Music to break by...

Well, sorta.  I'm taking a break with it because it's part of my novel. I realized that if a Main Character is going around auditioning singers, I should probably listen to some singers.  I spent a significant portion of my school career singing.  Choirs mostly. So, it's about time I put singers in the writing. 

This is what I have been listening to.  More than thirteen renditions of it. It's not as bad as you might think.  I learned it when I was a music major in college and, after visiting my brother, Mark, decided to relearn it.  The song is a kind of badge for singers. I didn't know that until Mark, a professional singer (classical) told me.  And, in the course of this search, yeah, it's one of the audition pieces for a music school.

That said, I discovered, entirely by accident, something amazing.  It's a production of baroque vocal music featuring Cecelia Bartoli who does things with her voice that must have come from some kind of witchcraft.  Baroque music has a bounce to it that makes it danceable, for me at least.   I have just finished Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George, which I adore.  Fairytale retold with knitting!  Can't beat that for pure pleasure.  The novel takes us underground where we have to suffer with the princesses as they are forced to dance and puts the knitting needles in the hands of the hero. How's that for cool!

So what does that have to do with this music?  It was composed to show off the talents of castrati--boys who were castrated in order to preserve their voices.  I can imagine the princesses dancing to this music and the Castrato singing it feeling sympathetic toward them and their misery.

Warning: the video is long. It's beautifully shot, though, and the music can be turned up.  There's one image of the conductor's hands that I am going to use in my story.  So, any knitters out there?  Got a favorite knitting novel?  The music is good for taking a break from knitting, too!
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