O Holy Night from Holiday 100 Playlist; has anyone figured it out?

[earlblower]

Hello there fellow tune-smiths. I just downloaded a Holiday 100 playlist and it contains an afro-jazz version of O Holy Night in 12/8 time. I love the rhythm, the chords and the whole feel of the music. The only problem: I cannot for the life of me figure out how the melody of O Holy Night fits in.

Has anyone worked on this? Can you point me to any recordings or give me any tips?

O Holy Night - Adolphe Adam


Thanks.

E

 

[pdxdjazz]

Same chart, still 6/4 just medium swing @110

O Holy Night 2 - Adolphe Adam


Compare it with this video

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Adg0poPmlIE

As it is posted in the Holiday 100, it's challenging for me too.
I try to count it in 4 @ ~74 (no change in player setting) and it seems to gel.


Let us know if this helps
)BOB

 

[earlblower]

Hey! Thanks for the reply.
It's not so much the timing as fitting the melody to the chords. Is the melody supposed to start right at the top of the chart, or is there an intro or something. I can't even sing it and make it work.
Thanks again.
E

 

[pdxdjazz]

Hey! Thanks for the reply.
It's not so much the timing as fitting the melody to the chords. Is the melody supposed to start right at the top of the chart, or is there an intro or something. I can't even sing it and make it work.
Thanks again.
E

Melody starts on beat 1 of bar 1.

Sing this chart (below) 4/4 @74, really get it in your head.

Then repeat it same feel/tempo against the 12/8 @110 chart

It ain’t easy...but it works.
The 12/8 chart's style has a hesitation/syncopation at the start of the bar that interferes with my perception of the "one".
It's hard for me to sing a slow, "square" melody over a fast, "crooked" rhythm.

O Holy Night 1 1 - Adolphe Adam

)BOB

 

[earlblower]

Ok. Think I've got it figured out. The problem is that the backing track is missing a couple measures near the end. (At least that's the case if you're following the traditional music.) Things go bad at the 23rd bar following rehearsal letter B. In the alto sax transposition (Eb), the E7 is followed just 2 bars later with the Dmaj7 (which is the high note of the piece (the one the singers have to strain for)). The problem is that the track leaves out the 2 bars just ahead of that Dmaj7. Kind of ruins the climax of the tune. Still, a fun exercise.

 

[pdxdjazz]

I understand. It's kinda like a walk-on gig with "the band's own" arrangement.
It's a challenging exercise.

Why does 4/4 @ 74 work with 12/8 @110?
4/4 = 8/8, 12 divided by 8 = 1.5, 110 divided by 1.5 = 73.3
When I tapped the tempo that I felt worked into the iRp metronome, it seemed to register ~74.
The math is after the fact just trying to figure out the "why".

Thanks for the discussion
)BOB

 

[CyrilleB]

Bing Crosby version:

O Holy Night - Adolphe Adam

 

[Kalokagathon]

Re- the math and tempo:
Unfortunately iReal Pro - as with many other music apps - always keeps the eighth notes’ tempo constant (so beat tempo changes), whereas tempo should remain the same both in simple (binary) and compound (ternary) meter. This often stems from the idea that above number in meter (4/4, 12/8) gives number of beats, but that is incorrect (too long to explain why here).
In brief, it should be:
In binary meter, tempo @ 120 - eighth notes = 240
In ternary meter, tempo @ 120 - eighth notes = 360

Annoying that subdivisions stay the same instead of beat, but I guess too hard to recode everything.

 

[pdxdjazz]

Playing music isn’t for the timid.
)BOB