Sopranos
I’ve recently re-discovered Sarah Brightman. Or should I say, recently re-aquired both a tolerance and enjoyment of the female voice. I usually prefer male singers, when there’s singing involved, usually in the baritone range, despite the popularity of the Three (Four?) Tenors.
The catalyst was stopping for ice cream at Ben and Jerry’s the other day. It was an empty shop, as is usual for some reason, so I sat and listened to the music as it hopped from genre to genre. My listening went from passive to active when this beautiful, slow and haunting duet between two sopranos came on. I was so intrigued by it I asked one of the attendants if he could find out what it was for me. Turns out the store speakers were just plugged into his laptop. The artist was Sarah Brightman, the song Pie Jesu, from Andrew Lloyd Weber’s Requiem. The second soprano was actually a treble - a young boy.
Now, it turns out I’m not a huge fan of Sarah Brightman, especially her newer work. She has an amazing voice, but there’s something about her eyes, that seems to translate to her voice, that doesn’t sit quite right with me. But, this song was recorded in 1985, I think, and doesn’t seem have that trait, whatever it is. It seems more serious, in a good way. And, of course, the song’s sparse Latin lyrics are religious, but that doesn’t seem critical to the piece. It has a churchy sound anyway because of the tone, and the choir-boy-in-a-cathedral sound, but I have always liked that hollow sound, and churches don’t have a monopoly on it. (It would be funny if churches tried to have a monopoly, or if someone claimed they did and tried to ‘regulate’ them).
Anyway, you can listen to the full song on YouTube. I don’t know what the video is about - seems like it was supposed to be for a movie, like a war movie or something. Not sure.
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