Every Valley Shall Be Exschmalted

Two standout bloggers are Roger Bourland and AC Douglas. Roger is the chair of the music department at UCLA, and AC is apparently a caveman hacking away at his computer.

Both are prolific posters. Among many other things, Roger is particularly notable for digging up the most fascinating clips on YouTube, like this gem of First Call performing "Every Valley" from Handel's Messiah:



AC is most notable for his unrelenting vitriol. His response to this clip is indicative of his usual style:

"This is the sort of empty, simpleminded crap that results ineluctably from promoting and encouraging the blockheaded and perverse notion that there’s no meaningful distinction between popular and high culture nor should there be."

Apparently he's never sat through a church choir's performance of Handel. As this is Holy Week, and thousands of journeymen such as ourselves will be flogging these classics in countless churches across the country we feel duty-bound to point out that most of the jobs we do are hack work, and that it would be quite rare indeed to encounter vocalists as on pitch as these.

Does the arrangement suck? Yes. Is their wardrobe regrettable? Hell yes (but it was 1989).

But could you say the same of 'legit' performances of Handel? Most definitely.

In fact, the most meaningful distinction between this clip and the vast majority of Handel gigs we've ever played is that the vocal performances are better in the 'popular' version. Plenty of mediocre musicians try to distinguish themselves by taking on the repetoire of AC's 'high culture' and end up churning out simpleminded crap. So, perhaps that reinforces his point, but for our money, it just goes to show that there really is no difference. Good music is good music.