Alastair Miles sings "The trumpet shall sound"

Alastair Miles sings from Handel's Messiah: 45 Behold, I tell you a mystery - 46 The trumpet shall sound. Crispian Steele-Perkins is the trumpet soloist. Stephen Cleobury conducts the Brandenburg Consort.

The Baroque trumpet being played here is valveless but has two finger holes which the trumpeter can close and open with the thumb and little finger of the right hand for fine pitch control. You should be able to see Crispian Steele-Perkins doing this in the video.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Alastair
• Miles
• Handel
• Messiah
• Stephen
• Cleobury
• Brandenburg
• Consort
• classical
• music
• oratorio
• aria
• recitative
• trumpet

[basso92211]

@danielspiotta With all due respect, the people who know this music understand it and recognize that it is a very good performance. Most singing today is close-mic'd and the power of voices like this are no longer widely appreciated. Only in hearing it live can you experience the power of a voice, un-mic'd, filling a cathedral. I would also add that telling him to "Sing it how you'd speak it..." is like telling a master Kabuki performer to act more ordinary.

[bassobaritono]

@flamencoandy This is a true Lyric Basso Cantante that beautifully executed a timeless and wonderful piece by Handel. No issue of range in this piece; however, there are a lot of issues with breath control and passagio for basses and bass-baritones. I have sung the messiah many a time and while I have a much more dramatic voice, running up to the high Es and Ds with explosive power might be a little more crowd pleasing with an audience - Miles rendition is truly a "singers" rendition.

[trombaclassicsff]

What a beautiful voice !

...and Mr.Steele-Perkins is at his best !

ff

[Baechlein17]

This is SO impressive.

[flyboy712]

@TheBoudof When I was a young guy, I found this challenging, but as I got into my late 30's it became easier, and now...50's...I can do it falling off a log. You just have to wait for your voice to mature, about age 40.

[UgliStiK14]

What the... What the hell is that thing?

[fhudkins]

@them4ster4 A trill on a natural trumpet (or horn) is achieved by quickly raising and lowering the tongue (distance from the roof of the mouth). Think of saying "ee, ah, ee, ah, ee, ah" very quickly. This alters the speed at which the air passes out of the mouth, thereby changing the speed at which the lips vibrate, thus the notes played -- faster air, higher pitch; slower air, lower pitch. I hope that makes sense.

[altheapostate]

I'm the bass singer.

[nww009]

@altheapostate Wait... which one are you?

[TheBoudof]

Personally, I find this challenging to sing, as I have yet to fully develop my techniques as a singer. Also, I have more trouble with the height rather than depth of the range. On learning to sing it I have infact lowered it by two tones. This leaves me with a low C#, and if I'm not mistaken, a C on top. I can reach higher, but not comfortably, and I feel the need to be able to sing it comfortably first. A low F should be no problem at all for a bass.

[them4ster4]

how the hell does the trumpet guy do trills?!

[innominatum83]

@assclown2k6

Dear Mr. Clown, Thanks for affirming my assessment of the trumpet part. I'm not a gifted singer, and am realizing I am not a gifted trumpeter either. I'm trying to get ready to play the trumpet part next week, not quite there yet. The trumpeter on this video did a great job.