Re: OT: Good Friday choir in my church

Pimpom <Pimpom@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Some of you may vaguely remember that I'm an Indian and may visualise
Indians as wearing Nehru jackets, saris and nose rings. Well, my people
are one of the numerous minority races in India and have little in
common with mainstream Indians. We make up less than 0.1% of the
population, with our own state in a remote region in North-East India.
We are all Christians - at least in name.
 
The link below is to a video of the youth choir in my local church
performing this Good Friday. They sang a more upbeat song on Easter
Sunday but it seems they haven't uploaded the video yet. Our youngest
son plays lead guitar and sits right behind the conductor. His guitar
solo starts a little after 2:50.
 
The sound is badly distorted as the whole thing was shot with a DSLR
camera with its built-in microphone, about a dozen feet from the PA speaker.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mep47VIurnI
 

Nice—not at all what I expected when you mantioned the lead guitar.  In
these parts we have many variations on the First Church of the Rock Band,
which is unfortunate. You folks emphasize the congregational singing rather
than the performance.

In my shop, the Antiochian Orthodox Church, we have a lot of services
during Lent and Holy Week. We’re mostly first- and second-generation
immigrants from Jordan and Syria, so parts of the services are in Arabic,
which I don’t understand, but I can follow along in the English service
book with few problems.

One difference is that the Orthodox don’t use musical instruments in
worship-it’s all _a capella_, led by the choir and the protopsaltis
(cantor).  (_A capella_ refers to a similar tradition in the West.)

Byzantine music takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s very affecting
when you’re comfortable with it.

But the main thing is,

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!

Cheers

Phil Hobbs


--
Dr Philip C D Hobbs  Principal Consultant  ElectroOptical Innovations LLC /
Hobbs ElectroOptics  Optics, Electro-optics, Photonics, Analog Electronics