Invocation

Song4uman

Well-Known Member
Several years ago I decided to try to record an album or a set of songs. I decided that I would arrange / transcribe Invocation and overdub my voice.
That didn’t happen so I put it away.

I am a retired high school choral Director. I decided to put together a men’s ensemble this summer to do a concert for charity. So I selected several pieces that would be considered standard choral literature. We used my arrangement of Invocation for our opening piece.

i’ll share the link below, and I hope you enjoy the transcription. While i had a few optional rehearsals, we only had one rehearsal together prior to the performance.

Feel free to listen to the whole concert if you would like.


Jonathan
 
It sounded pretty darned good, Jonathan. I wish I had the talent to transcribe music like that. I can read music, write what's given to me, but have no talent for hearing what notes or chords are in a piece of music.
 
Several years ago I decided to try to record an album or a set of songs. I decided that I would arrange / transcribe Invocation and overdub my voice.
That didn’t happen so I put it away.

I am a retired high school choral Director. I decided to put together a men’s ensemble this summer to do a concert for charity. So I selected several pieces that would be considered standard choral literature. We used my arrangement of Invocation for our opening piece.

i’ll share the link below, and I hope you enjoy the transcription. While i had a few optional rehearsals, we only had one rehearsal together prior to the performance.

Feel free to listen to the whole concert if you would like.


Jonathan

Very nice, Jonathan!
 
So great to hear that "Invocation" still gets to be performed live these days, Jonathan! d:)b
At their Hollywood Bowl concert in 1971, Karen & Richard and the group opened the show with it, too (wish there was a recording of that)
.I especially love the Icelandic name of the choir! Have you ever sung a song in Icelandic with the choir, perhaps?
The intro to "Danny Boy" (love that song, first version I heard was by Patti Page) sounded quite viking-like or Celtic :)

Greg
 
We had only learned the things that we performed on the concert. I contacted my friends in late April early May to see if they would be interested to sing for a charity. All of the members of this choir are either high school choral directors middle school choral directors music teachers or retired choral directors
 
So great to hear that "Invocation" still gets to be performed live these days, Jonathan! d:)b
At their Hollywood Bowl concert in 1971, Karen & Richard and the group opened the show with it, too (wish there was a recording of that)
.I especially love the Icelandic name of the choir! Have you ever sung a song in Icelandic with the choir, perhaps?
The intro to "Danny Boy" (love that song, first version I heard was by Patti Page) sounded quite viking-like or Celtic :)

Greg
@Walkinat9

we may do performances in the future. The guys are just so busy with teaching, family, etc
 
Several years ago I decided to try to record an album or a set of songs. I decided that I would arrange / transcribe Invocation and overdub my voice.
That didn’t happen so I put it away.

I am a retired high school choral Director. I decided to put together a men’s ensemble this summer to do a concert for charity. So I selected several pieces that would be considered standard choral literature. We used my arrangement of Invocation for our opening piece.

i’ll share the link below, and I hope you enjoy the transcription. While i had a few optional rehearsals, we only had one rehearsal together prior to the performance.

Feel free to listen to the whole concert if you would like.


Jonathan

Congrats, Jonathan. I liked all the pieces that I’ve listened to so far, including Invocation, How Can I Keep from Singing?, Blow Ye the Trumpet, the song about the tinkers bringing samples on wicker baskets, Danny Boy and so on.

I like the way the first few songs are A capella and then the change to the piano accompaniment. I also like the sequence and pacing... melancholy and slow tempo to upbeat and lively and back again, etc.

Although the voices blend well, you can pick out that there are some outstanding vocalists amongst the group.

Despite being busy, the guys must keep their vocal cords in shape. There are some really long phrases to get through; also, from the singers being on-pitch, you can tell they must sing regularly. It’s not easy to keep your throat working, especially if you’re getting older and you’re in a job where you use your talking voice a lot.

I thought the intro to ‘Danny Boy’ was going to be Tuvan Throat Singing, when it first began. 😃

Danny Boy must be one of the saddest songs ever.

I like the way you changed the arrangement of the line, “And place in me the agony you bear”, in ‘Invocation’. That part is different from Richard’s arrangement, but still very Carpenters!!

Anyway, Jonathan, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this. Thanks for posting.
 
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Congrats, Jonathan. I liked all the pieces that I’ve listened to so far, including Invocation, How Can I Keep from Singing?, Blow Ye the Trumpet, the song about the tinkers bringing samples on wicker baskets, Danny Boy and so on.

I like the way the first few songs are A capella and then the change to the piano accompaniment. I also like the sequence and pacing... melancholy and slow tempo to upbeat and lively and back again, etc.

Although the voices blend well, you can pick out that there are some outstanding vocalists amongst the group.

Despite being busy, the guys must keep their vocal cords in shape. There are some really long phrases to get through; also, from the singers being on-pitch, you can tell they must sing regularly. It’s not easy to keep your throat working, especially if you’re getting older and you’re in a job where you use your talking voice a lot.

I thought the intro to ‘Danny Boy’ was going to be Tuvan Throat Singing, when it first began. 😃

Danny Boy must be one of the saddest songs ever.

I like the way you changed the arrangement of the line, “And place in me the agony you bear”, in ‘Invocation’. That part is different from Richard’s arrangement, but still very Carpenters!!

Anyway, Jonathan, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this. Thanks for posting.
Thank you so much. Glad you enjoyed.
 
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