Libera on BBC 'Last Choir Standing' 2008

xsakurax · Post by **xsakurax** » 16 years ago

Wow, Orinoco flow.. I love that song! Can't wait till you guys upload on youtube. Sigh.. all the time i can only get to "see" Libera on youtube or other video sharing sites. I wish in the future the television stations in my country can cater to more diverse needs- people like me who likes classical music especially, Libera! And really a BIG thank you to those out there who always upload Libera videos so that people who doesn't have access will not miss out any of Libera stuff.

Thanks!

kjackson83 · Post by **kjackson83** » 16 years ago

Cool! I guess that fits in well with the style of the show itself. And that's a results episode for LCS, so viewership will probably be really high--good exposure for the group.

JimmyRiddle · Post by **JimmyRiddle** » 16 years ago

kjackson83 wrote:Cool! I guess that fits in well with the style of the show itself

More a focus on choreography and dancing, instead of quality choral singing? Maybe Sanctus would have been a little too static for LCS. Apparently going off their recent concerts, Orinoco Flow does have movement from the boys. They start off at the back, and slowly merge themselves into a little diamond formation at the front. I wonder if they will include that on Sunday's show?

kjackson83 · Post by **kjackson83** » 16 years ago

More a focus on choreography and dancing, instead of quality choral singing?

That was also the impression I got when poking around the BBC's official site for the show (not that anyone's being elitist or something of the like). There wasn't much in that "pop-ish" idiom from New Dawn. I'm sure Orinoco Flow will get a strong performance anyway.

Somewhat related to this: there's a pdf floating around out there somewhere that appears to be something in-house from St. Philip's that touches briefly on the challenge Libera has encountered in the U.K. of trying to fit into two diverse musical worlds simultaneously. It was a rather long article, and somewhat dated.

TullyBascombe · Post by **TullyBascombe** » 16 years ago

Come to think of it, since Robert Prizeman works for the BBC I suppose his choir would be banned from competing. His position at the network might be considered an unfair advantage.

TullyBascombe · Post by **TullyBascombe** » 16 years ago

Somewhat related to this: there's a pdf floating around out there somewhere that appears to be something in-house from St. Philip's that touches briefly on the challenge Libera has encountered in the U.K. of trying to fit into two diverse musical worlds simultaneously. It was a rather long article, and somewhat dated.

In an interview with the BBC Michael Horncastle mentions this. Could the pdf be a transcript of that interview?

There's a lot of crossover music out there. Consider the works of "The Three Tenors", "Il Divo", Sarah Brightman, and so on. Much of their work is really crossover between pop and classical - and it's their bread and butter. Face it, currently classical music and classical religious music isn't that popular in Europe and Amercia. Crossing over allows classical performers to expand their audience and provides much needed cash infusions for the classical music world. What Libera has to overcome is that they are still undeniably "churchy" and that they're realtively young boys. They don't have the sex appeal that the typical "boy bands" have, they don't try to appel to the pre- teen to early teen crows. In Japan they seem to have a substantial following among young to middle aged women, but could you really imagine that in Europe? I think you'd have the Western press interviewing psychiatriasts to find out why grown women were going gaga over prepubescent kids. Mind you I'm not suggesting changes, I'm just trying to explain why they haven't quite achieved rock star popularity.

kjackson83 · Post by **kjackson83** » 16 years ago

In an interview with the BBC Michael Horncastle mentions this. Could the pdf be a transcript of that interview?

I had a huge description written out trying to describe what this was--and ended up not even needing it. I have the file; if anyone's interested in it, I can e-mail or maybe Kevin would want it for the site. It's two pages out of a magazine called "The Bridge" (not sure what this is)--its May 2006 issue--so I was wrong about it being in-house from St. Philip's. The article is essentially a profile of the parish of St. Philip's; the first half is concentrated on church life itself (with a conspicuous focus on everything else besides Libera) while the second half is given over entirely to Libera.

It's really nothing the fanbase (at least, the part of the fanbase around here) hasn't heard already: a brief history on the group, its style, etc. The part I referenced was a very short paragraph at the article's end touching on the reasons why, in spite of having a huge following in Asia, the boys haven't garnered an equally large (and loud) following in the United Kingdom.

It's a good article, if a little dated.

...currently classical music and classical religious music isn't that popular in Europe and Amercia. Crossing over allows classical performers to expand their audience and provides much needed cash infusions for the classical music world. What Libera has to overcome is that they are still undeniably "churchy" and that they're realtively young boys.

Crossover is the vital link to classical music's lifeblood, especially in America, but I do think religious music is still vibrant in specifically Europe, even if religious practice isn't. CDs of Gregorian chant, for example, are still bestsellers, and Germany supports a bevy of the world's best treble choirs at least in part through the sales of their CDs (I'm thinking of the Thomanerchor and Windsbächer Knabenchor specifically).

New Dawn moved the furthest away from the church-like ambience the group has ever been, I think, and perhaps the group is slowly starting to shed that "ecclesiastical" image conjured up in people's minds. Church music has certainly declined in Europe (and especially in the U.S., where it's under siege), but vestiges of it are still popular--the resemblance of Libera's early work to Gregorian chant was what drew me into their music originally.

::EDIT::
And the Brits in particular tend to be well-exposed to classical music; take, for example, the BBC Proms concerts going on right now--two full months of virtually continuous concerts being given by the BBC's five house orchestras and a range of guest ensembles (bbc.co.uk/proms). In a nation with a high "literacy rate," if you will, in classical music, there are certain "expectations," for example: when one puts on a CD Saint-Saen's Aquarium. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there is a higher concentration of "purists" in places with more exposure to classical music than we typically get here in the States. That makes Libera's job a little harder in winning over new listeners than it would in Asia--where that fusion of electronica and vocals is loved to death--or the United States, where we don't have a musical heritage in the classics to really bank on.

I think you'd have the Western press interviewing psychiatriasts to find out why grown women were going gaga over prepubescent kids.

After the rash of teacher-student incidents all across the U.S., I think you're spot on right here.

kjackson83 · Post by **kjackson83** » 16 years ago

TullyBascombe wrote:Come to think of it, since Robert Prizeman works for the BBC I suppose his choir would be banned from competing. His position at the network might be considered an unfair advantage.

I forgot about that--you're right. But, When Will I Be Famous? is also a BBC show, and they did rather well on it...

Hmm.

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 16 years ago

Uploaded Libera's performance onto YouTube, click here to watch it. A very nice performance I must say

Note that I just uploaded the video so it may not be available yet.

Rich · Post by **Rich** » 16 years ago

Thanks for posting so quickly, Kevin. Nice job by the lads.

Rich

kjackson83 · Post by **kjackson83** » 16 years ago

Sounds great--thanks very much for posting!

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 16 years ago

A higher quality version will be added to the website on the next update later tonight. Its a shame that some of the lads, like Liam and Callum were missing

kjackson83 · Post by **kjackson83** » 16 years ago

At first I thought some of those minor little "jerky" camera moments were part of the show's SFX! It seemed to fit so well. You know...that might also be my computer. I'm using a Mac and it isn't always YouTube-friendly. Yes, a shame that it isn't the full group, but Torquay is right around the corner (literally).

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » 16 years ago

No it was a video encoding glitch, but the higher quality version does not do that and even includes the intro from the show hosts.

I sure hope those missing boys are there too...heck I hope the entire group will be able to perform

Im getting really excited about the Torquay concert, even though Im not going

, but I am excited for those who are

TullyBascombe · Post by **TullyBascombe** » 16 years ago

I knew the British fans wouldn't let us down.