One Person can beat a drum and make enough noise for ten.
One Person can blow a horn,
And that little bang and that little blare
Can make a hundred people care.
And One Person can hold a torch and light up the sky again.
And one little voice that's squeaking a song can make a million voices strong.
If One Person can beat a drum,
If One Person can blow a horn,
If One Person can hold a torch,
Then One Person can change the world.
This wonderful march, "One Person," comes from the pen of Jerry Herman, Broadway composer of such classics as "Hello Dolly" and "Mame."
We in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir have been working to memorize this song for our concert with the Utah Symphony later this week. Jerry Herman was known for his particularly hummable tunes. These lyrics are fairly easy to memorize. They can easily be "pictured." My sister likes to make up hand choreography to help her memorize lyrics. These words fit that bill very well. The words may be fairly easy to memorize, but they are harder to sing because of the fast succession of notes. The tune is built on a quickly ascending and then descending Major 9th chord -- that is five stacked thirds coming and going! And gets harder from there! Not as easy to maneuver! But it is a fun song to sing and has a neat message. Ryan Murphy did a bang up job arranging it for our concert!
I overheard some elementary school music teachers in the hallway saying that they loved the message of that song so much, they intended to use it as their theme of this year's chorus concert. The message is a useful one, I grant you, but I worry about the youngsters being able to sing the extended harmonies with the extended range with anything close to precision. It could just end up a monotone mess. The melodic range is well over an octave even if you stay in the key of C Major.
All I can say is good luck.
One Person can blow a horn,
And that little bang and that little blare
Can make a hundred people care.
And One Person can hold a torch and light up the sky again.
And one little voice that's squeaking a song can make a million voices strong.
If One Person can beat a drum,
If One Person can blow a horn,
If One Person can hold a torch,
Then One Person can change the world.
This wonderful march, "One Person," comes from the pen of Jerry Herman, Broadway composer of such classics as "Hello Dolly" and "Mame."
We in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir have been working to memorize this song for our concert with the Utah Symphony later this week. Jerry Herman was known for his particularly hummable tunes. These lyrics are fairly easy to memorize. They can easily be "pictured." My sister likes to make up hand choreography to help her memorize lyrics. These words fit that bill very well. The words may be fairly easy to memorize, but they are harder to sing because of the fast succession of notes. The tune is built on a quickly ascending and then descending Major 9th chord -- that is five stacked thirds coming and going! And gets harder from there! Not as easy to maneuver! But it is a fun song to sing and has a neat message. Ryan Murphy did a bang up job arranging it for our concert!
I overheard some elementary school music teachers in the hallway saying that they loved the message of that song so much, they intended to use it as their theme of this year's chorus concert. The message is a useful one, I grant you, but I worry about the youngsters being able to sing the extended harmonies with the extended range with anything close to precision. It could just end up a monotone mess. The melodic range is well over an octave even if you stay in the key of C Major.
All I can say is good luck.
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