Music All Around

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Joel and I went to a Handel's Messiah sing along this weekend and had so much fun!  It was my first time at the Southern Theater hearing the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra.  It was great singing challenging music again- even if it was just for one night.  Note to self though - following the score on your husband's iphone makes reading the notes quite challenging.  Remind me next time to bring my own score in good, old fashioned paper form.  That being said, the highlight for me had to be watching all of the ladies around us swoon as my husband sang in all his pure Tenor glory.  He sang the Messiah twice while at University of Richmond, so he's very familiar with the music - he had people pointing and chatting about him as he sang all of the difficult melismas (running sequences of notes) flawlessly.  That's right ladies - he's all mine! :)

And if that wasn't good enough - he's also singing in church today one of our favorite Christmas songs - the Wexford Carol.  It's an Irish carol that's not quite as well known, but I love it!  My absolute favorite version is Mack Wilberg's full orchestral arrangement (listen below), and Joel likes the Celtic Women version.  Every arrangement we've ever come across is meant for Baritone, but my hubby is a True Tenor - he sings in the rafters, folks.  He asked me to write him an arrangement in a key he could sing that is a mix of the two versions we like.  I only have a piano - no orchestra or even a harp, so the sound isn't as full as I would like it, but I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.  He'll also be singing it at my parent's church on Christmas day, so we're getting good use out of the song this Christmas.  Maybe after we tweak it a little, we'll record it so you can hear our version.