Daniel,
I don't know... It is interesting at least. The
biggest annoyance for me were the problems with
intonation. Sting's been belting out rockers in
stadiums for years, presumably without much vocal
coaching. As such, it doesn't seem that his voice has
held up entirely - very breathy, almost like a
crooner.
Then there's his use of (vowel and pitch) inflection.
In order to be considered a "good singer" in pop
music, everyone has to develope his or her own
personal way of pronouncing words. You could never
just sing "Yeah, yeah," you gotta scream "Yey-ha,
YUahe-haAAAaaHHH!" (or something). Appropriate for
that style, I suppose, but also present on this CD and
less sucessful. I would guess that Sting has been
doing this for so long that he's not aware how - or
even that - he does it.
Having said that, I at least find the CD intriguing.
And despite our perhaps over-critical judgement, it
may bring some attention to what we do. I think we
forget just how far removed Early Music is from the
average person's musical world! Those folks probably
would not even pick up on what I mentioned above.
As for the lute sound - I thought it was just fine. I
personally think that nearly all lute recordings are
massively over-produced and -refined, like pasta
that's been boiled for hours. Karamozov at least has
the guts to give us a little al-dente. Refreshing.
Just like, I guess, a good rock guitarist.
Chris
--- Daniel Shoskes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Yikes! I have been looking forward to this disc with
> an open mind and
> very anxious to enjoy it on its own merit, realizing
> that it would be
> very different from what we usually associate with
> HIP. But wow, this
> is very tough to listen to. Also, just based on the
> internet
> streaming quality, the mic placement and engineering
> for the lute
> sounds way off; very closely recorded and too
> bright. Almost
> reminiscent of the horrible engineering on
> Kirchoff's CD's for Sony.
>
>
> On Sep 22, 2006, at 11:51 AM, Howard Posner wrote:
>
> > Here's a link to samples of the Sting Dowland CD:
> >
> >
>
http://www.wom.de/classic/detail/-/hnum/4504071/rk/classic/rsk/charts
> >
> > Fascinating stuff. There are spots where I have
> no idea what language
> > he's singing in. It kind of gives the impression
> that every syllable
> > is a new challenge, encountered for the first
> time, and he's sort of
> > guessing how to form the vowel (which is a
> remarkably long process in
> > spots -- it reminds me of a Tibetan humi singer
> rolling the vowel
> > around in search of the harmonic) and when to go
> the next
> > consonant, as
> > as he goes along. Perhaps I'd hear less of the
> nuts and bolts and be
> > more at home with the performance if I were
> hearing the complete
> > performances instead of online excerpts.
>
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
>
http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>
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