Preparing a Conducting Recital
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Authors Gouge, Nathaniel Joseph
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PREPARING A CONDUCTING RECITAL By NATHANIEL JOSEPH GOUGE
______
A Thesis Submitted to The Honors College In Partial Fulfillment of the Bachelor’s degree with Honors in
Music – Voice Performance
THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA MAY 2017
Approved by: ______Dr. Elizabeth Schauer Associate Professor of Music Associate Director of Choral Activities
ABSTRACT Nathaniel Joseph Gouge: Preparing a Conducting Recital (Under the direction of Dr. Elizabeth Schauer)
On Saturday, November 19, 2016 at 7:45 p.m. in Room 232 of the University of Arizona
Fred Fox School of Music, Grace Kim and I presented an Undergraduate Conducting Recital under the guidance of Dr. Elizabeth Schauer. I conducted four pieces as part of the recital, including “The
Hands that First Held Mary’s Child” by Dan Forrest, “Remember” from Two Rossetti Songs by
Stephen Chatman, “The Moon is Distant from the Sea” by David N. Childs, and “Sleigh Ride” arranged by Andy Beck. Preparing to conduct these pieces involved a lot of work, much of which I have included in this thesis, including: researching biographies of the composers, arrangers, and poets associated with the pieces; doing literary analyses of the texts of the pieces; musical observations of the pieces; and critical reflection concerning rehearsal plans, cultivating the sound of the ensemble, and putting together the recital. Gouge 3
The Conducting Recital
On Saturday, November 19, 2016 at 7:45 p.m. in Room 232 of the University of Arizona
Fred Fox School of Music, Grace Kim and I presented an Undergraduate Conducting Recital under the guidance of Dr. Elizabeth Schauer. We presented the recital after thirty hours of rehearsal time, spread out over three months. The following shows what we presented at the recital: Gouge 4
Daniel Karger-Penalosa, a University of Arizona student pursuing his Bachelor of Music in
Piano Performance, worked with us throughout the entire process as our accompanist; and the following individuals volunteered as singers: Aimee Alvira, David Asher, Mon Bejar, Jessica Berg,
Amy Chin, Kat Choyguha, Emilia Hoyos, David Ingram, Erica Maldecino, Trish Marji, Ian
McEwen, Katy McNiff, Ben Ryan, Drew Stanley, Mary-Helen Wanat, and Ezra Zurita.
Please use the following links to view the entire recital, or the four pieces I conducted:
Entire Recital, Part One: https://youtu.be/R0B28mG9oF0?t=6m39s.
Entire Recital, Part Two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8S6rqtw3MI&feature=youtu.be.
“The Hands That First Held Mary’s Child” by Dan Forrest: https://youtu.be/R0B28mG9oF0?t=11m1s.
“Remember” from Two Rossetti Poems by Stephen Chatman: https://youtu.be/R0B28mG9oF0?t=16m.
“The Moon is Distant from the Sea” by David N. Childs: https://youtu.be/R0B28mG9oF0?t=26m50s.
“Sleigh Ride” arranged by Any Beck: https://youtu.be/X8S6rqtw3MI?t=9m7s.
Composer and Arranger Biographies Leroy Anderson
Leroy Anderson was born June 29, 1908 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Anderson studied musical harmony with Walter Spalding, counterpoint with Edward Ballantine, canon and fugue with
William C. Heilman, orchestration with Edward B. Hill and Walter Piston, composition with Walter
Piston and Georges Enesco, organ with Henry Gideon, and double bass with Gaston Dufresne. He received his bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard University.
Anderson served as the Director of the Harvard University Band from 1931-1939 and in the
U.S. Army as an interpreter in the Counter Intelligence Corps from 1940-1945, and during this time wrote compositions and arrangements that garnered the attention of Arthur Fiedler, the Director of the Boston Pops Orchestra. Some of his hits included Harvard Fantasy (1938), Jazz Legato (1939),
Promenade (1945), and The Syncopated Clock (1945). After returning home from World War II, Gouge 5
Anderson started Sleigh Ride in 1946 and Arthur Fiedler conducted the premier in May 1948; and by the following December, department stores were playing Anderson’s hit.
Although Anderson typically wrote orchestral miniatures, 1953 saw the premier of his most ambitious work, Concerto in C major for Piano and Orchestra, which featured three movements. Although it received mixed reviews, the concerto has since been many times around the world each year and has been recorded by artists such as Paul Mann and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with pianist Simon Tedeschi. Anderson’s music also has been employed as themes for both radio and television. For example, CBS used his piece The Syncopated Clock for more than 25 years as the theme for its program of movies called “The Late Show.”
In 1972, the Boston Pops Orchestra paid tribute to Anderson in a televised concert broadcasted nationwide, during which Anderson guest-conducted one piece. Anderson said to his wife that it was “the most important moment of my life.” Anderson continued to compose and conduct until his death from cancer in 1975. Anderson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contribution to the recording industry; he was elected posthumously to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1988; in 1995 Harvard University named its new Band headquarters the Anderson Band
Center in his honor; and a corner of Cambridge, Massachusetts was dedicated as Leroy Anderson
Square on May 31, 2003 “in honor of one of America’s greatest composers of light music and the most inventive arranger for the Boston Pops.”
Andy Beck
Andy Beck was born January 10, 1970. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Music
Education from Ithaca College and his Master’s degree in Music Education from Northwest
Missouri State University. He worked for nine years as the Vocal Music Director at Johnson City
High School in New York, and then joined the editorial team of Alfred Publishing Company. Andy is the Director of Choral Publications at Alfred Music, and has been an Alfred Music studio singer Gouge 6 since 1992. Beck has over 450 popular choral works, vocal resources, and children’s musicals in print, including a few highly-regarded method books, such as Sing at First Sight and Foundations in
Choral Sight Singing. Beck serves as an active guest conductor, choreography, adjudicator, and clinician for music educators and students throughout the United States, and he has been a commissioned composer and guest conductor for honors choirs of all ages, including all-state groups throughout the Southeast.
Stephen Chatman
Stephen Chatman was born February 28, 1950 in Faribault, Minnesota. He studied with
Joseph R. Wood and Walter Aschaffenburg at the Oberlin Conservatory, and with Ross Lee Finney,
Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom, and Eugene Kurtz at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor. He received his doctoral degree from University of Michigan in 1977. His compositions include works for opera, orchestra, band, chamber ensembles, keyboard, voice, and chorus.
Chatman has enjoyed immense success, including winning the Western Canadian Music Awards
“Classical Composition of the Year” in 2005, 2006, and 2010, the SOCAN (Society of Composers,
Authors, and Music Publishers of Canada) Jan V. Matejcek New Classical Music Award in 2010 and
2012, three B.M.I. Awards, the Dorothy Somerset Award, and the 2001 BBC Masterprize short-list.
His works have been published by E.C. Schirmer, Oxford University Press, Boosey & Hawkes, earthsongs, etc., and he has sold 500,000 printed copies. His choral and orchestral works have been performed by the BBC Symphony, Berlin Radio Orchestra, CBC Radio Orchestra, and the
Montreal, Sydney, Toronto, San Francisco, Detroit, Dallas, and New World Symphonies. Chatman has served as the Professor of Composition at The University of British Columbia in Vancouver since 1976, is an Associate Composer of the Canadian Music Centre, a past President of Vancouver
New Music, and a member of the Canadian League of Composers, the Society of Composers, Inc., and the American Music Center. Gouge 7
David N. Childs
David N. Childs was born in 1969 in Newlson, New Zealand. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Composition and Musicology from Canterbury University in Christchurch, New Zealand; his Master’s degree in Conducting from Florida State University; and his doctoral degree from
Louisiana State University. His compositions include over fifty choral works exclusively published by Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Inc. From 2000-2011, Childs served as an Associate Professor of Choral Studies at the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. In
2010, Childs established Vox Humana, a Dallas-based professional choir, and serves as their
Executive and Artistic Director. In May 2013, Vox Humana released Into the Night, a compact disc featuring several Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Inc. titles. Also in May 2013, Childs accepted the
Director of Music position at University Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas. In 2010, he was voted the Tennessee Composer of the Year; his works have been performed at ACDA state, regional, and national conventions, as well as at state festivals and workshops; and he serves as an active clinician and adjudicator in the United States, working at the grade school, college, and community levels.
Dan Forrest
Dan Forrest was born January 7, 1978 in Elmira, New York. He received his Bachelor’s and
Master’s degrees in Piano Performance from Bob Jones University, and his Doctoral degree in
Composition from the University of Kansas. His compositions include choral, instrumental, orchestral, and wind band works. His work has been well received since his first publication in 2001, with nearly two million copies sold and, and his music become a staple in the repertoire of choirs in the United States and abroad.
The Columbus Dispatch has described him as “a composer of substance,” and his works have been hailed by the San Francisco Classical Voice as “magnificent, very cleverly constructed Gouge 8 sound” and by the Salt Lake Tribune as “superb . . . full of spine-tingling moments.” His has received dozens of awards and distinctions, including the ASCAP Morton Gould Young
Composer’s Award, ACDA Raymond Brock Award, Raabe Prize, a Meet the Composer grant, and many more. His works have received premieres in major venues around the world, including choral work premieres at ACDA conventions, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Lincoln Center,
Izumi Hall in Osaka, Japan, and the World Choral Symposium in Argentina. His Requiem for the
Living is quickly becoming his best-known work, which received overwhelming acclaim since its premier in 2013, and has received hundreds of performances in North America, South America,
Europe, Africa, Asia, and multiple performance in Carnegie Hall.
Forrest remains an active composer, educator, and pianist. He maintains a choral series in his name with Hinshaw Music, serves as the associate editor at Beckenhorst Press, serves on the editorial board of The Artistic Theologian, and from 2007-2012 he served as chairman of the department of music theory and composition at Bob Jones University.
Poet Biographies
Emily Dickinson
Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was born December 10, 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Dickinson attended the one-room primary school in Amherst, and then moved on to Amherst
Academy. The Academy shared a strong connection to Amherst College, and offered students regular attendance at college lectures in principal subjects such as astronomy, botany, chemistry, geology, mathematics, natural history, natural philosophy, and zoology. The curriculum placed a strong emphasis on science, an emphasis that appeared in Dickinson’s poems and letters and influenced her belief in the power of descriptive scientific observation and being able to write what one sees and what is. After the Academy, Dickinson studied at Mount Holyoke Female Seminary for one year; and then returned home, marking the end of her formal schooling. Gouge 9
After returning home, Dickinson, like many other unmarried young women in the early 19th century, was expected to become a dutiful wife, setting aside her own interests so as to meet the needs of a home. Dickinson did not enjoy calls from suitors, preferring to spend time baking bread and tending her garden. Dickinson also did not care for the conventional ideas surrounding marriage; and when her brother, Austin, became engaged, Dickinson would often write to his fiancée, discussing her ambivalence toward marriage. Many of her thoughts on this matter are enshrined in her “wife” poems of the 1860s, which speak of the loss a woman experiences as she meets the requirements of a wife.
Dickinson soon began limiting the amount of time she spent with others, and many termed her a “recluse” and “hermit.” Dickinson, however, viewed her choice as a practical one, which allowed her to spend quality time with her closest companions and to devote time to her writing.
Dickinson did not enjoy spending time taking calls at home, something she described as anathema to her preferred pursuits. Rather, Dickinson enjoyed writing letters to others, which she saw as
“visiting” at its best and as opportune for the active engagement in the art of writing.
The 1850s marked the start of Dickinson’s greatest poetic period, and by 1865 she had written about 1,100 poems. Dickinson’s aspirations for her poetry were not clear during her lifetime, and she often stated her ambitions in cryptic and contradictory words. During her lifetime, she corresponded with a few literary critics, who did not give her favorable responses; and publications of her poetry during her lifetime number less than a dozen. Dickinson died in in 1866 in Amherst, and her family found hand-sewn books, or fasciles, which contained nearly 1,800 poems. Mabel
Loomis Todd and Higginson published the first selection of her poems in 1890, but a complete volume did not appear until 1955; and it was not until 1998, with the publication of R.W. Franklin’s version of Dickinson’s poems, that her unusual punctuation, spelling choices, and order were completely restored. Gouge 10
Mitchell Parish
Mitchell Parish was born July 10, 1900 in Lithuania. His family moved to America in 1901 on the S.S. Dresden, and lived first in Louisiana and then in New York City. At the age of eighteen,
Parish secured a job as a song plugger, and travelled around to sell sheet music by performing hit songs at music stores. Parish referred to this time as his “apprenticeship” as a songwriter, as he learned the structure and mechanics of hit songs while working.
Parish loved recorded music, and would often visit the penny arcades to listen to music.
There Parish learned the names of composers who had written hit songs, and gathered the inspiration and motivation to venture down the songwriting path. He got together with a group of composers, and they would write their own songs and/or write lyrics for existing tunes. Some existing tunes that Parish added lyrics to included: “Belle of the Ball,” “Sleigh Ride,” “Stardust,”
“Sweet Lorrain,” and “The Syncopated Clock.” Leroy Anderson thought highly of Parish as a lyricist, and the two worked together putting lyrics to seven songs that Anderson had composed.
Parish died on March 31, 1993 in New York City.
Christina Rossetti
Christina Rossetti was born on December 5, 1830 in London, England. Her father was the poet Gabriele Rossetti, and her brother was the poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Rossetti wrote her first poems at the age of twelve, and they were printed in her grandfather’s private press.
When she was twenty, Rossetti assumed the pseudonym Ellen Alleyne and contributed seven poems to The Germ, a journal founded by her brother William Michael and his friends.
In 1862, Rossetti published her best-known work Goblin Market and Other Poems. The collection established her as a significant voice in poetry during the Victorian era. In 1866 Rossetti published The Prince’s Progress and Other Poems, followed by Sing-Song in 1872. Sing-Song includes a collection of verse for children, and featured illustrations by Arthur Hughes. Gouge 11
Rossetti experienced recurrent bouts of Graves’ disease, a thyroid disease, that made her an invalid by the 1880s. Despite the disease, Rossetti continued to write poetry and published the following works: A Pageant and Other Poems (1881), Called To Be Saints (1881), and The Face of the Deep
(1892). In 1891 Rossetti developed cancer, of which she died on December 29, 1894. Her brother
William Michael edited a collection of her works in 1904, but they were not published as the Complete
Poems until 1979.
Thomas Troeger
Thomas Troeger was born on January 30, 1945 in Suffern, New York. He received his
Bachelor of Arts from Yale University, his Bachelor of Divinity from Colgate Rochester Divinity
School, and his Doctor of Sacred Theology from Dickinson College. He also attended the Virginia
Theological Seminary, where he also awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity.
Troeger is an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church and a minister in the Presbyterian Church.
Troeger has published over twenty books in various fields, including preaching, poetry, hymnody, worship, and theology of music. He also writes a monthly column for Lectionary Homiletics and The American Organist, and frequently contributes to journals dedicated to his fields of interest.
Troeger recently retired from a ten-year tenure at the Yale Divinity School, which also ends a forty- year career as homiletics teacher and a Christian imagination practitioner. Troeger hosted the Season of
Worship broadcast for Cokesbury for three years, and has led conferences and lectures in worship and preaching across North America, Africa, Austria, Japan, Denmark, and Holland.
Troeger has written poetry that appear in the hymnals of most denominations, and quite a few of his texts have been set as choral anthems. Some of his more famous texts include “Wind who makes all winds that blow,” “Silence, frenzied, unclean spirit,” “O praise the gracious power,” and
“As a chalice cast of gold.” Two important aspects of Troeger’s works include the bridging of homiletics and poetry, as well as the bridging of religion and science. With both, Troeger believes that Gouge 12 they enrich one another, cultivating greater imagination, integrity, and insight, as well as a greater passion for the Christian faith. His colleagues and students have commended his ability to inspire deep discourse through his works, such as using poetry to show that science and theology do not have to be at odds and using hymns to tackles issues like domestic abuse with thoughtful biblical and theological insight.
Literary Analysis
“The Hands That First Held Mary’s Child” by Thomas Troeger
The hands that first held Mary’s child were hard from working wood. From boards they sawed and planed and filed and splinters they withstood. This day they gripped no tool of steel, they drove no iron nail, But cradled from the head to heel our Lord, newborn and frail.
When Joseph marveled at the size of that small breathing frame, And gazed upon those bright new eyes and spoke the infant’s name, The angel’s words he once had dreamed poured down from heaven’s height, And like the host of stars that beamed blessed earth with welcome light.
“This child shall be Emmanuel, not God upon the throne, But God with us, Emmanuel, as close as blood and bone.” The tiny form in Joseph’s palms confirmed what he had heard, And from his heart rose hymns and psalms for heaven’s human word.
The tools that Joseph laid aside a mob would later lift And use with anger, fear, and pride to crucify God’s gift. Let us, O Lord, not only hold the child who’s born today, But charged with faith may we be bold, to follow in His way.
“The Hands That First Held Mary’s Child” by Thomas Troeger consists of four quatrains.
Each quatrain consists of two couplets, so the poem contains a repeated rhyme scheme of aabb.
Each line consists of fourteen syllables, or seven iambic feet, which means that the poetic meter of the poem is iambic heptameter. Also, each line is divided into two phrases, one of four iambic feet and one of three iambic feet; in other words, each line is divided according to common meter.
The text deals with the Nativity of Christ, particularly the intimacy of Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus, holding his son for the first time. Troeger uses imagery that refers to Joseph’s trade as a carpenter, and depicts Joseph putting these tools aside when he holds his son. Troeger uses this Gouge 13 imagery in the fourth quatrain, noting that the tools Joseph laid aside were the same tools that a crowd would later use to crucify his son; and Troeger, true to the homiletic nature of his poetry, challenges his readers to consider setting aside these tools so that they, too, may hold the Christ
Child and also follow in His way.
Like many Christian poets and mystics, Troeger emphasizes love and family, symbolized by the intimacy between Joseph and Jesus, and challenges readers to surrender their “anger, fear, and pride,” which Troeger directly address in the final quatrain. Troeger also notes that tools, such as
Joseph’s carpentry tools, can be fashioned for good or for evil; and his readers can make the choice to use them to create or to set them aside, as Joseph did, or to use them to destroy, as the mob did when they crucified Jesus.
“The moon is distant from the sea” by Emily Dickinson
The moon is distant from the sea – And yet, with amber hands – She leads him – docile as a boy – Along appointed sands –
He never misses a degree – Obedient to her eye He comes just so far – toward the town – Just so far – goes away –
Oh, Signor, thine the amber hand – And mine – the distant sea – Obedient to the least command Thine eye impose on me –
“The moon is distant from the sea” by Emily Dickinson consists of four quatrains. Each quatrain contains a rhyme scheme of abcb. Note, however, that “eye” and “away” in the second quatrain do not rhyme perfectly, but are an example of approximate rhyme, which Dickinson experimented with and set her apart from her contemporaries. The first and third lines of each quatrain consists of eight syllables, or four iambic feet; and the second and fourth lines of each quatrain consists of six syllables, or three iambic feet. Taking this into consideration, the first and Gouge 14 second lines and the third and fourth lines of each quatrain fit the form of common meter.
Dickinson, however, adds extra caesuras in the third line of the first and second quatrains, and the second line of the third quatrain; and these caesuras interrupt the typical lyrical flow associated with common meter.
In the first two stanzas of the poem, the speaker observes the relationship between the moon and the sea. The speaker notes that the moon “with amber hands . . . leads” the sea “[a]long appointed sands[;]” and the sea, a “docile” and “[o]bedient . . . boy,” “never misses a degree,” and
“comes just so far – toward the town – / Just so far – goes away[.]” In the third stanza, the speaker uses the relationship between the moon and the sea to describe the speaker’s relationship with
“Signor.” The speaker identifies “Signor” as the moon with the text, “Oh, Signor, thine the amber hand[;]” and the speaker identifies as the sea with the text, “And mine – the distant sea[.]” The speaker also describes their profound obedience to “Signor” with the parallelism between found in the following text: the sea is “[o]bedient to [the moon’s] eye,” as the speaker is “[o]bedient to the least command / [Signor’s] eye” imposes on the speaker. Notably, the speaker does not reveal their identity; but the title “Signor” and the speaker’s deference to “Signor” suggests that “Signor” holds a high status. Taking these dynamics into consideration, as well as the use of “Signor” and “Signore” in Italian poetry to refer to God, it is safe to say that Dickinson uses “Signor” to refer to God; and that by leaving out the speaker’s identity, Dickinson emphasizes the quality of the relationship between the speaker and God.
“Remember” by Christina Rossetti
Remember me when I am gone away, Gone far away into the silent land; When you can no more hold me by the hand. Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay. Remember me when no more day by day You tell me of our future that you plann’d: Only remember me; you understand It will be late to counsel then or pray. Gouge 15
Yet if you should forget me for a while And afterwards remember, do not grieve: For if the darkness and corruption leave A vestige of the thoughts that once I had, Better by far you should forget and smile Than that you should remember and be sad.
“Remember Me” by Christina Rossetti is written in the form known as the Petrarchan sonnet. A Petrarchan sonnet consists of a rhyme scheme of abba abba cdd ece, typically deals with the theme of love, and includes a volta, or turn, that marks the end of the octave, or eight-line section, and the beginning of the sestet, or six-line section.
Rossetti address the theme of love in an unconventional manner, as the speaker addresses the listener from beyond the grave, suggested by the lines “Remember me when I am gone away, /
Gone far away into the silent land[.]” The speaker recounts the intimacy of their relationship with the listener through the text “our future that you plann’d,” which suggests that the two may have been lovers. However, the lack of specificity could mean that the two were family members or close friends. The word “Yet” serves as the volta, and the speaker shifts their argument, from one of sentimentality to an entreaty that the listener not remember the speaker with any sadness. The text also suggests that the speaker may have died due to illness, referenced by the line “For if the darkness and corruption leave.” As this line appears after the volta, this text may suggest that speaker may be reminding the listener that they are no longer suffering, so the listener can find some comfort in this.
“Sleigh Ride” by Mitchell Parish
Just hear those sleigh bills jingling Ring-ting-tingling too. Come on, it’s lovely weather For a sleigh ride together with you. Outside the snow is falling and friends are calling, “Yoohoo.” Come on, its lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you.
Giddy-yap, giddy-yap, giddy-yap, Gouge 16
Let’s go. Let’s look at the show. We’re riding in a wonderland of snow. Giddy-yap, giddy-yap, giddy-yap, It’s grand, just holding your hand. We’re gliding along with a song Of a wintery fairyland.
Our cheeks are nice and rosy, And comfy cozy are we. We’re snuggled up together Like two birds of a feather would be. Let’s take that road before us And sing a chorus or two. Come on, it’s lovely weather For a sleigh ride together with you.
There’s a birthday party At the home of Farmer Gray. It’ll be the perfect ending of a perfect day. We’ll be singing the songs We love to sing without a single stop. At the fireplace while we watch The chestnuts pop. Pop! Pop! Pop!
There’s a happy feeling Nothing in the world can buy, When they pass around the coffee And the pumpkin pie. It’ll nearly be like a picture print By Currier and Ives. These wonderful things are the things We remember all through our lives!
Just hear those sleigh bills jingling Ring-ting-tingling too. Come on, it’s lovely weather For a sleigh ride together with you. Outside the snow is falling And friends are calling, “Yoohoo.” Come on, its lovely weather For a sleigh ride together with you. Lovely weather for a sleigh ride together with you. Sleigh ride!
“Sleigh Ride” by Mitchell Parish consists of six stanzas of varying length and varying rhyme schemes. Parish wrote the lyrics to fit a preexisting tune, so he may have had to eschew classical poetry forms for this reason. The first stanza follows a rhyme scheme of abcbdbcb; the second abbacdc; the third abcbdefe; the fourth abbcded; the fifth abcbdefe; and the sixth abcbdbcbbd. The first, third, and Gouge 17 fifth stanza consists of eight lines; the second and fourth of seven lines; and the sixth of ten lines, although the sixth is really a repeat of the first with two extra lines of repeated text. Parish uses repetition to create a sense of form on a micro- and macro-level, such as incorporating similar rhyme schemes into stanzas with similar lengths and bookending the text by repeating the first stanza as the last stanza.
The lyrics consists of simple, intimate language. The text suggests two characters, the speaker and the listener. The character of the speaker appears selfless, as they avoid the use of the word “I.” Instead, the speaker uses the collective “we” or “us” to address both themselves and the listener, and the speaker constantly address the listener with the word “you.” The speaker also uses a lot of beautiful imagery to cover everything that they and the listener do to enjoy the winter season, and the speaker’s choice of words, such as “lovely,” “wonderland,” “wintery wonderland,” “comfy cozy,” etc., creates an atmosphere of closeness and joy. Finally, the speaker uses onomatopoeia to further create a lively and fun atmosphere, and could be considered as further insight into the speaker’s personality and/or the relationship between the speaker and listener.
Musical Observations
“The Hands That First Held Mary’s Child” by Dan Forrest
“The Hands that First Held Mary’s Child” by Forrest features musical material with elements of vernacular music. The melody features stepwise motion, repetition, and contour similar to folk music and hymns; and with the exception of the wide range, the melody would be easy for anyone to sing. To accompany the melody, Forrest uses a harmonic language built around relationships between i/I, IV, VI, and vii. Forrest also avoids T-PD-D-T harmonic progressions throughout, preferring modal harmonies and plagal cadences.
The verses are strophic, with the same melodic material but contrasting harmonic material.
Verses 1, 2, and 4 feature T(T)BB voices, piano accompaniment, and optional cello. Verse 3 features Gouge 18 a pseudo-unaccompanied TBB section, with optional cello and/or piano accompaniment. Forrest uses the text as the inspiration for the atmosphere of each verse: for the intimate narrative of the first verse, Forrest presents the folk-like melody with a simple accompaniment in the piano; for the mystical introduction of the angels in the second verse, Forrest presents the melody in the bass voices and a descant in the tenor voices; for the prophetic message of the third verse, Forrest presents a fanfare-like texture in the tenor and bass voices; and for the drama of the fourth verse,
Forrest uses all the forces available, the piano, cello, and male voices, to bring the piece to a crescendo. Forrest also opens and ends the piece with the piano and cello playing simple yet mystical musical material, especially the cello which opens and closes the piece playing harmonics, which is an extended technique that sounds both beautiful and eerie.
“The moon is distant from the sea” by David N. Childs
Childs notes that this piece should be performed “slowly, wistfully, and con rubato.” These elements combined with elegant phrases that rise and fall, contrasting sections that shift between slow-changing and fast-changing harmonic textures and dynamics, and musical figures that compliment the pacing of the text – all imbue the music with an ebb and flow that symbolizes the push and pull of the text. Childs employs ternary form to further emphasize the cyclical nature of this push and pull by restating the musical/textual material from the begging of the piece at the end.
“Remember” by Stephen Chatman
Chatman uses an unaccompanied chant punctuated by rests, which gives his piece a speech- like quality. This quality, combined with the text and the colorful, mystical-like chords of the music, imbue the piece with an otherworldly quality. To further enhance this, Chatman uses suspensions and half-cadences to create tension. Finally, Chatman employs binary form, which compliments the symmetry of the poetry; but he avoids treating the volta musically, preferring balance over a musical Gouge 19 turn. Instead, Chatman modifies repeated musical and textual material (H’ and E’) to emphasize the speaker’s desire to be remembered without any hint of sadness.
“Sleigh Ride” arranged by Andy Beck
Beck’s arrangement maintains the light-heartedness of Anderson’s music and Parish’s text, and emphasizes the use of seventh-chords, particularly ii7 chords, to enhance the romantic and dream-like atmosphere of the piece. Beck also incorporates canonic imitation, which emphasizes the idea that two people are out and about, enjoying the winter season; and he manages to create a texture in the piano that imitates the sounds of sleigh bells.
Rehearsal Plans
I devised my rehearsal plans with two main variables in mind: the availability of singers, and the difficulty and demands of the music. To plan for the availability of singers, Grace and I put together a schedule, which included fifteen rehearsals, that we shared with prospective volunteers, asking that they only agree to sing with us if they would not miss more than two rehearsals. If they might miss rehearsals, we asked them to let us know when so we could plan accordingly. This information allowed me to plan when I would be able to rehearse the SATB/SAB, SSA, and/or
TTB pieces; and how many rehearsals I would be able to devote to each piece.
After finding our volunteers and analyzing who would be present and when, Grace and I divided rehearsals so that both of us would get at least thirty-minutes to one-hour with the entire ensemble per week. For most of our rehearsals, we divided our rehearsals cleanly in half. For a few, we divided our rehearsals into 15 minute or 30 minute blocks, to add some variety to the rehearsal process and to allow both of us to rehearse certain pieces when specific singers would be present.
For example, some singers noted that they would be late, have to leave early, and/or would be available for a certain amount of time on specific dates. With this information in mind, I made sure Gouge 20 that my rehearsal plans for a certain rehearsal could be accomplished with the forces present; and, just to be safe, I always had a backup plan, in case something came up last minute. This happened more often than not, so I am grateful that I spent time coming up with Plan B for every rehearsal.
Flexibility became a guiding principle during this process for me, and I found myself constantly changing plans and/or cutting losses due to the general nature of working with volunteers.
As for the second variable, the difficulty and demands of the music, I gauged which pieces would need the most work, as well as which specific sections would need extra attention. Factors that contributed to whether this process might go faster or slower included: the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic content; the presence or lack of repeated musical material; a musical affect that I wanted to highlight; and voicing demands, including range, balance, two-/three-/four-part splits for men and/or women, etcetera. Finally, I did my best to abide by the principle of rehearsing one minute of music for one hour.
The most difficult and demanding piece from my repertoire was “The Moon Is Distant
From the Sea” by David N. Childs, followed by “Remember Me” by Stephen Chatman, then “The
Hands That First Held Mary’s Child” by Dan Forrest, and finally “Sleigh Ride” arranged by Andy
Beck. That said, we started rehearsing “The Moon Is Distant from the Sea” by Childs at our first rehearsal, and only left it alone during two rehearsals. We rehearsed “The Moon Is Distant from the
Sea” by Childs in chunks due to its interesting harmonies and splits, which sometimes became four- part splits for the women and/or men. I saved the most difficult passages of the piece for the seventh rehearsal, which was the halfway point of our entire process. This allowed me time to cultivate the sound that I wanted for these passages, and allowed the ensemble to grow in confidence and comfortability with one another. All of this allowed us to learn these passages with relative ease. Finally, we slowly put the chunks together, and when we were two-thirds of the way through our time together, we were able to perform the entire piece from beginning to end. This Gouge 21 allowed us time to both fine tune our performance of the piece and to leave it alone and come back to it with a fresh perspective.
By comparison, “Sleigh Ride” arranged by Beck did not take nearly as much time to learn or fine tune. We started rehearsing it at our first gathering, simply because it involved everyone and I wanted to wait to start rehearsing the women’s and men’s pieces. For the most part, “Sleigh Ride” arranged by Beck contained simple musical material that repeated. With the exception of a couple tricky transitions and passages of harmonic material, it did not take much time to put “Sleigh Ride” arranged by Beck on its feet and then to caress some nuance into our performance of the piece.
“Remember” by Chatman and “The Hands that First Held Mary’s Child” by Forrest were both interesting beasts, but in different ways. There were more women than men in our ensemble, and the women showed up more consistently. This made devising my rehearsal plans for
“Remember” by Chatman much easier, as I found myself blessed with a lot of flexibility with the women. Even if everyone did not show, we still were able to rehearse considerable chunks of the piece. Also, when we lost a few female volunteers, we could reconfigure voicing with relative ease. It did not take long for the women to put the piece on its feet, so I had the opportunity to lead an intimate and profound discussion about the piece with them. This spontaneous discussion inspired all of us to engage with the text even further, and inspired a more intentional performance of the piece.
As for “The Hands that First Held Mary’s Child” by Forrest, we had half as many men as women, which presented an interesting challenge. With the women I found myself blessed with flexibility from an external source, whereas with the men I found myself presented with the opportunity to cultivate internal flexibility again and again. I oftentimes found myself improvising
Plan C when one or two men were late or not present; and I had to reconfigure some small specifics when two of our men decided that they could no longer sing with us. Thankfully though, the men I Gouge 22 worked with possessed indomitable spirits. They did their best no matter what, and they made it work. It took a bit longer than expected for the men to learn the entire piece, but we were able to devote a considerable amount of rehearsal time to finessing our performance of the piece. The piece also featured a cello, and we were able to work with the cellist on three separate occasions before the concert.
I planned on having all of my repertoire learned four weeks before the recital, however, due to variables out of my control, we did not finish learning my repertoire until two weeks before the recital; and two weeks still provided us with plenty of time to run entire pieces, sets, and the program, as well as to assess, reassess, and further polish our performances for the recital. Grace and
I also were able to devote a good portion of our penultimate and dress rehearsals going over details such as who would walk where and when, who would talk and when, etcetera. Overall, my rehearsal plans panned out well, and the principle of flexibility became vitally important throughout the process.
Cultivating the Sound of the Ensemble
Grace and I took turns warming up the ensemble, both to save time and to allow each of us the opportunity to lead warmups sans interruption. My warmup process involved three parts: kinesthetics, breath work, and vocalises; and each part followed the same pattern that I use for my own warmups, as well as the same pattern that I use with an ensemble that I have directed for the last eight years.
First, I have the entire ensemble simultaneously stretch and do breath work. To start, I invite everyone to bend over at the waist, open the mouth wide enough for two fingers to fit in-between the teeth, rest the tongue on the floor of mouth with the tip touching the front, bottom teeth, and ask everyone to sigh slow and warm inaudible sighs. This first step warms up everything involved in the singing process, and encourages relaxation of the breath, muscles of inspiration/expiration, and Gouge 23 the vocal mechanism. Afterward, I invite everyone to rollup one vertebra at a time and allow their head to be the last part to come up. Then I ask everyone to let their head rest toward the right/left shoulder and repeat the breath work from the first step, which relaxes the neck muscles and erector spinae muscles. During these first two steps, I listen intently to the sound of the breath, encouraging a released sound and addressing any tightness through tongue stretches. Finally, I invite everyone to massage their face, the back of their neck, and to shake their arms, legs, and torsos – all to release tension and encourage flexibility.
For vocalises, I included the following: One, lip buzzes on a 5-4-5-4-5-4-3-2-1 pattern, starting on D-Major and moving up by half-steps an octave. I ask the lower voices to cut out around
Bb-Major. Two, lip buzzes on a 8-5-3-1-3-5-8-5-3-1 pattern, starting on the dominant of the last chord, A-Major, so that the top notes remain the same from the first to second vocalise. We move down by half-steps about an octave, usually ending on Bb-Major. Both exercises encourage using the breath to produce tone because a lip buzz cannot be produced without the breath. The second vocalise also encourages mixing, especially bringing the “head voice” down into the “chest voice.”
Three, [lu-i, lu-i, lu-i, lu-i, lu-i] on a 5-4-3-2-1 pattern, starting on D-Major and moving up by half- steps to C-Major and then moving down by half-steps to C-Major. This vocalise encourages chiaroscuro sound by combining the space of [u] with the formance of [i]. Four, [ja, ja, ja, ja, ja] on a
5-4-3-2-1 pattern, starting on D-major and moving up by half-steps to C-Major. This vocalise encourages an open sound, especially since I encouraged the repetition of the [ja] by the jaw remaining open and the tongue moving independently to produce the [j]. Five, [zi-a] on a 1-(1-2-3)-
(3-4-5-3-1) pattern, starting on Bb-major and moving up by half-steps to C-Major. This vocalise encourages flexibility and consistency of tone.
In addition to these basic building blocks, I used various vocalises to address specific demands of the music. For example, to help the sopranos negotiate their break and encourage them Gouge 24 to not carry too much weight from their low to high registers, I used the following vocalise: [fi, fi, fi, fi, fi] on a 5-4-3-2-1 pattern, starting on F-Major and moving up by half-steps to F-Major. This vocalise encourages lightness, seamless shifting between registers, and forward resonance. To address large and/or angular leaps in the women’s piece, I used the following vocalise: lip buzzes on a 8-7-8-6-8-5-8-4-8-3-8-2-8-1 pattern, starting on a high A-Major and moving down by half-steps an octave. This vocalise encourages a yodeling sensation, which allows the larynx to release tension and the voice to naturally register itself. Finally, to increase ensemble awareness I used the following vocalise: [nu-no-na-ne-ni] on a block chord (basses on Eb, tenors on Bb, altos on Eb, and sopranos on G) and moving up by half-step. This vocalise encourages balance, unity of vowels, approach to tone, dynamics, articulation, and watching and responding to the conductor.
I did not address tone during warmups, but while we rehearsed. During our first rehearsal of
“The Moon Is Distant from the Sea” by Childs, the altos approached the piece with the dark, round tone that I wanted, so I asked them to model for the ensemble and asked the ensemble to emulate them. For “Sleigh Ride” arranged by Beck, I asked volunteers to sing the opening line. Andrew
Ayon, who was with us for the first half of the process, approached the line with a light, bright tone that suited the sound I wanted. I asked him model for the ensemble and asked the ensemble to emulate. Surprisingly, the ensemble approached both pieces with the appropriate, respective tone throughout the process.
For the women’s piece, I seated the women in such a way that produced the general sound that I wanted. Then, I asked them for a round sound with lots of focus. I also asked for minimal vibrato throughout the majority of the piece, but allowed them to let loose a little during the high points as an expressive choice. For the men’s piece, I encouraged the men to produce the healthiest sound possible at all times; and since their piece featured four sections of similar musical material, we decided on an affect for each section that they reflected in their voices. I used our vocalises to Gouge 25 inspire them in their efforts, such as inviting them to produce the same full sound of the [ja, ja, ja, ja, ja] vocalise in verse three, which featured fanfare-like music that demanded such a sound.
Finally, one of my favorite techniques for encouraging the ensemble to produce the sound I desired involved speaking. More specifically, speaking with the same, or closely similar, approach to tone, vowels, dynamics, and articulation as singing. For “The Moon Is Distant from the Sea” by
Childs, this meant speaking the text with a darker, rounder sound. For “Sleigh Ride” arranged by
Beck, light and bright. A few times, I asked volunteers to recite the texts in a manner that made sense to their aesthetics, asked the ensemble for feedback about what they heard, and discussed how this could inspire our approach to a piece on a micro or macro level. Every time without fail, talking about why and how encouraged the ensemble to add intention, nuance, and detail to their performance.
Putting Together the Recital
Planning
Before our first rehearsal, Grace and I met with our adviser, Dr. Elizabeth Schauer, and asked her how she might suggest we start putting together a conducting recital. She offered suggestions about creating a schedule, finding volunteers, finding an accompanist, and finding a space for rehearsals and for the recital. After ironing out these details, she suggested we program music appropriate to the ability of our ensemble; and she suggested that we program music with the following principle in mind: one hour of rehearsal per one minute of music.
Grace and I put together a schedule that consisted of thirty hours of rehearsals over the course of eleven weeks. Within a couple weeks, we found twenty-four volunteer singers and an accompanist. We reserved Room 232 at the Fred Fox School of Music, which served as our regular rehearsal space and as the space for our recital. During the process, we lost volunteers, found new volunteers, and addressed a variety of behind-the-scenes details in order to maintain momentum. Gouge 26
Picking Themes
Grace and I scheduled our recital for middle of November, and decided to theme our recital winter. We thought that the middle of November seemed too early for a recital entirely devoted to winter holiday music; and not including the second adjective as part of our theme allowed me the freedom and flexibility to program music with a theme of my own that fit within the bigger picture.
For my part of the program, I picked music that dealt with the theme of hands. Hands are one of the most important tools of the conductor’s craft, and hands represent the broad idea of
“making connections.” Making music to me means making connections – with friends, family, myself, a significant other, a cause, a Higher Power, etcetera. Making connections became essential during the difficulties of the last ten years as I struggled with depression and the disease of addiction, so I wanted to commemorate this vital part of my recovery through the repertoire that I programmed.
As I set out to find music that dealt with hands, I created guidelines that reflected Dr.
Schauer’s suggestions. Since I knew that I had ten hours of scheduled rehearsal time with the entire ensemble and five hours for sectionals, I allowed myself roughly fifteen minutes of music. Also, since I had a rough sketch of the musical background and abilities of our volunteers, I decided that the greater majority of my music would include piano accompaniment. With these two guidelines, I programmed seventeen minutes of music, as well as four pieces with piano accompaniment and one piece without accompaniment. I would like to note that also due to these guidelines, as well as due to the general nature of working with volunteers, I decided to drop one of the pieces I programmed, which left me with fifteen minutes of music, one less accompanied piece, and the ability to better craft the music we performed for the recital.
I also created the following aesthetic guidelines: One, each piece must fit both the theme of winter and the theme of hands. Two, each must depict a different representation of the theme of Gouge 27 hands. Three, each must have piano accompaniment or, if unaccompanied, have a difficulty level of easy to medium and preferably with repeated material. Four, each must have a different overall affect, which could mean differences in tempo, melodic and harmonic language, texture, form, etcetera.
Choosing Music
I spent a tremendous amount of time searching for music that fit all the various suggestions and guidelines, and at times the amount of music available to wade through seemed insurmountable.
I scoured the website of music distributor JW Pepper, which has an incredible selection of music from various publishers; and JW Pepper gives customers the option to take a peek at a score and/or listen to an audio file. This helped streamline the process, though I did scour other locations, including MorningStar Music Publishers, Oregon Catholic Press, World Library Publications, and the University of Arizona Library.
I chose the piece by Dan Forrest first. I had discovered it the spring before starting this project, and after I heard it for the first time I decided that I wanted to program it for a future concert. The inspiration for the theme of hands also came from this piece, from the intimate image and juxtaposition of Joseph’s rough hands cradling “our Lord, newborn and frail.” This imagery also fit the theme of winter, as Christian traditions celebrate the birth of Christ during winter. I picked the T(T)BB arrangement of the piece because the voicing lent a gravitas to the father-son relationship of Joseph and Jesus; and the arrangement would allow me the opportunity to work with a male ensemble. Notably, despite the five-minute length of the piece and small number of male singers in our ensemble, the strophic form, simple melody and harmonies, and piano accompaniment would allow the men to learn the piece fast; and the variations from verse to verse would be a manageable challenge. Gouge 28
I chose the piece by David N. Childs second. I had performed the piece in high school, which meant that: one, I was familiar with it; and two, I believed that an adult ensemble with considerable musical ability would be able to perform a piece that a high school honor choir had performed. Despite its medium-hard difficulty, the following would make learning “The Moon Is
Distant from the Sea” by Childs manageable: the piano accompaniment remained present throughout the entire piece, the choral parts and the accompaniment followed the same harmonic motion, the piece contained repeated musical material, and the accompaniment made the more difficult passages accessible because it doubled the choral parts.
The text of “The Moon is Distant from the Sea” deals with hands in two ways: one, hands that lead; and two, hands that show a willingness to be led. The text fits the theme of winter, though in a rather vague way. The relationship between the speaker and “Signor” (God) could symbolize any relationship between a human being and his or her higher power. Characters that could be ascribed to this text and fit the theme of winter are Mary and Jesus. In the Bible, their relationship could be described as Lord and Handmaid, or Son and Mother. Dickinson’s text reflects these dynamics, and the image of Mary and Jesus, particularly as mother and son, fits the theme of winter since, again, Christian traditions celebrate the birth of Christ during winter.
I chose the piece by Andy Beck third. I wanted to include a popular, upbeat, light piece, both to balance out the solemn pieces I had picked and to please the audience. This piece also met all the practical and aesthetic guidelines: the piece featured a piano accompaniment, simple musical material, repeated material, and an English text; the piece fit the winter theme easily, as “Sleigh
Ride” is one of the most popular pieces of secular music of the winter season in the United States; and the piece fit my theme with the text “It’s grand, just holding your hand,” which uses hand- holding to represent romance, intimacy, and fun. I also picked the SAB arrangement of the piece rather than the SATB version, and I did this for two reasons: one, Beck’s harmonies are the same in Gouge 29 both versions – and I would argue that the way Beck spelled out his chords in the SAB version allowed for more clarity; and two, building off the first reason, I suspected an SAB arrangement would allow the ensemble to balance better.
I chose “I Know the Lord’s Laid His Hands On Me” arranged by Lloyd Larson fourth; and while we did not perform this piece for the recital, I would like to include why I chose it and how it fit in my original program. Like the other pieces, this arrangement by Larson met all the guidelines: it featured a piano accompaniment, both simple and repeated musical material, and an English text; it fit the theme of winter, and more on that in a moment; and it fit the theme of hands, as the title and refrain “I know the Lord’s laid His hands on me” speaks to certain aspects of Jesus’ ministry, such as inviting “the poor” through the Good News, “wash[ing] sins away,” and “heal[ing] the sick and rais[ing] the dead.” The text does not include the Nativity of Jesus; however, many Judeo-Christian traditions associate the Nativity, or the coming of the messiah, with the coming of salvation – and the text speaks of salvation, through the same lines that also allow this piece to fit the theme of hands.
Also, I wanted to program “The Hands that First Held Mary’s Child” by Forrest and “I
Know the Lord’s Laid His Hands On Me” by Larson as a set because of five images that paint a beautiful picture about the Christian faith: one, from “The Hands that First Held Mary’s Child” by
Forrest, the image of Joseph’s “hard” hands holding the “Lord, newborn and frail;” two, from “I
Know the Lord’s Laid His Hands On Me” by Larson, the image of the Lord’s hands as a symbol of salvation (inviting “the poor” through the Good News, “wash[ing] sins away,” and “heal[ing] the sick and rais[ing] the dead”); three, from “The Hands that First Held Mary’s Child” by Forrest, the image of “the tools” that made Joseph’s hands “hard” being used by “a mob . . . to crucify God’s gift;” four, from “I Know the Lord’s Laid His Hands On Me” by Larson, the image of Christian believers remembering the faith, hope, and love associated with Christ’s sacrifice because of the Gouge 30 refrain “I know the Lord’s laid His hands on me;” and five, from “The Hands that First Held Mary’s
Child” by Forrest, the image of Christian believers showing gratitude for the Christ’s birth and death by being “charged with faith [to] be bold / [and] follow in His way.”
I chose “Remember” by Chatman last. It took a long time – maybe a week’s worth of free time – to find this particular piece, as I wanted to find something that fit all of the guidelines and added something complementary but contrasting to the other pieces. After a few days of fruitless searching, I decided that I might be able to expedite this process by reading poets that composers commonly set to music. I reasoned that I might be able to find a poem that offered a different perspective on the themes of winter and hands; and if the poem had been written by a poet that composers commonly set and if a composer who had set it had done so with sensitivity to the text, then I believed I would be able to find the final piece for my part of the recital. This line of thinking inspired me to read Christina Rossetti, whose works have been set by some of my favorite composers (e.g. Gustav Holst’s setting of Rossetti’s “In the bleak midwinter”); and by reading through her body of work, I discovered “Remember me.”
“Remember me” fit both themes: winter, as many often associate the season with death, old age, pain, and/or an end, and the narrator of the poem has “gone far away into the silent land”
(death) due to “darkness and corruption” (pain, such as old age or sickness); and hands, as the line
“When you can no more hold me by the hand” depicts the inability to hold hands with a loved one who has died. After finding a poem that offered different perspectives on the themes of winter and hands, I found Chatman’s setting for an SATB, SSA, or TTBB ensemble. The music fit all the guidelines except that the setting consisted of medium-difficult musical material without a piano accompaniment; but the piece also consisted of two macro-sections, and the second section repeated all the material of the first and only the ends varied. I liked each of Chatman’s settings, but
I decided to program the SSA setting for three reasons: one, our ensemble included a greater Gouge 31 number of women; two, the majority of the women had extensive choral experience; and three,
“Remember” by Chatman would offer me the opportunity to work with a women’s ensemble – and would mean I would have both a women’s piece and a men’s piece.
Altogether, I programmed eighteen minutes of music, which included: three easy-medium pieces and two medium-difficult pieces; four pieces with piano accompaniment and one without; five pieces all with English texts; pieces for SATB, SAB, SSA, and T(T)BB; two upbeat pieces and three solemn pieces; and pieces that dealt with the themes of winter and hands in complimentary and contrasting manners. I cut “I Know the Lord’s Laid His Hands On Me” by Larson so that we would be able to learn the other pieces well; and by cutting “I Know the Lord’s Laid His Hands On
Me” by Larson, I had fifteen minutes of music, which reflected Dr. Schauer’s suggestion of one- minute of music per one-hour of rehearsal as I ended up having about fifteen hours of rehearsal altogether.
Programming the Recital
About two weeks before the recital, Grace and I discussed how we would program our recital. We had eight choral pieces to consider; and we decided to separate them into three sets, and asked our accompanist, Daniel Penalosa, to play a piano solo in-between each set. We decided, too, that each of us would speak in-between each set: first Grace, to say thank you to everyone who had helped us during the entire process; and me second, to speak a bit about the theme of hands and how each of my respective pieces addressed the theme.
Also, after thirteen weeks of rehearsal, we knew each other’s music well, which made it easy for us to figure out how to put our respective pieces together as sets. Interestingly, we shared similar ideas about how the music would flow well. For example, we agreed that Grace’s piece “You that wont to my pipes sound” by Thomas Morley and my piece “Sleigh Ride” arranged by Andy Beck would work best as the opener and closer, respectively. “You that wont to my pipes sound” by Gouge 32
Morley featured a noble and triumphant sound coupled with a text that invited everyone to make music in celebration of the coming of the Holy Child; and “Sleigh Ride” arranged by Beck featured a fun and upbeat sound with a sincere and romantic text about being together with friends and family during the winter season. We also picked these pieces because we wanted a different conductor to open and close the recital; and from our respective repertoire selections, these two pieces sounded the most secure with the ensemble and would could function as an opener and closer.
Then we set about putting the pieces together in a way that would allow for variation between the faster and slower pieces, between the accompanied and unaccompanied pieces, and between the performing forces. Our first set included “You that wont to my pipes sound” by
Morley, “The Hands that First Held Mary’s Child” by Forrest, and “Remember” by Chatman; this set opened with a moderately fast, unaccompanied SATB piece conducted by Grace and then two slower pieces – one accompanied men’s piece (with a cello soloist) and one unaccompanied women’s piece – conducted by myself. In-between the first and second sets, Grace spoke and Daniel performed “Prelude in G-Sharp Minor” Op. 32, No. 12 by Sergei Rachmaninoff. Our second set included “The Sleigh” by W. Riegger, “The Moon Is Distant from the Sea” by Childs, and “Sing Me to Winter” by Julie Gardner Bray; this set opened with a fast, accompanied SATB piece (with percussion instruments) conducted by Grace, then a moderately slow accompanied SATB piece conducted by myself, and finally a moderately fast accompanied SATB piece (with a soprano soloist) conducted by Grace. In-between the second and third sets, I would speak and Daniel would perform “Prelude and Fugue in E Major” BWV 854 by J.S. Bach. Our third set included “Ding
Dong Merrily on High” arranged by Chester L. Alwes and “Sleigh Ride” arranged by Beck; this set opened with a moderately fast unaccompanied SATB piece conducted by Grace and closed with a moderately fast accompanied SAB piece conducted by myself. Gouge 33
Finally, since I did not conduct my pieces back to back, I decided that the best way to make my theme obvious to the audience would be to talk to them about it. So, I prepared a short talk about my process for picking the theme of hands and how each piece fit this theme, extracting specific images and/or lines from the texts. I also infused intrigue into the talk by inviting the audience to consider the many actions we accomplish with our hands, such as saying hello and goodbye, giving and receiving, making connection, etcetera; and to consider how hands may take different shapes, such as paws, claws, fins, etcetera.
Gouge 34
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