“A ship is coming laden” (“Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen”) – Overtone Singing

“A ship is coming laden” (“Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen”) is one of the oldest Advent hymns in German. It was written before 1450. The oldest record of the melody is found in the Andernacher Gesangsbuch, Cologne 1608.

A rhythmic rarity in old hymns is the change from a 6/4 to a 4/4 meter in the middle of the song. The Dorian part of the first part of the song ends on the minor third, while the second part turns to Lydian from the new root and returns to the Dorian finalis at the end.

Keys with minor thirds make fundamental changes unavoidable in overtone singing, because the natural overtone series is tuned to major.

If you would like to sing the song, you can download the free sheet music here.

The recording is a spontaneous improvisation by pianist Michael Reimann, who later orchestrated his piano part, and overtone singer Wolfgang Saus. Spontaneous improvisation with changing fundamental tones requires quite some experience.This can be acquired by re-singing the free collection of sheet music.

Performers:
Michael Reimann – keys
https://www.oberton.org
The video is from Thomas Ritter, Pixabay:
https://pixabay.com/videos/glass-sphere-spherical-moon-winter-7380/

1 reply
  1. Tran quang hai says:

    Dear Wolfgang,
    I am glad to see you and Michael collaborate in this new composition which is very attractive based on the attempt of using modes and tonalities created by the modification of harmonic series
    With my best wishes for this creation
    Tran quang haï

    Reply

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