Karen et al: I have sung this for years (I'm not a mezzo, but I masquerade as one occasionally!) and have used both piano and organ. I prefer the percussiveness of the piano, but it works with organ too (I love Karen's idea of working with different stops on the organ). I also, years ago, wrote out a part for the flute obbligato that I heard on the recording. It's not hard, and is fun if you can get a flautist to play along.
Sharon Szymanski > >> 2. "A Simple Song" from Bernstein's "Mass" - good for mezzo, low > sop., or baritone<< > > This is such a fun song to sing. It has also gotten a great response from > my congregation any time I've sung it. However, our organist wasn't the > least happy about having to play it, because it isn't really organistic at > all. It is wonderfully vocal, though!
This is interesting. I recently performed this with organ, and have to admit that the organist had a similar reaction at first - until I suggested he experiment with some of the other "voices" of the organ. As a result, we were able to find different "voices" to express the different moods in different sections of the piece - as well as a flute "voice" appropriate for the flute solo at the end. The organist was so pleased with the result that he's still talking about it, and also about looking forward to working with me on other repertoire where we can be similarly adventurous in finding appropriate "voices" for different moods in the music.
Karen Mercedes .
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