Music Videos 音樂視频
Miscellaneous 2 其他之二
CONTENTS 本頁包括
BLESSED
Info and three versions of this music video
The curious case of making the "Blessed" music video
Score, & Comments
《有福》 音樂視頻三個版本，資料
製作《有福》音樂視頻的奇情檔案
樂譜，評語
BLESSED with Season's Greetings《有福》原版
BLESSED AMENDED《有福 修正版》
Binah Elvan sings the Beatitudes with me playing the keyboard. Images modified from photos I took at St Andrew's. BLESSED the music video is to thank God's blessing, and as Canon Jane Freeman's retirement gift from me. However, due to health, circumstances and Christmas deadline, there are blemishes in the original. I made BLESSES AMENDED for the New Year. Then I made BLESSED AMENDED FINAL.
這是兩位身體都不很好的皇家音樂學院校友以音樂敘舊，她唱七福我伴奏，配上我拍攝聖安德鲁教堂的型像，是手術後的感恩，亦作為我送给教會牧師她退休的礼物。希望修正版和再俢正版比原版少些瑕疵。
BLESSED AMENDED FINAL《有福 再修正版》
BLESSED 《有福》
CAN YOU SPOT THE DIFFERENCES?
Blessed, Blessed Amended and Blessed Amended Final
These three versions sound and look slightly different to each other.
你能看到和聽到以下《有福》三個版本不同的地方嗎？
Use the following links if streaming of the above videos is slow
若視頻卡慢可用以下鏈接看
YouTube link:https://youtu.be/ARxhVkZhcDs
Vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/383497980
The curious case of making the "Blessed" music video
(Followed by COMMENTS)
Last year when I was to have an operation scheduled at 7:30 am at Guy's Hospital, I stayed with a singer who lives near an underground station the night before so that I could catch the first train to get to the hospital in time. While I was there, she sang something, and I asked whether she would like to sing a piece by me and she was keen. I was thinking about the music video I was to create, as a retirement gift for the local priest and also as my appreciation of the singer.
After the operation, for quite some time I was not able to eat and suffered from pain. I felt tired and unwell. With no funding, this would have to be a home recording. To my dismay, I found many equipment not functioning. When the singer came for a preliminary rehearsal, she was also tired and unwell. I showed her the melody I have jotted down as inspired by the Beatitude text which I called Blessed, to be sung unaccompanied in the rhythm of how she would recite the words, and demonstrated on the piano (I can't sing anymore). She tried recording her singing with her iPad and to my surprise, the recording quality was acceptable. I suggested ways to record Blessed with her iPad, and she was to email the sound files to me to edit into a song for the music video.
For quite some time the singer was either unwell or busy. It was not easy to edit and assemble various phrases sung at different times, and over a period of time with no fixed tempo, some phrases needed splicing, and there was some noise here and there. The assembled song could not be presented as a plainchant and needed some accompaniment.
I have a dummy keyboard that is linked to a synthesizer. I thought I could use this to play a viol drone and that could go well with the assembled song. The synthesizer manual was undecipherable; instruments are not listed according to wind, brass, string, percussion, and many listed instruments I have no idea of what they are, e.g., 'clouds', 'coffee beans'... I was not able to find any of the viol family. Somehow I found a list of organs. When I tried to improvise to accompany the assembled song, I found some keys would go down but not get up again, and this cost money and time to repair. Persevering with software and equipment I am not familiar with and despite being unwell and very tired, somehow I got it done in time for Christmas 2019.
When Blessed was uploaded, the singer was pleased with the result but was upset because of the typo of her pseudonym in the credit. I therefor made Blessed Amended correcting her pseudonym and other typos, and also made some audio and visual adjustments. After this was uploaded, some people emailed me and said they like my playing. As Blessed was meant to be my appreciation of the singer, I made Blessed Amended Final, toning down my playing and also adjusted some further visual blemishes.
Why did I bother working on a project with so many problems? I was so unwell and tired at the time, perhaps it would be better for me not to do anything. Perhaps this was much ado about nothing, as not many will watch, and those who watch probably would not spot the differences. I cannot explain why I have the drive and urge to create and get the creation performed, and keep seeing imperfection...
The Blessed score in PDF format simply shows the melodic line jotted down - pitch only - of what I heard when I read the Beatitude (incomplete because I wanted it to end with the "peacemakers"), with no indication of rhythm. The performer is to read the text of each phrase then sing the text with the pitches as affected by how he/she read it.
This can be transposed to any key and sung unaccompanied like a plainchant; or accompanied by a drone-line sound; or like I did in the music video accompanied with organ sound (I am no organist). I notated my opening ad lib section and some harmonic suggestions – for reference only. A suggestion for the three "peacemakers" phrases at the end is to use the "Three Blind Mice". Basically you can make free use of and modify what I have written.
製作《有福》音樂視頻的奇情檔案
去年，醫院編排我在早上七時接受手術，有位住近地鐵站的歌手在手術前一晚招呼我在她家過夜，好譲我能乘撘第一班車及時到達醫院。那天晚上我聽到她唱歌，便問她有沒有興趣唱一首我作的，她熱衷地說有。那時我正預備做個音樂視頻作為教會牧師的退休禮物，這位歌手是基督徒，很適合為這音樂視頻唱，這亦表示我對她的感謝和欣賞。
手術後頗長一段時間，我進食困難和常覺疼痛，身體不好和感到疲倦，又沒有製作費，唯有在家錄音吧，卻發現很多録音器材已無法運作，正不知如何是好。歌手來我家排練，我見她也是身體不好，比我還疲倦。我讓她看看我以《天國八福》經文為靈感寫成的無伴奏《有福》歌，用朗誦節奏來唱的，並在鋼琴上示範怎樣唱（我不能唱了），她試試用iPad錄自己唱，令我驚訝的是，錄音質素居然還可以。我建議一些用iPad錄《有福》歌的方法，請她錄成聲音文件後發送給我修輯。
之後頗長的一段時間，這歌手要麽不舒服，要麼忙著，時不時發送一兩句的錄音，要組合這些在不同時間唱的，沒有固定節奏的短句成為一首一氣呵成的歌，真不容易，而且有些短句還需要拼接，又有些雜音，不可能作為一首清唱曲了，需要加上伴奏。
我有鏈接電子樂器合成器的琴，本以為可以用它來彈古提琴來伴奏《有福》歌，怎知這合成器的說明書好像天書一樣，不知所云，樂器並不依一般分類來列出，許多列出的樂器我卻不知道它們是什麼東東，例如那些叫做'雲'（暈！）、'咖啡豆'的樂器，找不古提琴，無意中卻找到風琴類，當我嘗試用風琴來即興伴奏時，發現有些琴鍵我按下去後不會起來，這就需要花錢和時間來修理了！儘管又生病又非常累和困難重重，我執著地學習和使用不熟悉的軟件和器材，終於在二零一九年聖誕節前完成了《有福》音樂視頻。
《有福》音樂視頻上載後，歌手對結果感到滿意，但因發現她的藝名拼錯了而感到沮喪，為此，我做了《有福修正版》，更正她的藝名和其他錯字，還進行了一些音樂和形象方面的調整。《有福修正版》上傳後，有些人和我說喜歡我彈的風琴，由於這本來是為了表示我對歌手的欣賞，所以我製作了《有福再修正版》，壓低風琴提高歌聲，也調整了一些形象方面的瑕疵。
《有福》音樂視頻的製作那樣煩，當時我又身體不好和那樣疲倦，其實不如放棄項目什麼都不做不是更好嗎？至於修正和再修正，是不是多此一舉呢？也沒有多少人會看，看了也可能不會發現有什麼不同，只有我自己知道吧。但是我無法解釋為什麼我會那樣執著，有動力和衝動去創作和完成，和不斷地看到瑕疵…
左上的PDF格式的《有福》樂譜僅顯示旋律的音高，那是當我閱讀《八福》經文時腦子裡聽到的。其實只有七福，以“締造和平的人”結尾，表演者應從朗讀經文得到的節奏感來唱這些音。可以隨意轉調，或無伴奏清唱，或伴以延續的長低音，或像我在音樂視頻那樣用風琴即興伴奏。我寫下開頭的部分，和一些和聲建議以供參考。結尾那三句“締造和平的人”樂句，可參考童謠音樂《三盲小鼠》的和聲來做即興伴奏的參考。可自由使用和修改我所寫的。
COMMENTS 評語
" I love both versions of BLESSED. I feel how the melody is inspired by my favourite text from the Bible. For me, the bar-less score and the modal (Dorian?) harmony resonate with choral history and associations, going back to Medieval pieces like 'O come, O come Emmanuel'. I actually prefer the version without the references to later carols, which greatly change the aesthetic and the associations. I think this piece should be performed on the organ in Westminster or Salisbury Cathedral, perhaps when the plague has finally departed."
– Professor Stephen Matthews (more about him)
《有福》的兩個版本我都喜歡，我感覺到旋律從我最喜歡的聖經段落得到的靈感，樂譜無小節和類似中古教會調式（多利亞調式？）的和聲與頌歌合唱史共鳴，聯系到中世紀似 《以馬內利來臨》的頌唱，我更喜歡沒涉及後來聖誕合唱的版本，蓋其改變審美觀和聯想。我認為此曲在疫症過去後，應在西敏寺或索茲伯里大教堂的大風琴演奏。”
– 馬詩凡教授 (更多關於他的)
Click above for
BLESSED score in PDF format.
點擊以上見
《有福》樂譜