Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child (Avanna + EWQLSC)

[Guidotorius]

Perhaps no performance has moved me more than Bessie Griffin's earth shattering rendition of the old African American Spiritual "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child" (Google it!). After hearing her sing this piece, I could not get the tune out of my mind. I found myself humming and singing it everywhere I went, except in my mind a contralto sang the desolate call and a full gospel choir sang the painful jabbing responses. This arrangement so haunted me that I wrote out the first few bars and developed it into this piece. Since I have no access to a contralto or gospel choir, I did my best to program Zero-G's Avanna, a Vocaloid, to perform the solo and EWQL Symphonic Choirs to perform the role of the full gospel choir. Avanna is more of a lyric blues singer than the powerful contralto I had in mind (think Jessye Norman); however, her light bluesy rendition captures something of the forlornness of the piece. I thought Symphonic Choirs did a pretty good job of imitating a gospel choir. I also tried to use Hollywood Choirs, which I own; however, SC did a better job than HC, I felt, so that is what you hear in this performance. (This is perhaps because I am not as proficient at programming HCs as I am at programming SCs, which I've worked with for years now.)

I hope you enjoy the result! I look forward to reading your comments.

Link to YouTube Video