Is Anyone Else Tired Of
6The Mormon Tabernacle Choir raping Christmas music to save a couple of bucks on ASCAP arrangement fees.It’s like they suck the soul out of the music to save a couple of bucks. I only last about 10 min then I have to turn it off. Every year I tune in hoping it will be different but it never is. They’ve got such amazing performance values, but the performance is always meh.
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Sounds like someone is a little cranky.
Whatever the reason, is it any different than the folks that ‘artistic license’ all over the National Anthem at sporting events? Or do their wobbly woo-woo to show off their vocal range instead of following the melody of well known songs?
Is the Boston Pops doing the same when they do all those ‘medleys’ instead of playing the songs through?
But yeah, I’d like to hear the hymns and songs the way they were intended too.
You should write to MTC and express your feelings. Never know, it might help.
@duodec
If I understand the original complaint, there is a diff. Your examples are either about artistic works in public domain, or about personal artistic expressions in arrangements and singing style.
I’m not a fan if the MTC arrangement and recording style. I find it overdone to the degree of losing its ability to be emotionally resonant.
I was not aware that the MTC style had anything to do with ASCAP fee
avoidance tho.
@cranky1950
If they are not your thing, why are you still part of the audience?
You have a lot if options, don’t you?
@f00l I did say ‘whatever the reason’. Maybe the ASCAP issue is the reason the MTC changes arrangements, but the reason is secondary; its still some manner of artistic expression (personal or group) that is being applied to well known and loved songs, changing them. I’ve been to ball games and tried to sing the anthem (many in the crowd still do) and gotten tripped up because the ‘artist of the day’ changes the pacing or starts warbling all over the place, presumably to express themselves.
With very well known and loved songs being performed to a large audience, past a point ‘personal artistic expression’ can cause a train wreck. IMO thats when the artist makes it about themselves and their skill/talent, and not about the song and the audience. For anything intended where audiences might sing along (including broadcast) that is even more of an issue.
But that’s just my opinion.
@f00l Because they have such a dynamite venue, and pull in such great talent only to turn them into robotic shadows of what should exist. It’s frustrating.
@cranky1950
There are other musics. Lots of them.
I hold no great hope that the MTC will ever stop overdoing everything.
Listening to them can feel like being hit by a sledgehammer sometimes.
(And not “hit by sledgehammer in a good way”, either.)
I understand the frustration.
Sometimes the start of a song sounds great, with their vocal arrangements and sound. And then …
So, not so much for me.
I’ve only knowingly heard the MTC sing “The Impossible Dream” from The Man of La Mancha. They replaced “hell” in the lyrics with something else. I assumed that had to do with their religious beliefs. Maybe all their edits are done for that reason, or it’s their version of Mad Ape Den?
/image Sophia Loren dulcinea
@eonfifty Several online lyrics site show the correct wording for the song ‘as done’ by the MTC. I wonder if that is something that changed over the years.
@duodec I don’t know. I checked their website for contact info to ask them, but I didn’t find anything.
/image meh
@eonfifty
Contact info
Yeah, its snail mail for the choir office, but I bet if you write them, and especially if you include a SASE for a response, they’ll probably respond.
/giphy salty
