Preaching About 'The' AntiChoir

These guys are awesome. It's the Finnish Shouting Men's Chorus, or Mieskuoro Huutajat. ("MEE' skoo row WHO' tuh yaht", for those who like to pronounce things out loud.)

Well, would you say otherwise??? To their faces?? They're yelling, they look like Vikings dressed as The Blues Brothers with ties made of bike tire inner tubes. I'm not doing anything (after saying "they're awesome") except backing away slowly and perhaps offering them some cookies. Although, as angry as they look onstage, I'll bet they're quite friendly and mild-mannered face to face. Being friendly and laid back is a typical Finnish cultural marker. They'd probably share the cookies.

I do happen to enjoy the shouting enough to want to share it with you. Here's a small taste of their performance, in the form of a movie trailer. (A movie was made of them. It won some awards.)



In addition to performing songs and poems, Mieskuoro Huutajat like to shout a wide repertoire of national anthems. It caused a bit of an uproar sort of thing (as far as uproars go) when they performed in France, and wanted to shout La Marseillaise.

Here's how they conceptualized The Star Spangled Banner:



I hope you aren't offended (my husband was, and it led to a very heated conversation); also please know that I'm not posting it for political purposes. In my opinion it's a creative work of art, respectfully performed, elegant, evocative of the militaristic lyrics, and not even a little bit like Roseanne Barr brutally butchering the same song at a baseball game some years back. In fact, I found myself paying closer attention to the words than I usually do. I'd call that a success. I'd perhaps even call this artform AntiSinging...

Enjoying having my horizons stretched further,

-->rebecca.

PS: For other interesting non-sacred choral excursions, go to YouTube and search for "Complaints Choir". Many large cities are finding that they have choirs devoted to voicing the complaints of their citizens, and it's very entertaining, lyrical, poignant, hilarious, and I hope Cleveland gets one soon!!