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 Seen on Twitter lately
Date: May 16, 2012
I run a constant search for the word "choral" on twitter. Occasionally, I look to see what it brings up.
Here are some of the latest:
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My choral teacher put my in between the two skinniest girls in school for this concert tonight soo basically I'm gonna look like a whale
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U of L Cardinal Singers bound for Cuba 'choral summit': The summit will be a cross-cultural exchange of US and C... http://t.co/Eu5zGRyM
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Nothing calms me down after an awful shift at work more than choral music by @EricWhitacre
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seriously considering dropping out of the choral department.
Interesting, eh?
 How Do You Measure a Year in the Choral Life?
Date: May 15, 2012
 In the musical Rent, Seasons of Love asks “how do you measure a year in the life?” The clinical way of doing so sounds something like “Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes”, but the song rhetorically asks, how do you really measure a year in the life?
Most of us are completing a year of choral performance, and in various ways, we are called to measure it. For the American Choral Directors Association, I measure activity in members, conferences, budget measurements, programs, and methods of participation and engagement. With those measurements, something similar to “Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred” is likely to appear. But after all the calculations, I am still left with the profound question in my artistic endeavors, “how do I really measure this year?”
If I try to apply math to the performances I have with the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, I suppose I could count the measures or notes in the Bach motets, cantatas, Magnificat
In the musical Rent, Seasons of Love asks “how do you measure a year in the life?” The clinical way of doing so sounds something like “Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes”, but the song rhetorically asks, how do you really measure a year in the life?
Most of us are completing a year of choral performance, and in various ways, we are called to measure it. For the American Choral Directors Association, I measure activity in members, conferences, budget measurements, programs, and methods of participation and engagement. With those measurements, something similar to “Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred” is likely to appear. But after all the calculations, I am still left with the profound question in my artistic endeavors, “how do I really measure this year?”
If I try to apply math to the performances I have with the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, I suppose I could count the measures or notes in the Bach motets, cantatas, Magnificat, and Mass in B Minor that comprised our 2011-2012 concert year. Another measurement could be to calculate the several thousand audience members, the hours we spent in rehearsal and performance, the personal time we spent studying and learning the scores on our own outside of rehearsal. All of these are significant measurements, and to be sure, they are healthy numbers.
However, I prefer to measure things differently. Here is how I measure a year in our life:
We experienced profound Celebration in “Singet dem Herrn”
We experienced profound Thankfulness in “Gott, der Herr, ist Sonn' und Schild”
We experienced profound Confidence in "Ein feste burg"
We experienced profound Expectation and Hope in “Wachet auf”
We experienced profound Praise in “Magnificat”
We experienced profound Playfulness in “Pirates of the Carribean”
We experienced profound Joy in Mahler’s “Symphony No. 3”
We experienced Universal Faith in Bach’s “Mass in B Minor”
I am certain that life was richer, better, and more profound for those that we touched in our concert season this year.
May your own measurements lead to a season of productive preparation for another great season of choral music making just ahead.
Mix My Part
Date: May 13, 2012
I got this email about a new service:
I developed an online based software solution for choirs to improve the rate at which they can learn repertoire. The software provides an online multitrack mixer/player and media hosting hub so a teacher/director can prepare recordings of individual voice and instrumental parts and post them for playback by choir or band members very much like a YouTube video so they can be used to practice and sing along at home while controlling each part independently while they all play at the same time. I don't want to burden you with too lengthy an explanation if it doesn't interest you, but maybe you'd like to visit the website and see what my new creation can do.
The website is http://www.mixmypart.com and right there on the home page is a button that says "Launch Demo" which will launch a working version of the software and a sample song. The nice thing about this solution for choir members, is that they would receive an encoded link just
I got this email about a new service:
I developed an online based software solution for choirs to improve the rate at which they can learn repertoire. The software provides an online multitrack mixer/player and media hosting hub so a teacher/director can prepare recordings of individual voice and instrumental parts and post them for playback by choir or band members very much like a YouTube video so they can be used to practice and sing along at home while controlling each part independently while they all play at the same time. I don't want to burden you with too lengthy an explanation if it doesn't interest you, but maybe you'd like to visit the website and see what my new creation can do.
The website is http://www.mixmypart.com and right there on the home page is a button that says "Launch Demo" which will launch a working version of the software and a sample song. The nice thing about this solution for choir members, is that they would receive an encoded link just like a YouTube video link and everything is right there on a single page for them to use. There's no navigating on different pages and the controls are very obvious.
Check it out - the mixer is pretty cool.
The creative mind at work - Eric Whitacre
Date: May 12, 2012
I have long admired how Eric Whitacre uses technology. He recently shared the germ of an idea on his blog - a little motive that may find a way into his next masterpiece:
Have you applauded yet?
Date: May 11, 2012
 One of the newest features on ChoralNet is the  Applaud button, which lets you express agreement with a reply to a forum thread without having to write a separate reply agreeing. Quick and easy. It's similar to the Like button on Facebook.
You can also Applaud replies to Community forums or ChoralBlog. But you can't applaud your own messages; we'll all assume you approve of what you wrote without you having to bother to click a button.
Give it a shot.
Choral Caffeine: Humor in the Choral Rehearsal, Part 2
Date: May 9, 2012
 Let’s continue our look at the value of humor in our work with a little more from Steven Sieck’s article, “ Humor in Choral Rehearsals.” Today Steven tells us that “Humor frees singers to make mistakes without fear . . . .”
Singers will make mistakes. If you’ve been in a professional choir recording session, you know that professionals also make mistakes. No one wants to make them, and you don’t want toencourage such a practice in the rehearsal. Choirs perform the way they rehearse. But if you “bite off heads” when a mistake occurs, you, and the singers, get a very different rehearsal experience and a different sound. Submission and trepidation in singers create the opposite of what we conductors desire from our singers.
Choral music is an art form based on the act of giving: giving your voice, your words, and your spirit. I believe singers should feel free to acknowledge a mistake in rehearsals. For
Let’s continue our look at the value of humor in our work with a little more from Steven Sieck’s article, “ Humor in Choral Rehearsals.” Today Steven tells us that “Humor frees singers to make mistakes without fear . . . .”
Singers will make mistakes. If you’ve been in a professional choir recording session, you know that professionals also make mistakes. No one wants to make them, and you don’t want toencourage such a practice in the rehearsal. Choirs perform the way they rehearse. But if you “bite off heads” when a mistake occurs, you, and the singers, get a very different rehearsal experience and a different sound. Submission and trepidation in singers create the opposite of what we conductors desire from our singers.
Choral music is an art form based on the act of giving: giving your voice, your words, and your spirit. I believe singers should feel free to acknowledge a mistake in rehearsals. For example, when the choir works on an especially difficult passage and a number of mistakes occur, I can stop and say “That’s pretty much ready for the CD!” There’s laughter, at first awkward or embarrassed but then relaxed. I can then work efficiently on all the mistakes with no resentment from the singers. You cannot control your singers’ fallibility; however, you can control how you respond to it. In my way of thinking, the use of appropriate humor is the most workable solution to the problem.
(To access the full article, simply click the highlighted title. For additional articles on a dazzling array of choral topics, visit ChorTeach.)
Exploring a U.S. Choral Voice
Date: May 8, 2012
Between 1800 and the mid-nineteenth century, major cities in the Eastern United States began their movement past "politics and war", and were able to form professional music organizations such as Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, which concentrated on full-scale performance of choral music with orchestra; and the New York Philharmonic Symphony Society, which focused on symphonic repertoire. These societies received their material
Between 1800 and the mid-nineteenth century, major cities in the Eastern United States began their movement past "politics and war", and were able to form professional music organizations such as Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, which concentrated on full-scale performance of choral music with orchestra; and the New York Philharmonic Symphony Society, which focused on symphonic repertoire. These societies received their material from the finest of European composers of the time.
It is a little disorienting to realize that during this time, Mozart’s librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte was now living in New York City and making a living as a grocer, and Napoleon’s older brother, Joseph Bonaparte, former king of Spain, was living in New Jersey. Lines were beginning to blur, but it would still be a while before any U.S. iconoclasts would have the opportunity to study “painting, poetry, music…” as Adams projected.
However, by the turn of the next century, the first musician’s union was formed, not in New York or Boston, but rather, in Memphis, Tennessee, and on the printed charter, pictured in the laurel banner that drapes the document, alongside the classical German composers of Wagner, Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, and Haydn, we see the portrait of Dudley Buck. Yes, Dudley Buck. This signals a new age in the growth of a U.S. voice in choral music, as a New England choral composer is given a place along side the trinity of the “Three B’s”. We now witness our own composer's Mt. Rushmore beginning to develop as we add “Buck” to the German list of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms.
If and when a U.S. voice was to emerge in choral composition, it would emerge through transplanted Romantic European traditions, Americans studying abroad, European Impressionism, revolutions in industry and technology (think of the piano as industry and technology), Twentieth Century American optimism, and many, many other threads and influences. As Wynton Marsalis describes American blues music, “It's like gumbo in New Orleans, you know. We put everything in there, shrimp, chicken, you can even put chitlins in there if you want 'em--you can put what you want in there, you know what I mean, and it's going to taste good because it's going to be a part of it, but you got to have that roux, and the roux is the thing that makes it a gumbo….”
So, it is a good thing for ACDA and Choral Journal to explore aspects of the “roux” of American choral music in next month's publication and in upcoming symposia. Sometimes its easy to recognize the parts, but it remains an ongoing challenge, as well as a worthy pursuit, to identify the “roux” of an American voice in choral composition.
Who cares?
Date: May 7, 2012
A hymn I didn't know with an incredible refrain:
Special thanks to Wes Ramsey for putting this on his Facebook page.
Notice anything new?
Date: May 6, 2012
We've added a few new features to ChoralNet, including:
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The Announcements, Forums, and Classifieds menus now include the ten most recent entries
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The Communities menu not only lists your communities but also the most recent community forum entries
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The MyChoralNet menu includes the most recent entries in your subscriptions
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The Resources menu is now hierarchical so you can easily find relevant categories within Resources.
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Forum replies have an optional Applaud button which you can use to indicate which replies you found the most helpful
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Other menu changes and icons
If they don't work properly (for example, if the menus on top look really funny), you may need to force-refresh the browser or empty your cache. How Much is Music Worth?
Date: May 6, 2012
 A woman here in Birmingham is blogging about the new organ in her church. It comes from an important perspective - she is in charge of the outreach responsibilities at her church and she has been dealing with the cost of a new organ and upgrades to the sanctuary.
Here is how what she wrote about finally hearing the new organ:
Tonight, as I listened to the new Dobson organ played for the first time, I heard the question others have asked: Is it worth it? My answer is this: How much is music that is so full of majesty and splendor that it reflects, even if only in the palest way, the splendor and majesty of God--how much is such music worth? How much is it worth to move the human soul beyond the earthly climes to the glorious realms of heaven?
All I can tell you is that the music I heard tonight filled my soul so full--so full of love, of wonder, of awe, of joy, of pain and pleasure, that I cannot begin to communicate the worth of it. All I can say is that
A woman here in Birmingham is blogging about the new organ in her church. It comes from an important perspective - she is in charge of the outreach responsibilities at her church and she has been dealing with the cost of a new organ and upgrades to the sanctuary.
Here is how what she wrote about finally hearing the new organ:
Tonight, as I listened to the new Dobson organ played for the first time, I heard the question others have asked: Is it worth it? My answer is this: How much is music that is so full of majesty and splendor that it reflects, even if only in the palest way, the splendor and majesty of God--how much is such music worth? How much is it worth to move the human soul beyond the earthly climes to the glorious realms of heaven?
All I can tell you is that the music I heard tonight filled my soul so full--so full of love, of wonder, of awe, of joy, of pain and pleasure, that I cannot begin to communicate the worth of it. All I can say is that such music surely leads us to a truer, fuller, worthier praise and worship of our God, and our God is worthy of all praise and honor and glory; and worship is our central purpose as people of faith--it is the place from which all our learning, all our care for one another, all our service and mission beyond ourselves into a broken world find their center and their purpose and their energy and their meaning.
The music I heard tonight reflects our love for God; it reflects God's love for us; it reflects the nature of the One who is the Creator of all beauty. Is it worth it? Oh, yes...Tonight, my soul says: Yes...
Stick Time: Conducting Study 8
Date: May 16, 2012
Sometimes in a concert we want (desperately) for one selection to flow into another seamlessly, without the knife of applause that severing performance energy and sonic cohesion. Surely ALL of us have had an elegant transition diminished by a well-intentioned audience member who just HAD to clap their hands.
In today's conducting study, we observe a colleague navigating those waters (okay, let's be fair, the audience is a room full of choral conductors) The challenge in such a moment is to simultaneously (1) release the final chord, (2) provide a preparatory gesture for the next entrance (in this case to the pianist), (3) transition between two different music styles, all while (4) holding the audience from applauding . . . and to do so elegantly. Note too, that our colleague continues to show the vowel shape after the release, thus encouraging a release of sound, not simply a cut-off (there IS a difference).
CJ Replay: New Thoughts on Warm-Ups
Date: May 15, 2012
The first five minutes of the choral rehearsal have the potential to be a dynamic, vital, interactive learning experience. It can be a time to engage the kinesthetic, musical, and cognitive intelligences of each singer. A warm-up incorporating the above skills, made possible by creative and strategic pedagogical planning on the part of the conductor, can enhance the whole rehearsal, and eventually the overall performing ability of the ensemble.
Unfortunately, warm-ups, for many of us, are in a rut, the major scale being the culprit. Too often, we warm up only the vocal mechanism, singing the familiar chromatically ascending major scales and arpeggios along with the piano in rehearsal after rehearsal. Endless chains of five-tone major scales may challenge the voice, but not the mind. The
The first five minutes of the choral rehearsal have the potential to be a dynamic, vital, interactive learning experience. It can be a time to engage the kinesthetic, musical, and cognitive intelligences of each singer. A warm-up incorporating the above skills, made possible by creative and strategic pedagogical planning on the part of the conductor, can enhance the whole rehearsal, and eventually the overall performing ability of the ensemble.
Unfortunately, warm-ups, for many of us, are in a rut, the major scale being the culprit. Too often, we warm up only the vocal mechanism, singing the familiar chromatically ascending major scales and arpeggios along with the piano in rehearsal after rehearsal. Endless chains of five-tone major scales may challenge the voice, but not the mind. The chromatic major rut disengages the brain by exact repetition of the same mundane pattern, never accessing the endless multiplicity of varying major and minor patterns appearing in the repertoire.
Furthermore, "monkey hear, monkey do" of traditional five-tone chromatic warm-ups never seems to move from unconscious to conscious comprehension. It is alarming that an ensemble may move through all twelve major keys several times over the course of a warm-up, yet never consciously acknowledge any key, let alone the movement from one tonality to the next. This lack of cognitive engagement does nothing to build the singers' overall musical understanding. By denying our natural tendency to become creatures of habit, and using the daily warm-up as a developmental sequence, we may introduce a new security to major and minor scales and difficult tonal patterns.
Stick Time: Conducting Study 7
Date: May 11, 2012
It seems criminally obvious to say that how we end a piece is at least as important as how we begin one. Today let’s watch a colleague bring a choral work to a close.
First, note that his left hand cues the sopranos in a manner that guides them to a “floating” sound on their final pitch. He then immediately turns to reinforce both the pulse and the diminuendo for the rest of the ensemble in a most understated yet effective manner. The following crescendo is clearly visible on the final chord, but is shown in such a way so as to avoid the sort of ‘pushed’ sound that many choirs employ at the end of spirituals. When he does then show the release (note I did NOT say “cut-off”), it encourages the choir to end with a forward-moving energy that provides a resonance that has a life beyond the actual cessation of phonation. Pay attention also to his hands throughout this excerpt: they are energized, but do not communicate any tension.
CJ Replay: The Conductor's Personality Type
Date: May 10, 2012
Why do some rehearsals energize conductors while others drain them? Some rehearsals cry out for a celebration afterward; others induce headaches, anger, insomnia, and the like. What can conductors do when they experience periods of uncertainty and self-doubt before, during, or after rehearsals? By focusing inward, they often can find the resources needed to deal with not feeling right about certain aspects of their rehearsals, personal dynamics of rehearsals. Both have worked in this area prior to this collaboration.
Conductors, like other administrators of complex organizations, must communicate well with a number of people in a variety of situations. Administrators' leadership skills, including interpersonal communication, are crucial to their effectiveness.
Why do some rehearsals energize conductors while others drain them? Some rehearsals cry out for a celebration afterward; others induce headaches, anger, insomnia, and the like. What can conductors do when they experience periods of uncertainty and self-doubt before, during, or after rehearsals? By focusing inward, they often can find the resources needed to deal with not feeling right about certain aspects of their rehearsals, personal dynamics of rehearsals. Both have worked in this area prior to this collaboration.
Conductors, like other administrators of complex organizations, must communicate well with a number of people in a variety of situations. Administrators' leadership skills, including interpersonal communication, are crucial to their effectiveness. Since choral ensembles include people who exhibit various personality characteristics, conductors face an additional challenge. Furthermore, aspects of managing an ensemble outside of rehearsal, such as planning, scheduling, interacting with staff members and dealing with conflict are relatively more or less difficult to accomplish, depending on the conductor's personality type.
Demystifying Score Study
Date: May 9, 2012
 (From the interest session, "Process to Product: Demystifying Score Study," by David Rayl. Presented during the 2012 North Central Division Conference)
Score study need not be daunting or excessively time consuming or drudgework. Each of us has the skills and the imagination to do it. We have the time to do this. And we can actually make it fun. Best of all, the more we master the art and skill of studying a score, the more effective we are in rehearsal, the more our students will learn, and the more compelling our performances will be.
For me, the most important component of score study is asking questions. What is the composer doing here? How is she doing it? Why did he make this decision? What are the implications of what’s on the page? The questions you ask yourself can also be asked of your students to engage them in the rehearsal process and to guide their learning.
Wrestle with the text. If it’s in a foreign
(From the interest session, "Process to Product: Demystifying Score Study," by David Rayl. Presented during the 2012 North Central Division Conference)
Score study need not be daunting or excessively time consuming or drudgework. Each of us has the skills and the imagination to do it. We have the time to do this. And we can actually make it fun. Best of all, the more we master the art and skill of studying a score, the more effective we are in rehearsal, the more our students will learn, and the more compelling our performances will be.
For me, the most important component of score study is asking questions. What is the composer doing here? How is she doing it? Why did he make this decision? What are the implications of what’s on the page? The questions you ask yourself can also be asked of your students to engage them in the rehearsal process and to guide their learning.
Wrestle with the text. If it’s in a foreign language learn to pronounce it like a native; get a translation—more than one if possible—commit it to memory and use it during rehearsal. Find an original source of the text. Has the composer elected to set all or part of it? If only part, does it alter the meaning?
Then consider the formal structure of the work. Where does it naturally divide into large sections, sub-sections, phrase groups, phrases (based on text, tonal area, texture…)? When comparing sections or phrases ask yourself: Is this music the same or different? If different, how is it different? If it is the same, is it exactly the same? If it is somewhat the same, what are the similarities and what are the differences? Why the differences? And the most important question: What are the implications for performance?
Continue to ask questions and as you do so, make specific decisions about dynamics, articulation, phrase shape, color, tempo, etc. Move back and forth between a macro and micro view, like a biologist with a microscope, focusing in on one area or one element then pulling back to figure out how these relate to one another.
Throughout this process, you are building an aural template of what you want to hear and you are creating a repertoire of rehearsal strategies (verbal instructions, both technical and descriptive; kinesthetic experiences; vocal exercises; conducting gestures)—the building blocks of future rehearsals planning.
Final thoughts: By going deeper you’ll learn to love the music more and be a better teacher. BE BOLD! BE IMAGINATIVE! ENJOY!
CJ Replay: Give The Pianist's Fingers a Break
Date: May 8, 2012
Most choral directors agree that a fine accompanist is an integral part of many a successful choral rehearsal. A person with excellent keyboard skills who is also a sensitive accompanistis a rare and valued commodity. Just as a fine accompanist can be the decisive factor in a successful rehearsal, a poor pianist can frustrate the efforts of even a fine choral conductor.For this reason, in many situations the choral director is relegated to serving as his or her own accompanist. The prospect of doubling as a pianist is not so foreboding to the director who is fortunate enough to have a solid background in piano; however, to the myriad of choral conductors with limited keyboard skills, the reality of serving as both director and accompanist results in marginal success in both areas.
For the sake of argument, let us propose that the choral director
Most choral directors agree that a fine accompanist is an integral part of many a successful choral rehearsal. A person with excellent keyboard skills who is also a sensitive accompanistis a rare and valued commodity. Just as a fine accompanist can be the decisive factor in a successful rehearsal, a poor pianist can frustrate the efforts of even a fine choral conductor.For this reason, in many situations the choral director is relegated to serving as his or her own accompanist. The prospect of doubling as a pianist is not so foreboding to the director who is fortunate enough to have a solid background in piano; however, to the myriad of choral conductors with limited keyboard skills, the reality of serving as both director and accompanist results in marginal success in both areas.
For the sake of argument, let us propose that the choral director remove the piano from the rehearsal for the first few months of the choir year. This proposal is most successful at the beginning of the year since singers are not accustomed to the support of the piano. Removing the instrument alleviates the irresistible temptation to use it in moments of frustration. In place of the piano, the conductor uses a pitch pipe to establish tonality. The idea of an unaccompanied choral rehearsal is applicable to all areas of choral music, including elementary secondary,church, and community choruses, and is certainly not a new concept. For years, the English have used the system of one note at the start of rehearsal, with all subsequent pitches taken from that note. Choir schools have realized the value of developing musical independence among singers for centuries.
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