That just sort of happens (almost) every time an American sings an elongated "Oh" note
Yes, a bit like the way Americans keep expressing surprise at the way aliens from outer space 'speak in a British accent' in BBC television series ;-D It's a matter of what you consider normal and unremarkable across different cultures.
It just feels particularly odd when you're mixing the Hollywood vowels with all those decidedly un-American harmonies. (I was surprised to read people in the comments saying that they'd never heard the song sound so sad and mysterious as opposed to upbeat; it's one of those very mediaeval carols -- like "The Boar's Head Carol" and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" -- that has preserved the plangent note progressions of a much earlier era of music (see also "Greensleeves"), and it doesn't really do 'upbeat'. But I only know most of these songs in their church choral arrangements rather than in whatever modern cover versions they may have gone through...)
On an associated but unrelated note, by the way: is the expression "for sure" a piece of Florida local dialect? I've heard several of the members of Voiceplay using it in conversation as a general term of agreement (like "OK"), and it's not a turn of phrase I think I've previously come across elsewhere -- it seems to be unique to them, and it reminds me of the famous Sussex "Surelye" (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Xp_DDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT335)
I do like how he played with the rhythms and harmonies, even if the visual aesthetics were an odd cobbling.
I liked a lot of what he did with it, especially the tambour beat and the joyous dawning of light on the final chord. But it didn't inspire me with any desire to share it, whereas the other one, which I came across almost by chance, did. (And that contains a lot of very pop-style riffs/runs; but it has an overall simplicity that I think works better for the subject matter.)
I do find the choice to do a *third* video with the singers backlit in silhouette a little unimaginative in terms of lighting design -- it worked very well for "Hoist the Colours", while the "Wicked" one (which probably works a lot better for those who actually know and love the musical; as with "Halo", I don't have any prior emotional response, and it's not my sort of music) makes more sense when you read the small print to say that the set-up was an attempt to create a staging that would work for concert performance. But setting a Christmas carol apparently inside a drawing-room with the lights turned off seemed very odd. As I said, I did like the way the sunlight blossomed from outside for the finale -- but I feel you could have had that effect (like the lightning-flash that silhouettes the raised sword in "Hoist the Colours") as a one-off without needing to darken the whole interior for the rest of it!
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2021-12-14 01:59 am (UTC)Yes, a bit like the way Americans keep expressing surprise at the way aliens from outer space 'speak in a British accent' in BBC television series ;-D
It's a matter of what you consider normal and unremarkable across different cultures.
It just feels particularly odd when you're mixing the Hollywood vowels with all those decidedly un-American harmonies. (I was surprised to read people in the comments saying that they'd never heard the song sound so sad and mysterious as opposed to upbeat; it's one of those very mediaeval carols -- like "The Boar's Head Carol" and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" -- that has preserved the plangent note progressions of a much earlier era of music (see also "Greensleeves"), and it doesn't really do 'upbeat'. But I only know most of these songs in their church choral arrangements rather than in whatever modern cover versions they may have gone through...)
On an associated but unrelated note, by the way: is the expression "for sure" a piece of Florida local dialect? I've heard several of the members of Voiceplay using it in conversation as a general term of agreement (like "OK"), and it's not a turn of phrase I think I've previously come across elsewhere -- it seems to be unique to them, and it reminds me of the famous Sussex "Surelye" (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Xp_DDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT335)
I liked a lot of what he did with it, especially the tambour beat and the joyous dawning of light on the final chord. But it didn't inspire me with any desire to share it, whereas the other one, which I came across almost by chance, did. (And that contains a lot of very pop-style riffs/runs; but it has an overall simplicity that I think works better for the subject matter.)
I do find the choice to do a *third* video with the singers backlit in silhouette a little unimaginative in terms of lighting design -- it worked very well for "Hoist the Colours", while the "Wicked" one (which probably works a lot better for those who actually know and love the musical; as with "Halo", I don't have any prior emotional response, and it's not my sort of music) makes more sense when you read the small print to say that the set-up was an attempt to create a staging that would work for concert performance. But setting a Christmas carol apparently inside a drawing-room with the lights turned off seemed very odd. As I said, I did like the way the sunlight blossomed from outside for the finale -- but I feel you could have had that effect (like the lightning-flash that silhouettes the raised sword in "Hoist the Colours") as a one-off without needing to darken the whole interior for the rest of it!