Wednesday, September 07, 2016

SONG FOR SEPTEMBER




That picosong link is so tempting, makes it too easy to indulge one's secret (not so secret) desire for performance.  Here's my own very abbreviated take on a timely favourite.
  September Song

But there's nothing like the original Walter Huston version, heard in the movie clip above, from 'September Affair' with Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotten.


6 comments:

Roderick Robinson said...

Obviously not. Never rule out the possibility of change. One reason I took up singing was to tackle Mozart and Schubert. This has happened (in a minor way). However now I'm grinding my way through Ivor Novello, from a music genre I have always detested. Why am I doing this? Because it provides a simple foundation for singing duets with a soprano - which has always been one of my most pressing ambitions. I still detest Novello but see him as a means to an end, like scales.

Yes, I know this comes under the heading of discipline and you're on record about discipline. The Berg suggestion was a mild joke but since you appear to favour Sprechstimme it had a tenuous logic. I was about to suggest a more desirable goal in Kurt Weill but I see you're now ahead of me in this.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Robbie, I do like spoken singing but in this case, it's because it doesn't need the effort required to hit those high and low notes when sung. Even this tiny sample took about ten takes before I said to myself Enough, leave it as is!

I admire but don't have your dedication and discipline, or even the desire to better myself in this particular form of expression. Too much to do - even if it is September - in my chosen field. But I can still fool around with pico when the mood strikes. Thanks for being here,

Davoh said...

Will post a response on Womby's drivel .. but my "songs of September" are from the 'spring' in the Southern hemisphere .. not from any concept of northern winters .. que.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Davoh, as you know, this song is not about seasonal weather, but it's interesting to consider that September would have somewhat different connotations in your part of the planet.

Roderick Robinson said...

"ten takes", I like that. Distrusting the first take is one of the foundations of discipline. Ego and laziness say "That'll do"; professionalism says "I can do better. I can always do better. Perfection is a chimera but I must always pretend it is reachable."

In all cultural enterprises.

Natalie d'Arbeloff said...

Yeah, I know all about that, from a long lifetime of ten, twenty, fifty takes, though not in the musical realm. Of course ego and laziness have their say too, when do they ever shut up? Perfection is unreachable, yes, but some time, possibly very late, along the long, hard, winding road, you take a closer look at the arrow,the signpost marked "PERFECTION" and you notice that it's peeling. So you scratch at it a bit and underneath the letters you find another sign. It says: Know Thyself.