Author: Emily Buckingham

I am a soprano, so I get the melody of songs a lot. however, I most enjoy when I can sing high notes comfortably and when music flows smoothly. Throughout choir I learned many songs with various different genres and styles. Without further ado, here are some of my favorite songs I sang in choir in high school.

La Mia Stella (Ivo Antognini)

This song was inspired by the refugee crisis. It is one of my favorite choir songs because the lyrics handle the subject matter beautifully, and the song also flows really well and has great buildups.

 

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Junior Year

I enjoyed Women’s Chamber Choir more in junior than senior year because we had more people so we could do more complex songs, such as this one. I ended up having to jump between one soprano part to another to ensure that the parts were all balanced.

 

Baba Yetu

Freshman Year

People may have heard of this song as a video game theme, but I will always think of my first year in choir. I was frustrated with this song in the beginning because I could not figure out the right rhythm. After a lot of practice the rhythms were so much fun to sing, and it was so easy to get lost taking in the music.

Gloria

Junior Year

Every year concert choir sang a long piece that we did not have to memorize. The longest by far seemed to have been junior year, when it was quite literally almost 30 minutes long. Although my arms felt like they were going to fall off by the end of it, this one is still my favorite. I love the energy of each movement and the variation in tones, and how it repeats different themes. I enjoyed the most how the end tied to the beginning.

If you are pressed for time or do not want to sit for  a 30 minute video, I would recommend skipping to 23:50 after the first song.

 

Winter Wonderland (arr. Audrey Snyder)

This song holds a special place in my heart because the choir sings it every year at the end of the winter concert, The choir director, Doc always lets choir alumni join on stage to sing it with the rest of the choir. Over winter break I was able to go up as an alumni for the first time, and it was a lot of fun singing with the choir again.

12 Days of Christmas (Straight No Chasers)

Senior Year

I was very excited and a little surprised when one of my friends convinced our somewhat strict choir director to chose this parody of the 12 Days of Christmas to sing for the winter concert. The original  was performed by Straight No Chasers, a men’s a capella group and is absolutely hilarious, and we did our best to make it sound just as funny in a choir with 50 people. It was difficult to practice without laughing but that made it more fun.

Ave Verum Corpus

Senior Year

This song was another one of my favorites because of all the interesting chords. There were many difficult intervals to jump to in the song, but every single voice part had an interesting part, which is uncommon. It was such a great feeling whenever we got all of the chords right.

 

My favorite part about high school choir was putting on the spring show. In middle school, I would try out for musicals, but by high school I realized they weren’t right for me.  All I really wanted to do was sing songs while dancing, without having an absolutely ridiculous after-school schedule. The spring show gave me exactly that. The show would be based on a theme: Every other year is Broadway themed, and the other two years I was in choir we did Disney and Hollywood.

My favorite spring show was junior year (Hollywood theme) in large part because we got to sing several songs from Les Misérables. We had really neat choreography where we went off the stage, then went around the auditorium so we could re-enter in the back after soloists were finished. I enjoyed how well the choreography went with the tone of the musical in general, and it was really easy to get into the songs. It helped that I was already in love with “Do You Hear the People SingI also had a lot of fun singing and dancing to Into the Woods and Sister Act that year. The spring show tends to end up being almost 2.5 hours long, and that year people returning from college said they hadn’t realized how much time was passing, and it was the best spring show they’d been in or seen.

The most off-putting song I did with a choir was called A Wonderful Guy, from South Pacific, in sophomore year. I enjoyed doing cheesy choreography to go along with the cheesy lyrics. However, one line in the chorus was “I’m as corny as Kansas in August,” and no matter how hard well all tried to emphasize the K, nobody was ever able to hear it, which changes the meaning considerably.

One song I really enjoyed was Schuyler Sisters from Hamilton, which the concert choir sang senior year. T=he choreography was difficult for me, but so much fun to do once I got the hang of it. I also hadn’t listened to many Hamilton songs before, and other choirs doing a song as well, I was introduced to a few more songs, and decided to keep listening to more afterwards.

In general, choir could get frustrating, but was always rewarding. I am very glad I got as much involved in it as I did.

For the next few blog posts I thought I would focus on my experiences in high school choir. Though I haven’t gotten involved in anything similar in college really enjoy singing in a group, and I had some amazing experiences. One of the most memorable experiences was the choir’s spring trip to France my sophomore year. We had practiced our songs extensively for district assessment, (the “most important concert of the year” where our performances were graded by judges) and had done very well. With all the hard work done we were ready to explore and give concerts at venues in France.

 

It was exciting and rewarding, but after a full week of getting up early for school and not going to bed early enough, we took an overnight flight to Paris, in which hardly anyone got sleep. When we got there, it was morning in Paris, and we would spend the entire day trying to stay awake. Jet lag never kicked in because we were all so tired that we could fall asleep at any time. 

 

 

Right after we arrived that morning, we performed in Notre Dame cathedral. It was so huge and majestic it did not seem real, particularly in our sleepless haze – it might as well have been a part of a dream. With the acoustics of the large cathedral, we sounded great, and it was hard to believe we were singing in such a place. Most of us could not fully appreciate the experience in the moment, but it was an amazing opportunity.

I was in the intermediate women’s choir that year, and I loved listening to the more advanced choirs, particularly the mixed choir and madrigal choir. My favorite location we visited in France was Mont St Michel in Normandy. The island looked like it came from a storybook, with really cool architecture and a gothic cathedral on the top. We did not have a concert there, but the madrigals decided to perform one of their songs at the top of the cathedral anyway. Their voices and the scenery combined were heavenly and flowed so naturally.

 

Increasingly random memories from the trip:

• Visiting the Eiffel Tower when it was lit up in the colors of the Belgian flag
• Amazing chocolate hazelnut crepes that we had to eat really quickly to get to the bus on time and avoid being put on our choir director’s “naughty list”  
• Walking around everywhere in matching green choir jackets
• Ordering croque monsieurs for our bus at a shop in advance and arriving to realize that the other choir bus had taken all our food

In high school choir, after a big concert, we would often take a class period to unwind and hang out with our fellow choir members. As one might expect we often chose to play party games that involved singing. We would play variations of a game where one person chooses a word, and others have to come up with a real song in which the lyrics contain that word.

I am reminded of this game when I listen to “Something just like this”  by the Chain smokers and Coldplay.  In addition to allusions to Hercules and Achilles, the buildup of this song mentions Spider man’s control’ and “Batman with his fists.” The artist uses all these references to make a beautiful point, which has more meaning if you know what he is talking about. I also enjoy this song because of the playful and carefree elements in the chorus which also bring the idea of being yourself into light. The song is mostly just quietly chugging on with its own energy, and I really appreciate that.

How does this relate to pop culture references? One day listening to this sing, I was reminded of the game and wondered how many songs mentioned names of specific superheroes. Not surprisingly, superman seems to be referenced the most, and in a nice variety of ways too.  My favorites are Charlie Puth’s touching sentiment “Superman’s got nothing on me”, and a quick line in Train’s ridiculous but very enjoyable 50 Ways to Say Goodbye – Superman, not super minivan. I love 50 ways to say goodbye because it is so fun to sing along or jump around to and sounding stupid is honestly the point of doing so. I could only come up with three songs mentioning superheroes off the top of my head, but there are so many more.

 

What other somewhat unusual words do you not see in song lyrics very often? Can you think of more than one song that uses that word? Is the word more common in song lyrics than you initially thought? I would love to hear input on this.

Passenger is an English singer, songwriter, and musician in the genre of folk rock. He has a distinct voice and style in his songs that I thoroughly enjoy. A lot of his songs are soothing and sad at the same time, while also being uplifting and optimistic. I find them to be good music to listen to before bed to de-stress and just forget about the world around me in favor of some deep reflection.  

One of his more well-known songs is “Let Her Go.” Though I’ve never been in a relationship this song resonates with me because I do not often stop to realize how many good things I have. When I am feeling down and it’s sunny out. I can enjoy the sunshine. Snow is wonderful but if it is cloudy for too long, I start to wonder where “that fiery ball in the sky (what was it called?)” went. There is never too much sun, but I was always wishing for snow, though now that it snows constantly here, I would rather have the sun and green grass for once. If you look at Passenger’s songs through a certain lens they are depressing, but there is always a positive takeaway. 

My favorite passenger song by far is called Life’s for the Living. I came across this song on Pandora several years ago while I was listening to another artists’ playlist. I was also making a latch hook rug, which is not super relevant, but the yarn kitty was too cute. 

When the song started playing, I knew I recognized the singer, but I was not sure from where; then it clicked, and I remembered “Let Her Go.”  However, this song is on a different level. I love the instrumentals in this song, especially the trumpet. The interlude and buildup to the second verse is my favorite.  It seems as if the instrumental part built up like the singer’s pent-up frustration, and at the climax he just lets it all out, and I can just feel the music moving through me. The lyrics are so descriptive that I can picture what he is singing about in my mind. 

The message of this song is also something I can strongly get behind, and I find motivating; celebrate the lives of others and live your life to the fullest. You can find peace and beauty in your life even if it seems impossible.  

When I am watching a TV show or a movie or playing a video game, I don’t realize in the moment how much a good soundtrack enhances the experience.  However, I enjoy shows and video games so much more when they have great music.

 

Video Games

Nintendo has great composers, and the music is always on point, particularly for Legend of Zelda games. The soundtrack Koji Kondo composed for Ocarina of Time blows me away.  In an area of the game called the Lost Woods, the music is a part of the puzzle: you go through a maze and it gets quieter when you are about to choose the wrong pathway, so you have to listen carefully to make it to the end. In the Lost Woods, the same approximately 1.5 minute long song plays on a loop at all times, but it is so catchy and well suited to the atmosphere  that I don’t mind at all . The Gerudo Valley theme is another one of my favorites in the game. It gives off a great Mediterranean vibe and is  perfect for the desert, full of mysterious energy. I also love how the Princess Zelda theme is  peaceful and melancholy at times, and the Hyrule Field theme perfectly captures the magic of an open space.

 

TV Shows and Movies

Anyone who knows me probably knows I am obsessed with Marvel, particularly with Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

 

One of the reasons I love the show so much is its talented composer, Bear McCreary. Unfortunately, an official soundtrack for the show was only released for season one, but several people have made great unofficial soundtracks on YouTube by isolating the music from the background noises.   Whenever certain characters appears on screen, a specific set of notes plays. Daisy’s theme is by far my favorite- it only plays in full once, but is very powerful. I love when songs are rearranged t by using a piano instead of brass or being set in a minor key instead of major. The music is familiar yet unfamiliar, and every variation has a different tone and connotation. I also love the ominous hydra theme; because the same music is woven into episodes throughout the show, even 4-6 music notes can convey so much meaning. I love that just a few notes played in a certain order can get me pumped up or fill me with dread.

 

For many, music themes from Star Wars and Harry Potter are immediately recognizable, and they are one of the first things I associate with those movies. What are some of your favorite music themes from movies or other similar entertainment forms?

The Moody Blues are an English psychedelic rock band formed in 1964, and I absolutely love their songs. 

I was introduced to their music through a mid-season finale of one of my favorite shows, where the writers incorporated their song “Have you heard” at the beginning and the end of the episode to great effect (particularly at the end).  I will attempt to explain why the song fit so well in the context of the show without spoiling it too much, but if you are worried about spoilers you may want to skip the next two paragraphs. 

Essentially, this optimistic, feel-good song plays in the background as the show subverts expectations and introduces us to a virtual world that is totally backwards. This world the characters are now stuck in was meant to be a paradise with no regrets, which fits with the song, but not at all with what is depicted on the screen, making it even more perfect.  

As the song plays the show cuts to a montage of the characters that opposes the lyrics: “Now you know how nice it feels (cuts to reveal one character is in for a very unpleasant surprise)… now you know that you are real (they are real, but nothing else is)… you and me belong to the same world (there are all stuck in this world they do not belong to).   Then, as the song repeats “have you heard?”, the camera pans out and cuts to black after revealing one last surprise that makes you realize the next segment of the show is going to blow your mind. 

Anyway, despite me rambling about how great it fit with that episode, the song is amazing on its own. After I heard it, I immediately searched the lyrics to find the title and artist of the song and listen to it in its entirety. Listening to it was like the sun coming out on a new day, filling me with warmth (the opposite effect it had on me while watching the show- another reason I loved it there so much). 

I decided I should look up more of their songs, and it took no effort at all to find other ones I immensely enjoyed.  In all of them, the music flows so smoothly and is really comforting and uplifting.  A few I really got into included Nights with White Satin, You Can Never Go Home, and Your Wildest Dreams, but honestly, you will have a great experience if you search any one of their songs.