suggest well-known tunes having to do with meditation or silence...

[Rooster_Ties]

I've got a buddy of mine already arranging the Simon and Garfunkel tune "The Sound of Silence" for the church handbell choir I've been directing for the past year. It's for a church service having something to do with meditation, silence, quiet, etc... (don't know much more than that). And I'm looking for a second handbell piece to go along with the same theme.

"In the Still of the Night" occurred to me as one possibility.

Doesn't have to be a jazz tune -- in fact, well-known standards or pop tunes (at least something that would translate OK for a handbell choir) would probably be best. Something without a lot of syncopation would also probably be good.

Thanks!!

PS: I also told our minister about John Cage's "4:33", which might be something interesting to "perform" before the sermon (where we normally have a moment for silent meditation anyway). Is there sheet-music for 4:33 commonly available?? What does it look like?? It is all identical measure-long rests, or are the rests of variable length and variable number per measure?? I thought it would be nice to maybe project one page of "4:33" onto an overhead screen at that point in the service (or include it as the background on the front cover of that week's church bulletin).

I suppose, if necessary, I could get my buddy to create an approximation of what the music for 4:33 probably looks like -- that would probably be easy enough too. (Heck, he might even get a kick out of doing an "arrangement" of 4:33, come to think of it. )

Thanks again!!

Edited December 19, 2006 by Rooster_Ties

[rockefeller center]

In A Silent Way.

[Rooster_Ties]

In A Silent Way.

[Dmitry]

***

I can't get no satisfaction

I can't get no satisfaction

'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try

I can't get no, I can't get no

When I'm drivin' in my car

And a man comes on the radio

He's telling me more and more

About some useless information

Supposed to fire my imagination

I can't get no, oh no no no

Hey hey hey, that's what I say

I can't get no satisfaction

I can't get no satisfaction

'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try

I can't get no, I can't get no

When I'm watchin' my TV

And a man comes on to tell me

How white my shirts can be

But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke

The same cigarrettes as me

I can't get no, oh no no no

Hey hey hey, that's what I say

I can't get no satisfaction

I can't get no girlie action

'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try

I can't get no, I can't get no

When I'm ridin' round the world

And I'm doin' this and I'm signing that

And I'm tryin' to make some girl

Who tells me baby better come back later next week

'Cause you see I'm on losing streak

I can't get no, a no no no

Hey hey hey, that's what I say

I can't get no, I can't get no

I can't get no satisfaction

No satisfaction, no satisfaction, no satisfaction

[Chuck Nessa]

How High the Moon - slow it way down.

[marcello]

Saturn's Child

[RDK]

Some John Cage perhaps?

[Rooster_Ties]

(the Depeche Mode tune -- half seriously!!)

edit: here's a solo piano version (Tori Amos did), to get some sense of what it would be like without drums.

Edited December 20, 2006 by Rooster_Ties

[Chuck Nessa]

(half seriously)

I retract my recommendation.

[Noj]

How about Moncur & McLean "Love & Hate" done with voices and bells?

[Matthew]

Think Peace Piece would sound pretty cool done with hand-bells.

[Dmitry]

Cristo Redentor, naturally!

[Rooster_Ties]

I retract my recommendation.

Duly noted.

[JSngry]

"Come Softly To Me" by The Fleetwoods, done w/o the dumb "dum-dum, dumby-do-dom-be-doobie" part.

The Fleetweood were a human handbell choir unto themselves.

[Chuck Nessa]

"Come Softly To Me" by The Fleetwoods, done w/o the dumb "dum-dum, dumby-do-dom-be-doobie" part.

The Fleetweood were a human handbell choir unto themselves.

Since you be goin' that direction, how 'bout "Come Go With Me" - Del Vikings.

[sidewinder]

How about Moncur & McLean "Love & Hate" done with voices and bells?

[GA Russell]

Antonio Carlos Jobim's Meditation

[JSngry]

If I can be serious for a second (and that's a big if...), how about "Our Prayer", the Brian Wilson thing?

Do handbells do chromatics?

If not, get the choir to do it. It's a beautiful little thing, it is.

[JSngry]

"Come Softly To Me" by The Fleetwoods, done w/o the dumb "dum-dum, dumby-do-dom-be-doobie" part.

The Fleetweood were a human handbell choir unto themselves.

Since you be goin' that direction, how 'bout "Come Go With Me" - Del Vikings.

Too bouncy for whitefolkschurch.

No news here, but The Fleetwoods had moments where the shit would just shut up and stand still. Doesn't matter to me if the songs themselves were crap (and they almost always were), those moments were...unique.

[marcello]

Now that I think of it, Thad Jones' "A Child Is Born" might work very well.

[clifford_thornton]

How about Moncur & McLean "Love & Hate" done with voices and bells?

Actually, that would be pretty cool.

[rostasi]

OK, the scans could be better (the black lines should be consistently black)

and I could've put the whole thing in a PDF,

but heh...If you're having trouble reading the movement timings,

then let me know and I'll send them to you. "433-6" is blank.

4'33"

[Rooster_Ties]

OK, the scans could be better (the black lines should be consistently black)

and I could've put the whole thing in a PDF,

but heh...If you're having trouble reading the movement timings,

then let me know and I'll send them to you. "433-6" is blank.

4'33"

Thanks! Had no idea that 4:33 wasn't conventionally notated.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

This is a hard one. I think you need songs that will mean something to the congregation when they hear them out of context and out of style. So they have to be pretty well known. I think that takes care of any jazz tunes; though in abstract terms many would be good. "Sounds of silence" is a good one.

I suggest "I concentrate on you" as a first pass, though even that may be a bit obscure for most people.

"Watch what happens" has something of the right feeling of detachment about it.

Needs more thought.

MG

[rostasi]

Thanks! Had no idea that 4:33 wasn't conventionally notated.

Well, it has something to do with the layout of the manuscript. Peters Edition offers two versions:

a standard one and the original version in proportional notation.

There's also his work "4'33'' (No. 2) (0'00'')" which is a "solo to be performed in any way by anyone."

Here's the published cover of the first one: