Sunday, December 14, 2008

So I'm in bed, Sunday morning having a lie-in, like you do.

About 7:30ish, some voice comes on a loudspeaker somewhere. Not close enough for the voice to be anything but garbled, but not loud enough to ignore, either.

Sounds like a sports announcer.
It's not 8:00 AM on a Sunday, yet.

Grrrrrr.

Great. Is there a marathon on my street? I hear crowd sounds. *much grumbling*

It carries on, the puppies settle back down and I sort of doze a bit more, all to the three step tonal range of an animated announcer. Ok. Whatever.

Then a few minutes before 8:00, I hear the voice of what is obviously a child singing our national anthem in that new, obnoxious way one hears so often. Call me curmudgeonly, but the Star Spangled Banner is something on which I'm very much a purist. I think noodlesome Whitney Houston/Celine Dion/Mariah Carey antics are simply uncalled-for when it comes to down to it. In fact, I think properly sung, it's the text and the grandiosity of its musical structure which is so deeply stirring. However good a singer may be, I think the SSB is not the moment for someone to showboat and take license with the meter of the melody, festooning its form with great syrupy swags of unwritten notes which the whole song has to stop to accommodate. You know the reason so many people add all those extra notes? It's because it's SUCH a hard song to sing with its high notes and sustained tones. Sing it as written and well and then I'll be impressed, baby, or don't sing it all.

So, as the song was ending was when the jet fighter flew over. Nice. So much for more sleep. *harumph*

7 comments:

Vinogirl said...

Work Christmas party last night, too much fun, too much wine, enjoyed my new shoes...then V2 wakes me by tapping on the door at 5.50 am to go potty. What the hell, gives me a chance to check on some blogs.

FatQuarterQuiltFarm said...

Funny I've never experienced such in these here parts..........
but watch them schedule a NASCAR event on the Indiana (Spanish/Australian owned) tollroad and there might be a problem. ....specially if they ran out of beer too early* (like @ 10:30 cause I'm still sleepin)

Old NFO said...

8am and you're STILL abed??? I've been up since 0500 and had breakfast, washed the dishes and vacuumed the house by 8am :-) Of course I'm still half on Japan time...LOL

Buck said...

I am SO with ya on the SSB, Phlegmmy. Much as I hate to admit it, I'll hit the mute button in a nanosecond when some vocalist begins to take liberties (ahem) with the song.

And... sorry your Sunday morning lay-in didn't go well. Not to rub it in or anything, but I arose at the crack o' noon today... ;-)

Christina RN LMT said...

THANK YOU, PHLEGMMY!!!

I HATE it when the National Anthem is desecrated in that way. HATE IT.

Can you perhaps tell I feel rather passionately about this subject?

I've sung the SSB as part of a small choir at Candlestick Park, in front of about 30 thousand people. Yes, we sang it the way it is meant to be sung, and it was probably the high point in my life thus far.

So I can feel the steam coming from my ears when people start butchering it.

Unknown said...

I also prefer the more traditional way for it to be sung, but I thought Whitney was pretty close -- wasn't she?

jcat said...

ok....so what was the ummm *event*?