POSTING #100

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100th Posting; Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus

100th Posting

They say that time flies when you're having fun. That has certainly been true with Letter from Virgil---I just can't believe that this is the one hundredth Posting.

One of the great things about this experience has been the support and encouragement of you, the readers.

Thank you!

By the way, it has been interesting  to see how Google has responded to the blog. In the beginning, if one did a Google search by typing in "Letter from Virgil" , the blog appeared---if at all---pages down in Google's search 'results'.

Now, a search for "Letter from Virgil" has the blog at the very top of the list of results.

"Letter from Virgil" has arrived---at least according to Google.

That's satisfying.

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus

The Chorus Niagara's Flash Mob video continues to  astound. As I upload this Posting, the number of viewings is nearly 23 million.

In Canada, the CBC, CTV and other media outlets have  aired segments about it, while in the United States, CNN, Fox News, ABC, The View, National Public Radio have all commented on it. And international media have picked it up as well, for example the hugely popular German network ZDF broadcast the video on one of its news shows.

Some of the female choristers have received proposals while the young man who appears as a janitor waving a 'Wet Floor' sign---a University of Toronto student in real life---has assumed almost cult status. One gets the impression that some female viewers would love to take him home with them.

We heard about a 14 month-old toddler who, when he heard his mother watching the video, came over, watched it for a few moments and then began to dance in time with the music. At the end of the video he clapped. (He just happens to be our grandson---precocious isn't he?)

People are trying to figure out what has happened, what is the magic that has made the video so popular.

One of the choristers told us she was puzzled. She said that they just went to the Seaway Mall in Welland to record a song, and suddenly all this happened. She shook her head.

Pat has a theory that although Handel's music is sublime and the singing superb, the unexpected success of the video is due to 'shock and awe'. The people in the food court came to shop and suddenly a concert broke out (like the old joke about a man who said he went to see a fight and a hockey game broke out).

I think Pat is right about 'shock and awe', and what makes that so effective is the enormously skillful camera work and editing by Alphabet Photography, which organized the video. We see mothers and their children caught up in the event, people wiping tears from their eyes, and we see close up shots that show the energy and joy of the singers.

Most of the YouTube comments are full of praise (there are a few nasty comments---not about the performance---from  people who use the video as a springboard to launch attacks against religion, against atheism, against the American Civil Liberties Union, against and for the United States, etc. etc. They need to get a life!)

Again and again, people comment about the tears the video brought---one woman complained that it had ruined her freshly-applied mascara.

Jews, Muslims, atheists have all praised the video. People have written in French, Russian, German and many languages that I don't recognize.

Here are some comments I liked:

"Every time I watch this I get the holy goose bumps and tears in my eyes. So powerful! THANK YOU!! and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!! Hallelujah!!!!!"

"What I find impressive is how these stunning voices come out of such young people who look nothing like what one imagines a classical singer to look like. And how many there are. And how wonderful it all sounds. I'm all choked up."

"Magnifique!!! Bravo!!! Encore!!! Beautiful to listen to, fun to watch the joy on everyone's faces. Can't stop watching it. Thank you and Merry Christmas!!!"

000

Last weekend we went to see Chorus Niagara perform the full Messiah, in Grimsby at the Mountainview Christian Reform Church (the church was chosen for its size and acoustics). The sold-out concert was breathtakingly beautiful.

Handel certainly knew how to use the human voice in his compositions, and the Chorus's Artistic Director, Robert Cooper, the orchestra, the soloists and the chorus made the most of his inspired music.

When they reached the Hallelujah chorus, the singers closed their music and sang their hearts out, with many members of the audience---who, as tradition demands, were all standing---joining in.

Floating above this not-to-be-forgotten evening was a feeling of pride that after years of hard work our Chorus Niagara was suddenly world-famous.

We are told that the Chorus has received far more invitations to perform than they could ever accept. The Chorus is saying that they need some time to adjust to the success of the video. Perhaps in January they will have time to think about how to respond to all the demands.

Whatever happens, my prediction is that the video will become a Christmas classic---that it will be played and replayed, year after year.

000

Merry Christmas to all from Pat, me and our family!

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See you on December 26th for Posting #101 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting,  or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.

POSTING #97

Christmas Food Court Flash Mob, Hallelujah Chorus

On Thursday, November 18th, Pat received this email from a friend, fellow quilter and chorister, Joan:

"Check out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXh7JR9oKVE 

To hear my Chorus (Chorus Niagara) surprise a crowd of shoppers last weekend!  It was fun watching the reactions of unsuspecting innocent bystanders!  I can see by the video that some people who were not choristers also joined in! 

Joan"

Now, we ignore many emails that invite us to check out this or that website or video.

Life is short and our 'to-do lists' are long.

And experience has taught us that such invitations often lead  to porn, a spam message about how to increase breast or penis size, or---worse---to a virus.

But since Joan is her friend, Pat clicked on the link. She watched for a few moments and then shouted, "This is amazing, You've got to see this!"

I went over and watched.

It was amazing.

When we first watched the video, there had been 350 viewings. Within a day the viewings were in the thousands, a week later the viewings were 1.2 million and as I upload this posting the total is over 2.1 million---all of that in 10 days!

This posting is going to be about that YouTube video. May I respectfully suggest that if you haven't already watched the video (4 minutes and 57 seconds) you click on the link above, in Joan's email?

And then come back.

Please don't forget to come back!

000

If you are wondering how the video came to be made, I recommend this article in the Welland Tribune. It explains why the opening singer has a cell phone to her ear throughout the video, and who the 'janitor' in the coveralls waving a 'Wet Floor' sign actually is.

I hope the Tribune won't mind if I reprint a couple of excerpts.

"WELLAND — One minute, Stephanie Tritchew was just a face in the busy Seaway Mall crowd, sipping coffee at a cafeteria table and chatting on her cellphone.
The next, the St. Catharines native was standing and belting out "hallelujahs" from the famed chorus in Handel's Messiah in front of a stunned food court congregation.
"The first reaction was jaw-dropping surprise and people laughing," said the startling soprano, who broke into song around noon last Saturday at the Welland mall. "Then just about everyone whipped out their phone cameras at once." "

And the article concludes with this quote from Ms. Tritchew about the reaction of a family sitting right in front of her.

"'They had these two little kids with big eyes and one of them said, 'Mom, this is so cool,'" recalled Tritchew. "I just loved it. I loved that we really seemed to lift people's spirits like that."

000

There have been hundreds and hundreds of comments on the video. Here is one of my favourites, from a woman named Martine in France---my translation follows:

Mille mercis pour ces prodigieux instants de pur bonheur!.
Fantastique, fabuleux, extraordinaire, merveilleux!.
L'Art près de chez nous!.
Sans cérémonie, costumes et noeuds papillons, robes de soirée ni rivières de diamants!.
Une simple mais exceptionnelle présence et pas uniquement auditive!.
Celle du coeur (du choeur!) tout simplement!!!......

A thousand thank-you's for these amazing moments of pure happiness!

Fantastic, fabulous, extraordinary, marvellous!

Art brought to where we live!

Without ceremony, no suits with bow-ties, no silk dresses, no sparkling jewellery!

A simple but exceptional performance and not just for the ears!

A performance straight from the heart!!!

(The original has a clever play on words in the last line involving 'coeur'---'heart'---and 'choeur'---'choir'--- that I haven't been able to translate into English.) 

000

I also liked a comment in which the writer proposed that the Niagara Chorus create another flash mob experience, this time using Beethoven's Ode to Joy.

If that happens, perhaps Pat could persuade Joan to give us a 'heads up' so that we could join the mall crowd.

To quote the little boy, that would be 'so cool'.

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See you on December 5th for Posting #98 with more stories from our family’s universe! If you have comments or suggestions, please leave a comment at the bottom of this posting,  or email me at johnpathunter@gmail.com.