Posted on 06/15/2007 9:10:31 PM PDT by doug from upland
Bingo. That's why you hear notes, and not music.
Second of all, so what? I commented not on what you said, but your motivation in saying it.
Why not just be happy for the bloke? Why nitpick him and drag him down? What do you get from it?
Well, you were just being honest... No, you were being small and petty.
The same thing happened last summer on America's Got Talen when the eventual winner told Brandi she was going to sing "I am Telling You." Brandi gets all superior as if this 11 year old was wasting their time. Then out comes an amazing voice.
Go Paul.
“Their own hubris, envy, and exalted sense of self-importance have made them deaf to the beauty that thrills the rest of us in this man’s story and voice.
They no longer hear music. They hear only notes.”
Since your reply seems to be somewhat directed to me, I’ll go ahead and reply.
1) one of the things that differentiates conservatives from libs is our ability to think logically rather than with our emotions. Sure you’re in the right forum?
2) You may be obsessed with “the beauty that thrills the rest of us in this man’s story and voice”. Unlike you, I can separate the two: inspiring story; however - good, but not great, voice.
3) “They no longer hear music. They only hear notes.” In other words, I’m so obsessed with technical perfection that I am seeing the trees instead of the forest. Since my all-time favorite conductor is Wilhelm Furtwangler, all I can say is that you are guessing wrong on this point.
4) “Their own hubris, envy, and exalted sense of self-importance” - I gave my opinion of his singing. In doing so, I also included my qualifications. In my years of being a Freeper, I have never mentioned that I am a musician - it was never relevant. I have previously mentioned, in other threads, that I am an attorney. This is because when speaking on political or legal matters, I occasionally feel that it appropriate to mention my qualifications. Does that make me full of envy and hubris when I choose to criticize Alberto Gonzales?
5) Since you seem to think that you are superior to me because you find his singing so much more beautiful than I do, let me leave you with this thought: I find excellence beautiful. Whenever I witness true greatness, I am left in awe. Paul Potts does not inspire such awe in me with his voice. However, Jussi Bjorling does. So does Kirsten Flagstad.
I’m sure a lot of people were moved to see Paul McCartney’s wife on “Dancing with the Stars” - dancing with an artificial leg is a great story. But countless people literally weep tears of joy when they first see an Astaire and Rogers movie. No hard luck stories there - just two people reaching a level with their art that no one else has come close to.
And on a personal note, I can only listen to my favorite work, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, about once a year. From every aspect, technical, musical, emotional impact, beauty - it shocks me each time I hear it. The fact that he was completely deaf when he wrote it doesn’t even enter my mind. It’s the greatest piece of music ever written, period. I don’t need to elevate it by taking his special circumstances into account.
Thank you. I was thinking a more apt comparison would be Gigli. They both look kind of alike. I think if they didn’t have the taped orchestration, the voice would be better isolated and these shortcomings would be more evident.
You know you’re hanging with the wrong crowd when the audience is overwhelmed by the likes of Andrea Bocelli.
For 40 years, my father and I have argued over who had the better voice, Caruso or Bjoerling. I was a Bjoerling fan but my father always said I was swayed by the better recording techniques that Bjoerling enjoyed...
E lucevan le stelle.
My favorite aria. Domingo did a bang up job of it with The Three Tenors.
Here's what everyone is buzzing about. When he said he was going to sing opera, everyone from the judges to me watching groaned believing the performance would be horrendous. Then he opened his mouth and sang and it was wonderful.
My favorite part was watching the judges faces as they turn from disdain to surprise. My second favorte part was Paul Potts' tremendous joy.
And then comes the Freepers, who, in all their expertise, cannot wait to point out the obvious to the rest of us musically challenged Freepers. (Not quite as wise or we would not be gushing so) Good going there, Sherlock. Where would we be without you?
I’ve been hearing about this for days and just took the time this morning to listen. Once, twice, listening now for the third time...still have goose bumps.
Extraordinary.
This reminds me of something:
Being a life-long avid reader I often came across ( from a very young age and on)references to “The Great Caruso”(SP?). My parents listened to opera so I had a passing familiarity with the style (though I’d never heard Caruso). As far as I was concerned “all them guys with the deep voices” sounded the same.
One day, in my teens I heard an old recording of a young Caruso. It was, if I recall, a wax cylinder-not even a 78, but the pure (for lack of a better term) silvery speed and trueness of pitch I could hear DESPITE the crackly, tinny source absolutely floored me.
After that I wasn’t so quick to dismiss “them guys” as all the same.
Thanks for the reality check...
1) one of the things that differentiates conservatives from libs is our ability to think logically rather than with our emotions
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I finally have to step in here. Enjoyment of something that we just witnessed is not liberal or conservative. Paul Potts is not about government or governance or man’s right to live in liberty. If you are not experiencing emotion while listening to him sing, while making love, while watching your daughter get married, or while hearing Oh Holy Night in church at Christmas, change your screen name to Mr. Spock. Bring lib v conservative into this thread is just silly. And, it is not logical.
The only thing I remember about hearing something classical on an old record in my youth was (probably) Caruso singing (sorry, but this is phonetic German) “Eine, Swie, Drie, Fier, lift your steins and drink your beer...drink drink drink.” My dad enjoyed that.
Gigli? Why the comparison to a crap film by a crap actor who has zero political sense? :)
MORE INFO — http://paulpottsofficial.com/
I still haven’t had a comment about Martha Stewart being there to turn on his music.
Now you are legislating emotion Doug, just because Potts’ performance gives you goosebumps but doesn’t do the same for others doesn’t mean they are unemotional, it just means they have different triggers.
I, for one, was nonplussed by his performance, yet I still get goosebumps when I watch little(then)11 year old Bianca Ryan’s performance last year on the American version of the show. The two performances were very similar in that they were both totally unexpected and got the audience on their feet.
Ironically, part of Potts’ “charm” is that he has absolutely no charisma. How’s that for a Dichotomy?
Whoops. The guy who sang about beer was Mario Lanza.
TalBlack,
Unfortunately, Caruso did not live long enough for his voice to be caught in all of its splendour by recordings. What remains is only a glimpse of his greatness. But I am perfectly willing to accept the words of those who heard him first hand that his voice was one of a kind. But there was some great singing back in the day - just after Caruso came Gigli and a personal favorite, French tenor Georges Thill. Their recordings from the 1930s are spine tingling.
Here’s a fun Caruso story I ran across a while back:
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,800850,00.html?iid=chix-sphere
My favorite singer ever is Kirsten Flagstad. She peaked in the 1930s, so when listening to her recordings, you still have to imagine just exactly how it sounded. Not until the 1950s did recording techniques improve to the point that big operatic voices were approximated well.
p.s. In this thread, I for the first time disclosed that I am a musician. Since I am responding to you, I might as well throw in the fact that, while in high school, I was the Houston chess champion. Strangely enough, this rather impressive accomplishment never helped me score chicks, so I rarely bring it up.
re: I am legislating emotion?
Well, there you go again. I am not legislating anything.
My comment about emotion was to react to a FReeper bringing into the discussion a comparison between libs and conservatives, emotion and logic. In the political sphere, I am in agreement with that assessment. It shouldn’t be difficult to digest my point. Politics is not a part of this thread. Whether you enjoy good wine, food, or something in the arts has nothing to do with lib v conservative, emotion v logic.
Politics could have been made a part of this discussion if someone started debating whether the government should fund the arts. Someone could have argued that this guy has raw talent and deserves to be funded by the government. That, however, was not brought into the discussion. Bringing lib v conservative into this thread was just silly.
Now I appreciate your sense of humor. You were on a higher plane for a moment speaking about being a musician and a chess champion. Then, you got into the gutter area with a comment that such accomplishment didn’t help you score chicks. I enjoyed that.
My grandfather heard Caruso on numerous occasions. There were no microphones, no amplification. Virtually all of Caruso’s recordings were done by singing into a horn. You moved your heard closer or farther from the horn to adjust the volume.
My grandfather said that when he heard him sing, you could pick up the vibrations through your feet and through the arm-rests on the chairs.
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