I have just Glo-o-o-o-o-o-ria'd in one breath...

[PerkingFaintly]

...to R3 carols. Hah, still got it then!*

What's your minor festive season triumph this year?

(*admittedly this is easier when pianissimo to not scare the neighbours)

Ahh this thread has made me smile. Quite a racket here as I am contralto and my DD1 has an amazing range (definitely not from me!), Love this thread. Anyone in Devon area (or of course anywhere else, you don't need to be local) go to glotorbay.co.uk for Carols in the Barn tonight and tomorrow....! Fab online version for all to join!

@HugoPhurst

Ahh this thread has made me smile. Quite a racket here as I am contralto and my DD1 has an amazing range (definitely not from me!), Love this thread. Anyone in Devon area (or of course anywhere else, you don't need to be local) go to glotorbay.co.uk for Carols in the Barn tonight and tomorrow....! Fab online version for all to join!

Thanks, I believe I will. These days a lot of the top notes are a little suspect, so I am singing them very quietly as my DH has enough to put up with at the moment without adding flat notes to them

@PerkingFaintly

Maverick!

Different former wind instrument here, and my soft palette's long gone soft – but I clearly still have the diaphragm of steel.

"In my youth," said the sage, "I took to the flute,
And practised each piece with my wife;
And the muscular strength, which it gave to my toot,
Has lasted the rest of my life."

(with apologies to Carroll)

😂😂😂😂 Will look up the Breath Guy.

As an alto, I was so proud of myself when I managed to hit "sing" in the descant line of O Come All Ye Faithful last year. How sad is that

Well done!
Makes me want to try that now.

@UserEleventyNine

But can you do the 'Sing, choirs of angels....' verse from O Come All Ye Faithful?

Yes, and the organ at our church is 1/3 tone sharp...

The real killer is the top Bb (or is it B? Don't have my Carols For Choirs) in We wish you a merry Christmas...

I remember the year I turned up for midnight mass and half the choir couldn't get there due to a lorry jack knifing on the main road into the village. There was me (top soprano), another soprano, two basses, and a tenor. That was it! I ended up sight reading the alto lines for anything that didn't have a descant and then blasting off on those. Switching from alto to descant mid-hymn felt very odd! Oddly, it's one of my favourite Christmas memories!

@HugoPhurst

Ahh this thread has made me smile. Quite a racket here as I am contralto and my DD1 has an amazing range (definitely not from me!), Love this thread. Anyone in Devon area (or of course anywhere else, you don't need to be local) go to glotorbay.co.uk for Carols in the Barn tonight and tomorrow....! Fab online version for all to join!

Ah Hugo that carol concert looks lovely!

Shall definitely try to be out of the kitchen in time to watch that this evening.

This thread reminds me how much I have missed the carol services this year. I can’t sing for peanuts, but there’s nothing like listening to the children sing carols at this time of year. I’m usually the one blubbing st the back being passed the tissues. We’ll have the carols in full blast this Christmas!

Turn up them tunes and warble away, Hamish!

I need to find a new choir. I really miss it at Christmas.
(I do well on the long drawn out bits. I put it down to competitive swimming and clarinet playing in my youth. I can still swim nearly a length in one breath... Don't do it often mind, only if I'm showing off!)

Ooh, this Barn carol concert is very Christian rock. Not my sort of thing in general (with honourable exceptions).

I shall slope back to the dulcet tones of Radio 3, but hope you all have a lovely time, Hugo.

Im so envious of all of you who can sing well. My DGM could sing, my DM can sing but sadly..... not me.

I really miss the singing this year The building I used to work in had an atrium which went up 6 floors and used to make the scratch choir we put together each year for a lunchtime carol singalong sound like we were in Westminster Abbey! Us 5 Sopranos could get those descant notes right to the top (in both senses )

Well done op! I have tried and failed. Damn you asthma.

I love hark the herald descant.... but unfortunately I can not sing it as I do sound like a strangled cat.

@CaptainCallisto

I remember the year I turned up for midnight mass and half the choir couldn't get there due to a lorry jack knifing on the main road into the village. There was me (top soprano), another soprano, two basses, and a tenor. That was it! I ended up sight reading the alto lines for anything that didn't have a descant and then blasting off on those. Switching from alto to descant mid-hymn felt very odd! Oddly, it's one of my favourite Christmas memories!

I'm alto, but I find the descants seem to drag me along if I'm not careful; then I have to give up halfway through.

I once got my own round of applause at St Martin's in the Fields for my descant - years of training all paid off in that moment! My neighbours have been treated to hours of practice over lockdown...

Evvyjb that's properly impressive!

Were you performing officially or a voice in the congregation?

Now watching Carols from Kings...

@PerkingFaintly

Now watching Carols from Kings...

And what is this new descant?! Rather like it.

Ahh, and "Stille Nacht," because they don't need the congregation to know the words...

Hi fellow choral nerds!
I’m now singing adam lay ybounden to myself and it’s all this thread’s fault.
I’m an alto/low-range soprano in dire emergencies, so am deeply in awe of all you descanters!

This thread makes me miss my home town christmas eve get together, where every musical type in the village gathers in the local pub with their battered copy of carols for choirs to belt out hark the herald angels sing at full volume and drink enormous sums quantities of mulled wine

Quite a few of the descants were new to me, really enjoyed them.

Oh I'm glad at all this descant-love, especially of the new music.

Wasn't there a thread last year of people getting all Discusted of Tunbridge Wells at some new tunes? Or was it about Last Night of the Proms? Almost entirely from people who had never, in fact, Prommed?