ChoralBlog

Moved

2010-05-10T00:59:00.000-05:00

Hey, this blog isn't here anymore. It's at http://choralnet.org/list/choralblog.

Learn about Learning Chant

2009-04-15T02:30:00.001-05:00

Great multimedia slideshow here at the JournalStar.com about learning chant.

"The first thing that strikes you is that the notes are square."

"When you can't hit the high notes, sing so quietly that only your guardian angels can hear."

"When a man loves, he sings . . . When a man loves God he wants to sing to God . . . Chant allows you to sing to God and it gives you beautiful music to sing."

More here.
Hat tip - The Recovering Choir Director

The Helix of Choral Music

2009-04-14T02:00:00.000-05:00

Dr. Leonard Ratzlaff, Director of Choral Activities at University of Alberta (my Alma Mater) in Edmonton Alberta Canada has recently embarked into the world of blogging on Choral Music.

Here is a sample of a recent post:

Learning to communicate with every phrase one sings - what a concept! It might seem so basic as to be obvious, but I am sure we have all experienced the mundane as well as the refreshing and inspiring, both in our own singing and the singing we have heard from others, so we do recognize the difference immediately. The powerful effect of such engaged and enlivened performances can shake one to the core if one is lucky enough to be present when it happens! This was most aptly demonstrated for me by a number of university choirs at this year's national convention of the American Choral Directors Association in Oklahoma City. Many of the best performances were delivered for memory, enabling visual communication and highly refined ensemble awareness within the group, but there were also some groups whose use of music (the British Early Music group Alamire comes to mind) did not compromise their ability to communicate their passion for the music they were presenting. The key in all of these performances was surely that the group, through the leadership provided from the podium, had considered the potential communicative impact of every line and phrase - a process that can take great amounts of time but can nevertheless be life-changing for our singers if we ourselves take the time to deliver the message in a cogent and well-thought out plan of attack.

Welcome to the Blogeshere Len, I think we will all enjoy what you have to offer to our expanding network of Choral Blogs.

Hidden in Len's blog URL is the title "Choral Helix", bringing to mind the imagery of choral music as an organic growth, compared to that of the "double helix" known in the sciences as the building blocks of our DNA. A lovely metaphor to choral music, and singing.

See the light

2009-04-13T04:30:00.000-05:00

I'm not the biggest fan of Conspirare but I like this video and I'm looking forward to the PBS special:

"Light of a Clear Blue Morning" by Conspirare from KLRU / Conspirare on Vimeo.

Seraphic Fire - Miami Choral Project

2009-04-12T04:30:00.000-05:00

A fantastic mission in Miami--a little league organization for choirs:

Shawn Crouch wants to bring the magic of music to needy youngsters as the newly appointed foundation director of Seraphic Fire's Miami Choral Project.

The newly started Miami Choral Project is funded by a $684,500 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. It is a tuition-free program that creates a "little league-type" network of choral ensembles for children in low-income areas in Miami-Dade.

"We want to better low-income communities through participation in choral singing," Crouch said. "Children who sing together are taught important life skills: how to listen to one another, how to work as a team and how to strive for their personal best, adding their voice for the benefit of the choir as a whole. We will nurture these life skills through music and help foster them outside of rehearsal into the child's community."

Read the whole article here.

The Pathological Handel

2009-04-11T04:30:00.000-05:00

Read this interesting article on Handel's eating disorder. A portion of it here:

David Hunter, a Handel specialist and curator at the Fine Arts Library of the University of Texas in Houston, is more sympathetic. George Frideric Handel, celebrated not only for his glorious Baroque music but also as an interpreter of human character, was, he says, not a moral reprobate but the victim of a pathological condition - a compulsion to eat. That in turn resulted in chronic lead poisoning - chiefly from the quantity of wine he imbibed - which influenced the course of his musical development.

For many years until his death he was blind, suffered paralytic attacks, severe gout and difficulties with speaking and thinking. He was also severely overweight, a rarity among 18th-century musicians.

What was the cause? From a study of the portraits and contemporary descriptions of the composer, Dr Hunter believes he was suffering from binge-eating disorder.

He said: "Handel became obese and it is likely that he could not control his appetite. During his travels in Europe he incurred huge food bills and his first biographer noted that he was 'habituated to an uncommon portion of food and nourishment'. The evidence suggests he suffered from what we would now call a binge-eating disorder, defined in his day as an 'extraordinary appetite' and an 'inordinate extravagant hunger'.

Read the whole article here.

Good Friday: Les Allegri Miserables

2009-04-10T03:17:00.000-05:00

British conductor Peter Philips wonders why so many choirs attempt the Allegri Miserere:

Now that the Allegri Miserere season is fully launched — the text is suitable for Lent — it seems fitting to ask why every choir in the land thinks it incumbent on them to sing this piece of music, for 150 years only ever sung within the walls of the Sistine Chapel. It never used to be so. The local cathedral choir might periodically have had a go at it — and St John’s Cambridge always broadcast it on Ash Wednesday — but nowadays performances by secular and liturgical choirs alike have reached epidemic proportions, a kind of top C fever. This is all the stranger when one reflects that most of these choirs will sing much worse than usual in attempting it. Why bother?

The trouble is that five solo top Cs in 12 minutes is a test of nerves which very few people, especially children, are equal to. The result is often an embarrassment — the pitch sinking, the chant wretched — in which people nonetheless still manage to hear enough traces of a famed beauty to perpetuate the need to hear it again.

More here.

Keeping the Tradition - Sanctus

2009-04-09T04:30:00.000-05:00

From the Recovering Choir Director:

New Associate Director of Mormon Tabernacle Choir

2009-04-08T04:30:00.001-05:00

Jeff Collier of Minico High School in Idaho sent this in:

RYAN T. MURPHY named as Associate Music Director of Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

SALT LAKE CITY — The Mormon Tabernacle Choir announced today that Ryan T. Murphy has been named associate music director. Murphy will assume the associate music director position formerly occupied by Mack J. Wilberg, who was appointed music director in March 2008. The appointment concludes a world-wide search that began in August of 2008.

Murphy has extensive choral conducting and professional musical theater experience. He currently conducts six choirs in the Boston area, including two choirs at the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music. He serves as the choral director at the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, an internationally recognized secondary school affiliated with the New England Conservatory.

He has served as the music director for the Tuacahn theatre in the St. George, Utah, area and prior to that as the music director for five seasons at the Sundance Institute in Provo, Utah. He has maintained an active performing schedule, including recent collaborations at the Tanglewood Summer Festival outside of Boston.

Speaking about his appointment, Murphy said: "It is a dream come true to work with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and to be associated with the caliber of musicians here serving the Church. It will be an honor to assist Dr. Mack Wilberg, and I look forward to working with him to touch the hearts of a wide variety of people, cultures, ages and beliefs."

Look here for more.
Full press release here.

The Voca People

2009-04-07T02:00:00.000-05:00

Another a cappella phenom group. I'm not too certain about the costuming though - looks a bit like a spin off of the Blue Man Group, without the blue paint.

Free: The Tenors

2009-04-06T05:39:00.002-05:00

Although I disagree with the basic premise of this article, I think it is fabulous and very creative advertising. (It's real basses that I think are vanishing). This article hit the front page of the Vancouver Sun on Friday, March 27.

That the tenor is slowly vanishing from the world was evidenced Wednesday morning when members of Vancouver's Jubilate Chamber Choir risked hypothermia by standing for more than an hour at the south end of the Burrard Bridge, trying to lure a tenor or two.

Choir president Jim Colbert and three others, all in tuxedos, were waving signs saying "Free, the tenors" to passing buses and rush-hour motorists.

It wasn't an appeal to let some Pavarotti-beautiful voices out of jail, but shorthand for telling tenors they wouldn't be charged the usual $250 in annual fees if they joined the choir.

Colbert is hoping the demonstration will bring one of these scarce voices into the fold.

"We stayed out there as long as we could. We left before hypothermia set in," said Colbert, whose 24-member choir was formed in 1994 and is now down to its last two tenors.

Organ stops

2009-04-05T04:30:00.000-05:00

Saw this on the lists and decided to make a blog post:

GK: Why don't we go to concerts anymore?

SS: We have children.

GK: We could get a babysitter.

SS: Wouldn't help. We're too tired. Every night around eight thirty I'm ready to go to bed. And every week they bring home a new virus. They get over it in about twenty-four hours and we're sick as dogs for ten days.

GK: Johann Sebastian Bach had 20 children. Think of that. His organ had no stops.

SS: Amazing. That someone with 20 kids wrote something this peaceful.

See the whole skit here.

Sudden death

2009-04-04T02:00:00.001-05:00

It's a classic dilemma for a conductor, which most of us have faced at one time or another: something goes drastically wrong in a piece; do you go on and hope it recovers and no one notices, or do you start over? What if it's in the middle? It might be an instrumentalist who gets off by a bar, or just a tempo which never gels.

In my case (this happened to me last weekend) a soloist missed an entrance, someone who's usually rock solid. And it was a fast Baroque piece, 3/4 conducted in one. Would she find her place before her line ended? Would the tenor (who came in next) be able to find his entrance if she didn't? You've got seconds to decide. In sports they call this sudden death.

I decided to stop. I tapped my stand with the baton to stop everyone, said "measure 58" to the orchestra, and off we went. The soloist knew she'd screwed up and was ready to jump.

Did the audience notice? I'm often surprised how things that we performers think of as major disasters sometimes go over their heads. Of course everyone was too polite to mention it so I'll never know, but it's also true that if I'd gone on for the next twenty measures without any singing, it might have seemed a bit bland.

No deep philosophy here, just a chance to vent. I suspect most of us have been there.

P.S. the piece was Magnificat, by the composer I call "pseudo-Buxtehude" since it's often published under Buxtehude's name, having been discovered along with a bunch of his music, but scholars doubt it's by him. But since we have no other name (there's no name on the manuscript) his name has kind of stuck. Pseudo-Buxtehude, kind of makes sense, sort of like PDQ Bach, I guess.

A Rose by Any Other Name

2009-04-03T00:00:00.005-05:00

Can Bass 1, a blogger from a cathedral choir in England, sure has a way with words. Having grown up in a cathedral men and boys' choir myself, I find his posts extremely amusing to read, and I always look forward to the next one.

A recent post speaks about the addition of girls to the cathedral choir (to replace the dwindling boy choir situation, a problem that plagues most cathedral choir school programs outside of the untouchable Kings' College, and the like).

here's a short excerpt from his post:

Anyone still following this erratic nonsense will recall that - last November - we admitted female choristers through our ancient portals for the first time. The boys choir continues to decline, both numerically and musically; the distaff side were forever burning their bras and banging on about equality of opportunity, and the choir school recently went co-ed. It was only a matter of time.

(...)

But. But. If truth be told (and where else if not here?) these gels are rather good. They can actually sing. And they are an awful lot more fragrant than the farting boys. And is it, reader, a coincidence that their names are so... exotic? Here is but a small selection: Roxanna-Libby; Constanza; Emilina-Daisy; Clarissa; Grace-Olivia; Justinia and - my own personal favourite - Abigail-Louise, or Abi-Lou. What lovely, sophisticated monikas. What wonderfully evocative labels. No wonder Roger cannot keep his hands off them, with names like that to whisper ticklishly in adolescent ears.

Read the entire post here.

Picture Credit, Ely Cathedral Girls Choir (Note: Can Bass 1 is not associated with Ely Cathedral).

CBC Orchestra gets new life, but how soon?

2009-04-02T00:00:00.005-05:00

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has been under a lot of fire in the past few years for their sweeping changes to the national radio station (Radio 2), which saw the removal of a large percentage of its classical programming, relegating it to a four and a half hour time slot in the middle of the day and removing it from any prime-time exposure (The popular weekend shows "Saturday Afternoon at the Opera" and Sunday Morning's "Choral Concert" have been saved for the time being).

One of the most controversial decisions was to scrub North America's only national broadcast orchestra (which follows many European models), and they played their last notes in November 2008. However, A revival of the orchestra, under the name of "National Broadcast Orchestra" was announced, and a fund raising concert was planned for this spring. An announcement was just made to cancel that concert due to the difficult global economic crisis, however, plans are still scheduled to resume in the fall.

More information about this announcement can be found here.

The grass roots organization Stand On Guard For CBC continues to provide a most informative and up to date webpage and blog on these matters.

Happy 136th, Sergei Rachmaninoff

2009-04-01T04:30:00.002-05:00

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff
April 1, 1873 - March 28, 1943

We celebrate with a movement of the Rachmaninoff Vespers featuring Canadian Tenor Robert King and the Da Camera Singers of Edmonton, Canada under the direction of Dr. John Brough.

Νυν απολύεις τον δούλον σου, Δέσποτα, κατά το ρήμα σου εν ειρήνη,

ότι είδον οι οφθαλμοί μου το σωτήριόν σου,

ο ητοίμασας κατά πρόσωπον πάντων των λαών,

φως εις αποκάλυψιν εθνών και δόξαν λαού σου Ισραήλ.

Now thou dost dismiss thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word in peace;

Because my eyes have seen thy salvation,

Which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples:

A light to the revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

The trouble with "You"

2009-03-31T04:30:00.001-05:00

A hymnal editor struggles with "you." It's a great post here.

A sample:

It seems to me that modern English is entirely too flexible. Or to put it another way, we have achieved a flexibility in English at the expense of both accuracy and nuance. Examples:

* "you" - singular or plural? And why do we not have a way to tell at a glance? I'm all for context, but sometimes, you know, you just want to know.

* "you" - familiar or formal? Have we lost something by not making this distinction in speech and writing?

I understand (see "ignorance alert" above) that in modern languages where this distinction still exists, actual usage tends toward the familiar anyway. That's apparently the way of the world, whether in the U.S. or Italy or Germany. My nascent monarchist (or is it just elitism?) mourns that in common usage. But especially in hymn singing and prayers.

This is why I still stumble over changing all the "Thee" and "Thou" language in older hymns. (I won't even address here how our democratic orthography has lowered the case on these words when used for the Divine.) "Thee" is changed to "you" and "Thou" is changed to "you." So we miss several aspects of language -- grammar: object or subject? number: are we addressing the One or the many? address: formal or familiar? And we can end up with a hymn full of the word "you" with many applications . . . and that may sound goofy to sing over and over again.

Read the whole article here.

Orchestra blog takes on NASM accreditation

2009-03-30T04:30:00.001-05:00

Ron Speigleman from Sticks and Drones talks about NASM accreditation in this blog post:

The National Association of Schools of Music (NASM) is in the business of accrediting Music schools. I have read through pages and pages on their site and have yet to find the word audience. They accredit music schools who stick to their own autonomous missions. Creative freedom in how to educate is important because of the differing opinions and methods in addition to the strengths of faculties, but there’s one big problem that lies at the heart of this body which is that it focuses solely on the institution as a bubble and not on the successful advocacy of the art form, or the success rate of the students in finding employment after graduation. They basically will accredit an institution for coming up with a curriculum and sticking to it!

His bottom line:

Music schools have to burst their own bubbles and participate in society to help create more demand for the art form so that students have a greater chance at finding employment.

It's a great, thought-provoking post. Read the whole thing!

Happy Birthday, William Walton

2009-03-29T04:30:00.008-05:00

William Walton
March 29, 1902 - March 8, 1983

We celebrate with the beginning of one of his most famous works below.

Jonathan Miller finds Charles d'Orleans

2009-03-28T04:30:00.000-05:00

Here's a great post from Jonathan Miller about Debussy's poet, Charles d'Orleans:

In preparing program notes for our upcoming Chicago a cappella program, April in Paris, I learned something surprising. I had already known that the justly famous Trois Chansons by Debussy are settings of texts by Charles d'Orleans. Who was this Charles? Well, I have blissfully assumed for about 25 years that, because so many of the texts set by the Impressionist composers were written by their contemporaries, such as Paul Verlaine and Mallarme', then of course this Charles would have been just another one of the guys on the Parisian scene, albeit one who called himself by a rather lofty name.

Boy, was I wrong! As it turns out, this Charles was not a Parisian bohemian at all, but Charles (1394-1465), Duke of Orleans, a nobleman. He was wounded at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and imprisoned in England for the next 24 years, during which he wrote most of the poems--numbering more than five hundred--for which he is now famous. The imagery in Charles's poems is vivid, strongly visual, and not at all what I expected from a poet of more than 500 years' distance. So much medieval French poetry is rather stilted stuff about courtly love... what a refreshing change Charles is! I can see why Debussy was attracted to these old poems.

Read the whole post here.

Downloadable Choral Parts

2009-03-27T04:30:00.001-05:00

Tom Carter told me about "Downloadable Choral Parts."

It looks like they will create MP3's for you with voice overs.

Check it out!

Eric Whitacre on MPR

2009-03-26T04:30:00.004-05:00

We posted a negative opinion on Whitacre's music earlier this week. Here's a different take on Whitacre - an interview with Eric by John Birge. It's a great interview and I encourage you to listen.

MPR describes it this way:

Eric Whitacre is a phenomenon. He couldn't read music when he started college, but within a few years he was composing music that was performed and recorded by professional choirs around the world. He is that rare composer whose music is simultaneously deep and accessible, heavenly and earthy.

He is in demand all over the world, but Whitacre will be conducting VocalEssence, the St. Olaf Choir, and a Minnesota High School Honor choir at Orchestra Hall in a sold-out concert on March 21, 2009 at Orchestra Hall in Minneapolis.

Classical Minnesota Public Radio's John Birge talked with Eric Whitacre about his new world-premiere piece "Nox Aurumque," how Whitacre is energized by working with young students, and how Whitacre made the teenage transition from '80s hair band to choral superstar.

Naturally 7 on Leno

2009-03-25T04:30:00.001-05:00

I might have to start watching TV again:

Hat tip: A Cappella News.

Sitting in the bathtub for eight hours

2009-03-24T04:30:00.002-05:00

It's always interesting to find someone with a strong opinion. In this post, the blogger who calls himself Osbert Parsley evicerates the choral music of Eric Whitacre:

Regular readers know how I feel about the "modern choral style", with its declamatory, homorhythmic style, unresolved suspensions, bassploitation, and naive exploration of vertical sonorities at the expense of all other musical elements.

Whitacre gets points for avoiding the worst tricks of the style (the incidents of bassploitation all occur near the beginning of the piece, and it's not completely homophonic). Yet in his harmonic audacity, Whitacre goes one step further than most of his contemporaries, embracing a style where dissonance has absolutely no syntactical meaning whatsoever.

Added notes can be inserted into any chord at any pitch level, approached by any interval, and never have to be resolved. Because the structure has no soundness or logic to it whatsoever, the result is a voyage of unending, merciless prettiness. To say that listening to the piece is like taking an aural bath is an understatement - it's the aural equivalent of sitting in the bathtub for eight hours, playing with the bubbles while eating ice cream straight out of the pail with a spoon.

More here.

Choir for the deaf

2009-03-23T02:49:00.002-05:00

Seems contradictory, you think? Not to the choir Expressions of Silence from the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind, shown below performing in American Sign Language with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

More videos here.

Google takes side of angels in NZ copyright suit

2009-03-22T02:28:00.005-05:00

Google joined thousands of activist protesters in opposing New Zealand's controversial Section 92A, the so-called "Guilty Upon Accusation" copyright clause which requires Internet providers to disconnect users who record companies accuse of illegal file-sharing.

In its submission, Google notes that more than half (57%) of the takedown notices it has received under the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act 1998, were sent by business targeting competitors and over one third (37%) of notices were not valid copyright claims.

As such, Google says "Section 92A puts users’ procedural and fundamental rights at risk, by threatening to terminate users’ internet access based on mere allegations and reverse the burden of proof onto a user to establish there was no infringement."

Google went on to object that there was no provision for independent adjudication of Fair Use exceptions or education about them, and that the proposed penalty was disproportional to the harm. Further, they said "excessive copyright protection can stifle creativity, choke innovation, impoverish culture and block free and fair competition. "

I couldn't agree more.

In Canada, they think of American copyright laws as "extremist", which makes sense when we're seeing a threatened 6-month jail term for posting a handful of Guns N Roses songs, even though he promptly took them down when asked. In Sweden, a law allowing copyright vultures to get the IP addresses of suspected file-sharers is opposed by a majority.

Washington Post columnist Rob Pegoraro wonders about copyright in relation to "mash-ups" of YouTube videos, with tiny bits of many videos combined into a single new one — something he sees as similar to the "samples" used by hip-hop artists. The Toronto Globe considers a similar topic.

Singing Fail

2009-03-21T04:30:00.000-05:00

A student shared this with me today. Enjoy.

Girly Gesture

2009-03-20T04:30:00.002-05:00

Check out this post from Choral Reef. A sample:

The other unhealthy situation arises when the ensemble refuses to really hear what the conductor is saying, for any of a variety of reasons. Orchestral conductor Marin Alsop describes one such dilemma:

When a woman makes a gesture,

the same gesture as a man,

it's interpreted entirely differently.

The thing I struggled with the most

was getting a big sound from the brass

because you really have to be strong.

But if you're too strong,

you're a b-i-t-c-h.

As a woman,

you have to be careful that it's not too harsh.

It's a subtle line.

--Marin Alsop, to Barbara Kantrowicz of Newsweek

Read the whole post here.

Happy Birthday, Max Reger

2009-03-19T04:30:00.005-05:00

Born March 19, 1873

Branding Steinway

2009-03-18T04:30:00.000-05:00

Steinway is doing some interesting things with it's brand:

See more here.

Passion Blogging

2009-03-17T04:30:00.004-05:00

David Griggs-Janower is passionately blogging about Bach's passions.

He's got ~~three~~ four posts so far about them, entitled

What is a Bach Passion?
Bach's Passions #2
Bach's St. John Passion
Updated: Conducting the Passions

A snippet of the first blog:

At its heart, a "Passion" is a musical setting of the story of Jesus's crucifixion, taken from one of the four Gospels, or sometimes from an amalgam of the four. Originally intoned by the priest in mediaeval times, eventually lines of chant began to be taken by individuals to represent characters. The evolution of the musical Passion led to a more or less complete musical characterization; a distinct individual took each speaking/singing role such as Jesus, Pilate, Peter, and so on, and a narrator (called Evangelist) sang the rest of the story. The chorus represented the crowd.

That's simple enough. But by Bach's time the Passions were not limited to the words of the scriptures. Contemporary poetry was added to comment upon the Biblical story, to reflect, to react. These were usually sung by soloists. And congregational hymns (which the Germans call chorales) were added as well. Thus an entire libretto had to be devised to incorporate all of these elements.

There were also Passions that were all contemporary poetry combined with contemporary paraphrasing of the scriptures, such as Handel's Brockes' Passion, but Bach always had as his basis the literal words of the Bible, in Martin Luther's German translation.

There is interesting reading in the comments section as well. Check it out!

Amateurs Learn to Conduct an Orchestra

2009-03-16T04:30:00.001-05:00

Young classical music patrons are getting a great view of the orchestra these days--from the conductor's podium.

Minnesota Public Radio gives us this podcast and written description:

As part of an initiative to get local young professionals interested in classical music, the Minnesota Orchestra invited about 60 young professionals to a brief seminar on what an orchestra conductor does.

Then, some of the participants got a chance to try it for themselves.

Minnesota Public Radio's Curtis Gilbert condensed the hour-long program into three minutes. The orchestra's assistant conductor Sarah Hicks led the session.

Chanticleer celebrates 30th year

2009-03-15T04:30:00.001-05:00

John Neal of A Cappella News points us to this:

In the life of an artist, the early 30s is an age of promise. For an ensemble, surpassing a third decade speaks to creative accomplishment. Last year, multi-Grammy-winning Chanticleer decided to celebrate its 30th anniversary with a program of newly commissioned works by three young composers, born around the same year the choir was launched.

"It's a new generation of composers," says Christine Bullin, president and general director of the San Francisco a cappella ensemble. "We have composers we've worked with over the years who are wonderful, but we wanted to forge ties with some of the brilliant young composers who grew up at the same time as Chanticleer."

As part of its birthday celebration, the chorus performs the three world premieres in the program "Composers/Our Age" Wednesday at Mission Santa Clara. (The program also is being presented Tuesday at Berkeley's First Congregational Church and Friday through March 22 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.) It features the politically charged "Garden of Paradise" by New York City-based Shawn Crouch, "No Matter" by London-born Tarik O'Regan and "Sirens" by Berkeley-based Mason Bates.

ACDA National Convention Review

2009-03-14T07:45:00.000-05:00

John Brough is a Canadian blogger and choral musician.

We met recently at the ACDA National Convention. I had wanted to do a blog review of the convention but John actually did!

He's got a day by day review and I agree with many of his opinions. Check these out:

Day I
Day II
Intermission
Day III
Final Day

Thanks for documenting the convention, John! Keep blogging!

How will you know if you've violated copyright when the rules are secret?

2009-03-13T13:25:00.003-05:00

Critics of the Bush Administration often pointed to its overuse of "national security" arguments to conceal unrelated issues, and now the Obama administration is taking that to even sillier extremes, by refusing to disclose the terms of a proposed copyright agreement with Japan.

President Obama's White House has tightened the cloak of government secrecy still further, saying in a letter this week that a discussion draft of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and related materials are "classified in the interest of national security pursuant to Executive Order 12958."

The 1995 Executive Order 12958 allows material to be classified only if disclosure would do "damage to the national security and the original classification authority is able to identify or describe the damage."

No doubt the secrecy involves enforcement mechanisms and extradition details, but still, not only will it be impossible for people to obey laws they can't see, it's enormously of interest for citizens to be able to react to and shape laws which are being developed. The memo from the administration claimed that all but 10 of the 800+ pages of the document were classified. That's just baloney.

In other copyright news, TechDirt summarizes some analysis which suggests that the introduction of copyright protection had the effect of reducing classical music production throughout Europe. In New Zealand, they're still battling Section 92A, the guilt upon accusation law.

We're used to the idea that copyright is a net benefit for composers and other artistic creators, but at least the way copyright law is currently written, it could be backfiring, as the authors of Against Intellectual Monopoly are suggesting. As too often happens, laws are written for the benefit of big corporate political contributors rather than for the public benefit.

Convention Feedback: Pride Found

2009-03-12T04:30:00.000-05:00

I was lurking on the ACDA website this morning and found this forum post by Sam Crust:

I just wanted to write a quick note to say that I am proud to be a member of ACDA. I wasn't always . . .

The National convention in Oklahoma City has been a great opportunity to meet other directors and colleagues in the area of choral music. I am SO thankful that I came to the convention and I believe that every penny (and then some) has been worth it. From the workshops, round tables, exhibits, shuttle services, concerts, and the City of Oklahoma City, every single thing has been top notch and I know that a lot of the credit is due to our executive board. THANK YOU.

Finally, the real reason I felt compelled to write this (at 9:40pm, Friday of the convention), I was overwhelmed at the ceremony at the OKC Bomb Memorial this morning. This was by far and away one of the classiest events, and just the thought of it brings tears to my eyes. The true message of hope and peace is one that we can all strive for and maybe, just maybe with the POWER OF MUSIC--we can get there.

THANKS ACDA--

Sam Crust

Read the whole post here.

Cenotaph: The Review

2009-03-11T04:30:00.002-05:00

A great review . . . as well as a great use of the word penultimate . . . in this article by Rick Rogers:

Long championed for his deft ability to wed highly descriptive yet often disparate texts with melodic passages that haunt the memory, Argento illustrated in "Cenotaph" that at age 81, his compositional gifts continue to flourish unabated.

In the penultimate movement of "Cenotaph," Siegfried Sassoon's text repeatedly poses the question, "Who will remember?" in reference to those whose lives were ended by war. In a broader context, one is prompted to answer that question in regard to Argento's work itself.

Given his mastery of the choral/orchestral form and the innovation with which he combines melody, harmony, rhythm, scope, pacing and storytelling, "Cenotaph" is not only a remarkable addition to the repertoire but also offers proof that Argento's influence will not soon be forgotten. Heartfelt thanks to the American Choral Directors Association for underwriting this commission and to all the performers for making this premiere so memorable.

Read the whole review here.

A Farewell to Copyright?

2009-03-10T03:55:00.003-05:00

A new book by two economists entitled "Against intellectual monopoly" argues that copyrights and patents actually serve primarily to stifle innovation and creativity, rather than encourage it as it is supposed to.

[Michele] Boldrin, the Joseph Gibson Hoyt Distinguished Professor in Arts & Sciences and Chair of the economics department says, "Intellectual property is in fact an intellectual monopoly that hinders rather than helps the competitive free market regime that has delivered wealth and innovation to our doorsteps."

And just in time to prove the point, here's an article about how thousands of doctors are having their patients sign agreements giving the doctors copyright over any online reviews the patients make of those doctors, giving the doctors standing to sue MD review sites. Is that abuse of copyright or what?

In the meantime, publishers are suing Amazon over the reading-aloud feature on its new Kindle e-book reader, claiming that reading a book aloud violates copyright, a surprise to all parents everywhere.

Happy Birthday, Samuel Barber

2009-03-09T04:30:00.000-05:00

Born March 9, 1910

Farewell, ACDA Convention

2009-03-08T04:30:00.000-05:00

I'm still in Oklahoma City but the convention ends tomorrow. As I was scanning YouTube today, I found this backstory of one of my favorite tunes. Perhaps you love it like I do:

Water Night: The Movie

2009-03-07T04:30:00.000-06:00

Eric Whitacre points to this video:

Whitacre is one of my favorite composers and I especially admire his approach to content on the internet . . . he's promoting the artistic work of another group instead of demanding they not use his work in an unauthorized manner.

More here from Whitacre on SoaringLeap.

A YouTube Symphony Orchestra

2009-03-06T04:30:00.001-06:00

It's true:

YouTube recently announced the winners of the world's first online collaborative orchestra. The global YouTube community and a judging panel containing members of the world's most renowned orchestras have selected over 90 talented musicians to be part of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Together, these professional and amateur musicians play 26 different instruments and come from 30+ countries and territories on six continents.

The selected musicians will travel from around the world to New York City to participate in a collaborative summit for classical music on April 12-15, 2009, concluding with a concert at Carnegie Hall under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.

ACDA upgrades again

2009-03-05T04:30:00.000-06:00

Jeffery Thyer tells us of the latest tech upgrade at the ACDA National Office.

We tested out a new software at the office yesterday afternoon. The new century conference call is a webinar! My boss and I hosted the meeting from him office computer. Viewers we invited received an email link that took them to a site where they could watch what we did on our computer screen, listed to watch we said via our computer’s mic and talk back if they had a mic. For those without a mic/speakers, there is a phone call-in option. It was pretty great. We talked about several important convention issues and were able to look at the same documents simultaneously. This service’s annual subscription rate is less that the cost of flying one of those meeting participant in for a face-to-face meeting. I think this is will greatly reduce costs and increase our event planning efficiency.

I'm thrilled with all of the innovations at the ACDA National Office and hope it continues!

Happy Birthday, Vivaldi

2009-03-04T04:30:00.001-06:00

Born on March 4, 1678.

The Three Types of Requiems

2009-03-03T04:30:00.000-06:00

Composer and blogger Roger Bourland shares a few opinions on Requiems in this blog post.

There are three types of requiems: a Type One requiem is performed by a symphony orchestra with chorus and soloists as a part of an orchestra or chorus’s concert season, that is really just another piece of classical repertoire that commemorates no one in particular; a Type Two Requiem is programmed to celebrate the death of a well known public figure or group (JFK, astronauts, air crashes, bombings, war victims, holocaust victims, AIDS, and so forth); and a Type Three requiem is used in a church service to honor the death of a member of the church.

---

The Mozart and Verdi requiems, though not as difficult as the Stravinsky and Ligeti, require a good orchestra, professional soloists, and a talented and dedicated chorus. These requiems can be either Types One or Two. Occasionally, excerpts from the Mozart can be performed with solo organ and be used in a Type Three venue. The problem, in my opinion, is that the common man, especially these days, doesn’t always relate to classical music. For this reason, I hope that composers will consider composing simple, accessible works honoring the dead and consider not using the [Catholic] requiem mass, and have a contemporary poet or lyricist supply the words.

It's a great post . . . thank you, Roger.

Obama arts participation promising

2009-03-02T04:30:00.001-06:00

Famed blogger Alex Ross points to this article about promising signs from Obama regarding the arts. In the article:

"Everyone is commenting, at least in our world, that their first night out, their date night, was an arts event," she says. "People are more thrilled than jealous."

Other early signs that the arts may get to share the Obamas' spotlight were opera star Renee Fleming's inclusion in a free pre-inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial and the rainbow quartet featuring cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinist Itzhak Perlman that shivered on the Capitol steps while delivering (via a recording, as it turned out) a musical prelude to the oath of office.

(It looks like Alex may have taken this post down at some point, but it showed up in my Bloglines Reader from his column) Read the whole article here.

Swingles in the Movies

2009-03-01T04:30:00.001-06:00

I haven't seen the movie yet, but John Neal of A Cappella News tells me that the Swingle Singers perform on the soundtrack.

Here's what he said:

The Swingle Singers are featured on the soundtrack to the multiple Oscar winning movie Milk starring Sean Penn. The track - the Prelude no.7 in E Flat (from the Well Tempered Clavier Book 2) - is taken from one of the earliest Swingle albums, Jazz Sebastien Bach, from the 1960s.

Buy the CD or download the MP3 from here and help ChoralNet!

John is going to be at the upcoming ACDA convention in booth 1011, 1110, 1009, 1108. Stop by and say hello . . . I will!

ChoralNet @ ACDA 2009

2009-02-28T04:30:00.000-06:00

ChoralNet will be holding a series of open board meetings during the ACDA
convention next week, and wish to invite our list members and website users
to attend.

Our first two meetings, on Wednesday evening at 7:00 and on Thursday morning
at 7:30, will be primarily focused on rollout issues and implementation
schedule of our exciting new website, ChoralNet 2.0.

Meetings on Thursday evening at 6:00 and on Friday morning at 7:30 will be
regular board meetings focusing on organizational management issues.

All these meetings will be held in the convention center ballroom.

Any of our users interested in gathering information on the new website or
offering feedback on this or other issues should feel free to attend these
meetings. We look forward to seeing you there!

Mass in B Minor podcast

2009-02-27T11:17:00.002-06:00

Lincoln Center's occasional podcast Vocal Chords features Philippe Herreweghe discussing Bach's B Minor Mass.

O sacrum convivium

2009-02-26T02:30:00.001-06:00

Pulling it together

2009-02-25T04:30:00.000-06:00

Te decet hymnus gives us a word about getting church choristers together:

There's something really invigorating about church choristers getting together. These people sing for the love of singing and with a special sense of "service." They invariably want to be pressed to a higher performance standard, and at the same time have no illusions about the limitations of the typical church choir - limited rehearsal time, the constant moving on to the next week's service music, the unceasing cycle of Sundays and seasons, etc. Get these singers together and even if they do not know each other (but in a town like this, there are lots of relationships that span multiple churches) they have an immediate connection because of what they love to do and their faithful commitment to that task in their congregation.

Read the whole thing here.

In New Zealand, people are finally fed up

2009-02-24T02:35:00.001-06:00

Since New Zealand passed section 92A, requiring Internet Service Providers to disconnect suspected file-sharers without any chance of fair defense, the locals have risen up in protest, protesting outside the Parliament building, presenting a petition, and distributing a CD called The Copywrong Song. Thousands of Twitter and Facebook pages are being blacked out in protest.

In the meantime, the exact same situation is developing in the USA and no one is even noticing.

Photo of Pirate Bay bus by Flickr user Nordgren

Late update: the law has been suspended as a result of the protests

Remote control choir

2009-02-23T04:30:00.003-06:00

Hat tip: Russell Hopper

And if your cell phone goes off during the sermon . . . watch out!

2009-02-22T04:30:00.000-06:00

Bryn Terfel sings Loch Lomond

2009-02-21T04:30:00.002-06:00

Do you hear the people sing?

2009-02-20T04:30:00.001-06:00

And ACDA keeps adding to their YouTube channel . . . . choral bliss:

Remembering Matt Cox

2009-02-19T04:30:00.000-06:00

I didn't know Matt, but I just read about his murder in the ChoralNet news section. It's shocking to read about his death; we don't hear about too many choral directors losing their life at the hands of their students.

Matt's students and friends held a beautiful memorial service for him - read about it here and watch the video. It looks like our profession lost a special young man.

Top 50 Classical Music Blogs

2009-02-18T04:30:00.001-06:00

I follow some of these blogs and you might find them interesting as well.

Look here for the Top 50.

What does Stephen Cleobury know about training a choir?

2009-02-17T04:30:00.000-06:00

More YouTube choral greatness:

The big V question

2009-02-16T03:46:00.001-06:00

Liz's blog has a great post about vibrato:

Put twenty choral practitioners in a room and ask them about vibrato and choral singing, and you will hear twenty different opinions. And if choral singers’ voices were as inflexible as these opinions can be, nobody would ever achieve a blended section. So I approach this question from a section leader in a barbershop chorus with some trepidation:

I have a Lead who has some vibrato in her voice. Do I put her in the middle of the section or is there some way I can help her to reduce this?

She has some great answers.

Image: Singer with a glove by Edgar Degas.

Senator tried to sneak RIAA wish list into stimulus bill

2009-02-15T02:04:00.000-06:00

From AfterDawn.com:

Senator [Diane] Feinstein, who predictably represents California, proposed an addition to the economic stimulus plan being rushed through Congress. Her amendment would declare ISP monitoring of all web traffic for copyright violations to be reasonable network management.

This would open the door for the so-called three strikes rules record labels and movie studios are anxious to see implemented. Their plan is to convince ISPs to disconnect users based on traffic monitoring data, avoiding expensive lawsuits they can't seem to win when challenged in court.

Luckily, the amendment didn't make it into the final bill, but I'm sure we'll see other tries to implement this. The RIAA already seems to have ISPs lining up to act as their enforcers.

In other copyright-related news, the European Parliament has voted to double the already ridiculously-long copyrights on music recordings, continuing a pointless drift towards permanent copyright. And a CNET News report depressingly predicts that reform of our horse-and-buggy-era copyright laws in the new American regime is "unrealistic as ever".

Anton Armstrong talks programming

2009-02-14T04:30:00.002-06:00

More about Encore

2009-02-13T04:30:00.000-06:00

I blogged a bit about Encore last week as I sat in a presentation about the program.

Now, read more about this exciting venture from a new blog: musicmeanings.

My friend, Terry Taylor, started as a volunteer in a local school. He would go to the school and sing, play recorders, and teach about music once a week. Feeling the strain of exhaustion after several years, he wanted to find a way to multiply his efforts. So he decided that a team of volunteers could accomplish that goal, and the strain of exhaustion he was feeling paled in comparison to the hard work that lay ahead as "Encore" was born.
--
But that happy ending is only the beginning. Last weekend a group of interested leaders in the American Choral Directors Association gathered (at their own expense, mirroring "Encore") and asked a panel of the "Encore" leaders from Dothan, Alabama, to give a presentation about their successful program. The panel gave a concise and articulate picture of what it took to give singing to their children.

Read the whole story here.

New Zealand's Section 92A

2009-02-12T04:14:00.002-06:00

The new law requiring ISPs to rat on customers who might be downloading pirated material continues to be controversial in New Zealand:

Amidst much heated debate and controversy, Section 92A of the Copyright (New Technologies) Act finally comes into force at the end of the month. This requires that ISPs "adopt and reasonably implement a policy that provides for termination, in appropriate circumstances of the account of a repeat infringer".

There's an old saying that goes "when it rains lemons, make lemonade" and this is precisely what the TCF has managed to do, making the best of what can best be described as an unattractive situation, by performing the delicate balancing act of complying with the legal requirements of the act whilst allowing ISPs to be as fair as the act allows.

The TCF is the Telecommunication Carriers' Forum, an industry assocation of kiwi phone companies. An organization of content creators called The Creative Freedom Foundation calls it the "Guilt Upon Accusation" law.

The EU recently rejected a similar law. Although there's no proposal to make a similar law in the USA, the RIAA has been approaching ISPs to sign them up to similarly take the law into their own hands and disconnect suspected violators with no recourse.

National ACDA Convention Performances

2009-02-11T04:30:00.001-06:00

We're featuring the new YouTube channel from ACDA this week and today's focus is on the nice offering of performances from past ACDA National Conventions.

I can't wait for this resource to expand! YouTube has the potential to make a huge impact on choral music (and it already has). For now, enjoy this performance from the 1995 National Convention:

Choral Journal Interactive Articles

2009-02-10T04:30:00.001-06:00

As I mentioned yesterday, ACDA just began a YouTube channel that's available for your perusal or subscription.

Here's a playlist of the current Choral Journal interactive articles available on YouTube.

Capturing a moment in time

2009-02-09T04:30:00.001-06:00

I've heard about this ACDA moment in time for many years . . . a moment when the Estonian Men's Choir led the ACDA membership in a tremendous performance of "America the Beautiful."

The ACDA national office just began a YouTube channel that you need to check out. Keep watching it for great choral videos.

2009-02-08T04:30:00.000-06:00

From Jamie Baker, Reverb Consulting:

Encore: a grass roots music advocacy initiative for choral music

2009-02-07T04:30:00.004-06:00

"If a man is dying at your feet, you don't kneel down and talk with him about his diet--you use a defibrillator to shock him back to life. When music education is cut from a community's schools, you need to use a tool to shock the community into action by reminding them how important music is to traditional education."

Those are the words of Terry Taylor, a minister of music in Birmingham, Alabama who has created a program called "Encore" -- a grass roots advocacy initiative for music education. Taylor created the program while at First Baptist Church in Dothan, Alabama.

You'll likely be hearing more about this initiative in the coming weeks and months. This initiative ties in directly with ACDA Executive Director Tim Sharp's vision for the 21st century:

I envision a twenty-first century ACDA that establishes the opportunity for every child in the United States to sing in a choir. We have new research that continues to support the fact that music forms an important piece of a child's education and development. We know choral singing has the fewest barriers for entry of any music-making and music-teaching opportunity. Further, there is not one area in ACDA that will not benefit directly from every initiative we take in this direction. ACDA has an advocacy statement poised to take us in this direction.

Terre Johnson, minister of music at Vestavia Hills Baptist Church, sponsored a "Children's Summit" to build on the Encore initiative. It's being moderated by Jamie Baker of Reverb Consulting, an expert facilitator popular in ACDA circles. (I'm typing this blog post from the event right now)

It's an exciting event with a huge initial impact. Music educators from neighboring states are meeting here to discuss music education and how this idea can spread to other communities. Pictured here are Martha Shaw and Craig Hurley talking with Tim Sharp about the program.

More, I'm sure, will follow.

0 fortuna

2009-02-06T04:30:00.000-06:00

Guilty until proven -- oops, no way to prove otherwise

2009-02-05T03:40:00.002-06:00

Ready for your ISP to disconnect you for copyright violations with no evidence and no recourse? Welcome to the brave new world of the RIAA-Comcast alliance:

Last week it was made clear that both AT&T and Comcast are participating in the RIAA's secret plan to make carriers content cops, willing to disconnect repeat offenders (though AT&T tells me they're not sold on automating that last part). Dave Zatz of Zatz Not Funny writes us to note that if Comcast wants to play the role of piracy police, they're going to have to do a much better job. He cites instances of users being targeted who'd never even heard of the content they'd supposedly pirated -- and cases where piracy was blamed on users by MAC address, even when the modem they'd used had already been returned and redeployed to other users. Given many carriers can't even get bills and customer support right yet -- there's no reason to think this new system will be any different -- particularly without any independent oversight or a publicly reviewable grievance process for false positives.

Why bother warming up?

2009-02-04T04:30:00.002-06:00

Chris Rowbury has a great post on warming up your choir that includes this observation:

No matter how long the warm up is, I can be sure of the following:

* some people will think the warm up is too long, while others will think it's not long enough;
* some people will think it's a waste of time, while some will think it's an invaluable and important part of being in the choir;
* some people will love one particular exercise, while others will simply hate it.

So you can't win whatever you do!

RIP: Lukas Foss

2009-02-03T04:30:00.004-06:00

Lukas Foss:
August 15, 1922 - February 1, 2009

Composer Lukas Foss passed away on February 1. Obituary here.

Matthew Guerrieri writes about him as teacher:

As a person, he's charming and mischevious, and yes, absent-minded, albeit with a crucial caveat. If I see him, I have to re-introduce myself, but if I send him a piece of music, he remembers everything I've written. Every so often, I'd have a lesson where I hadn't actually written anything new; I'd pull out a sketch from a couple years previous and try to pass it off. He'd look through it for a minute, then turn to me and say, "I've seen this." Another student of his and I used to theorize that he deliberately forgot non-musical things in order to pack more music into his brain.

His choral music includes:

The Prairie (cantata, text by Carl Sandburg), soprano, alto, tenor, bass, mixed chorus, orchestra, 1943 (a suite without voices was arranged); Adon Olom: A Prayer, cantor/tenor, mixed chorus, organ, 1948; Behold! I Build a House (text from the Bible), mixed chorus, organ, 1950; A Parable of Death (text by Rainer Maria Rilke [English translation]), tenor, speaker, mixed chorus, piano, organ, percussion, string orchestra, 1952; Psalms, mixed chorus, small orchestra (2 French horns, trumpet, trombone, harp, 2 pianos, organ, timpani, strings), 1955-56 (also versions for mixed chorus, 2 pianos, 1956; mixed chorus, small orchestra [2 flutes, 2 clarinets, bassoon, 2 French horns, trumpet, trombone, harp, 2 pianos, timpani, strings], 1956); The Fragments of Archilochos, countertenor, female speaker, male speaker, 4 choral groups, mixed chorus ad libitum, guitar, mandolin, 3 percussion, 1965; Three Airs for Frank O'Hara's Angel (text by Frank O'Hara), soprano, male speaker, female chorus, flute, piano, 2 percussion, 1972; Lamdeni – Teach Me (text from Hebrew sources), mixed chorus, any 6 players, 1973; American Cantata (texts by the composer, Arie Sachs), soprano, tenor, female speaker, male speaker, mixed chorus, orchestra, 1976, revised 1977; Then the Rocks on the Mountain Began to Shout (text by Walt Whitman), 5 mixed voices, 1978; With Music Strong (text by Walt Whitman), mixed chorus, orchestra, 1979; De Profundis, mixed chorus, 1983; Sanctus, mixed chorus, orchestra, 1994

What does creativity mean?

2009-02-02T04:30:00.002-06:00

Daniel Pink points to research done by the AASA and Americans for the Arts, about how employers and school superintendents define "creativity." We, as choral directors and music educators, have to be interested in any educational movement that promotes creativity as a necessary work skill for the new century.

Here's the chart that Pink found on the Christian Science Monitor site:

It shows that educators (school superintendents) and business employers differ in what creative skills are important.

How does that impact choral directors? I don't know, I'm not that smart.

Despite my dimness, I am heartened by the top three ranked aspects of what business employers value most:

1. Problem identification
2. Identification of new behavior/actions
3. Integration of knowledge across disciplines

Hallelujah! I do that in my choir rehearsal every day! I identify problems . . and I get my students to help me identify problems. Problem solving is at the core of every rehearsal.

I deal with behavior and actions and changes of behavior. In fact, I am educating towards new behaviors and habits.

Choral directing fails without the integration of knowledge from art, music, poetry, geography, language, science, biology, pedagogy, and a host of other issues and disciplines.

Take heart, musicians. Eventually, they'll realize how important our art is to the success of our society and our salaries will rise to the level of college coaches and business executives. Or, maybe, more people will come to our concerts.

Listen louder

2009-02-01T02:10:00.002-06:00

Liz's blog suggests conductors not use the phrase "back off" to get singers to sing more quietly:

Backing off is what we do when it seems as if we’ve been too aggressive or exuberant or pushy. We do it when something dents our confidence, when we encounter a response more negative than we had anticipated.

She suggests "listen louder".

Combating Anniversary Fatigue

2009-01-31T04:30:00.008-06:00

We began the celebration of Purcell's 350th year yesterday and noted that it was also the anniversary year for Mendelssohn, Handel, and Haydn.

Today, we combat anniversary fatigue with Norman Lebrecht's article from 2006. His advice:

But before we get too excited, there are serious risks attached to the coming cornucopia. If there is one thing we have learned from the Mozart Year it is that over-promotion cheapens the music--not my conclusion, I hasten to point out, but that of the incoming Salzburg director, Jurgen Flimm, who is having to claw the programme back from a surfeit of marzipan balls.

If one genius year can upset the applecart, five years on the trot will test the system to snapping point. Greatness in music is a rare and precious quality. Too much immortal stuff in high concentration with little of the second and third rate will weary the ear and distort audience expectations. Giants need to be measured against those of average height for their immensity to be grasped.

All of which makes the coming years absolutely crucial to the future of classical music. Successful programming is a delicate balance of bonbons and roughage. If the music industry gets the anniversary menu right, it could spark a resurrection of public interest. Get it wrong and fatigue will set in, leaving the museum echoing to a dusty emptiness.

Read the whole thing here.

Purcell Anniversary Year - 350

2009-01-30T04:30:00.000-06:00

You know about anniversary years, right? In 2009, we celebrate Purcell, Handel, Haydn, and Mendelssohn. In honor of Purcell's year, one of his best known compositions for choir:

Here's a longer list of composers we celebrate in 2009:

Johann Albrechtsberger
200th anniversary of death 1736–1809

Carl Heinrich Graun
250th anniversary of death 1703–1759

Georg Friedrich Händel
250th anniversary of death 1685–1759

Joseph Haydn
200th anniversary of death 1732–1809

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
200th anniversary of birth 1809–1847

Henry Purcell
350th anniversary of birth 1659–1695

Franz Xaver Richter
300th anniversary of birth 1709–1789

Louis Spohr
150th anniversary of death 1784–1859

Magnificent Vivaldi

2009-01-29T04:30:00.000-06:00

I'm glad I'm not in band

2009-01-28T04:30:00.000-06:00

Pretty stiff discipline here . . . a student nodded and winked at President Obama during the inaugural parade and here's what happened:

Drum Major John Coleman offered a quick nod, a fleeting wave and what looked like a wink -- all while keeping stride -- as he marched the Cleveland Firefighter's Memorial Pipes & Drums past President Barack Obama last week.

Some might call it a heartwarming moment of patriotism during the inaugural parade.

The band's leader calls it a violation of the rules, captured by CNN. Coleman has been suspended as drum major for six months.

Read the whole story here.

Conversation with Jamie Bernstein

2009-01-27T04:30:00.000-06:00

Find out something interesting about West Side Story and Chichester Psalms. Look here.

Yo-Yo Ma and Perlman Fake it!

2009-01-26T04:30:00.001-06:00

I thought something was fishy about that performance:

The revelation that millions of people who saw the inauguration of President Barack Obama were actually listening to recorded music instead of the actual performance of the Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman-led quartet has led to comparisons of lip-synching (though, in this case, might the correct term be hand-synching?) and drawn comparisons to other infamous cases, including Ashlee Simpson's "Saturday Night Live" debacle and perhaps music's most famous pantomimes, Milli Vanilli.

And, in their defense:

"I think this is a whole lot of nothin'," she said on Friday. "These are world-class performers who are playing in 19 degree weather and the technical requirements of their instruments made it impossible for them to have their music amplified and know that it would be in tune. So they made, what I think, was probably a difficult decision to play to tape."

Whole story here.

Indefinite extension of copyright only helps big media

2009-01-25T04:25:00.003-06:00

Danny O'Brien of the Irish Times views with alarm the EU's proposal to one-up the Americans by making already-long copyright terms even longer:

Copyright term extension is a policy that most economic experts, left and right, agree has given little benefit to artists and a lot to major media companies seeking to eke out an income from their back catalogue.

The public domain – the free space that all copyrighted works fall into after their time is up – is flourishing. It’s easier to find a work that’s fallen out of copyright (like Night of the Living Dead, a 1968 film that fell into the public domain due to administrative error), than to obtain a paid-for copy of many VHS classics.

Meanwhile, old films – not just Mickey Mouse – that should have entered the public domain by now, allowing them to be freely copied and preserved are literally fading away, rotting as single copies in film studio vaults.

The only real earnings will be made by millionaire musicians and the labels. When we nearly double the monopoly control of companies over artistic works, we aren’t simply pulling profits out of thin air. The money comes from the billions extra that will be billed to shops, restaurants and others who will pay more for music.

It’s a stacked deck: there’s no union of future musicians arguing for their promised right to 50 years of source material. There’s no league of imaginary archivists, pointing out how recordings that would otherwise be preserved and spread within the public domain will vanish in a dozen years of music label neglect.

The purpose of copyright is to encourage creativity, but there's absolutely no way that extending copyright protection for a century or more is accomplishing that goal.

(Image from Wikipedia)

Self-evaluation

2009-01-24T03:51:00.002-06:00

Liz's Blog talks about self-evaluation for the choral conductor:

One of the challenges about running rehearsals is that there is so much to do that you rarely have time to notice how well you are doing. You can get so wrapped up in the needs of the choir and the needs of the music that there is very little attention left over to self-monitor. But we still owe it to our choirs (and our audiences) to improve ourselves, so here are several ways I’ve figured out over the years to address this...

More here.

Conductor flowchart

2009-01-23T03:01:00.004-06:00

Created by Robert Bolyard. See the whole thing here (warning: PG-13 for language).

Chanting in the Nation's Capital

2009-01-22T04:30:00.000-06:00

Jonathan Miller beautiful post about Jewish chanting in Washington D.C. that talks about the similarities between Jewish chant and Gregorian chant:

What really knocked me out was the chanting of the daily psalms. It was much more like Gregorian chant than I had ever realized. Joel Cohen and Eric Werner have been for decades comparing Jewish and Christian chant traditions, so the basic idea that they were related was familiar, and of course Christian chant developed from Jewish practice. But at this synagogue in DC, with about 15 of us chanting (and my scrambling to keep up with the Hebrew), I had the very clear sense that I was part of something very, very old, with tunes that could be thousands of years old, very simple melodic contours. I am sure that it won't be very hard to figure out roughly how old those tunes really are.

Read the whole post here.

Copyright update

2009-01-21T02:34:00.004-06:00

The new Congress is considering some modifications to copyright laws. In addition to Net Neutrality legislation, the Senate Judiciary Committee is going to consider some adaptations for webcasting and other Internet applications:

Aaron Cooper, who serves as counsel to Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) in the Senate Judiciary Committee, said his boss is interested pursuing performance rights and Net neutrality legislation, a topic that could implicate copyright issues because of its relationship with file swapping. These subjects will likely arise as top committee issues along with patent reform, which is Leahy's priority, Cooper said.

In addition to webcasting, there's the matter of Cablevision, which wants to create a sort of online Tivo service to delay TV broadcasts for its cable subscribers. Naturally, the media companies want to squelch anything that's consumer-friendly so they're opposing this tooth and nail. But it's not that terribly different from the temporary copies which Microsoft Word places on your hard disk as backups when you save documents.

A panel at the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee's State of the Net Conference in Washington agreed that the statutory licensing laws, which affect webcasting as well as recordings such as CDs, need to be updated:

The laws are currently "geared toward an analog world," Cooper said.

All panelists agreed statutory licensing needs to be reformed, but there was disagreement as to whether their problems could be fixed with marketplace solutions.

Unfortunately, they're not going to address the continuing erosion of Fair Use, but there's always hope.

On another topic: the lawsuit against Joel Tenenbaum, which the RIAA is suing for $1 million for briefly posting a handful of songs on his website, will be webcast this Thursday, January 22, via the Courtroom View Network.

Also: A recent ruling by U.S. District Court judge James Jones in Virginia shows a little common sense: "Customers who download music and movies for free would not necessarily spend money to acquire the same product."

In New Zealand, they're having similar problems:

If section 92A is allowed to come in, ISPs will have to disconnect organisations such as businesses, public libraries, government agencies etc as a result of accusations that an employee has used their computers for illegal downloading.

Mr Baddeley said under the law those accused were considered guilty and punished without proof.

A Sunrise Kyrie

2009-01-20T04:30:00.001-06:00

The sound of silence

2009-01-19T04:30:00.002-06:00

I found Laurel Masse's blog this past Christmas. She nails it again (in my opinion) in this post.

Her subject today: the sounds of the church. To be specific, she takes on Rick Warren's idea about music playing when a person enters the church.

Here's what Rick thinks:

Have taped music playing when people enter. In America almost every public building has music playing. Even in the elevator, music is playing. You go into the restroom and music is playing. You go into a restaurant and music is playing. Why? Because people expect to hear music. If you walked into a church right now and everyone was dead silent when you walked in, you'd probably be uncomfortable. On the other hand, if you heard fairly loud praise music playing, you'd feel much more comfortable.

Here's what Laurel had to say:

When people walk into my church, I hear them sigh. I see them sink into the great quiet space. Their shoulders relax. Some engage in silent prayer. Some crane their necks to look at the stained glass windows. Some chat in whispers to each other. The first big sound is the voices of organ and choir that open the service, to which is added those of the congregation. The first words spoken are usually these: "Blessed be God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit", to which we reply, "And blessed be God's kingdom, now and forever." With this we become one people, gathered to hear the stories of our history, and to worship our God with our hearts, minds, and bodies.

And then she really nailed it with this quote from scripture:

He [the Lord] said, "Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by. Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him....

Great post, Laurel. Read the whole thing here.

The Netflix of Textbooks: Chegg

2009-01-18T04:30:00.001-06:00

A pretty great idea. Rent your books, don't buy them.

Example:
Bennet Reimer: Philosophy of Music Education : Advancing the Vision
Amazon price: 77.22
Chegg rental: 50.72 for the semester

Get your questions answered here.

Found it here.

Mendelssohn Scandal? Speculation on a love affair, rejection, and suicide

2009-01-17T04:30:00.000-06:00

I never knew Mendelssohn personally, of course, but this came as a surprise to me. Found originally on Opera Chic, this article from The Independent discusses the possible suspicions circulating around Mendelssohn's death.

From the article:

Did Felix Mendelssohn's passion for the Swedish soprano Jenny Lind lead to his early death? If reports of a document buried in the bowels of the Royal Academy of Music are to be believed, a potentially devastating new light is waiting to be shed on the composer's life, his death and his music, on the eve of his bicentenary, which is sparking worldwide celebrations in 2009.

--

The cellist Steven Isserlis is related to Mendelssohn: they share an ancestor in R Moses Isserlis of 16th-century Krakow, the grandfather of Moses Mendelssohn. The cellist alerted me to the existence of the mysterious papers, adding: "If he had committed suicide, the family would have covered it up." For him, it's obvious that his eminent ancestor was not all sweetness and light: "You can hear it in the music. His F minor String Quartet, for example, is extremely tormented."

And now, a little of the F minor quartet, by the Brentano String Quartet:

Hooray! We don't need composers anymore! We have Microsoft Songsmith.

2009-01-16T04:30:00.002-06:00

Songsmith generates musical accompaniment to match a singer's voice. Just
choose a musical style, sing into your PC's microphone, and Songsmith will
create backing music for you. Then share your songs with your friends and
family, post your songs online, or create your own music videos.

You can get the free trial here.

O Fortuna

2009-01-15T04:10:00.004-06:00

There's a new DVD out: a biography of Carl Orff (disclosure: sadly, ChoralNet doesn't get a cut from sales of this. Maybe it'll turn up on Amazon eventually). The Guardian's Martin Kettle reports:

...there is another thing we ought to know about the composer as well. The film, which takes its title from the opening phrase of Carmina Burana, makes it clear that Orff had the psychology of a permanent adolescent. He thought first and mainly about himself. He could not sustain adult relationships - including with a daughter whom he rejected. "He had his life and that was that," she tells Palmer. The composer sought to avoid personal and moral responsibility in most things, and then wished to be forgiven for his failure to accept these responsibilities.

More here.

AirTurn

2009-01-14T04:30:00.002-06:00

You'll never need a page turner again:

See more at AirTurn.

2009-01-13T04:30:00.004-06:00

So I don't do 'inspiration' or 'blocks'.

I just do 'work'

and hope for the best."

Found it here. They found it here.

A new "Burt" carol

2009-01-12T04:30:00.002-06:00

I never got to this story in December about a new carol from a relative of Alfred Burt:

Minnesota composer Abbie Burt Betinis has released a new Christmas carol. It's been a tradition here at MPR since 2001 to feature her new carol, but for Abbie's family, the tradition goes back to 1922.

Her great-grandfather, Bates Burt, was a pastor who sent the first carol out as a greeting card for family and friends and parishoners.

The tradition was picked up famously by his son Alfred Burt. In the 1940s and '50s, he wrote some 15 carols, standards like "some Children See Him" and "O, Hearken Ye."

Alfred Burt died in 1954. But his fresh take on the carol continues to this day in the person of Abbie Betinis.

This year she even was inspired by a sermon of her great-grandfather's. Betinis told John Birge of Classical Minnesota Public Radio that this year, she had Advent on her mind when she wrote the carol "Behind the Clouds."

Go hear to get the story, read the text of the carol, and listen.

Afterthought--How Abbie is related:

Durufle Birthday

2009-01-11T04:30:00.001-06:00

It's happy birthday to Maurice Durufle' . . . born January 11, 1902. Read about a few of his secrets here and celebrate his most famous choral work here:

Highway Robbery

2009-01-10T04:30:00.002-06:00

I am in complete agreement with composer Roger Bourland on the subject of expensive music textbooks:

The prices publishers are charging for slim music theory text books is beyond rationalization. I am thrilled to see more and more public domain scans of traditional music, and professorial blogs and websites and webpages available on the internet that explain the issues perfectly well, and are free, or sometimes for a reasonable subscription fee.

Many of our students are “digital natives” and would really prefer their music library to be available on their laptops as PDFs. Many of the resources have music available as not only PDFs, but mp3s of General MIDI playback; mp3s of historic performances; and files that can be imported into Finale or Sibelius that can be printed as a score, or reorchestrated, or played back as MIDI files.

More here.

Note: This post appeared briefly on Thursday (it was a mistake).

Three Time Zones and Heavy Drugs

2009-01-09T04:30:00.002-06:00

David Griggs-Janower gives us this wonderful summation of "the morning after" a great evening rehearsal or a long teaching day:

A conductor, like a teacher in a classroom, is always "on" in rehearsal. Up, vibrant, alive, enthusiastic, making people glad to be there, making them work hard. Making them appreciate the repertory, from the large-scale greatness to the extraordinary subtleties. From the beauty to the intellectual conception. The greater the piece (like Bach's St. John Passion), the greater the sheer amount of wonderful things to discover.
And every second on the podium you are doing at least three things at once in three different time zones: preparing by your gestures what's coming next; showing in your hands, face and body what you want the sound to be like as it happens; and listening and reacting to what you just heard. And also planning ahead as you hear it how to fix what wasn't right. And deciding which things to fix, and whether to stop or not and fix now, as opposed to later, while you are doing all those other things. Because music happens in time, time is intrinsically involved all the, uh, time.
You never get to stop and breathe while conducting. If you do breathe, there are 70 people sitting there waiting for you to say something. And if you let them relax, some momentum is lost, some edge. You also have to plan your stops, to allow the relaxation when it's necessary, but avoid it when rehearsal momentum is needed.
And so on Wednesday mornings I wake up absolutely exhausted.
Fortunately there are some heavy-duty drugs available: I drink two cups of coffee!

Read the whole post here.

Lamentable Congregational Singing

2009-01-08T07:46:00.002-06:00

This from Soho the Dog about the pitch lowering of congregational hymns:

Hymnals have, in fact, been getting progressively lower. In the 1955 Presbyterian Hymnbook, most soprano lines top out around E-flat or E, with a few occasionally getting up to F. In its 1990 replacement, The Presbyterian Hymnal, the tunes top out around D . . .

Leaving aside the whole lack of part-reading-sufficient musical literacy, it's interesting to note that the upper range of the newer hymnal coincidentally corresponds to the ceiling of pop-style belting rather than higher classical/choral-style singing. If you're not doing a whole lot of unamplified choral singing as a matter of childhood educational course, it's that much harder, later on, to get your breath and muscle memory working in such a way to really get a substantial head voice. Those high F's would probably cause a flip-and-crack transition in more young female voices than, say, forty years ago--even fairly accomplished teenaged singers I've worked with have often, under the influence of pop and contemporary R&B, only ever spent time in their middle and belt ranges.

This blogger adds commentary:

Matthew Guerrieri is almost certainly correct in attributing this to the decline of the choral tradition in churches and schools - if you never use your high register as a child, it's very difficult to develop it as an adult. The broader problem, though, is a widespread reluctance to sing at all, a lack of confidence in producing any vocal sound whatsoever. If the loudest you're willing to sing is a mezzo piano (any louder, and the person next to you might hear you!), it will be difficult to sing a range of more than an octave. Even at the best of times, congregational singing has a slightly embarrassed, reticent quality to it - no-one wants to sing.

Lectionary Aids Available

2009-01-07T04:30:00.000-06:00

For you church musicians (and who isn't?), here's a great lectionary website from the P.C. (USA).

Their description:

These worship planning aids are designed to coordinate with the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL), a three-year system for reading biblical texts in worship on the Lord’s Day and other holy days. The RCL represents the work of the Consultation on Common Texts, an ecumenical body of scholars and denominational representatives in North America, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). While the Roman Catholic Church uses a slightly different lectionary, the U.S. and Canadian Catholic churches have had a voice in shaping the RCL. The Episcopal Church adopted the RCL beginning in Advent 2007. The RCL is widely used by an increasing number of Protestant denominations.