The Fredösphere

There's a joke that ends with this punchline:

And they called it the Moron Tab and Apple Choir!

Recreating the improbable stuff that leads up to that punchline is left as an exercise for the reader, but the existence of the joke is a reminder of what a cultural icon the Mormons have built.  For your average Tom, Dick, and Harry -- as much as for your average Joe, Brigham, and Mitt -- the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is the only choir that could be called a household name.

So it's only natural, yet still weirdly fascinating, that the MTC would get the gig to sing on a soundtrack for the new Advent Rising computer game. What do you know:  sci-fi author Orson Scott Card was involved, so there's another Mormon connection.  Coincidence, you say?  I don't think so.

It's a mark of sophistication among choristers to prefer small vocal ensembles -- to prefer their precision over the vulgar mass of sound you get with a big group.  I share that bias, but I think its wrong to overlook the unique advantages that a big group has.  (And the MTC's performance of the Pligrim's Hymn that I linked to the other day is not too shabby at all in the precision department.)

Gorecki calls for a choir of "at least 120" singers for his monumental Miserere and he has a point.  That mass of sound would not be achieved if the piece were sung by an octet.  Beyond that, I think the deeply religious impact of the work would be lessened without the perception of a great number of identites being subsumed -- we perceive this as a metaphor for the soul's identity loosing itself, and then finding itself, through communion with God.

Darn, there I go getting all "deep" and everything.  Maybe I just like big choirs because they are loud.  Anyway, here's a nice article on Gorecki by Greg Sandow that you should read.