Hymn of Acxiom - Parkway West Jazz Choir

Parkway West High School is located in Chesterfield, MO, a suburb of St. Louis.
Hymn of Acxiom - lyrics and credits below
Somebody hears you. you know that. you know that.
Somebody hears you. you know that inside.
Someone is learning the colors of all your moods, to
(say just the right thing and) show that you’re understood.
Here you’re known.
Leave your life open. you don’t have. you don’t have.
Leave your life open. you don’t have to hide.
Someone is gathering every crumb you drop, these
(mindless decisions and) moments you long forgot.
Keep them all.
Let our formulas find your soul.
We’ll divine your artesian source (in your mind),
Marshal feed and force (our machines will)
To design you a perfect love-
Or (better still) a perfect lust.
O how glorious, glorious: a brand new need is born.
Now we possess you. you’ll own that. you’ll own that.
Now we possess you. you’ll own that in time.
Now we will build you an endlessly upward world,
(reach in your pocket) embrace you for all you’re worth.
Is that wrong?
Isn’t this what you want?
Amen.
Performed by the Parkway West Jazz Choir
Composed by Vienna Teng
Adapted for Jazz Choir by Kerry Marsh
Audio Recording: Shane Phenicie
Audio Mixing and Mastering: Tony Marx
Video Director, Director of Photography, Editor: Orion Madsen
Motion Camera Operator: John Peckham
On-Set Audio Playback: Shane Phenicie
Production Assistant: Rowan Peckham
Sculptures featured courtesy of Laumeier Sculpture Park www.laumeiersculpturepark.org/
Arena, 2016 www.laumeiersculpturepark.org/...
Pool Complex: Orchard Valley, 1983-85 www.laumeiersculpturepark.org/...
Man with Briefcase at #2968443, 1986 www.laumeiersculpturepark.org/...
Eye, 2007 www.laumeiersculpturepark.org/...
Parkway West High Jazz Choir - Brian Parrish, Director
Joon Bang
Kennedy Brown
Alex Dunn
Katia Frederick
Trent Geiger
Jackson Glisson
Victoria Marston
Stephanie Sanders
Grace Stephens
Emma Tharp
Mason Todd
Mitchell Vierling
Caroline Vogl
Betsy Wait

[@iosaturnalia]

Astoundingly good!!! This is one of my favorite pieces and not only did you nail it, the accompanying graphics are incredible. The drama of everyone making eye contact with the camera at the same time literally took my breath away.

[@jabathepegasus]

This is criminally underviewed.

[@101xaplax101]

wonderful comment

[@nathanielwisdom2308]

honestly

[@ivandieskim]

Humanity doesn't quite Understand yet😢

[@ivandieskim]

Definitely added to my end of the world playlist

[@larry2447]

A more prescient song? Ever?

[@dilmoshamilton8225]

As a disabled/retired teacher, I hope that all of the students who recorded this can look back on it now, and find and hold on to the joy and wonder and imagination that went into producing and performing this. I used this song to teach students that things weren't always as they appeared on numerous levels... and to watch these students perform with phones in their hands a song about the dangers of said phone, again the hair rises in response to the message along with the technicality and awesomness of those chords. I know most of you have graduated and moved on, but replay this on occassion and relive and bask in the joy of music and creativity.

[@jackcallahan1848]

That locker system looks like a nightmare

[@rifman6895]

I am not exaggerating when I say that this song gave me direct inspiration for a sci-fi horror plot

[@dreadlockbanana]

I hope it's not about late stage capitalism, government control, and AI job displacement...cause that's just non-fiction at this point haha.

[@wolfwolf1975]

I recently discovered this song (by accident, actually, while searching for something else and I made a typo!), and I’ve now been obsessed with finding different versions of it! This one is amazing!!

[@qcislander]

This is a really beautiful synthesis of Teng's composition and lyric with the creative efforts of people (and they're *highschool* students) who've learned not just how to how to re-create Teng's music beautifully in their own way... but also to build a visual story out of the *ideas* they've pulled from the lyrics. Bravo, people: ya done GOOD! :-)

[@berndgruner8510]

Danke. Fürs Senden ❤❤❤❤❤

[@bcross34]

Incredible performance. This song sounds like the simulation speaking directly to us.

[@ziggystardust4627]

Beautiful rendition of a richly disturbing composition

[@rodericktech5643]

Well-interpreted and performed. Glad to know that some of the new generation of people coming of age in this society are aware of the effects of our media saturation and addictions, and the need to approach technology through the lens of wisdom.

[@spencerbynum1218]

Not gonna lie, this shook me to my core.

[@kotymavericks]

Incredible job with both the performance and the visual story involved! Very very nice work to these performers 👍🏼 this deserves more likes

[@kcmedc]

Amazing job! Hold on to these memories.

[@codycross4582]

Best music video for this song ever!

[@aiyanawilliams6995]

Yessssss best version I've heard of this!

[@maloneycraig]

I would like to thank youtube's algorithms for putting this in my feed. Nice work, you guys.

[@AmosPressley]

"Here you’re known."

[@DarthDad3]

How Ironic

[@andreask3218]

Marvellous rendition and arrangement👍.

[@chesterabeagle]

First listen of this piece. Great work. I am a choir director and not easily impressed. I'm impressed!

[@AD-hr6br]

This is awesome guys! Love the shots at sculpture park :) Don't ever stop singing. Much love!

[@JonYuill]

Beautifully done guys, very very touching and put together so, so well. Outstanding.

[@cathybrown1486]

Parkway West Jazz - You've out done yourselves! Congratulations!!!

[@cameronplaystrumpet6777]

I love this arrangement so much

[@kathybhat8018]

Love.

[@gerbenkruisselbrink5181]

Great job! Love to do this song in The Netherlands, Europe

[@loriborger1262]

This is absolutely amazing - kudos to everyone singing and shooting and editing and directing...bravo!

[@alvarogarciatrujillo]

From Colombia, nowadays in big struggle (may 2021), a 60 years old guy, an actor, thanks you for this. It´s just amazing how you came to express the darkness and pain of this Teng's song, the painfull reality of social media reign... Thanks, again. Last week a young girl, 17 years old, was detained here by the Police with no reason, presumably (we're sure they did, but we have to say it this way, you know...) raped by four of them, and then she commited suicide. She was just documenting a meeting, one of the many occurring here... I couldn't stop thinking of her while watching and listening. I just assumed it as a tribute for her... Thanks a lot. God bless you. AND PLEASE!!! KEEP SINGING!!!!!!

[@CCervido]

You deserve more views! Clear concept and your visuals perfectly match the spooky atmosphere of Teng's composition. Really well done!

[@thomasbohannan6184]

What an absolutely incredible job. Well done on the performance and the video.

[@michaelminor5595]

This gave me chills much like the original does, Bravo!

[@misterheavy2296]

This is perfect. Scary,beautiful. Thank you.

[@wingnutx]

This is beautiful.

[@tywait5361]

Great Job Betsy!

[@peterburkhard2037]

Wunderschön!

[@alisonnicoleofficial]

omg this is amazing

[@justanotherlazytrashpanda]

This is flat out amazing My choir is doing this piece and I hope it does as well as yours

[@KyleNally]

I'd like to make a constructive suggestion here to anyone out there who's putting together audio clips for the kind of "distributed choir" we seem to be seeing here, the kind that we have to use during the pandemic if we want choirs. NONE of this is to criticize these performers. They selected a hard piece of music for a high school choir (a *very* hard piece; my high school choir in the long-ago would never have dared it outside rehearsals "for fun") and pulled it off. Cue applause. Smile in acknowledgment. Do *not* bow. Exit stage right, refreshments are in the concourse outside the hall. Keys, parking lot, car, goodbye, see you all soon. You'll be performing Ralph Vaughn Williams' "A Vision of Aeroplanes" in the next concert. That was your only warning, so practice practice practice! If you think I'm kidding about the "warning" part, I'm not. Have a listen. This is possibly the most difficult single choral piece I've ever heard- maybe the hardest in existence that's ever performed anywhere- and I personally know a fairly successful former conductor and organizer of a professional paid chorus who wouldn't even think of trying it. I know that because I went and asked him. His (somewhat cynical) laugh was about all I needed to hear... kzbin.info/www/bejne/bpPdY2OviNB3r6M Joking and cultural propagation over, serious stuff follows: IF YOU'RE MIXING AUDIO FOR A DISTRIBUTED CHOIR, PLEASE CORRECTLY BALANCE THE AUDIO IN THE TRACKS.THEY SEND YOU. It's tedious and time-consuming and you'll be bored as hell and probably be driven to drink and to cry but it's absolutely *vital* that you do this correctly. Also, please please *please* observe crescendos and decrescendos when you mix if they don't come through *clearly* on the original track you're working on at the time (which they almost certainly won't, no matter the ability level of the individual in question). You'll need the score to do that properly, yes, and I know not all audio engineers can read music, but the slanted lines representing "get louder" and "get softer" in a score aren't too hard to figure out what they're for even if you can't actually read music. It's *super* important and I'm *not* speaking from ignorance here; I'm a former oboist, pianist, singer, and composer, and live with a published composer and performer who holds a doctorate from the Indiana University School of Music. Both of us have done the kind of audio mixing and balancing I'm referring to here in the past with success. Listening to performances absent dynamics is like looking at an underpainting: it's all line and shape without any color or gradation, and that just doesn't do justice to the performers or their performance. What happens in these recordings (almost all of them across the board from any source I've seen on KZbin, anyway) is that the individuals recording their parts (not this group specifically, but in general) often don't have access to really good mics and other audio equipment that can pick up their full dynamic range when they're singing. I'm talking about recordings made by working professionals here, too, not students! Others don't position the mic properly, still others "do it right" when they record but their efforts are lost in the group because of size, etc., etc. This is almost always possible to fix by doing your mixing correctly (especially with something like Adobe Audition, which I myself have and use, but Audacity can accomplish the same thing for free)! These performers in this video are *very* good (I'm honestly surprised a high school choir would even try this piece given its very close interior harmonizations, double-chorus split parts, very low- sometimes unrealistically low- bass lines and voice leadings that are hard to nail, with some *very* difficult chord movements for any chorus to get right in some places; *applause and mad props for the result* ), but the audio mixing used here *just doesn't do them justice.* I say that without having ever actually heard them live; I'm confident my guess is correct because if they're good enough to even try this piece and pull it off it stands to reason that they're good enough to have appreciable individual dynamic range when they're heard in live performance as well. That just doesn't come through *at all* in this recording because the mix seems to have increased all of the individual tracks to full volume. Arrange tracks, balance ensemble audio, do dynamics if and where they're needed, THEN increase the track volumes, one at a time, where and as necessary. In a choir where everyone is this good they all simply *won't* "just coincidentally" get the same very obvious things wrong every time in every last place, for each of them. That's just not plausible; these singers are good enough that I know almost to a certainty that's not what they individually did. Which is a shame because, as I said, they're *clearly* very good singers as individuals *and as a group-* good enough for it to very likely sound correct if performed live.

[@GioisNerd]

Very jazz

[@Shuey272]

this song was always a little haunting, and i love this version, but it makes it a tad more creepy haha.

[@derlaine]

Thank you youtube algo for reccing me this song about the youtube algo

[@sariahjohnson7237]

That bass tho

[@DarthDad3]

Wow, fantastic visuals on top of the song. Agenda 2030 and the evils of the digital age summed up perfectly by high schoolers! BRAVO!!!!!👏

[@billythecar1796]

im very cool guy!

[@z_.v]

yeah! he rely is the mot beter! and also !

[@boblemmon8091]

Bluecoats drum and bugle corps, go listen to their version😢

[@zacharysmith4143]

yes, the mesh of choral music into drum corps and other instrumental ensembles is underappreciated but so good

[@dewy5699]

Who ever singing dat low bass doe👌

[@toddcolinfew]

I love the music but someone please help me understand the lyrics. Is this a healthy message?

[@trolltroll4557]

It’s about big data, Facebook etc tracking every small thing you do on your phone and saving them to create a personal information database for billions of people so they can personally tailor advertisements etc to them, or sell the data to other companies. Surely nothing creepy about this

[@lukeanderson6427]

tilt

[@kinglim27]

put your phone down

[@alisonnicoleofficial]

kinglim27 go look up the meaning of this arrangement because it’s about technology

[@keemez]

lose the fro, dude

[@Dawnrunner42]

Keem Osabe lose the attitude, dude

[@ivandieskim]

@annalapwood. I think I've something for the organ