCaps]

I meant: no, it's not lower. It's a different pitch than the modern one (which happens to be A415 here, but it could be anything... there's not only one Baroque pitch, which by some awesome coincidence would be perfectly a semi-tone lower than the modern one: it's a convention too, for practical reasons).

So this is not lower or higher than anything. This is played like they thought it was good to play it, and every note fits the score. That was my point.

[TheCrazyCello]

Exactly. It's as much coincidence that the interval between 415Hz and 440Hz is almost exactly one equally-tempered semitone as it is modern choice. When this piece was written, there were generally (at least) two sizes of semitone, diatonic and chromatic. These differed depending on what particular temperament was employed, but none at all correspond to the interval 415-440Hz. Besides, like you said there have been many pitches, ranging from 303Hz to 520Hz for "a" (A4) historically!

[MehdiCaps]

Must add that we often get this comment about the fact that "it's not played like it's written", by modern pitch nazis. I'm really wondering why they're watching Baroque music videos; they should know that this pitch problem is going to ruin their listening pleasure! ;)

[AndyMcIntyre]

My point was not to be a pitch Nazi; get off your high horse. I made the comment so in case anyone with good pitch is watching this they'll know why the written notes don't have the same pitches they do today.

[MehdiCaps]

Yes, and that's exactly why YOU sounded like you were riding your high horse, and I replied accordingly. 1) Most people who watch Baroque music videos don't need that explanation because they already know better. 2) Your comment was totally inappropriate. Who is "you" in "just so you know"? The poster? She knows better. The whole world? Who asked anything about it? No one. Why do you think they need your explanations? They could ask the poster.

[MehdiCaps]

Your comment was exactly like: "For your information, dear uneducated masses, this is played in Baroque pitch, i.e. A = 415 Hz", which is pretentious and false.

[AndyMcIntyre]

The "you" wasn't addressed to any one person; it was to someone listening to this who might be unaware of Baroque pitch, like 4 of my friends I showed this to. I posted it because I was trying to be helpful; YOU'RE just trying to be a contrary know-it-all.

[MehdiCaps]

OK, so thanks for enlightening us, Maestro.

No, seriously, maybe you should email that to your friends, instead. ;) If anyone else needs an explanation, they'll ask the question here and then you'll totally be welcome to answer them.

Imagine that I would go to a football game and start explaining the rules to the people in attendance... ;)

[AndyMcIntyre]

And you're winking at me why?

[MehdiCaps]

Not at you, but at the people who are laughing.

[AndyMcIntyre]

I think your overestimating your wit.

[MehdiCaps]

I don't underestimate your spelling, though.

[AndyMcIntyre]

And yes I realize the typo.

[AndyMcIntyre]

This is a dumb, pointless argument. To everyone, if I sounded pretentious, my bad. That wasn't my intention. I was not aware that everybody on YouTube knew what Baroque pitch is; a music professor told me a while ago, and I didn't think it was common knowledge.

All I was trying to do was say that most tuning around the world says A4=440Hz; however, in this recording A4=415Hz.

[MehdiCaps]

That's exactly what I thought: you learned it last week, so you believed that it's a well kept secret that needed to be revealed.

[AndyMcIntyre]

Since when did a while become a week? If you've lived for a month, maybe, and your maturity doesn't suggest anything significantly longer as far as you're concerned.

[emmachambers14]

this is the BEST song ever!

[lucylovesyee]

this was in my music gcse paper

[JORN657HOTMAILCOM]

very good muy bueno

[emuclarinetplaya]

Amazing!

[mradaChris]

Wowee!!! I loved this! I always wondered why I don't see may CTs singing harmony and this was a pleasant surprise! Thank you thank you!

[edithmead04]

Try the version of this duet sung by Alfred and Mark Deller available on youtube, I have a number of duets by this father and son combination; they may not have the volume of James Bowman, but the words are very clear, and even at 69, Alfred Deller's diction was still excellent.

[mradaChris]

I believe I have and it was good too!

[ashazard]

So brilliant, but so, SO, weird. Falsetto, in which I dabble, can either be done REALLY well, or REALLY badly. Thankfully, this is the former.

[lamsauping]

Best!

[stuggsie]

A joy.

[archangeli]

Thank you so much for posting this!

I was at this concert in London and it was worth crossing an ocean for. The concert was absolutely perfect :)

I was so happy that Andreas did a CD signing afterwards and I was able to meet him.

[tartinitrumpet]

It's nice but when they attempt to accent part is just sounds bad. :( I prefer two very light sounding female voices for this one.

[Queenesy]

Brilliant!

iv'e seen Scholl performence once and it was magical! wish i could listen to him all day!

thanx for sharing this!

[Marietherese77fr]

I went to the same programme held somewhere else just a few days before this Royal Festival Hall concert. They also sung this piece as an encore, and we all burst into laughter at the beginning because it was really unexpected.

When Mr. Bowman started singing, he was sitting behind the orchestra and we heard only "a voice" without knowing where it came from. But after a few seconds, we all realized that it was Bowman's voice and he stepped forward. What a wonderful surprise!

[civileso]

Thanks a lot :) I imagine it must be really great to see this particular duo perform live on stage.

[CubbyNH]

I would love for Scholl to do a cd of Purcell... thanks for this

[civileso]

Yes! It beats me why he never did.

[palcika1]

It's hard to imagine anything more seductive than a Purcell-singing Scholl. In his last-night-of-the-proms performance he reduced the ornamentations of Fairest Isle to a minimum, and it's breathtaking. I guess he realised that the melody was too sweet and his voice too beautiful to be improved any further. Perfection.