Easiest thing in the world to explain! It's the power of social networking. Look at how many viewers you'll get by disseminating this on a widely used choral blog that's part of a widely used choral network. A lot of the high-school student singers and audience members posted this link on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, their own blogs, etc. etc., and all those multipliers started factoring in. Now, people who heard the clip you posted and were amused will send it on in turn to their friends and associates, etc. etc. It just keeps on going -- until the next catchy YouTube post arrives, of course.
Well, a whole raft of thoughts went across. First, what a great job by an obviously well-prepared and well-balanced high school chorus. Second, I wonder if some of those people actually understood what was being sung about - "Today Christ is born!" - and found the baby's cry to be an echo of what was likely the reality in that cold stable in Bethlehem (in despite what the pictorial descriptions have been through the ages - remember, "He was like us in all things but sin" - so I doubt He sidestepped the crying thing as a babe!). Finally, and fortunately, the kid didn't yell too long - in fact, it's about five to eight seconds' worth, which isn't bad these days. I can't understand parents whose kid is obviously beyond fussy and is howling, and never a move, as though no one could figure out from whom the additional noise is coming.
What I find more interesting is that the student chose to post this to youtube (along with 21 other submissions) without the composer's name. This may be a 'well-known' Renaissance work, but seeing as this particular text has been set hundreds of times, the omission is particulary offensive. Obviously the long dead composer doesn't mind, but it speaks to a lack of contextual knowledge. This reminds me of the first time I went into a large music store to look for some new music for a high school group I was conducting. I went to the choral music section looking for choral works by Brahms and was frusterated to find that they organized their inventory by title rather than composer. When I inquired as to why this was I was told, "well most teachers come in asking for a title."
This was posted by a student and so I'm not directly attacking the director of this ensemble, but it does reflect a lack of literacy on the student's part. How many times have you said, "Ok let's work on the Tallis," only to hear "ummm which one is the Tallis?" from one or more choir members. In addition to rehearsing, polishing, and putting on good performances, it's also our job to educate our singers as to the historical context, style, genre, and compositional elements that distinguish each composer's work. How many English students would post a favorite poem to the internet without giving the poem's author?
Too many of us never get beyond the pages of the octavo.
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