Philippine Madrigal Singers (dir: Mark Anthony A. Carpio) y Coro de Voces Graves de Madrid (dir: Juan Pablo de Juan) II Ciclo de Conciertos "Voces Amigas". Gran Anfiteatro del Colegio de Médicos de Madrid. 17 de octubre de 2012.
There is no time of day No existe un momento del día That I can get away from you En que pueda apartarme de tí The world seems different El mundo parece distinto When you are not next to me Cuando no estás junto a mí There is no beautiful melody No hay bella melodía In which you do not arise En que no surjas tú I don't even want to hear it Ni yo quiero escucharla If you don't listen to it Si no la eschuchas tú You have become Es que te has convertido A part of my soul En parte de mi alma Nothing consoles me anymore Ya nada me consuela If you are not there too Si no estás tú también Beyond your lips Más allá de tus labios Of the sun and the stars Del sol y las estrellas With you in the distance Contigo en la distancia My love, Amada mía, I am Estoy You have become Es que te has convertido A part of my soul En parte de mi alma Nothing consoles me anymore Ya nada me consuela If you are not there too Si no estás tú también Beyond your lips Más allá de tus labios Of the sun and the stars Del sol y las estrellas With you in the distance Contigo en la distancia My love, Amada mía, I am Estoy
To bash or not to bash, We still cannot deny the fact that their Sound is a Gift. I don't need to be critically technical just to write something here and prove that I know something in Singing and Music. Once my heart is touched, right there and then I know at that moment, there is a Gift there. And the Music of the Philippine Madrigal Singers will always be a Good Gift to us. It's actually their primary advocacy to provide camaraderie with their Singing and Music, not by providing Technical and Critical Knowledge in Classical Singing. When you appreciate music without Technical Judgement and Prejudice, you are human enough to appreciate simple things in life which are actually big. *smile* And this Music is not just simple. IT'S MUSIC.
I've been listening to a lot of Madz these days and honestly, I am impressed with their chorale prowess and their impact on people. But I have this thing to say about their renditions of songs like this one and the song "How Did You Know". I still cannot understand why as an ensemble, they couldn't seem to grasp the concept of a soloist against the backdrop of harmony. The soloist of course, has to gain upperhand or prominence over the number of voices "accompanying" him otherwise, the melody and his lyrics will be obscured and then there's no point in the song anymore because there's no longer a clear distinction between solo obligato and accompaniment. And this is always the case in all the Madz videos I watched here in youtube. Doesn't the choirmaster have any concept of acoustics or the perception of it? And that's not all, the seated form as opposed to the standing form of the ensemble lends further problems acoustics wise. If your soloist is going to be behind the line (in this case inside the curve of the semi circle) of those doing harmony, the natural tendency is his volume will get drowned by the other voices before it reaches the listeners. There is also the persistent habit to let the coloratura obligato overpower the other voices, harmony and soloist included, such is the case here in the 2nd verse of the song. Why? It doesn't make sense. Isn't the soloist good enough to carry his/her part? Is his timbre not acceptable to anyone's taste? I've listened to a lot of recorded chorale hymns and those with a bit of contemporary arrangements such as this song here and the thing that I mentioned does not happen there at all. I guess because, the producers know better. I am one to declare that there really is not much difference, or there shouldn't be much difference between recorded and live performances in the context of chorales. The only difference I think is the advantage in the fact that in recordings, they can monitor the "errors" in the recorded product and do another take. I would say that this recurring and persistent thing in the Madz' performances is a music production error that should as soon be rectified otherwise it wouldn't pass quality control. These are my thoughts and views of their musical performances. Again, I reiterate that I am a follower of their music career so i have no intentions of bashing them for the mere sake of bashing. And these views I wrote here in the hope that someone would bring it to their attention so that their performances could be further enhanced and improved. Remember, anyone who says they are perfect, are only fooling themselves. And anyone who says they don't need improvements is courting oblivion.
+tuberobotto Try to watch them live.. (^_^) I was able to watch their world premiere of these songs last couple of years ago.. It was a live show.. including this piece and Apocalyptic Alleluia.. It wasn't an easy concert.. Melodies and Harmonies blended together.. and they created a fabulous music..
Good song, good soloist and a good timbre. Luis Miguel would be proud, I'm sure. Unfortunately, I think the arrangement isn't so inspired. It had tendencies of becoming morose and go the opposite extreme by being Broadwayish. The vocal harmonization should have derived some influence or inspiration from Luis Miguel's own version as it is so rich with harmonies that would have sounded so well on vocals. Good effort for the Madz, at least the Spanish speaking crowd understood the language and showered the talented soloist with the attention he deserves. I hope they do a much better arrangement of this song next time. It's not too late to do a Swingle.
Contigo en la distancia is NOT a composition by Luis Miguel, he just have a version of it, including Christina Aguilera. You make it sound like he's the composer ("Luis Miguel would be proud.") FYI, the Cuban composer is César Portillo de la Luz, and this is an old song which dates back to 1946. I think Sander Choi's arrangement is fine and they sound awesome. Your'e just nitpicking, dropping words like coloratura obligato to make it sound like you know what you're talking about. Bravo Madz! Me encanta tu interpretacion!
+tuberobotto I believe Saunder's arrangement portrays the Latin American's Music.. Try to look for a sample PDF file of this arrangement, it's not as easy as you think.. Most of them have 7th and lots of accidentals.. Sopranos have divisi into 3 parts at the end.. He used Maracas-like vocal percussion which also portrays the music of South Americans.. This arrangement is full of effort my dear..
