August 2004 Contents Vol 45 ·no.I Articles .. Shout All Over God's Heaven 9 • Thomas Lloyd discusses how the African-American spiritual has maintained its integrity in the face of major social and musical challenges.

Words and Music: Benjamin Britten's "Evening Primrose" 27 • Chester Alwes analyzes Britten's manipulation of poetic text for compositional purposes.

An Interview with Dale Warland 35 • Diana Leland talks to Dale Warland about his career highlights, his legacy, and his plans after he leaves the choir that bears his now famous name. Columns Rehearsal Break: Acoustic Issues and the Choral Singer 45 • Margaret Olson addresses how individual choral singers should adjudicate their vocal output during rehearsal. Repertoire and Standards 53 • Nancy Cox gives tips for making a good audition tape. • Vijay Singh shares ways to personalize your performance.

Hallelujah! The Best First Church Choir Rehearsal 63 • Tim Sharp explains how to create a good first impression with a new church choir.

Compact Disc Reviews 77 • David Castleberry Book Reviews 81 • Stephen Town Choral Reviews 91 • Lyn Schenbeck

The Choral Journal is the official publication of The American Choral Directors Association (ACDA). ACDA is a nonprofit professional organization of choral directors In This Issue from schools, colleges, and universities; community, church, and professional choral ensembles; and industry and institutional organizations. Choral Journal circulation: 21,000. Annual dues (includes subscription to the Choral Joumety: Active $65, Industry From the Executive Director 4 $100, Institutional $75, Retired $25, and Student $20. One-year membership begins on date of dues acceptance. Library annual subscription rates: U.S. $35; Canada $40; From the President 5 Foreign Surface $43; Foreign Air $75. Single Copy $3; Back Issues $4. From the Editor 6 ACDA is a founding member of the lnlernational Federation for Choral Music. ACDA supports and endorses the goals and purposes of CHORUS AMERICA in promoting the Honor Choir Application Forms excellence of choral music throughout the world. ACDA reserves the right to approve any applications for appearance and to edit all materials proposed for distribution. • High School 41 Permission is granted to all ACDA members to reproduce articles from the Choral • Junior High 51 Journal for noncommercial, educational purposes only. Nonmembers wishing to reproduce articles may request permission by writing to ACDA.The Choral Journal is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal • Elementary 59 agency. Conducting Competition © 2004 by the American Choral Directors Association, 502 SW Thirty-eighth Street, Lawton, Oklahoma 73505. Telephone: 5801355-8161. All rights reserved. The Choral Application Form 66 Journal (US ISSN 0009-5028) is issued monthly except June and July. Printed in the United States of America. Periodicals postage paid at Lawton, Oklahoma, and additional Advertisers' Index 96 mailing office. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Choral Journal, P.O. Box 6310, Lawton, Oklahoma 73506-0310.

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IN DIANA Director CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION President - Paul J. Krasnovsky 4250 Otterbein Ave Indianapolis, IN 46227 N June 26rh, 2004, we Treasurer - Paula J. Alles lost a friend and val• 1471 Altmeyer Rd Jasper, IN 47546 ued member of the 0 IOWA choral music world with the death of CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION Eskil Hemberg, an influential com• President - Mille R. Youngquist 831S.13th Ave poser, conductor, and choral music Washington, IA 52353 leader from Sweden. At the time of Secretary/Treasurer - Joleen Nelson 209 Oak Ridge Dr his death, Eskil Hemberg was the Mount Vernon, IA 52314 president of the International Fed• Gene Brooks AMERICAN CHORAL DIRECTORS eration of Choral Music (IFCM), a ASSOCIATION OF MINNESOTA President - Kathryn G. Larson position he had held since his election in RR 5, Box 291 1999. This month's column is dedicated Detroit Lakes, MN 56501 to his memory and legacy in the world of Treasurer - Charles Hellie 306 North Elm choral music. Sauk Centre, MN 56378 Born in 1938, Eskil Hemberg studied MONTANA CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION at the Royal College of Music in Stock• President - Mary S. Svenvold holm, Sweden. During his life, Hemberg 212 Sunset Ave Glendive, MT 59330 held a wide variety of positions, where he Treasurer - Scott Corey had a profound influence in the shaping Billings Senior High School of choral music in Sweden. From 1959- 425 Grand Ave Billings, MT 59101 83, he conducted the Akademiska Koren/ NEBRASKA Stockholm University Chorus. Other po• CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION President - Roger MacNeill sitions held by Hemberg include: Execu- Eskil Hemberg 702 Cedar St tive Producer for Swedish Radio Chadron, NE 69337 (1963-70); Planning Manager and Director of Foreign Relations at Treasurer - Sue K. Springer 3705 28th Ave the Swedish National Institute of Concerts (1970-83); General Man• Kearney, NE 68845 ager/Artistic Director of the Gothenburg Opera (1984-87); General OHIO Director of the Royal Swedish Opera (1987-96); President of the CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION President - Thomas G. Merrill Society of Swedish Composers (1971-83); and President of the 6835 Ken Arbre Dr International Music Council of UNESCO (1992-94). In 1974, Cincinnati, OH 45236 Treasurer - Grant W. Cook Hemberg was elected as a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of 292 Sycamore St Music. In 2000, Eskil Hemberg was the Pearson Distinguished Pro• Tiffin, OH 44883 fessor of Swedish Studies at Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kansas. TEXAS CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION In addition to his contributions as a conductor and leader of choral President - Michael O'Hern music in Sweden, and the world, Hemberg was also one of the 3026 Waterfront Cir Garland, TX 75042 foremost Swedish composers of his generation, composing a wide Treasurer - Beth Gove array of works, including chamber and vocal music. He also com• 2007 Spring Hollow Path posed a number of operas and music for ballet. Round Rock, TX 78681 Hemberg was a valued and influential leader of choral music, and WISCONSIN CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION was a dear friend to both the American Choral Directors Association President - Lynn A. Seidl 313 Maria St and mysel£ His wisdom and influence will be missed throughout the P.O. Box 102 world of choral music. Luxemburg, WI 54217 Treasurer - James A. Carpenter 2730 Hickory Dr University of Wisconsin Gene Brooks Plover, WI 54467 National Officers PRESIDENT ------;~~ Mitzi Groom Western Kentucky University, Department of Music 1 Big Red Way Bowling Green, KY 42101 270/745-3751 (voice); 270/745-6855 (fax) From the President VICE-PRESIDENT N July 1, 2004, the leader• David Stutzenberger University of Tennessee, Scfiool of Music ship of ACDA experienced Knoxville, TN 37996 865/974-8608 (voice1_ 865/974-1941 (fax) 0 a changing of the guard. We welcome these new division presidents: PRESIDENT-ELECT Michele Holt Wayne Abercrombie, Eastern Division; Providence College, Music Department Sienna Hall Providence, RI 02918 Greg Carpenter, North Central Division; 401/822-1030 (voice) Guy Webb, Southwestern Division, and TREASURER Michael Frasier, Northwestern Division. Maxine Asselin 3 Holly Rd On behalf of the entire ACDA member• Taunton, MA 02780 508/822-2820 (voice); 508/884-3404 (fax) ship, many thanks to the outgoing divi• sion presidents who left indelible EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Gene Brooks P.O. Box 2720 footprints in the choral sand of their Oklahoma City, OK 73101 405/232-8161 (voice); 405/232-8162 (fax) Mitzi Groom respective divisions: Twyla Brunson, Northwestern Division; Stan McGill, CENTRAL DIVISION PRESIDENT Gordon Krauspe Southwestern Division; Craig Cannon, Eastern Division; and Bob Ander• Wheaton-Warrenville South High School 1993 Tiger Trail son, North Central Division. We also welcome the National President• Wheaton, IL 60187 630/784-7284 (voice); 630/682-2042 (fax) Elect Designate, Mary Breden, to our ranks. May the new kids on the EASTERN DIVISION PRESIDENT leadership block enjoy learning the ropes and apply their creativity in these E. Wayne Abercrombie University of Massachusetts, Dept. of Music challenging positions to the fullest. Amherst, MA 01003 413/545-0437 (voice); 413/545-2092 (fax) In this month that hosts the Leadership Conference in Oklahoma City, it seems to be a most appropriate time to revisit the founding goals as stated NORTH CENTRAL DIVISION PRESIDENT Greg Carpenter in ACDA's Constitution: (1) To foster and promote choral singing which 2226 Woodfield Circle Waukesha, WI 53188 262/547-0339 (voice) will provide artistic, cultural, and spiritual experiences for the participants; (2) To foster and promote the finest types of choral music to make these NORTHWESTERN DIVISION PRESIDENT J. Michael Frasier experiences possible; (3) To foster and encourage rehearsal procedures Eastern Oregon University 1 University Blvd conducive to attaining the highest possible level of musicianship and artis• La Grande, OR 97850 541/962-3855 (voice); 541/663-3313 (fax) tic performance; (4) To foster and promote the organization and develop• SOUTHERN DIVISION PRESIDENT ment of choral groups of all types in schools and colleges; (5) To foster and Jerry Warren Belmont University promote the development of choral music in the church and synagogue; (6) 1900 Belmont Blvd Nashville, TN 37212 To foster and promote the organization and development of choral societies 615/460-6678(voice) in cities and communities; (7) To foster and promote understanding of SOUTHWESTERN DIVISION PRESIDENT choral music as an important medium of contemporary artistic expression; Guy B. Webb SW MO State University (8) To foster and promote significant research in the field of choral music; Juanita K. Hammons Hall, Room 306 901 S National Springfield, MO 65804 (9) To foster and encourage choral composition of superior quality; (10) To 417/836-5182 (voice); 417/836-7665 (fax) cooperate with all organizations dedicated to the development of musical WESTERN DIVISION PRESIDENT culture in America; (11) To foster and promote international exchange Elizabeth Kamerin Hanford West High School programs involving performing groups, conductors, and composers; and 1100 W. Lacey Blvd Hanford, CA 93230 (12) To disseminate professional news and information about choral music. 559/583-0157 (voice) I don't think many members have read the preceding words from the INDUSTRY ASSOCIATE REPRESENTATIVE Joe Keith ACDA Constitution lately, which compelled me to share them. Since Music Mart Inc. 3301 Carlisle Blvd NE 1959, we have supported these purposes. Our growing pains have not Albuquerque, NM 87190-3278 505/889-9777 diluted these goals, but the pains are readying us for changes to occur in convention programming and convention tracks. Even as far back as 1984, PAST PRESIDENTS' COUNCIL Milburn Price our leaders were discussing the enormous growth that the organization was Samford University, School of Music Birmingham, AL 35229 undergoing, which now prompts our steering committees to be very cre• 205/726-2059 (voice); 205/726-2165 (fax) ative with convention planning. Stay tuned for some necessary, imaginative NATIONAL PAST PRESIDENTS Archie Jones t H. Royce Saltzman covention programming variations in Los Angeles in 2005. Elwood Keister t Colleen Kirk t Warner Imig Maurice T. Casey J. Clark Rhodes t Hugh Sanders t Harold A. Decker t David 0. Thorsen Mitzi Groom Theron Kirk t Diana J. Leland Charles C. Hirt t William B. Hatcher Morris 0. Hayes John B. Haberlen Russell Mathis Lynn Whitten Walter S. Collins t James A. Moore EDITORIAL BOARD

-+---·~· EDITOR From the Editor Carroll Gonzo University of St. Thomas, Graduate Music Educatio LOR 103/2115 Summit Ave St. Paul, MN 55105 651/962-5832 (voice); 651/962-5876 (fax) In This Issue ASSOCIATE EDITOR Nina Gilbert Lafayette College, Department of Music HE evolution of the Afri• Easton, PA 18042 610/330-5677 (voice); 610/330-5058 (fax) can- American spiritual is the focus of Thomas MANAGING EDITOR T Ron Granger Lloyd's article, "Shout All Over God's P.O. Box 2720 Oklahoma City, OK 73101 Heaven." Lloyd begins his historical 405/232-8161 (voice); 405/232-8162 (fax) journey with a discussion of the incipi• EDITORIAL ASSISTANT ent performance stages of the Fisk Ju• TO THE MANAGING EDITOR David Stocker bilee Singers and their world 2405 East Loyola Dr tours-the American roots of the spiri• Tempe, AZ 85282 Carroll Gonzo 480/839-8693 (voice) tual genre. The reader is introduced to Patricia Abbott an explanation of the sound of the in their original context, the Executive Director influence of black-faced minstrelsy, the recording industry's role in pro• Association of Canadian Choral Conductors 2550 Baldwin mulgating the spiritual to the public, and the musical and social upheaval Montreal, QC H 1 L 5B2, Canada caused by the emergence of jazz. Lloyd then directs his narrative to the Hilary Apfelstadt work of Harry T. Burleigh, Hall Johnson, and William Dawson. Finally, Ohio State University, School of Music 1866 College Rd Lloyd shows how the spiritual evolved into today's concert solo reper• Columbus, OH 43210 toire. Richard J. Bloesch Conductors interested in how a composer influences and is influenced 2431 Crestview Ave Iowa City, IA 52245 by text in the compositional process will find Chester Alwes's article, David Castleberry "Words and Music: Benjamin Britten's 'Evening Primrose,"' an interest• Marshall University, Department of Music Huntington, WV 25755 ing and useful analysis of this artistic symbiosis. Alwes explains how Britten acted as poet/editor, and how the poem, "Evening Primrose," J. Michele Edwards 1844 Rome Avenue shaped Britten's choice of musical form and expressive tonality for this St. Paul, Ml 55116 composition. The analysis in this article begins with a careful Sharon A. Hansen deconstruction of what the poet wrote and how Britten altered certain University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Department of Music, School of Fine Arts words to achieve particular musical goals. Following this discussion, the P.O. Box413 Milwaukee, WI 53201 author explores Britten's melodic and harmonic decisions, connecting that understanding to the nature of the poem's rhythmic and textual Donald Oglesby University of Miami, School of Music characteristics. P.O. Box 248165 Coral Gables, FL 33124 The Dale Warland Singers, a professional ensemble, well known in the world of choral music, was disbanded by its conductor, Dale Warland in Robert Provencio California State University-Bakersfield May 2004. Diana Leland, past president of ACDA (1989-91), inter• 9001 Stockdale Hwy Bakersfield, CA 93311 viewed Warland in December 2003, so it is timely that her interview appears in this issue of the Choral journal The information contained in Lawrence Schenbeck Spelman College, Department of Music the interview introduces the reader to Warland's formative years and the Box 316, 350 Spelman Ln SW Atlanta, GA 30314 musical experiences and individuals that shaped his musical life. Many readers will find Warland's comments about auditioning singers, selecting Lyn Schenbeck LaGrange College, Director of Career Developem literature, commissioning compositions, rehearsing, conducting, and per• Artistic Coordinator, Friendship Ambassadors F0t forming insightful and enlightening. Like many energetic, successful Timothy W. Sharp conductors electing to retire, Dale Warland is not heading for the prover• Rhodes College, Department of Music 2000 N. Parkway bial hammock. He tells Leland that "I want to make it dear that I am Memphis, TN 38112 'reinventing and not retiring." Stephen Town NW MO State University, Department of Music 800 University Dr Maryville, MO 64468 Carroll Gonzo < info.nwmissouri.edu/-stown/homepage.htm> WHO AND WHAT IS

We are a nonprofit organization whose goal is to promote excellence in choral music.

We are a group of choral professionals whose joy comes from the performance, composition, publishing, research, and teaching the fine art of choral music.

From the smallest towns to the largest j cities across America, we strive to ·. t elevate the role of choral music and the way it touches our society.

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For information about ACDA and how you can become a member, visit us on the Web at , o write to us at P.O. Box 2720 Oklahoma City, OK 73101. 8 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 Many of the musical figures for this article can be viewed on our Web site at .

This article is based in part on the experience of collaborative perfor• mances by the Chamber Singers of Haverford and Bryn Mawr Col• leges, directed by the author, with the Fisk Jubilee Singers under the direction of Paul Kwami and the Howard University Choir under the direction of J. Weldon Norris. Thomas LIO"yc:I is associate professor recently visited Fisk University with a college chamber of music at Haverford choir with the intent of making a pilgrimage to the College, PA, director birthplace of the concert performance of the African- of the choral and vocal American spiritual. While there, we were fortunate to share a studies progtf-}n of concert with the current generation of the Fisk Jubilee Sing• HaverfQ.17:~ Bryn Mawr '·:.:i::·:•·:.. •·:<·' .::· ·:···,...,;~-a ers®, directed by Professor Paul T. Kwami. This landmark Colleges, and artistic campus on a hill looking over Nashville possesses a sense of director of the Bucks County history that permeates not only the buildings and grounds, Cher-al Soc~~-y, Doylestown, PA but also the imaginations of the current students as well, who . proudly carry on an important legacy of African-American education and empowerment. The most prominent building on campus still is Jubilee Hall, built with funds raised by the first two Jubilee Singers tours under the direction of George L. White and the inspired leadership of Fisk student and former slave, Ella Sheppard. Within Jubilee Hall hangs the famous portrait of the second group of Jubilee Singers painted by the English portraitist Edmund Havell at the time of the Singers' historic visit with Queen Victoria. The most surprising revelation came the next day at the begin• ning of our concert in Fisk Memorial Chapel. Eleven of the sixteen current members of the Jubi• lee Singers come out in the antebellum slave communities of the South to the imaginative choral ar• rangements of the outstanding compos• ers still building on this tradition today.3 As the result of recent research and reis• sues of historic recordings, it is possible to get closer to the heart of the spiritual, not in order to argue for the authenticity of one particular interpretation over another, but to see how the biblically-based folk songs of the slaveshave managed to main• tain their essential integrity in spite of being subjected to a daunting range of transformations, accommodations, and appropriations.4

The jubilee Singers in Victorian costumes The Sound of the Spirituals in Their OriginalContext on stage in Victorian costumes (on a swel• twentieth century.2 The first known recording of black teringly hot day) and moved into the The young performers sought to emu• spirituals is a Columbia cylinder of the exact same configuration as the eleven late their predecessors by singing with Standard Quartette singing Keep Movin', singers in the famous portrait in Jubilee directness, simplicity, restraint, and reso• recorded in 1894 in Washington, D.C. Hall. They presented a medley of spiritu• lute dignity. In between selections, they (see Example 2 ). This track and the The spirituals were sung using mostly one to introduce their historic characters first disc recordings of the spiritual, which simple four-part call-and-response har• using more relaxed inflections suggestive include five Victor tracks of the Dinwiddie monizations (as shown in Example of the conversational rural dialect of the Colored Quartet made in New York in 1 ). Some of these arrangements are the ensemble to sing another spiritual with tally restored historic recordings now from the collection published by former tightly unified diction and unmistakable available on the Document Records la• Jubilee Singers director John W Work conviction. Hearing the spirituals sung bel. 5 Unfortunately, the invention of III1 and are very close in style to those by a small ensemble without a conductor Edison's tin-foil cylinder phonograph in recorded by his father with the Fisk Jubi• instilled a desire to explore further the 1877 and Berliner's gramophone disc re• lee Quartet in the early decades of the evolution of the spiritual from its origins corder in 1887 came too late to record the spirituals as they were sung by the original Fisk Jubilee Singers, not to men• tion the slaves who first sang these songs at camp-meeting revivals, while working in the fields, or at clandestine church meetings.6 However, modern day descendents of the slave communities of the relatively remote Sea Islands chain of islands lining the east coast from Maryland to Florida have used their relative isolation to sus• tain older traditions that are thought to retain clear elements of nineteenth-cen• tury slave culture from its African roots. Folklorists Alan Lomax, Zora Neale .JA.ck:soN s1r::.1~1<.i:;y Hurston, and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle re• Varied Voicings corded these traditions beginning in 1935, Harp & Percussion including spirituals and "ring shouts" (a tradition with strong African roots, where dancers would move in a circle while sing• ers surrounded them with song, often ac• companied by rhythmic clapping)7 a division of Edwin F.Kalmus (561) 241-6169 PO Box 810157 Boca Raton, FL 33481 Example 3 . These ring shout ses-

10 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 sions that would often take place after • The singing was improvisatory in or less freely underneath, within late night worship services, could carry nature, with words and music traditional patterns.11 on for hours, late into the night, with passed on and embellished some songs starting slowly, and then through an oral tradition; this The First Tours of the gradually increasing in tempo until the method was often facilitated by gathering was roused into a frenzy. 8 Other the "call" of a strong lead singer Fisk Jubilee Singers kinds of spirituals could be sung slowly, and the "response" of those In 1867, a white, former Union army and drawn out with great feeling. One of gathered; sergeant named George L. White the early accounts of spirituals sung in (1838-95), became the treasurer and one their original context comes from the abo• • The singing was vigorous. It "would of the first teachers at the Fisk Free Col• litionist leader Frederick Douglass, recall• make the dense old woods, for ored School, funded by the American Mis• ing his days as a slave child on the miles around, reverberate with sionary Association, an abolitionist plantation: their wild songs" with a range organization. After a time, White began of vocal color from "speech• gathering a group of students together for [The spirituals] told a tale of woe like sounds" to "screaming and informal singing in his home, in part to which was then altogether beyond yelling;"!" keep his and their spirits from flagging in my feeble comprehension; they the midst of struggles to keep the new were tones loud, long, and deep, • The musical texture can best be school from going under. He was inspired they breathed the prayer and described as heterophony, by their voices and the dire financial straits complaint of souls boiling over with i.e.; rarely were the songs sung of the college, so he began arranging oc• the bitterest anguish. Every tone purely in unison or with the casional fund-raising concerts for the was testimony against slavery, and independence of individual choir. The repertoire was drawn from the a prayer to God for deliverance polyphonic voices, but there popular songs of the day, abolitionist from chains .... [I] did not, when was also no dear harmonic or , Scottish folks songs, and eventu• a slave, understand the deep rhythmic uniformity: The lead ally complete cantatas.12 meaning of those rude and voice carried the melody while The second president of the new

apparently incoherent songs.9 other voices harmonized more school, Adam Knight Spence, wrote in

From these and other contemporary sources, several elements of the original performance style of the spirituals can be deduced:

• Everyone who gathered together par• ticipated in the singing, some times at post-worship meetings with hundreds at a time-there was no passive audience;

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CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 11 1871 of an incident: "[O]ne day there no voice except a soloist's was to be came into my room a few students with heard above another. some air of mystery. The door was shut and locked, the window curtains were Because they were reluctant to drawn, and, as if a thing they were expose their songs to white ears, and ashamed of, they sang some of the because they would so often have old-time religious slave songs now to rehearse their pieces in hotel long since known as Jubilee rooms, their pianissimi [sic] would songs."13 Ella Sheppard, the become a kind of signature of the leader of this group of students, Jubilee sound. White used to 'tell who would become lead so• the singers to put into the tone prano, pianist, and onstage di• the intensity that they would give rector of the Jubilee Singers, to the most forcible one that they wrote of this experience: could sing, and yet to make it as "[Slitting upon the floor (there soft as they possibly could.' were but few chairs) [we sang] [T]hey sang with 'so much feeling softly, learning from each other in every syllable' because 'Mr.

the songs of our fathers. We did White drilled that into us.'15 not dream of ever using them in public.T? The style of singing described here George White began to work seems to be a far cry from the free, closely with the students, transcribing robust communal singing in the fields of some of the songs into musical notation ante-bellum plantations. It would also be and encouraging Ella Sheppard and the hard to dismiss the view of some in the other students to work out arrangements black community at the time that per• of the songs that they could perform in use if we were speaking to the forming the spirituals in concert in this public. White then organized the group audience.' He had a horror of harsh way represented a humiliating accommo• into a resolutely disciplined ensemble. tones: everything was softened; in dation to white audiences. They saw it as Andrew Ward outlines some of the writ• fact, esses [sic] were not just an inappropriate sharing of a part of their ten accounts from the first student sing• softened but sometimes omitted. cultural heritage that was painful and bet• ers concerning George White's approach They were to sing with their ter to be kept within the collective to singing in this way: mouths open wide enough to fit a memory of the people who suffered un• finger between their teeth. The der slavery. By the turn of the century, 'He insisted we use the same singers had to blend with each there were even a few open rebellions in naturalness of expression we would other, listen to the entire ensemble; black colleges such as Fisk and Howard, and in some prominent black churches against the idea of performing spiritu• als.16 As time passes, the achievements of the Fisk Jubilee Singers continue to be appreciated as more courageous and far• reaching in influence than may have been Soeuut~tp Steedtoa realized at the time. 76e e~ 'iii!~ s~ Countering the Images of Black-faced Minstrelsy The final abolition of slavery by the passage of the thirteenth amendment to Specializing exclusively in CD production for choral ensembles, SoundByte the Constitution in 1865 initiated one of Studios is better suited than anyone to handle your recording project. The best the most dramatic social transformations choice for I 00 or I 00,000 CDs, Sound Byte Studios can take your project from in history, as four million newly freed any point, and see it through to completion. slaves began to recreate themselves after We'd like to know what we can do for you! three centuries of servitude, arbitrary sev• erance of family ties, and prohibitions SoundByte Studios www.ChoirCD.com against education. Entire communities 225 East Deerpath Road (866) SO-CHOIR (502-4647) and an educational and economic system Suite 223 had to be created from scratch. Even in Recording Services available nationwide; the northern states to which many of the Lake Forest, lllinois 60045 local engineers in Chicago, Champaign, Indianapolis, and New York newly freed slaves fled, the predominant

12 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 Assessing the cultural and purely musical images of Af• part of our cultural "wallpaper" at this rican-Americans were derived from black• point that the words or their original con• Achievements of the faced minstrelsy. text are rarely considered.19 Eileen South• Fisk Jubilee Singers Although this movement is sometimes ern summarizes the contradictions of this Seen in this context, it was quite star• viewed today as a quaint, racist relic on musical genre in this way: tling for white audiences to see on stage a the fringe of American culture, it was, in group of nine former slaves, dressed not in the tatters ofJim Crow or the slick-city outfits of Zip Coon, but in simple, digni• fied suits and gowns, performing the spiri• tual songs of the slaves with a restraint, As time passes, the achievementsof control, and expressive intensity that would take the audience's breath away. the Fisk jubilee Singers continue to be One listener closely affiliated with the appreciated as more courageous and singers, Mary Spence, observed: [The opening pianissimo was so] for-reaching in influence than may exquisite in quality, full of the deepest feeling, so exceedinglysoft have been realized at the time. that it could hardly be heard, yet because of its absolute purity carrying to the farthest part of any large hall, it commanded the fact, the dominant form of entertainment The practices of 'Ethiopian' attention of every audience. As the for the entire last half of the nineteenth minstrels in the nineteenth century tone floated out a little louder, century. Offshoots continued into the established unfortunate stereotypes clearer, rose to the tremendous next century, in radio and television shows of black men-as shiftless, crescendo of My Lord Calls Me, and such as Amos 'n Andy, which remained irresponsible, thieving, happy-go• diminished again into exquisite hugely popular into the 1960s. What was lucky 'plantation darkies'-that pianissimo sweetness, the most then also known as "Ethiopian minstrelsy'' persisted into the twentieth century critical enemy was conquered.21 involved the appropriation of black folk on the vaudeville stage, in musical songs by professional white performers comedy, on the movie screen,radio, In four tours between 1871 and 1882, whose faces were blackened by cork. They and television. And yet, blackface the vocal ensemble of between nine and successfully sought to draw laughter at minstrelsywas a tribute to the black eleven singers succeeded beyond anyone's the expense of the black characters they man's music and dance, in that the wildest expectations. They achieved their mimed, in particular the slickly urban leading figuresof the entertainment initial goal of raising a huge sum of money "Zip Coon" and the laggardly plantation world spent the better part of the ($150,000) for the survival of Fisk Uni• hand "Jim Crow." (The latter's name was nineteenth century imitating his versity that would go on to educate a later given to the whole era of racial segre• style." gation in the South).17 Following eman• cipation, black performers also began to form their own minstrel groups, re-claim• ing the material in their own fashion, in order to take advantage of the only av• NEW CHORAL MUSIC FOR 2004 enue to the theater and concert stage avail• by award-winning composer able to them at the time.18 Many of the songs that came out of Elizabeth Alexander this era are still with us today, such as Polly-wolly-doodle, Buffalo Gals, Arkansas ... and some of the world finest poets Traveler, Turkey in the Straw (which is the name of the instrumental version of Ol' Folks, I'm Te/ling You (Langston Hughes) Zip Coon), among many others, because The Earth Called My Friend (Nancy wood) their melodies, originating in black folk I Write This Poem Out Of Darkness (George Ella Lyon) culture, are great tunes that easily and pleasantly stay in the memory. Unlike the Even a Fist Was Once an Open Palm (Yehuda Amichal) spirituals, however, the words did not Climb (Edna St. Vincent Miiiay) • Morning Bread (Amy Lowell) originate with the tunes, and often still Why I Pity the Woman Who Never Spills (Joan Wolf Prefontaine) reflect, in subtle or not so subtle ways, the Other Choral Pieces and Excerpts Available on Website Oeafarer CfJress ridicule intended by black-face perform• ers. These songs have become so much a (800) 278-2087 www.seafarerpress.com

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 1 13 range of important leaders, from early literary figures such as WE.B. DuBois and James Weldon Johnson, to political {T}he jubilees were also pioneers leaders such as John Lewis and Alcee Hastings. The Jubilees introduced the in the dawning struggle for civil rights spiritual songs of the slaves to millions of listeners across the northeastern United States and Europe. In so doing, they by refusing to perform in auditoriums served to preserve a cornerstone of Afri• can-American culture for their own or churches that prohibited attendance people and to bequeath to the world one of its most life-affirming cultural lega• by blacks. cies. Even in the early days of the first tour when they needed every cent of ticket way, such as the segregation of Pullman that higher education was wasted on revenue just to keep going, the Jubilees rail cars in 1880.22 blacks. But without abandoning were also pioneers in the dawning Andrew Ward has aptly summarized their own culture and traditions, the struggle for civil rights by refusing to the lasting impact of the music they per• Jubilees provided vivid and perform in auditoriums or churches that formed and the way they performed it. convincing proof to the contrary. prohibited attendance by blacks. They Their music demonstrated to the confronted the harsh segregation of pub• What the Jubilees accomplished for world that there was something of lic accommodations in the supposedly themselves and the nation was lasting value in African-American more hospitable North, often by remind• to demonstrate the dignity, culture. 23 ing hotel managers and restaurateurs how intelligence, and educability of differently they had been treated in Eu• black Americans. In the circles of Word of the Fisk Jubilee Singers' suc• rope. They had some success in breaking the wealthy, a man might once have cess spread quickly among the other newly a number of racial barriers along the gotten away with casually remarking emerging colleges such as the Hampton Institute in Virginia and the Fairfield Nor• mal Institute in South Carolina. 24 How• ever, this increased touring activity diluted critical financial support for touring en• sembles from church foundations. By the time of the fourth tour of the Fisk Jubilee Singers (1879-82), decreased funding from the American Missionary Associa• tion forced them to operate independently of the university. The Fisk Singers had adopted the name "Jubilee" (associated with the biblical "year of Jubilee" when all slaves were to be freed) to differentiate themselves from minstrel groups and their repertory. 25 However, their popular success had such The National Male Choirs Reperl:Dire 8e StandardsChajr an effect that minstrel groups began to is beingvacated. If you are interested tn tbis position, call themselves "Jubilees," as they took the new sacred songs and added them to please send a resume and short "Statement of Intent" to: portions of their shows, mocking the reli• gious gatherings of the slaves. 26 By the end of the fourth tour, the Nancy Cox, National R&S Chajr declining health of George White and exhaustion of Ella Sheppard led to two 824E.Elm separate Fisk Jubilee Singer groups being Altus, OK 73521 formed by two of their singers, Frederick Loudin and Maggie Porter. Both groups [email protected] toured the world, including East Asia, until the turn of the century. But by then, Applicant submission deadline is St3~1:>.fil'JI:)LgQQ1 the Jubilees were all but lost in the crowd of imitators and minstrel troupes. 27 W E. B. DuBois observed: "Since their day they

14 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 have been imitated-sometimes well, by Although the company's advertising copy nouncement of the first Fisk recording the singers of Hampton and Atlanta, described the spiritual's religious content promoted a new release of Down Where sometimes ill, by straggling quartets. Cari• as "quaint conceptions" that "sometimes the Big Bananas Grow by black-face co• cature has sought again to spoil the quaint excite to laughter," it nevertheless labeled medians Collins and Harlan-"another beauty of the music, and has filled the air them "folk songs" rather than "coon of those real darky shouts by the ever with many debased melodies which vul• songs," the only category reserved for welcome 'Kings ofComedy."'34 However, gar ears scarce know from the real."28 Black music of any kind. Victor also took Victor's investment in the Fisks paid off, the unusual step of listing the names of as recordings of the Jubilee Quartet re• The Popularityof the quartet on the label as a means of leased between 1910 and the early 1920s, Early Recordings of the assuring the audience of the authenticity primarily by Victor, but also by Colum• of the Fisk connection.32 Their cover bia, have been estimated at over two mil• Fisk JubileeQuartet photo was in concert dress, white tie, and lion copies sold.35 However, the next generation of Fisk tails.33 The page opposite Victor's an- The exigencies of the recording indus- Jubilee Singers created one more major resurgence of the spiritual into main• stream American popular culture. In 1899, John W Work II (1871-1925), a young member of the Fisk faculty, set out to reclaim the integrity of the spiritual by forming a touring male quartet, of which he was first tenor. 29 Reasons for forming a male quartet to carry on the tradition are open to speculation, but the barber• shop quartet movement had begun to flourish around 1895,30 and the voicing of the Fisk Quartet arrangements had some similarities with the sartorial genre, having the top voice float freely in har• mony above the lead melody in the sec• ond tenor. The development of a Fisk Jubilee male quartet may have been beneficial when ten years later John Work negotiated a significant contract with the Victor Talk• ing Machine Company for a series of com• mercial recording sessions. Acoustic recording at the time required perform• ing into a large horn (similar to the Victrola horn seen on Victor's famous "his master's voice" emblem). This reduced the number of performers who could be ef• fectively recorded. Recording engineers tended to favor strong, focused male voices over larger ensembles with a higher or more diffuse sound.31 John Work and his early collaborators (who included James Myers, tenor, Alfred King or Leon O'Hara baritone, and Noah Ryder, bass) certainly met those requirements. Their voices were resonant, vibrant, beautifully centered, and deftly tuned. The four• voiced harmonies were perfectly balanced and rhythmically unified. These impres• sive performances were all done in one or at most two complete recordings. In the early years of an industry that had thus far recorded exclusively white artists, Victor was taking something of a risk by recording the Fisk Quartet.

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 15 cry had contributed to having the spiri• nizacions worked out by Ella Sheppard cion, and the lower parts moving with tual presented to the world in what was and her fellow Jubilees, the melodic and characteristic harmonic progressions, al• probably an even more intimate and re• harmonic language can be heard as re• beit ones chat have been decided upon in fined style than chat of the first Fisk en• maining connected to the music of the advance.35 sembles. Again, chis would seem to be plantation fields. These arrangements fairly distant from the communal style share several elements chat point to the Performance Characteristics original musical textures of the slave sing• and social context of the oppressive plan• of Early Recordings tation conditions under which the spiri• ers discussed earlier: the call-and-response For example, in the I 909 recording of tuals were first sung. However, insofar as form with a song leader and harmonizers, I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray,36 John the quartet arrangements still reflect the the lead singer taking creative liberties Work's voice soars above the melody quite relatively straightforward choral harrno- with the melody or its upper harrnoniza- freely and expressively, revealing an im• provisatory artistry associated with the spiritual far beyond the vocal conventions of other quartet genres such as barber• shop. (Example 4 .) Another cut from a Victor recording session two years later, Po' Mourner's Got a Home at Last,38 is remarkable for its divergence from tra• ditional harmonization. (Example 5 .) Until the final cadence, there is no four-part harmony at all, but rather unisons, solos, and duets with the high tenor and low bass in octaves on the word• less, free vocalizations of the refrain. Up• tempo spirituals such as 0 Mary Don't You Weep Don't You Mourn (recorded for Columbia in 191539) swing with an in• fectious rhythmic buoyancy and a pulse that never wavers. (Example 6 .) FOR MORE INF·ORMATION CONTACT THE TC:U SCHOOL or: Music One crack from these early recordings, Be) -297500 FoRTWORTH TX 76129 17-257-7)02 hrt :! Old Black Joe, bears mentioning in light of the earlier discussion of the minstrel movement. The 1909 Victor recording of the Fisk Quartet singing Old Black Joe by Stephen Foster (1826-64)40 is remarkable for a most unusual, haunting arrange• We do our thing ... ment. John Work's tenor is heard floating way above Noah Ryder's bass on the melody, a spacious, almost symphonic use of solo voices. The text, depicting the So you can do yours! nostalgia of an old male slave for times gone by, speaks of "the days when my Performance Tours heart was young and gay" and "Where are the hearts once so happy and free?" Eastern & Western Europe (Example 7 .) Foster's songs were a regular and popu• lar part of the Fisk Jubilee Singers' non• spiritual repertoire. America's most famous songwriter of the era, Foster aspired to reform the demeaning aspects of the min• strel repertoire with carefully crafted melo• Concept Tours, Inc., 170 W 7 4th Street, New York, NY 10023 dies consciously written in emulation Tel: 800-300-8841: 212-580-0760: Fax: 212-874-4554 (some would later say appropriation) of www.concept-tours.corn / [email protected] the black spirituals. His songs rornanti-

16 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE I cized the plantation life of the slaves while their formal photograph in white tie and formance for the original Fisk Jubilee glossing over the harsh realities of that tails on the cover, would reach millions. Singers, the dignity and emotional direct• life, making them easier for white audi• As different as this was from the picture ness with which the songs were performed ences to hear. Foster's songs were peren• of a large community of people in bond• coaxed a wide range of listeners to re• nial favorites of black minstrel groups as age singing for their collective survival, spond to this music seriously and on its well as the Jubilee Singers, were looked the essential musical form of the spiritu• own expressive terms. upon favorably by no less a black leader als remained intact: unaccompanied sing- of the time than WE.B Du Bois, and were performed by prominent black re• citalists in the twentieth century such as Harry T. Burleigh and Paul Robeson. During the civil rights movement of the Foster's songs were a regular and popu• 1960s, there was a reaction against the legacy of minstrelsy and Foster's proxim• lar part of the Fisk jubilee Singers' ity to the genre, but later scholarship saw his contribution in a more positive light non-spiritual repertoire. for its perceived role in promoting racial reconciliation. 41 At the end of 1916, John Work retired from the quartet and handed over the ing, a lead voice carrying the melody with Musical and Social Upheaval leadership to the second tenor, Reverend an improvisatory feeling, and characteris• in the Jazz Age James Myers, whose wife Henrietta (al• tic harmonization underneath, albeit with The social and musical upheaval of the ways listed as "Mrs. James A. Myers") concert hall clarity. The religious and po• 1920s provided the greatest challenge the also became involved. Though generally litical implications of the texts were prob• spiritual would yet faced in maintaining unheard while doubling one of the middle ably missed by most of an audience still its integrity while avoiding extinction. By parts, she eventually took over leadership enthralled by minstrel tunes. However, as the end of this period, it would find itself of the Fisk Jubilees upon her husband's was the case in a different mode of per- no longer sharing market space with the death in 1928. 42 Recording sessions con• tinued, with Columbia and smaller la• bels,43 but these never sold nearly as well as the earlier Victor recordings (which remained in the catalog until 192844). The performances never quite ascend to the level of the sessions led by Work. A comparison between the 1909 (Victor) and 1920 (Columbia) takes of Roll, Jor• dan, Rol! shows the earlier recording to be much more vibrant and expressively ener• gized with Work's soaring tenor on top.45 (Examples 8 and 9 .) Interestingly, the later recording also raises the famous lowered seventh of the refrain, contrary to the earlier recording and the version later notated by Work's son.46 A dramatic difference in dynamic shading occurs with the wider frequency range of the first elec• tronic recordings of the Fisks by Colum• bia in 1926, here with a quintet led by Reverend and Mrs. Myers.47 (Example 10 .) The music of the spirituals had again 1-800-886-2055 reached an international mass audience, ACFEA Tour Consultants FAX : (415) 453-6725 this time through the medium of a new 1567 Fourth Street EMAIL: [email protected] San Rafael, CA 94901 technology that would revolutionize the WEB SITE: W\l\IW.acfea.com world of music. The spirituals were now presented by four men singing alone in a Fourteen offices worldwide room, one-on-a-part, through a mega• CST 2063085·40 phone. The resulting record albums, with CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 17 icons of American pop culture, but in In the black churches, the spiritual had mingbirds, the Soul Stirrers, and Swan exchange would reach safer and more been almost completely replaced in wor• Silvertones.53 permanent places to grow, in the concert ship by charismatic , which hall and in the repertory of professional, had come into its own by adapting the Harry T. Burleigh and school, church, and community choirs harmonies, rhythms, and instrumental all over the world. accompaniments of the and jazz to the Solo Spiritual In the wake of the first World War, in the congregational lining-out of hymns The next form in which the spiritual which over 200,000 black men fought that had continued since the Great Re• captured the imagination of the concert• and served (including those in a number vival.P" As demonstrated in recording ses• going and record-collecting public was of outstanding service bands), the secular sions continuing into the 1920s, the Fisk the solo song accompanied by piano. This side of black folk music began to break groups firmly held the line against any form was given birth by Harry T. Burleigh the shackles of minstrelsy and strike out encroachment by the newly popular styles, (1866-1949), a successful baritone recit• with an independence of its own. Black maintaining an unaccompanied vocal tex• alist and composer. As a student at the artists developed their folk music tradi• ture with subtly inflected melodies and National Conservatory in New York, tions in a way that caught the attention straightforward harmonies.51 However, Burleigh worked closely with the esteemed of the tunesmiths of Tin Pan Alley and Tim Brooks noted that even the leading Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904). Respond• the leading modernist composers of Eu• black journals of the day (which usually ing to his teacher's interest in the spiri• rope. What became known as "jazz" grew made a point of celebrating black artistic tual, he sang the songs for him for hours out of the emergence of ragtime, brass accomplishment) such as The Freeman, on end, inspiring Dvorak to challenge band music, syncopated dance music, and the New York Age, and The Crisis (the American composers to develop a national the blues.48 Well suited to the energies of journal of the NAACP) made little refer• style of their own with the spiritual as a 54 the age, this music was aggressive, sensu• ence to the Fisk recordings, even in the foundation. One biographer reported a ous, and the instruments of the band years of their peak popularity.52 By the story that Dvorak changed the famous claimed center stage. The influence of end of the "roaring 20s," the male quartet spiritual-like solo in the slow movement the spiritual was not completely obscured had moved on from the spiritual to gos• of his New World Symphony to be played by all this high energy,49 but it was in• pel, with groups such as the Dixie Hum- by English horn instead of clarinet, in creasingly viewed by a younger genera• order to match the color of Burleigh's tion as a musical relic of the past. voice. 55 His 1916 publication of the jubi-

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18 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 lee Songs of the United States of America sound and musicality to the genre. where for one or two voices on a part, was the first published collection of spiri• Violinist, violist, and composer Hall improvisation did not need to be written tual arrangements for solo voice and pi• Johnson (1888-1970) formed an en• out. (Figure 1) ano. By the mid- l 920s, outstanding black semble of eight singers in 1925 that grew Johnson's choir and his fresh arrange• concert singers such as Roland Hayes to twenty by the time the choir made its ments were so well received, he was soon (1887-1976), Paul Robeson (1898-1976), New York City concert and Victor re• engaged for a Broadway musical, The and Marian Anderson (1902-93) began cording debuts in 1928.57 (Example 13 Green Pastures (1930), which then to make recordings of the song arrange• .) Johnson was looking for a differ• version in 1936.58 This hugely successful with significant popular success. (Hayes ent kind of compositional style to evoke landmark production offered Johnson the can be heard with the Fisk Jubilee Quar• the sound he heard from the former slaves opportunity to reach a large audience tet on second tenor in five tracks recorded of his Georgia childhood. In an interview with his new choral arrangements, which by Edison on cylinder in 1911. 56) The with Eileen Southern, he said that he are heard almost continuously through• authoritative voices of these great singers sought to preserve "[T]he conscious and out the show. Opinion among black crit• gave a much more intensely personal ex• intentional alterations of pitch often ics at the time was divided. Some critics, pression to the now familiar spirituals, made .... The unconscious, but amazing such as Langston Hughes, decried the with the piano giving the harmonization and bewildering counterpoint produced Pulitzer Prize winning play for its rein• a purely instrumental inflection. (Ex• by so many voices in individual improvi• forcement of many of the typical stereo• amples 11, 12 .) the pulsing, overall rhythm, combining customs. Others, most notably James many varying subordinate rhythrnsY Weldon Johnson, were so moved by the Hall Johnsonand the Johnson sought to bring the palpable opportunity it created for black actors to Emergence of Larger sound of the community singing of the display the highest level of artistry, they Mixed Professional slave songs on the plantations to the con• were willing to overlook limitations they cert hall by involving a larger number of felt the actors transcended.59 As such, the Vocal Ensembles voices in more complex counterpoint. Broadway show, movie, and subsequent Meanwhile, new professional vocal en• Ironically, this led to a more highly• touring shows (many of which were sembles devoted to the spiritual with larger evolved compositional style, where the closed to black audiences) represented a numbers of women's and men's voices be• hand of the composer came to the fore return of the kind of broad exposure the gan to emerge, bringing a more vigorous more than in the earlier arrangements, spiritual received through the tours of

(73) ff > s > A

Rock, E - Ii - jah! Shout, shout! Rock, E - Ii - jah! Com-in' up, Lord - y!

T B

Oh. E - Ii - jah, rock! Shout, shout! E - Ii - jah, rock! Com-in' up, Lord, Oh,

> > >

Com - in' up, Lord. s A

jah! Com - in' up, Lord.

T B

E - Ii - jah, rock! Shout, shout! E - Ii - jah, rock! Com - in' up, Lord.

Figure 1. Hall Johnson, Elijah Rock, mm. 74 - 80.

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 1 19 the early Fisk Jubilee Singers and the re• Historical Black Colleges faced more of a came with the leadership of William L. cordings of the Fisk Quartet. struggle, affected not only by changing Dawson (1899-1990), who directed the Another important professional choir musical fashions, but also by drastic bud- Tuskegee Institute Choir in Alabama to emerge in the late 1920s was conducted by Eva Jessye (1895-1992), who became the first black woman to be internation• ally recognized as a professional choral conductor.61 She gained further promi• Dawson's arrangements and the sound nence through her work as chorus direc• tor for the operatic premiers of Virgil of his choirs introduced a more vigorous Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts and George Gershwin's Porgya nd Bess. 62 Many style of singing the spirituals. of the leading black concert artists of the day passed through Eva jessye's choirs. Professional black choirs continue to play an important role in the preservation and get retrenchment in their institutions from 1931-55. Dawson began his tenure advancement of the spiritual, ranging from brought on by the Depression. Fisk Uni• at Tuskegee by bringing a 100-voice longstanding groups such as the Albert versity decided to disband the Jubilee college choir to perform for an entire McNeil] ubilee Singers in Los Angeles (be• Singers in 1932 until their director, week at the opening of Radio City Music ginning in 1968) and the Brazeal Dennard Henrietta (Mrs. James) Myers, formed a Hall in New York City in 1932. Chorale in Detroit (from 1972) to newer successful octet touring group and per• Dawson's arrangements and the sound groups such as the Moses Hogan Chorale suaded the university to stay the course.63 of his choirs introduced a more vigorous in New Orleans and the recently formed Recordings of the octet under Mrs. Myers's style of singing the spirituals. In Nathaniel Dett Chorale in Toronto. direction64 show the arrangements mov• arrangements such as his Ezekiel saw de ing in a more choral direction. Mean• wheel, Ev 'ry Time I Feel the Spirit, and while, the college began to develop a larger Ain '-a That Good News! the rhythmic William L. Dawson and the all-student mixed choir, as was the case at momentum of the song brings to mind Emergence of Large Mixed many other schools, such as the Hamp• the contemporary accounts of the slaves Choirs in the Historical ton Institute under the Canadian-born singing in a ring shout, where they Black Colleges composer R. Nathaniel Dett. "would make the dense old woods, for During this same pre-war period, the A major step forward in the performance miles around, reverberate with their wild professional touring ensembles from the of the spirituals by larger college choirs songs."65 His trademark closing phrases

20 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 are full of richly voiced extended The Spiritual spiritual to penetrate the minds of its harmonies that bring the accumulated as Freedom Song listeners with the meaning the songs had rhythmic energy to an ecstatic conclusion. Looking back, we can see how each of in the hearts of those who performed (Example 14 .) Some of his of the concert spiritual managed to pre• slaves. arrangements of the slower songs, serve some but not all elements of what Certainly, once the music had sur• especially Steal Away explore unexpected we think of as how the spirituals origi• vived the popular exposure of triumphant harmonic regions and take on the nally sounded. The first touring groups world tours, hit recordings of quartets or character of an extended tone poem, of the Fisk Jubilee Singers established the renowned soloists, and the Hollywood looking at the same material from essential dignity of the songs, allowing fanfare of the movies, there would be different points of view (Figure 2). In them to speak to new audiences with sim• more space to present the music for its this, he was not unlike his contemporaries plicity and directness. The male quartets own sake. In the concert hall, academy, Hall Johnson and R. Nathaniel Dett, showed how vocal refinement could re• or church, spirituals could be performed who were unafraid to let their musical veal an intimacy and pure songfulness in alongside affectionate commentary on training and imagination build highly the spirituals that might otherwise have their origins and meaning. However, it original arrangements that went well been missed. The great soloists displayed was perhaps only with the recruitment of beyond the simple harmonization of the the artistry of subtly improvised inflec• the spiritual to the service of the Civil folk melodies. An unusually large number tion, in the way that a slave song leader Rights Movement in the 1960s that the of Dawson's arrangements are still among might have put his personal stamp on a songs came into their own as music that the most performed of any composer in song. The extended arrangements for large told a story and inspired action. More the choral repertoire, and remain models professional and college choirs revived a often than not, the original words were for many composers who have followed sense of the collective power of commu• changed to make the already multi-lay• in the tradition. nal singing. But while all this creativity ered symbolic meanings of the spirituals preserved and re-invigorated the music of explicit to the modern ear. However, it the spiritual, it was still a struggle for the was not a far stretch to modify the text of

68 ff a tempo f ==~-ppp >.------p s ------

Steal a-way, steal a-way, steala - way,------steal a-way home, _ a tempo pp PPP > -r- > A

Steal a - way, steal a - way, _ steal a-way, __ steal a - way. _ a tempo pp PPP • > > -r- > T

Steal a - way, steal a- way,------steal a - way,_

Steal a - way,

74 p PP======-=~--pppp "'

steal a - way _ home.(hum) _ pp======-- pppp "' ._ .... _ steal a-way, steal a-~ home.(hum) _ Soli for 3 Tenors p

> > s: ain 'r got long to stay here, steal a-way, steal a-way, steal a - way. __ ======~--pppp "' steal a- way, steal a - way,_ a-way ho·-•me.(hum) ------· Figure 2. William L. Dawson, Steal Away, Ending, mm. 68 - 80.

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 21 the spiritual Hold On! from "Keep on college students joining their black broth• American spiritual in the enslavement of climbin', and don't you tire,/ Ev'ry rung ers and sisters in singing freedom songs in one group of people by another make it goes high'r and high'r," to "We're gonna the 1960s, as a white director of pre• significant. It is a measure of the achieve• ride for civil rights,/ we're gonna ride both dominantly white choirs, I am frequently ment of the people who first sang these black and white."66 The revival of the approached by my white students with a melodies that their songs not only served spiritual as freedom song, sung by whole confession that they don't feel right about to sustain a sense of hope for the slave rooms or streets full of people whose only singing the spirituals. On one level this community through great adversity, but audience was a transfixed world looking expression of unformed white guilt also have gone on to speak powerfully of on, was not just a by-product of the move• reflects an admirable recognition that this the desire for hope in the face of despair ment, but an essential expression of music grows out of the suffering of a for people all over the world as America's its heart and soul. (Example 15 people who were enslaved by the society most recognizable form of vocal music. .) With a new awareness of the And yet, to assume that people who not composed in our own contemporary unfinished business of the Emancipation are not African-American are categorically community, interpretation requires a Proclamation, the spiritual was under• unable to connect as performers with the meeting of two different cultures. We stood again as a powerful vehicle for the underlying meaning of the spiritual risks must first seek to understand the origins expression of human sorrow, active resis• taking us back to the very basis of racism: of the spiritual-such things as its reli• tance to injustice, and confidence in a the denial of another people's common gious and political meaning for the slave just future. humanity because of racial distinctions. community who first sang them, its lay• Most great works of art have attained ers of symbolic subtext related to seeking Performing the Spirituals universal status because they are able to escape from slavery, and the nature of the articulate ideas and emotions coming out choir for which the arranger wrote, even Today of a very particular time and place in a the sound of that choir if recordings are The challenge of building racial justice way that other people can readily under• available. All this is in an effort to seek to and understanding in American society is stand, even in vastly different cultural and understand the music on its own terms, still very much an unfinished business historic situations. as close to the full context of its origins as today. Though there were many white Certainly the origins of the African- we can. However, the next step is not to try to imitate one of the great Hall Johnson or Tuskegee Institute choirs, but to look honestly at our own choirs, our own experiences, our own cultural per• spectives, and try to find lines of connec• tion. Our goal, as with any music, should be to sing the music honoring the integ• rity of the song and its creators and the innate character and identity of our par• ticular ensemble.

NOTES I John W. Work (III), American Negro Songs and Spirituals (New York: Bonanza Books, 1940). 2 Fisk jubilee Singers Volumes 1 ( 1909-1911) and 2 (1915-1920). Document Records, DOCD-5533,5534; for recent recordings of the current Fisk Jubilee Singers under Paul Kwami, see the college Web site at . .l This experience at Fisk also brought to mind that I could not remember having heard We look forward to helping you grow! one of the many still thriving Historical Contact Amy Thomas or Ron Granger at: Black College choirs at an ACDA convention in recent years. If my memory P.O. Box 2720, Oklahoma City, OK 73101 is not miscaken, che wider choral communicy is missing out on che Phone: (405) 232-8161 Fax: (405) 232-8162 opportunity co remain connected to the most essential living link to the history or Email at [email protected] of America's important concribucion to

22 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 choral repertoire. (Smithsonian/Folkways SF 40031). More 1972) 416; Ward, 399-400. 4 17 For a thorough recent discussion of issues of recently, Bernice Johnson Reagon has For an introduction to black-face minstrelsy, authenticity related to the understanding recorded the congregational singing of see Southern The Music, 89-96, and of the spiritual (well beyond stylistic current churches who still remain tied to Bean, Hatch, McNamara ed., Inside the performance issues), see Jon Cruz, these earlier ways of singing: Wade in the Minstrel Mask-Readings in Nineteenth• Culture on the Margins-The Black Water, Volume II, African-American Century Blackface Minstrelsy (Hanover, Spiritual and the Rise of American Cultural Congregational Singing (Smithsonian/ NH: Wesleyan University Press, 1996). Interpretation. (Princeton: Princeton U. Folkways, CD SF40073). For a thorough discussion of the broader Press, 1999). Cruz credits educators in 8 Southern, 181-2. cultural ramifications and complexities of the new black colleges for preserving a 9 Frederick F. Douglass, Narrative of the Lift of the minstrel period, see Eric Lott, Love cultural tradition that was otherwise in Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, and Theft-BlackfaceM instrelsy and the danger of being lost (the freed slaves often Written by Himself(I845; reprint, New American Working Class. Lott's thesis is showed little interest in preserving the York: Penguin Books, 1982), 58 (quoted that the minstrelsy movement represented songs because they reminded them of by Cruz, Culture, 23). For a detailed a complex love/hare relationship between their oppression, while white society study of the ante-helium origins of the white society and black culture, a way in treated black musical sources with black spiritual, see Dena]. Epstein, Sinfal which whites deal with their fascination ridicule and appropriation). But at the Tunes and Spirituals-Black Folk Music with this culture and their repressed need same time, he feels this wider exposure to the Civil War (Urbana: University of to overcome racial segregation, not led to a romanticized approach by Illinois Press, 1977). because of the injustice it brought to northern white liberal abolitionists and a 10 Southern, 201-3. blacks, bur because of the void it left in detached scientific approach by emerging 11 Southern, 198. white culture. 18 academic folklorists, both of which served 12 Andrew Ward, Dark Midnight When 1 Rise Southern, 237. 19 to distance the observers from the people (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Ir doesn't rake much to see the offence who originally sang the spirituals and 2000) 83, 90. Ward's book contains a intended in some of the texts, like "Ol' their predicament, and by extension, the thorough and detailed account of the Dan Tucker," who "washed his face with predicament they faced in the rapidly origins and first tours of the Fisk] ubilee a fryin' pan, combed his hair with a industrializing and segregated North Singers, and was accompanied by a video wagon wheel," etc., but with other songs alongside the failure of Reconstruction documentary produced by WGBH and whose words on the surface seem more in the South. Nashville Public Television for the PBS benign (i.e., "Turkey in the Straw"), the The Earliest Negro Vocal Quartets-1894- American Experience series: Llewellyn fact that their crude texts were applied to 1928. Document Records: DOCD-5061. Smith and Andrew Ward,jubilee Singers: black folk music by white entertainers For a complete catalogue listing of Sacrifice and Glory (60") available solely for rhe purpose of enhancing the Document's historic re-issues, see through . ridicule intended by their farcically 13 Adam Knight Spence, undated lecture, Mary costumed and choreographed dance (recordings of spirituals are found in the Elizabeth Spence Collection, Notebooks; performances should at least give one 5000 series). quoted in Ward, 110. pause before singing them. 6 14 20 Eileen Southern notes that while the slaves Ella Sheppard Moore, "Historical Sketch of Southern, 96. 21 were often forbidden from gathering the Jubilee Singers," quoted in Ward, Mary Spence, "A Character Sketch of George independently for church services out of 110. L. White," Hsk University News, Oct. fear of fomenting rebellions, their masters 15 Ward, 114-115. 1911 (Fisk University Collection), 16 usually preferred to hear them singing in John Lovell, Jr., Black Song: The Forge and quoted by Ward, 153-4. 22 the fields as a way to know that they the Flame (New York: Paragon House, Joe M. Richardson, History of Fisk University were working, and to track how far along they had progressed. (The Music of Black ------·--~~-- Americans-A History, Third Edition. [New York: W.W.Norton, 1997] 161). She also remarks that many whites chose to interpret the singing of the slaves as a sign of contentment with their condition (Ibid., 177). 7 Among the numerous recordings of Sea Island singing are Southern Journey, Vol. 12 - Georgia Sea Islands-Biblical Songs and Spirituals (Rounder, CD 1712), The Mcintosh County Shouters-Slave Shout Songs from the Coast of Georgia (Smithsonian/Folkways, CD FE 4344), Been So Long in the Storm-Spirituals, Folk Tales and Children s Games from John's Island, South Carolina

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE I 23 1865-1946 (University of Alabama: Negro Songs and Spirituals (New York: (1909), DOCD-5534 track 17 (1920). 1980) 49 (cited in Ward, 383). Bonanza Books, 1940). John Work II 46 Work, American Negro Songs 199. 23 Ward, 394-5. and his folklorist brother Frederick 47 Document-Records DOCD-5535 tracks 24 Southern, 229. published several collections and histories 3-8 (1926). 48 25 Ward, 139. of the spiritual, most notably Folk Song Southern, 365ff. 26 Lott, 235-6. of the American Negro (New York: Negro 49 See James H. Cone's penetrating look at the 27 Ward, 373-93. Universities Press, 1915). connections between spirituals and the 28 W.E.B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk 37 Document-Records DOCD-5533 track 2 blues, in The Spirituals and the Blues: An (1903; reprint ed., New York: Signet (1909). Interpretation (New York: Seabury Press, Classic 1995), 267, quoted in Tim 38 Document-Records DOCD-5533 track 14 1972). Brooks, "'Might Take One Disc of This (1911). 5° For a probing discussion of the relationship Trash as a Novelty" : Early Recordings 39 Document-Records DOCD-5534 track 8 between the spiritual and gospel music, by the Fisk Jubilee Singers and the (1915). see Marvin V. Curtis, "African-American Popularization of "Negro Folk Music,'" 40 Document-Records DOCD-5533 track 6 Spirituals and Gospel Music: Historical American Music 18:3 [Fall 2000] 282 (the (1909). Similarities and Differences" in the phrase at the beginning of the title of 41 Deane L. Root: 'Foster, Stephen Collins', Choral journal 41:8, March 2001, 9-21. Brooks' s article refers to a remark made Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy One important instance where the black by Thomas Edison before deciding not (Accessed 30 April, 2004), http:// church did not abandon the spiritual was to issue three test cylinder recordings of www.grovemusic.com. For a provocative in the "Wings Over Jordan" choir, the Fisk Jubilee Quartet [Brooks 295]). recent biography of the composer with founded by pastor Glenn T. Settle of 29 Brooks (283) suggests that the quartet that an overview of the place of Foster's songs Gethsemane Church in Cleveland, which made the first Victor recordings was in American culture, see Ken Emerson's broadcast a popular weekly radio show drawn from a larger Fisk chorus, but Doo-dah!: Stephen Foster and the Rise of to the nation on CBS between 1939 and without citing a reference. Ward (404) American Popular Culture (NY: Simon 1949, with breaks during the war to says that there was a period from 1916 & Schuster, 1997). For a detailed study perform for the troops in Europe to 1925 where Fisk supported a of the sources and interpretations of (Southern, 423). professional quartet and a student choir Foster's song texts, see William W. 51 Some purists of the style are concerned even for fund-raising performances, citing Austin's Susanna, Jeanie, and the Old today by some of the extended jazz Richardson 81. Folks at Home: The Songs of Stephen C. harmonies such as those found in Larry 29 V. Hicks, 'Barbershop', The New Grove Foster from His Time to Ours, 2nd edition Farrow's arrangements and some of the Dictionary of Music Online ed L. Macy (Urbana and Chicago: University of gospel-inflected spirituals such as chose (Accessed 8/ 15/03), <~ Illinois Press, 1987). of the late Moses Hogan, though others www.grovemusic.com>. 42 Brooks, 300, 306. rejoice what they consider to be the 31 Brooks, 284. 43 Document-Records DOCD-5534, tracks renewing variety these and other recent 32 Brooks, 283-286. 13-24 and DOCD-5535 (Fisk University composers have brought to the tradition. 33 Document-Records DOCD-5533 cover. Singers, Vol. 3). Edison cylinder 52 Brooks, 299. 34 Brooks, 289. recordings from 1911, 1916, and 1920 5·0 Southern, 483. 35 Brooks, 297-8. can be found on DOCD-5613 (The 54 Southern, 267-8. 36 The harmonizations on the early recordings Earliest Negro Vocal Groups, Vol. 5). 55 H.C. Colles, "Antonin Dvorak in the New are fairly close to those preserved in John 44 Brooks, 296. World" in The Musical Times, vol. 82, W. Work III's later collection American 45 Document-Records DOCD-5533 track 5 no. 1180 (1941), referenced by John Clapham in Antonin Dvorak: Musician and Craftsman (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1966), 90. 56 Document-Records DOCD-5613, tracks Masterworks Chorale, founded in 1940, is a 1-5. leading 100-voice chorus located in the 57 For re-issued recordings of the Hall Johnson Artistic Boston area. The Chorale performs a three• concert series at Sanders Theatre in Cam• Choir, see Document-Records DOCD- Director bridge with professional orchestra, conducts 5566, Negro Choirs - 1926-1931 (tracks community sings at the holidays and in the 19-24 recorded 1930-31) and summer, and works with student choruses Document-Records DOCD-5608, 1940s from area high schools. The Chorale is Vocal Groups Vol. 2 - 1940- 1945 (tracks seeking a dynamic leader with a clear focus 5-15 recorded 1940-4 l). Jiil on quality, excellent interpersonal skills, an 58 understanding of managerial and orgamza• Hall Johnson, "Notes on the Negro THE MASTERWORKS CHORALE tional issues, and an interest in outreach to Spiritual," in Readings in Black American other musical organizations and to the Music, rev. edition ed. Eileen Southern community at large. (New York: W.W. Norton, 1983). Submit resumes to Jennifer McDonald, General Manager, 59 The movie version of The Green Pastures P.O. Box 323, Lexington, MA 02420 or to [email protected] (1936) has been transferred to

24 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 videocassette - MGM/UA Home Video, ISBN: 079281794X. 60 Allen Woll, Black Musical Theater - From "Coonto um " to "Dreamgirls," (Baton Rouge; LSU Press, 1989), 137-141. 61 Southern, 422. 62 The 1940 original cast recording of Porgy and Bess was re-issued in 1992 by MCA Classics - MCAD 10520. 63 Doug Seroff, "Mrs. James A. Myers, 1989 Gospel Arts Day Honoree: A Life devoted ro the Spiricual," in Gospel Arts Day• Nashville, June 18, 1989, cired by Brooks, 307. 64 Document-Records DOCD-5535 cracks 9-29 (1935-1940). 65 See note 10 above. Dawson can be heard conducting rhe Tuskegee Insricure Choir on the album Spirituals originally released on Westminster Gold/MCA. A CD can be obtained from Neil Kjos Music Company. 66 For printed versions of spirituals that were adapted as freedom songs, see Sing for Freedom: The Story of the Civil Rights Movement Through Its Songs! compiled and edited by Guy and Candie Carawan. (Berhelehem, Pa.: Sing Our Corp., 1990); includes songs originally published in: We Shall Overcome (1963) and Freedom is a Constant Struggle ( 1968), "I have worked with many travel specialists, but Classical Movements, by Oak Publications. For recordings of Inc. stands above the rest- they provide the most memorable concerts in these songs from the period, see the most prestigious venues. Their tours provide the finest experience at Smithsonian Folkways CD(2) SF 40084, an extraordinary value. I readily endorse them." Voices of the Civil Rights Movement• Black American Freedom Songs, 1960- 1966 (re-issued 1997). -.:J">~•

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 25

J n hi, "'"Y in Th, Britten Companion titled "Composer and Poet," Peter Porter makes a case for Benjamin Britten as the embodiment of both these vo• canons:

Not smce the days when musician and poet were the same person has there been a great composer whose art is as profoundly bound up with words as Benjamin Britten's .... The whole corpus of Britten's work is informed by a deeply poetical feeling. Vocal compositions predominate in his output, but this is not the whole or even the main part of the case. Instead, it can be said chat what poets have prefigured in words, he has reworked in music. This recognition of the fact chat even a Robert Herrick: To Daffodils The Succession of the Four Sweet Months superb piece of poetry leaves something more co be said is George Crabbe: Marsh Flowers what makes his settings so masterful.1 John Clare: Evening Primrose Anonymous: The Ballad of Green Broom The significant line of Porter's statement is his assertion that what poets have prefigured in words, he (i.e., Britten) has Three of the five poems (the two by Herrick and the anony• reworked in music. But Porter fails to clarify precisely how mous Ballad of Green Broom) are set without alteration. The Britten accomplishes this. This article offers an exemplar for text of Marsh Flowers is a conflation of verses selected from a this accomplishment by examining the ways in which words much longer poem. In these, Britten's only activity is composi• generate music in the fourth of the Five Flower Songs, Opus 47, tional. But in "Evening Primrose," interesting liberties are taken "The Evening Primrose." with Clare's original poem. Britten composed the Five Flower Songs to celebrate the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of Leonard and Dorothy Elm• Here is the poem as it appears" in the collected poems by hirst. Also known as Lord and Lady Harewood, they were the John Clare:2 first contributors to the English Opera Group, the enterprise established in 1947 to produce Britten's operas. The essence and genesis of the Five Flower Songs are made even clearer when we discover that the Elmhirsts were ardent, amateur, botanists. This choral cycle contains settings of five poems for SATB choir unaccompanied:

Chester Alwes is associate professor of music at the University of Illinois, in Champaign• Urbana, Illinois. Alwes teaches courses in the history of choral literature, conducts the Concert Choir and advises doctoral dissertations . * Line numbers and rhyme scheme provided by the author. Analysis reveals a straightforward po• etic form; the fourteen lines are arranged as rhymed couplets. All but three lines (6, 9, and 10) use iambic tetrameter. The sixth line adds one syllable, expanding the sec• ond foot ("[de]-li-cate -blos-") to a dactyl. __ rnm. 20 .~ 3 __ Lines nine and ten also contain nine syl• -20-25 26--31 lables; the enjambment between the end -a{(2+2) of line 9 and the beginning of line 10 a~ - a b creates an additional dactylic foot, as well an unequal division of the lines ten and eight syllables respectively:

u u-u-u-u u - c -- ' (9) Who, blind - fold to its fond ca - res• - mm. -10"'.'"11 ses, Knows(l O) 1(T) +aca., A, s) Line6 - u u - u - u

not the beau-ty he po-ses-ses. (line 11) becomes "while" and the final Dictated by the structure of the text, word is changed from Clare's "done" to this musical form is effected by deliberate In Clare's poem, only line 5 lacks end• "gone" in the final four lines of the poem. breaks in the continuity of the music ing punctuation. The punctuation of But the most radical change is the rear• (rests in all the voices) after lines 6 and choice is clearly the comma, which closes rangement ofline 7. Clare's original, "And 10. The three musical sections that result 8 of the 14 lines. Three of the remaining shunning, hermit-like, the light," becomes divide along textural and musical lines as five lines end with semicolons (6, 8, and "And hermit-like, shunning the light." followings (Table 2). 11) and two with periods (IO and 14). Of Why would Britten have conscienced such Even without the rearrangement of the three semicolons that close lines, only a change? The only plausible explanation Clare's text, Britten's musical form might the one at the end ofline 6 effects closure. is that this reordering recreates the word have followed the poetic form. However, This semicolon, taken with the two peri• stress of the opening line. Thus realigned, this change in the word order of line 7 ods, confirms that the poem has a ternary the primary stress ofline seven ("shun-") will be seen as a critical step in realizing design, with breaks at the end of lines 6, now falls on the fifth syllable, agreeing the overall shape of his composition. 10, and 14. Not surprisingly, the formal with line one ("When once the sun structure of Britten's setting mirrors this sinks .... ").This parallelism suggests that design. But the text he sets differs from text stress affects musical form. Indeed, as Texture as Formal Clare's poem in several interesting ways. Table 1 illustrates, the overall form of the Determinant at the Discounting some inconsequential differ• music quite clearly conforms to that of Sectional Level ences of punctuation, Britten's text con• the poem: Table 2 also illustrates that, at the sim• tains two outright word changes-"till" plest level, Britten uses variation in the number of voices to articulate his formal design. Each section opens with four-voice Table 1: Musical Division of "Evening Primrose" homophony, followed by a reduction or reorganization of the vocal texture. Closer examination of the score reveals that Brit• Section ten uses two textures-homophony and imitation that correspond (in a more or mm. 1 - 11 less direct way) to the vocal scoring, i.e., Unes 1-6 homophonic texture involves all four parts, while imitative texture uses fewer. Based on these simple observations, it is clear that the form of each section is es• Table 2: Texture as Formal Determinant in "Evening Primrose" sentially binary, beginning with four• voiced homophony (a), followed by Section Section II_ imitation (b). Table 3 is an enhanced ver• sion of Table 2, incorporating this infor• mm. 1 - 11 - mm: 12 .. 1sr mm. 2tf- 31 mation regarding texture. 1-4 5-7 8/9-10111 12 .... 15 16-.:.,. 19 20-25 26-31 Section II offers the clearest example a4 a2 a4 (3+1 ) a4 a3 (2+1) a4 a4 (2+2) of this formal scheme. It opens with four• voice homophony and closes with imita- 28 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 TSSUE 1 tion, using a reduced texture that omits the other voices merely prolong the har• Britten uses the same melodies in sec• the tenor part completely. Section III monies sung in m. 9. tions I and III. Figure la gives the F# does the same, except that it uses all four The use of the same bipartite texture major-seventh arpeggio sung by the so• voices, arranged as paired(S/T; A/B) for all three sections of "Evening Prim• prano and its inverted answer (c# minor• canonic duos for its b segment. Section I rose" demonstrate a consciously, planned seventh) in the alto. The same melodic is the most complex because it contains musical structure, clearly aligned with and pair returns in mm. 26-31 (Figure lb). two iterations of the homophony/imita• derived from the form of the poem. This The melody used to set line 9 is similar in tion template (Table 4). The reason for plan also plays out in the types of melodic that the same voices (SIA) sing this expanded structure is that Britten construction Britten uses for the two tex• arpeggiated, triadic (D Major and b mi• sets six lines of the poem in this particu• tures. nor) melodies. The same process is re• lar section (compared with only four in peated (in telescoped fashion) by the bass, who extends the melody first to c#, then sections II and III). The only flaw in this Melodic Types in explanation is that the final segment J, and, finally, f# (i.e., the circle of fifths). (mm. 10-11) is not imitative (and there• "EveningPrimrose" The a-section melodies are similarly fore is labeled c, not b). Britten does, Just as he uses texture to create form, related (Figure 2). however, use the four voices in a non• Britten carefully assigns a specific type of Once again, the clearest similarity ex• homophonic way (T + SAB); the tenor melody to each of the two constituent ists between the melodies of sections I as the primary melodic voice, continues textures. This is most clearly seen in the and III. Lines 1 and 2 (Figure 2a) use the the soprano melody (mm. 8-9), while three b (imitative) sections. (Figure 1). same soprano melody-f# '-b' -c#" -d#" -

6 7 E ! A=-r Al - most as pale _ as moon : beams are~

' Alto f F] t) I J =1 '#b#i Ji J • l Ji=-- J Or its com - pan - ion a - ble star,_

[ID 26 27 28 f = __,. Soprano ( '#b# J 3 E F J F I A=r· It faints and wi the rs and is gone

Alto 4#11#1#; F] j Ji J J) i J n =-- ' It faints and WI thers and is gone ... _ [g 16

Who, blind - fold to its fond ca - res - ses, _ ca - res - ses _

A

Who, blind - fold to its fond ca - res - ses, _ ca - res - ses _

s

B .._,, Knows not the beau - ty ~ he __ pos - ses - ses. _

A

Figure 1. Benjamin Britten, "Evening Primrose" from Five Flower Songs.

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 29 [Al b d Soprano: mm. I - 2 i------1 0 5 7 9 7 J#.i!1 . ) ~ "' L;Jl ~ r u r #J r #F 'r #F When once the sun sinks __ in the west, [ID Soprano: mm. 8 - 9 ' / _i# #i; ~ ~ n p F p r r #F 'r 11r #j The eve ning prim - rose opes a - new b d r-----1 Tenor: mm. I 0 - l l(a) ' 5 7 5 0 ~###'#p 10 P=cr r #r 'r #r ,J Its del - i - cate blos - soms to_ the dew_

[Q] d Soprano: mm. 24 - 25 ' 0 7 8 7 '##### J J J J. 'f 11J 11r §r Bashed at the gaze, it can - not_ shun, d [ill b Soprano: mm. 12 - 13 r-----1 ' 0 5 4 5 ,###111 f1 #j I I Ji #J .. J J l#J J ;J t #ol 11• And her mit-like, shun ning the light,

Figure 2. Benjamin Britten, "Evening Primrose" from Five Flow'er Songs.

J" (O, 5, 7, 9, 7). The second homopho• (Figure 2c) serves as consequent to the tical to that of section I-a (like the corre• nic segment of section I sets line 5 (so• soprano's antecedent phrase, imparting a spondence noted above between the b• prano) using a melody derived from its different tonal perspective to the unit. section melodies of these same sections). predecessor (Figure 2b). The tenor melody The melody of section III-a is nearly iden- The only substantial difference is the chro• matic inflection of the original d#" to a dq" (creating the cell 0, 5, 7, 8, 7: Figure 2d). This leaves only the opening melody of the middle section of the composition (Figure 2e) to discuss. Assuming that, like the other two sections, the melody of II-a SCHOOL Of MUSIC lies in the soprano, one must conclude QI ~>'u'J<:r'""""" 'In .Au''~""''"·"'"' that it seems to be somewhat different. If, however, one transposes the elLf#-e# por• Masters and Doctoral Degrees tion of the melody up an octave, the re• sult is a melodic cell identical to the one in Choral Conducting found in mm. 24-25 (Figure 2d), which Beverly Taylor, Director of Choral Activities is, in turn, a slightly varied version of the first notes the soprano sings (Figure 2a). Bruce Gladstone, Associate Director ofChoral Activities Given that this passage is in homo• phonic texture, we must also examine the •••Two generous Fellowships available••• melodic content of the remaining voices. • Individual attention Of the three, only the bass seems simi• • Podium time larly melodic. Comparing it to the so• For more information call • Emphasis on developing musicality prano, we discover that each vertical • Choral/orchestral conducting (608) 263-1891 or email: sonority formed by these voices is the • Building choral repertoire btaylor I (i.~jvvisc. edu same-a minor second. Furthermore, in • Rehearsal techniques http://www.wisc.edu/music keeping with the nature of the text, the bass is a kind of inversion of the soprano

30 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 Soprano: mm. 12 - 13 0 7 8 7 '###I# Ji ,J Ji j j l,J J J #Ji 11~ I~ 11r And, her mit - like, shun ning the light,

Bass: mm. 12- 13 ' 0 7 6 7 .. 7J=l#lll j # Ji r #p r I r 1J r 7J= J1 IF 1~p Ir And, her - mit - like, shun ning the light,

Figure 3. Benjamin Britten, "Evening Primrose" from Five Flower Songs.

(Figure 3). Once attained, the D major tonality by the addition of a flat seventh degree.3 The continuation of this passage pro• remains in force through the end of this The single V-I cadence to B (m. 9) is vides one of the most extraordinary har• section and the beginning of Section III. tainted both by the soprano's a# and by monic events of the entire piece, one that This passage's single-minded focus on D the return of the opening melodic cell (O, has great significance for both the struc• major raises serious questions about the 5, 7) in the tenor on g#. tural and interpretative aspects of Britten's role of tonality in this composition. At Even more telling is the failure of this composition. the beginning of the work, Britten con• work to pass the most elementary test of a sciously uses a key signature. The pres• tonal composition. None of the principal Harmony and Tonality in ence of five sharps traditionally indicates structural cadences (not even the cadence a piece in either B major or g# minor; of that concludes the work) are made to the "Evening Primrose" the two, B major seems the more likely supposed tonic-B. Table 5 reviews the In mm. 13-15 Britten effects a pro• option, since the first sonority of the com• harmonic progress of each of the sections: gression to D major, arriving at that so• position features that sonority in first in• Several interesting facts emerge from a nority on the word "night." Following version. The very presence of a key the hermetic inversion of the soprano and signature in twentieth-century composi• bass (Figure 3, above), this passage begins tion is something of an event in and of on an enharmonically spelled B~ 6/4 itself. Its presence forces us to raise the GMadrigal chord. The resulting progression is less general question of whether or not this the result of any harmonic language than work is in the key of B major, and, fol• CVinner by C' Paul Brandvik a clever manipulation of voice leading. (' • f lowing on that, to question the specific Author of Starting from their initial sonority, the role of D major in such a tonal hierarchy. 0cr1pl(9 four voices change pitch in a seemingly For a piece supposedly in B major, the The Compleet Madrigal Dinner Booke random way. On closer examination, harmonies found in "Evening Primrose" Scripts Include: however, we note that the pitch changes show surprisingly little affinity to that ALL DIALOGUE: are coordinated, the SIT and A/B moving tonic key. Indeed, the few triads on B that Greetings, Toasts, Festivities, Concert, Farewell as pairs (Figure 4). do appear are all modified, most typically Plus: HUMOROUS RENAISSANCE MASQUE Plus: 13 REPERTOIRE SUGGESTIONS ..,,,. .. ;t Ceremonial Music and concert s ..___..... TWENTY-SEVEN different scripts available, .., " Wastes __ its fair bloom up - on the night; including scripts appropriate for churches and younger performers ,. .. ;t A This year make the Renaissance come alive .., ~·----· ~· . for singers and actors at your university, Wastes __ its fair bloom up - on the night; high school, middle school, or church.

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A Division of EXTREMELY LTD. CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE J 31 perusal ofTable 5: • There is not a single sectional ca• Table 5: Cadence Pitches in "Evening Primrose" dence to B, the "conic" implied la lb le by the key signature. II a II b Hla II I b m.4 m. 7 11 18~9 mm. 30-31 • Two of the three major formal sec• m. m. 15 mm. m. 25 tions (II and III) end on p# (the B6-F# F# F#-G#* G#-D D-F# D-F# F#-F# "V" of B); the other ends on a Vii6-I g# (the VIV in F#). • With the exception of the end of Section I (and the beginning of II), the only other cadential har• the dominant. Regardless of how one ac• "And hermit-like, shunning the light." mony cited is D, which con• counts for the prominence ofD major, its The reader will recall chat chis is the most cludes Ila, and opens IIb and very presence undercuts any analysis that dramatically altered line of Clare's origi• Illa. tries to project this as a piece in the key of nal poem. As noted above, Britten pits The appearance ofD major as a promi• B major. the principal melodic cell (O, 7, 8, 7) in nent tonality is unexpected because it ne• How then are we to explain the tonal• the soprano against its inversion in the gates both the leading tone (a#) and ity of this composition, and, more spe• bass (See Figure 4). This hermetic inver• mediant (d#) of B major, the tonic sug• cifically, the role D major plays in it? sion creates the most dissonant harmony gested by the key signature. One could Clearly, Britten sets up an expectation of of the entire piece. Then comes that piece argue that D major is a key closely associ• B major by using the key signature associ• of harmonic legerdemain by which Brit• ated with b minor, the parallel mode ofB ated with it. Equally clear is Britten's care• ten first attains D major on the word major. That is already a bit of a stretch, ful avoidance of any harmonic gesture "night." The ensuing text ("Who blind• especially given the relatively minor role that would validate chis tonality as tonic. fold to its fond caresses") is set as a canon that B plays in the harmonic structure of To understand Britten's accomplishment, between the soprano (D major) and the the work. More reasonable is an interpre• requires chat we return to the first appear• alto (b minor), the music of which the tation ofD as the flat mediant of a central ance of the D major. Section II begins in bass appropriates and extends to set line tonality of which B is the tonic and p# m. 12, with the appearance of the words 10 ("Know not the beauty he possesses."). Section III begins with homophony that is melodically and harmonically centered on D major (and then B major). We hear the return of the opening phrase of the piece at m. 24 as "recapitulation;" less obviously, we perceive the successive Portland phrases on D major and B major (mm. 20-24) less as the beginning of Section III Community than as the modulation that makes chis recapitulation possible. The conflict between D major and B Chorus major now becomes a musical metaphor. Britten seems to infer chat D major is "night" (a subject to which he returns over and over in his music), the time The search is on for: when beauty may safely show itself. Con• versely, "day" is represented by the B ma• Musical Director/Conductor jor that D major destroys (by negating its Send cover letter, resume, sample program& curriculumvitae to: Kapellmeister Choir Stools Cheryl Hart 140 BurnhamRoad Scarborough,ME 0407 4 www.portlandcommunitychorus.org

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32 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE l - I It faints and wi - thers and is gone ... _ It fains! and wi - thers and

A - ..i It faints and wi thers and is gone ..

" ..

B ...... u .... - '--' '"" It faints and wi thers and ls gone.

29 s

and _ is gone.

A

It faints and WI thers and is gone.

T II

is gone ... _ It faints and_ IS gone. [l ------It faints and WI the rs and is gone.

Figure 5. Benjamin Britten, "Evening Primrose" from Five Flower Songs. mm. 26 - 31.

leading tone [a#] and its mediant [d# to mind of the composer or the sequence of NOTES dq]). This residue of this tonal confronta• the events, we do know that Britten acted l. Petet Porter, "Composer and Poer." The tion leaves F#, a tone common to both upon Clare's poem, changing it in several Britten Companion, Christopher Palmer, keys, as the ambivalent tonal center of the significant ways; in this, he is acting as ed. (London, 1984), p. 271 ff. composition, a "beauty" that we don't poet/editor, not unlike the action of some• 2· The Poems of John Clare, ed. ]. W. Tibble. know we "possess." This logic also makes one compiling an operatic libretto (a pro• (London, 1953),p. 517. sense of the end of the work. "Evening cess with which Britten was quire .J. In measure 1, for example, the first such Primrose" ends not with a V-1 cadence to familiar). Next, we noted how Britten's triad is B "dominant seventh" that B, but with a progression that is less a reading of the poem's form dictated the ultimately resolves to A (not E) major. cadence than a disappearance (Figure 5). musical form, in terms of his creation of 4· In such pieces as the setting of Keats's sonnet In the light of day (the "gaze it cannot both textural and melodic designs. From that ends the "Serenade for Tenor, shun"), the bloom of the primrose "faints this initial set of choices, Britten ulti• French Horn and Strings," (Opus 30) and withers and is gone." This departure mately proceeds to decisions about the the song cycle "Nocturne," and the opera is sung to the music first heard at the expressive role of tonality-the setting "Midsummer Night's Dream." words ''Almost as pale as moonbeams are, up of expectations that are avoided or 5· The collection of essays Style and Idea Or its companionable star" (mm. 5-7). modified-as the musical ultimate ex• (published 1950 ) contains a piece The end of the piece is less conclusive pression of the meaning of the text. Like originally written for Der Blaue Reiter in cadence than sad resignation; with it, we Arnold Schoenberg's remarks about tex• the 1920s. Schoenberg talks about his realize that the emptiness of the final tual meaning in Schubert songs, Britten's transcription of Schubert's songs, noting chord and Britten's change of Clare's activity, deduced by observation and logi• chat, in the process of chis work, he was "done" to "gone" are poignant realiza• cal extrapolation, may not be essential to actually unaware of what the texts were tions, both poetic and musical, of the understand the piece or to perform it in a about. Because Schubert, as composer, meaning of Clare's poem. compelling way. But, as this article has had provided music that perfectly Hopefully, this rather complicated hopefully illustrated, such exploration not conveyed the sense of the text, this lack analysis has revealed the essence, both only confirms our musical intuition, but of awareness did not trouble Schoenberg musical and poetic, of Britten's composi• also deepens our understanding of the atall. ~-... tion. Though we cannot truly know the composer's craft.

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 33 MUSICA MUNDI® Events 2004-2005

Choir Olympics2004 Bremen 8 - 18 July 2004 (Germany)

5th International Choir Festival & Competition"ISOLA DEL SOLE" Grado 20 - 24 October 2004 () International Festival of Sacred and Secular Music Malta 26 February - 2 March 2005 (Malta)

1 Qth International Choir CompetitionBudapest Budapest 19 - 24 March 2005 (Hungary) Venezia in Musica, Spring Concerts in Venice and Jesolo 20 - 24 May 2005 (Italy)

4th InternationalJohannes Brahms Choir Festival & Competition Wernigerode 6 - 1 O July 2005 (Germany) 4th International Choir Festival of Sacred Music Rottenburg 21 - 24 July 2005 (Germany) Rimini in Musica Rimini 23 - 27 September 2005 (Italy)

5th "IN ... CANTO SUL GARDA" Riva del Garda 12 -16 October 2005 (Italy) Mallorca en Mtisica Matlorca 19 - 23 October 2005 (Spain) ulica UnDi

MUSICA MUNDI® is synonymous with first-class international choir competitions and festivals and is one of the biggest and most successful cultural event series worldwide. Founded in 1972, the Dale Warland Singers are recognized Editor's note: Dale Warland was interviewed by Diana}. Leland as one of the world's foremost unaccompanied choral ensembles. on December 17, 2003, in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Diana was The forty-voice professional choir, based in Minneapolis/St. the Dale Warland Singers' first full-time General Manager from Paul (Minnesota), presented its final concert titled "I Have Had 1979-83. The College-Conservatory of Music at the University Singing: A Choral Celebration" on May 30, 2004, at Orchestra of Cincinnati has been selected as the final repository institution Hall in Minneapolis. for the Dale Warland Singers' score library and archives. Two Over the past thirty-one years, the DWS have commis• more of the ensemble's recordings will be released in the near sioned, performed, and recorded more new American music future. than any other organization in the classical music field: 270 new works from 150 composers. The Dale Warland Singers have released twenty-seven critically acclaimed professional record• ALE WARLAND, celebrated American musi• ings, including Grammy-nominated "Walden Pond," a record• cian, has made an indelible impression on the ing of three significant choral works by Dominick Argento. landscape of contemporary choral music both na- D The ensemble represented Norrh America ac two World tionally and internationally. As the founder and music director Symposiums on Choral Music, in 1990 (Stockholm and Hels• of the Dale Warland Singers (DWS), he has shaped a vocal inki) and 2002 (Minneapolis), and presented a keynote concert ensemble known for its exquisite sound, technical finesse, and at the Chorus America conferences in 1990, 1999, and 2003. stylistic range. Upon Warland's stepping down as music direc• The Dale Warland Singers have also reached millions of listen• tor of the Dale Warland Singers, the famed choral ensemble will ers across che United Stares chrough Minnesota Public Radio no longer exist. and Public Radio International broadcasts of its annual Echoes of Christmas and Cathedral Classics concerts. Diana J. Leland was the ACDA National President from 1989-91. Currently, she is choir director at Edina High Leland: Please elaborate on the peak highlight of your career. School in Edina, Minnesota . Warland: It is very difficult to know what would be the peak highlight. However, the Dale musical skills; a beauti• Warland Singers performance ful voice and solid vocal for the 1987 ACDA National technique; and positive Convention in San Antonio attitudes that will con• was certainly one notable high• tribute to the overall per• light for all of us. There has sonality membership of not been another performance the DWS. of the DWS to replace the Fabulous individual emotional high we all felt after voices do not necessarily that experience. Receiving the make a fabulous choir. I McKnight Distinguished Art• look for singers that have ist Award for 2001 was a spe• a good voice, excellent cial highlight for me personally. musicianship, and a And, most recently, the 2003 positive, vibrant person• Grammy nomination for the The Dale Warland Singers during their first concert in 1972. ality. I select Singers "Walden Pond" recording is a based on musical skills wonderful recognition for the entire or- nation as I build the instrument, i.e., the that are innate and acquired. Tonal and ganization. choir, selecting singers that can ultimately atonal reading abilities are also essential produce the choral result I am looking for membership in the DWS. Leland: Everyone talks about the "DWS for. Second, as conductor, I try to be very The choice of words and body lan• sound." What is it that you seek in choos• positive with my gestures as well as how I guage that I use to communicate with the ing voices for the DWS? interact and communicate with the Sing• Singers during rehearsals and perfor• ers. Third, unification of pronunciation, mances will ultimately affect the sound. Warland: There are many factors that re• dynamics, and vibrato, and careful atten• A subtle example might be asking for a late to or affect the sound of the DWS. tion to phrasing and balance are all very full rather than loud sound. If I ask for a First, I seek an ideal sound, from the very vital. There are three components that I loud dynamic, it might result in a harsh beginning, within my inner ear or imagi- seek in a singer. They must possess: strong sound that would not be desirable. Ges-

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36 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 1 tures that I use with the choir must al• father was an enthusiastic, dedicated Warland: I'm not sure that I can name ways be musical and not mechanical. A church choir member. He rode horse back any one person. There have been so many conductor must consistently feed the choir to attend rehearsals before the days of the people who have influenced me. Ann energy. It is also very important that I use automobile and during the early days of Severson was the music conductor at my secure, clear, and clean conducting pat• the automobile when many roads were Badger, Iowa, church; she was very tal• terns. The choir's sound is also affected impassible. He prided himself in the fact ented, had perfect pitch, and had sung in positively by the conductor's emphasis on that he never missed a choir rehearsal or the choir at St. Olaf College with F. Melius horizontal rather than vertical gestures. church service for over some fifty years! Christiansen. She could sing and play the piano beautifully. She inspired me more than I can ever tell you. During my high school years, my choral conductor, Clayton Hathaway, was a great, positive Fabulous individual voices do not influence. At St. Olaf College, it was Olaf Christiansen who was my inspiration. Robert Shaw, Norman Luboff, David necessarily make a fabulous choir. Willcocks, and Eric Ericson were all sig• nificant in influencing my choral music career. There are also countless orchestral conductors who have been extremely in• Leland: Please tell me about your family, Leland: Your parents always encouraged fluential. It would be impossible to name your home background, and your musi• you to get a real job. Please elaborate. only one. cal experiences when you were growing Two or three rimes each week while I up in Iowa. Warland: I was the first person in my was a student at the University of Minne• family to attend college. The ultimate goal sota, I would sit in on the Minneapolis Warland: I grew up on an average, 160- was that I was to graduate from high Symphony (now Minnesota Orchestra) acre farm in Iowa. There was much musi• school and find a good job. I remember rehearsals in Northrop Auditorium. I cal activity in the community. The village my mother always thought that I would loved that opportunity to observe and to church, to which our family belonged, be a good baker which was far from any meet the conductors, guest composers, had a very active choir program. Both conceivable truth. My parents did nor and performers. marching and concert bands were impor• think of music as a profession for me. tant in the community. As a child, I expe• Leland: Please elaborate on your college rienced the music of famed bandmaster Leland: Who, in your opinion, influenced teaching days in New York state and at and composer Karl King. you most in your career? Macalester College in Saint Paul, Minne• The earliest influence on my musical sota. Did you teach anywhere else? career came from singing in the church choir and playing trombone in the school bands. During junior high and high school, the woman in charge of our program invited me to con• duct one of the youth choirs. The people of Badger, Iowa, had an appreciation of the arts. Music and all the arts were very important to my family and to the entire community. --··-~~*--- with featuring While attending country school dur• AMERICAN Dr. Anton Armstrong The American Boychoir BoYcHoiR of St. Olaf College The Newark Boys Chorus ing grades 1-8, we sang every day! During Dr. Andre Thomas with an appearance by che junior high and high school I belonged to of Florida Stare t:lnhrersity Princeton Girlchoir both band and choir. I was given the opportunity during my high school days Body, Mind, Spirit, Voilie!i~hows how two of rhe world's rop to conduct a backstage choir for a play. choral directors - Dr. Anton Armstrong and Dr. An4r¢ Thomas - ·•i'i:i:i})'neld~d a group of young people into an amazing musical insrru• The ensemble sang a short Palestrina menbi't'his 90 minute videotape tells the story of how the arts can motet. That was an extremely significant inspire 'and. ih>'tt~ .l!.l!/ping young p~ople learn the values of hard event in my life. As far as I was con• work, responsibilityand self-co11fid~n

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38 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 1 Leland: You are the ultimate champion there also assisted me with setting my us and be the snowman while we were in commissioning choral works. How musical goals and aspirations. I sang in singing "Winter Wonderland." many works have you commissioned and the Chapel Choir and the Viking Cho• why? rus. I became the assistant conductor of Leland: Since the DWS will no longer be the Viking Chorus during my junior year in existence, what are your future plans? Warland: We have commissioned ap• and became music director and conduc• proximately 270 new choral works over tor of that ensemble during my senior Warland: I want to make it clear that I the life of the DWS. Some are extensive year. I received some very high level con• am "reinventing" and not "retiring." I will and some are short. Most are original ducting experience through those ap• no longer be the prime mover of a profes• compositions; others are arrangements. I pointments. It was a great nurturing sional choir. I want to be available to have always been fascinated more with atmosphere. guest conduct, compose, arrange, and the new rather than the old. Secondly, when I see or hear exceptional creative talent in a composer, I like to encourage that person to write for us. It's a natural . response for me to invite someone to cre• J want to make zt clear that I am ate a new choral work when I discover '' . . )) untapped potential. We, as conductors, ''reinventing" and not retzrzng. have an obligation to add to the reper• toire and to stimulate the production of new works. Leland: Have you had any unusual jobs teach. I definitely want to spend more other than being a conductor? time with my family. I love photography Leland: What suggestions would you have and would like to explore painting (water for a choral conductor who is commis• Warland: I had many jobs growing up on colors) again. I hope to find time for sioning a piece for the very first time? the farm, which of course included milk• those two hobbies. I also want to sharpen ing cows, cultivating corn, and a thou• my French, read a book or two, and maybe Warland: It is important that any music sand other tasks. When I was in college I even go to a movie! director, who is considering commission• worked as a music copyist and also was ing a work, discuss the process with con• employed as a caroler at Disneyland for Leland: You were recently nominated for ductors from other choral organizations several seasons. I actually met Walt Disney a Grammy. Tell me a bit more about that who have commissioning experience. It is my first day on the job at Disneyland. honor. critical to learn what to do and what not When President Dwight D. Eisenhower to do. Chorus America has published ex• (then retired) visited Disneyland, I was Warland: We were a nominee for "best cellent guidelines for commissioning new part of the group that invited him to join choral performance" with our recording choral works. I would highly recommend obtaining a copy. It is a very simple pro• cess; however, it is important to go about it properly.

Leland: You have also produced many DWS recordings. How many? How have these recordings been funded?

Warland: The last count was twenty-six. In the early days, the recording compa• nies paid for all the expenses. In recent years, the DWS have paid for the basic expenses of each recording project. The fundamental cost is between $50,000 and • COMPLETE $60,000 to produce one recording. Re• cording is a major challenge both finan• • ALL INCLUSIVE TOURS - GREAT V cially and artistically. SPONSORED BY: Leland: You graduated from St. Olaf Col• International Fine Arts Institute lege. Tell me about your singing experi• For more info: 414-352-1917 ence while attending college.

Warland: The greatest gift I received at St. Olaf was inspiration; my experience

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 39 of "Walden Pond," a collection of three posers to write for chorus and not only music students and choral conductors in major works by DominickArgento. We've for orchestra and opera. Minnesota attend professional choir con• had other recordings in the past that com• Most of all, I will miss having my own certs. Professional choral music, in order pare in quality with this one, but I think "instrument" and not being able to build to thrive, needs everyone's spiritual and it was the combination of having such and mold the ensemble. It is not the same financial support as well as regular atten• great masterpieces sung by singers who when one is guest conducting another dance at concerts. We will never attain "took to them" and did such a magnifi• choir. the great potential, and I mean great po• cent job in performance. It is very re• I hope that in Minnesota and through• tential, for professional choral music in warding to be recognized for the out the United States, we will continue to Minnesota, if we do not actively support outstanding music and the high level of support choral music whole-heartedly but it! performance! even at a more dramatic level. This coun• try, unlike other countries, does not have Leland: Thank you, Dale, for your beau• Leland: As you reflect upon the last thirty• a full-time choral ensemble (thirty-forty tiful gifts of choral music and the legacy one years of conducting the Dale Warland voices) that makes its sole living from you leave for us to emulate. We wish you Singers, what is the legacy that you wish singing. Only opera companies, sym• the very best as you pursue other musical to leave choral music in this country? phony orchestras, and the military sus• endeavors, interests, and hobbies to en• tain full-time professional ensembles. rich your life. You are one of Minnesota's Warland: I hope that I have: (1) stimu• Choral music has not yet attained that living legends. ----""'~• lated conductors to strive for excellence status. It is very important that our choral in performance and in their selection of organizations and choral music leaders, repertoire, (2) encouraged the commis• especially in the United States, afford our sioning of new works (both original and singers professional outlets to sing and Gladde Music Publications - I he Choral Music of Bradley "lielson - arrangements), and (3) heightened the aspire to a high level of excellence. If ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ general public's interest and awareness for Green Bay can support the Packers, then * CHRISTMAS 2004 * the significance of choral music and par• the Twin Cities should, by all means, sup• www .GladdeMusic.com/Christmas.htm See the scores ... hear live recordings! ticularly new choral music. I hope that I port one full-time professional choir. - COMPLETE CATALOGUE ONLINE - have also encouraged outstanding com- I am concerned that very few choral

The John Ness Beck Foundation proudly announces its winners for the third annual John Ness Beck FoundationAwards First Place: Mark Shepperd'sAdvent Canticle published by Beckenhorst Press, Inc. Second Place (Two Winners): Lloyd Larson's When You Prayed Beneath the Trees published by Hope Publishing Company and Howard Helvey's Ding! Dong! Merrily on lfigh published by Beckenhorst Press, Inc.

A distinguished panel of composers, retailers and educators selected these three compositions as being worthy of the third annual John Ness Beck Foundation Awards. We would like to congratulate Mr. Shepperd, Mr. Larson and Mr. Helvey on being chosen.

The Foundation was established by John Ness Beck in memory of Randall Thompson and Joseph Clokey. It will recognize outstanding achievement in choral composition and arrangement of tradi• tional church music, enhance and further the careers, study, education and experience of promising composers and arrangers, and promote and stimulate the learning of choral composition and tradi• tional church music.

40 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 2005 ACDA NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL HONOR CHOIR Los Angeles, California February 2-5, 2005 Jeffrey Redding, Conductor

Voice Requirements: SATB in grades 10-12

Considerations: Participants must be accompanied by a parent/chaperone.

Please photocopy these pages, and type or print legibly. Send separate application form and audition CD/tape for each applicant. There is no limit on the number of applicants from a single school, institution, or sponsor. A $25 non-refundable application fee (check or money order payable to ACDA) must be paid for each applicant. Organizations may submit one check for multiple applications. PLEASE DO NOT SEND CASH OR PURCHASE ORDERS. THE ENTRY DEADLINE OF FRIDAY, OCTOBER i-, WILL BE STRICTLY ADHERED TO, AND NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE FOR POSTMARKS AFTER THAT DATE! ADDITIONALLY, ALL ACDA MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS WILL BE CHECKED!

Applicant's last name First name _ Date of birth

Address Mailing City State Zip Code

Home phone( _ e-mail address

Male Female Height in inches Voice part _ (Choose one only)

(Sponsoring choir or organization: including school, church, community, etc.)

Name of parent or legal guardian: _

Singer Statement of Obligation: We have read the guidelines and applications forms and fully understand that selection for the 2005 National High School Honor Choir brings with it significant musical and financial obligations. We understand that as a member of the honor choir, the applicant must pay a $100 non-refundable participation fee and that ACDA is not responsible for the costs of the applicant's transportation, lodging, or meals. We further understand that the applicant will be staying in a hotel, designated by the convention committee, and must have a parent/chaperone in the hotel room. We also understand that the applicant must attend all honor choir rehearsals February 2, 3, 4, 5, and two convention performances Saturday, afternoon, February 5, 2005, that includes: a concert for the parents, and a concert for the ACDA membership. The applicant will be committed to having the music fully prepared according to the instructions included in the music packet.

Signature of Applicant ------Date __ / / __

Signature of Parent/Chaperone: Date _

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 41 Parent/Chaperone information: Each singer must be accompanied by parent/chaperone. Please do not depend on the student's reacher as the sole chaperone. Since they are members of the organization and pay member registration fees, they attend convention events, which leaves the student un-chaperoned. ACDA will not be responsible for patrolling the halls of the hotel at night. Additionally, a meal plan will not be provided by the hotel, therefore students will eat in hotel restaurants or fast food establishments outside the hotel.

Student Name

Parent/Chaperone's name

Home Address ------

Home phone ( ______Work Phone ( ) _ e-mail address

Relationship to applicant ------

Parent/Chaperone Statement of Obligation: If this applicant is selected for the 2005 National High School Honor Choir in Los Angeles, California, February 2-5, 2005:

I understand that I will be staying in the same room with the participant. I further understand that I will be responsible for ensuring that the applicant attends all Honor Choir rehearsals and performances. I understand that the ACDA is not responsible for the costs of my transportation, lodging, or meals.

Parent/Chaperone's Signature

Sponsor Information: Must be a current member of the ACDA (Members will be verified by the ACDA National Office and new and renewable membership must be paid by October 1, 2004.

Name: _ ACDA Membership# _

Preferred address: ------City State Zip

Home phone ( ) Work Phone ( ) _ e-mail address ------

Sponsoring organization ------school church community __

Character Recommendation: This student has demonstrated the outstanding musical ability, attention span, and exemplary behavior necessary to represent his/her school, church, community choir, city, state, in the National ACDA High School Honor Choir in Los Angeles, California.

Director's signature ------

Administrator, Private Teacher or Minister's signature

Financial Obligations

1. All transportation and expenses will be made and paid for by the honor choir participants. ACDA assumes no financial responsibility to and from the national convention.

2. A $100 non-refundable participation fee with acceptance letter, registration form, code of conduct contract, and medical form postmarked November 15, 2004.

42 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 CDs/Tapes

1. The applicant or teacher of the applicant must send in the CD/tape with the application form. Remember: regardless of who sends in the CD/tape, the postmark deadline will be strictly adhered to! 2. Use CD/high-bias standard cassette tape and the best recording equipment you have available. The use of Dolby noise reduction is highly recommended. Audio enhanced recordings will be disqualified. 3. Clearly mark the applicant's name and voice part on the CD/tape. On the CD/tape box, mark the applicant's name, grade, school, city and state, voice part, and tide of the prepared solo. Do not give the name of the student on the CD/tape. 4. Do not record with ambient noise in the background, such as room noises, TV, etc. 5. Be sure the singer sings his/her song in the same octave they vocalize or sing "My Country ... " in. 6. Record the items on the CD/tape in the order listed below and rewind the tape before sending it. 7. Audition CDs/tapes will not be returned.

Audition Process

1. Vocalization: Sing two unaccompanied major scales on the syllable doo. One, from the middle of your range to your lowest range accurate note, and the other, from the middle of your range to the highest accurate note. Please state the key of the scale before you sing it!

2. My Country 'tis of Thee (America): Starting on the pitches listed below, sing the first verse unaccompanied. Accompanied singers will be disqualified.

Sop I - B above Middle C Tenor I - Bb below middle C Sop II - G above Middle C Tenor II - Ab below middle C

Alto I - F above middle C Bass I - F below middle C Alto II - D above middle C Bass II - D below middle C

3. One to two minutes of an Aria, Art Song, or Folk Song, etc. (with or without accompaniment) that may be suitable for a competition or festival. Limit the piano introduction to no more than 10 seconds. Pop, Gospel, and Contemporary Christian pieces are not suitable and will be disqualified.

Audition/Notification Process Time Line

Friday, October 1, 2004 Audition Material Postmark Deadline Packet must include: 1. Audition tape/CD 2. Audition Application 3. The $25 non-refundable fee (checks made payable to ACDA) and send to:

2005 National High School Honor Choir Sal Cicciarella, National Chair American Choral Directors Association Post Office Box 2720 Oklahoma City, OK 73101

"Monday, November 1, 2004 Notification of all singers accepted Tuesday, November 15, 2004 Postmark deadline for singer acceptance forms and fees due to National Honor Chair Wednesday, December 1, 2004 Music Packets mailed to choir participants

*When you receive acceptance notification, immediately call the hotel and make a room reservation!! There will be two honor choirs housed in the same hotel, so don't delay!!

If you wish to access the list of students, their teachers, and state, please visit the ACDA Web site: -ewww.acdaonline.org/ conventions/narional.shtmb-. The honor choir participants will be posted approximately five days after acceptance letters have been mailed. A list of honor choir students will not be mailed to individual teachers. Only students will be notified.

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 1 43

Rehearsal Break

Acoustic Issues and the Choral Singer

by Margaret Olson

COUSTICAL ISSUES are The perception of other people's voices sensttrvity of the hearing organ is de• important to the choral and how they match with one's own voice creased as soon as one starts to phonate; a A singer. One factor is that in cannot be accurately measured by the in• muscle in the middle ear reflexively con• the choral environment, there are several dividual singer. In a scientific study of tracts so that the level reaching the inner voices singing together, therefore, the choral singing being conducted by ear is reduced.P acoustical load is much larger and more Terstrorn and Sundberg, it was noted that In order to discuss how singers per• complex than in solo singing. How much the decibel level of the choir centered ceive each other's voice, it is imperative to an individual singer will listen to others, around 80 decibels: understand how we hear our own voices. while singing in choir, depends on the Many factors are at work with regard to individual. However, there can be no Here we may mention that the aural self-perception: doubt that the sound of other voices can sound the singers heard from the affect an individual's vocal production. rest of the choir varied around the To summarize, how we perceive our This situation can make it difficult to 80 decibels sound pressure level, own voice depends on four different monitor one's own vocal production. according to measurements made in factors: (1) the frequency dependent two choirs. However, considerable ability of sound to travel backwards It's hard to determine how to higher values also occur; in the from the lip opening to the ears; balance your loudness (intensity) soprano section, a 115 decibel (2) the frequency dependent ability with someone standing right next sound pressure level occurred several of the walls, floor, and ceiling of to you. You're getting your own times. 2 the room to reflect sound, i.e., the sound from the side, you don't room acoustics, (3) the frequency know what sound is going straight Sundberg continues, explaining how dependent ability of the sound in from your mouth and so you have the 80 decibel level is not harmful to the the vocal tract to transform into to balance your loudness to persons singer because of the ear's ability to pro• vibrations in the vocal tract wall on either side of you based on what tect itself. "Such loud sounds would not structures, and (4) the frequency you hear laterally. Sometimes what be detrimental to hearing, because the dependent ability of the bone you get from one ear is different from what you get from the other ear and the quality is different and the vowels are different ... the NORTHWESTMUSIC PUBLISHERS whole idea of loudness and pitch is p.o. box 219204 - Portland, Ore 97225 greatly affected by whether you make your vowels the same. 1 [email protected]

Christmas Music for Women's Voices SSA-701 Lullaly Thou Little Tiny Child Margaret Olson lives and works in SSA-702 Away in a Manger Washington D.C., where she teaches for the Washington Opera's SSA-703 Shepherds Watched Their Flocks Institute for Young Singers and at SSA-704 Sleep My Savior, Sleep the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. SSA-705 Ring the Bells Christmas Eve SSA-706 Cradle Song

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 1 45 structure of the skull to transmit overall intensity not only to effect unique abilities. The proximity of other vibrations from the vocal tract walls the perceived loudness of their singers, reflecting surfaces and absorption to the inner ear. From these four tones, but also to react to other area of the room will all influence refer• points it is quite evident that the acoustical changes in their vocal ence sounds. 8 timbre of one's own voice is sounds, which the singers perceive Ternsrrorn explains that there are dependent upon the room as helpful for achieving vocal blend things the conductor can do to decrease acoustics, among other things, and ... reducing the overall intensity the volume of the reference sounds and this makes the auditory feedback a also has shown to produce therefore more accurately imitate the solo whimsy judge of the quality of one's complementary changes in vowel singer's environment. He observes that: own phonation.4 quality and vocal registration, "If the reference is so loud that the singers particularly when detrimental find it hard to hear their own voices, they In other words, based on the above qualities are associated with over could be assisted by increasing the room description, it is impossible to hear one• singing.5 absorption or by increasing the space be• self as others hear. The shape and size of tween singers.?" He continues, "[Bjut it the room and the structure of a singer's The desire of the singer to achieve vo• helps to mix the sections of the choir so anatomy are two factors that relate to cal blend can be strong in the choral set• that section colleagues are not standing acoustic function and are beyond the con• ting. The conflict exists when the singer next to each other. A singer's section col• trol of the individual singer. Therefore, returns to solo singing. Any vocal modifi• leagues sing the same notes and the same singers are at an acoustical disadvantage cation or lessening of intensity must be text, and are therefore the most efficient when it comes to hearing themselves. This reversed in order to produce the vocal maskers of his or her feedback."10 aural loss is precisely why the ability to energy needed for solo singing. These ideas confirm previously stated sing by sensation is so vital for the solo notions that the spacing and position• singer in a choral setting. The ability to ing of choir members is crucial. perceive one's own voice by a sensation Feedback and Reference Ternstrorn adds that inserting one's fin• rather than sound is a useful and funda• Although the inability to hear oneself ger into the ear can help shut out the mental tool of a singer's vocal technique and the idea of modification should be of reference and also suggests a choir mem• and can be cultivated while participating concern to the solo singer, any knowledge ber using his music binder to deflect air• in choir. of feedback and reference sounds will pro• borne feedback of other choir members.11 The necessity and desire of the singer mote the singer's vocal health. Sten While placing the finger into the ear and to match the output of other choir mem• Ternstrom defines the "feedback" as the reflecting feedback with the music binder bers results in acoustic modification. For sound of one's own voice. The sound of may prove helpful for the singer in re• example, the rest of the choir is referred to as "refer• hearsal; they will most likely distract the ence. "6 He says that "the level difference audience in performance. It is a common observation that between the feedback and the reference is singers attempting ro blend reduce one of the more important acoustic fac• their dynamic level ro avoid being tors in choir singing.7 The Lombard Effect conspicuously loud in the ensemble. The reference sound is affected equally, The solo singer who participates regu• The results of this study suggest that as is the feedback sound, by the physical larly in choir should be aware of the choral singers may adjust their dimensions of the room, yet it also has "Lombard effect."12 Steve Tonkinson de• scribes this acoustic event in the follow• ing way:

[TJ here is masking of an individual voice by the sound of surrounding Step up to the f~~~ voices. This masking effect leaves the individual choral singer with less I/ear and pre: neu: the latest choralsfivm 1r than a desired amount of auditory feedback. I have observed that when Mark Foster Music 1 ' i the masking effect occurs in the & I ' Novello Co. • Chester Music choral environment, there is a and other Shawnee Press Divisions il tendency for singers to push or force including excerpt recordings and descriptions of the latest choral works their voices to enhance their feedback. This tendency is known Visit our website and request your FREE copy ol Podium as the 'Lombard effect.'J3

~Q For In conclusion, this choral phenomenon Shawnee Press, Inc."'~ may pose a danger to the solo singer. Any Marshalls Creek, PA J 8335 subconscious "pushing" or "forcing" of 800-962-8584 • Shawuee-info@ShawneePress com • wwwshawneepress.com the note for an extended amount of time can cause fatigue or long-term damage to

46 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 the young voice. Tonkinson's study con• cludes that "most of the choral singers in his study, regardless of experience, tended to succumb to the Lombard effect when faced with increasing loss of auditory feed• back.l" Based on Tonkinsons observation, one Tuscany International can conclude that the young singer is Children's Chorus Festival particularly susceptible to the Lombard Florence • Rome effect in choir. Solo singers must continu• Joan Gregoryk ally check their own vocal output while singing in choir and resist the urge to July 4 - 12, 2005 "As a participating director in 1999 in this hear better by increasing the volume for extraordinary festival, I am delighted to return as increased feedback. Fatigue following a Conductor in 2005." Founder and Director, Join these choral rehearsal could be a symptom of Children's Chorus of Washington, and frequent Guest Conductor of Children's distinguished conductors the Lombard effect. Therefore, the indi• Chorus Festivals and participating choirs vidual singer should hone his ability to ... become part of the sing by sensation in practice sessions and Anne Tomlinson tradition ... through experience. Singing in different July 3 -11, 2006 Toronto Children's Chorus rooms and other performance spaces, "The Tuscany International Children's Chorus Contra Costa Children's Chorus without listening to one's own vocal feed• Festival provides wonderful musical experiences Augusta Children's Chorale while fostering cultural enrichment of the highest Thessaloniki Greece Children's Choir back, will help cultivate healthy choral caliber." Anne Tomlinson, Director, Los Western New York Children's Chorus techniques. Angeles Children's Chorus, and Children's The Australian Victorian Boys Choir Chorus Mistress, Los Angeles Opera Children's Chorus of Washington Utah Children's Chorus NOTES The Alabama Boychoir Berwick Australia Children's Choir I. 1 Titze, Ingo. Personal Interview. December Henry Leck Los Angeles Children's Chorus 11, 2000. July 1 - 10, 2007 Jubilate Children's Choir 2· Sundberg, Johan. The Science of the Sining Coro de Ninos de la Venezuela "Musically, culturally, socially, educationally, Berkshire Children's Chorus Voice, DeKalb: Norchern Illinois aesthetically and logistically every detail of the The Central Choir of Ottawa University Press, 1987, 140. Tuscany International Children's Chorus Festival Mississippi Girlchoir is phenomenally successful." Henry Leck, 3· Green Bay Girl Choir Ibid, 140. Founder and Director, Indianapolis Children's Torun Poland Children's Choir 4· Sundberg, Johan. 'To Perceive One's Own Chorus Children's Chorus of Sussex County Portland Symphonic Girlchoir Voice and Another Person's Voice." Alaska Children's Choir Research Aspects on Singing. Stockholm: Copenhagen International [eunes Chanteurs d' Acadic Princeton Cirlchoir Royal Swedish Academy of Music, 1981, Children's Chorus Festival International Children's Choir School 84. Minnetonka Chamber Choir Copenhagen • Helsingor • Odense Lochgelly Scotland High School Girls Choir S. Goodwin, Allen W. "An Acoustical Study Cantabile Children's Chorus of Individual Voices in Choral Blend." Henry Leck Miami Children's Chorus New Orleans Children's Chorus Journal of Research in Singing and Applied June 27 - July 4, 2005 Spokane Area Children's Chorus Vocal Pedagogy. 23 (1989), 25-34. "I lookfor ward lo a 'repeat performance' of success Oberlin Choristers Santa Barbara Children's Chorus G. T ernsrrom, Sten. ''Physical and Acoustic as inaugural conductor of the Copenhagen International Children's Chorus Festival." Henry The Oakville Children's Choir Facrors that Interact with the Singer to Leck, Founder and Director, Indianapolis Jacaranda Children's Choir of South Africa Produce the Choral Sound." Journal of Children's Chorus Ventura Cty Master Chorale Children's Choir Atlanta Young Singers of Callanwolde Voice 5 (1991), 128-142. Partners In Praise Girls Choir 7· Ibid. Chautauqua Children's Chorale .------.Jean Ashworth Bartle Shenandoah Valley Children's Choir s. Ibid, 133. July 10 - 17, 2006 Glorystar Children's Chorus 9· Red Rose Children's Choir of Lake County Ibid. "On a scale of 1 to 10, the Tuscany International Summit Choral Society 10· Children's Chorus Festival is an 11 ! I know I will Ibid. White Rock Children's Choir be able lo say the same about the Copenhagen II. Ibid. Woodford House New Zealand Choir International Children's Chorus Festival." jean 12· Tonkinson, Steven. 'The Lombard Effect Ashworth Bartle, Founder and Director, Toronto Children's Chorus Musica Mundi in Choral Singing." Journal of Voice 8 Concert Tours (1994), 24-29. Judith Willoughby 13· Ibid. 1-800-94 7-1991 14· July 9 - 16, 2007 www.musicamundi.com Ibid, 28. ~'"".)!• "Choral performances in Denmark's magical settings provide unparalleled opportunities for musical sharing, [email protected] growth and intercultural exchange. I lookforw ard to 101 First Street, Suite 454 conducting Musica Mundi's newest, notable festival for children's choruses." Judith Willoughby, Los Altos, CA 94022 Founding (former) Music Director, Temple Ph: 800 947 1991 Universitv Children's Choir, Associate Professor of Conducting and Music Education, Ph: 650 949 1991 Northwestern University Fax: 650 949 1626

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 47

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50 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 1 2005 ACDA NATIONAL JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL HONOR CHOIR Los Angeles, California February 2-5, 2005 Janeal Krehbiel, Conductor

Voice Requirements: SATB in grades 7 -9

Considerations: Singers must be accompanied by a parent/chaperone.

Please photocopy these pages, and type or print legibly. Send separate application form and audition CD/tape for each applicant. There is no limit to the number of applicants from a single school, institution, or sponsor. A $25 non-refundable application fee (check or money order payable to ACDA) must be paid for each applicant. Organizations may submit one check for multiple applications. PLEASE DO NOT SEND CASH OR PURCHASE ORDERS. THE ENTRY DEADLINE OF FRIDAY, OCTOBER i- WILL BE STRICTLY ADHERED TO, AND NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE FOR POSTMARKS AFTER THAT DATE! ADDITIONALLY, ALLACDA MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS WILL BE CHECKED!

Applicant's last name First name _ Date of birth _

Address Mailing City State Zip Code

Home phone( _ e-mail address

Male Female Height in inches _ Voice part _ (Choose only one)

(Sponsoring choir or organization: including school, church, community, etc.)

Name of parent or legal guardian: ------

Singer Statement of Obligation: We have read the guidelines and applications form and fully understand that selection for the 2005 Junior High/Middle School Honor Choir brings with it significant musical and financial obligations. We understand that as a member of the honor choir, the applicant must pay a $100 non-refundable participation fee and that ACDA is not responsible for the costs of the applicant's transportation, lodging, or meals. We further understand that the applicant will be staying in a hotel designated by the convention committee, and must have a parent/chaperone in the hotel room. We also understand that the applicant must attend all honor choir rehearsals February 2, 3, 4, 5, and two convention performances Saturday, February 5, 2005, which includes: a concert for the parents, and a concert for the ACDA membership. The applicant will be committed to having the music fully prepared according to the instructions included in the music packet.

Signature of Applicant ------Date !_ _

Signature of Parent/Chaperone: Date _

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 51 Parent/Chaperone information: Each singer must be accompanied by a parent/chaperone. Please do not depend on the student's teacher as the sole chaperone. Because they are members of the organization and pay member registration fees, they attend convention events, which leaves the student un-chaperoned. ACDA will not be responsible for patrolling the halls of the hotel at night. Additionally, a meal plan will nor be provided by the hotel, therefore students will need to eat in hotel restaurants or fast food establishments outside the hotel.

Student Name

Parent/Chaperone's name

Horne Address

Horne phone ( _ Work Phone ( ) _ e-mail address

Relationship to applicant

Parent/Chaperone Statement of Obligation: If this applicant is selected for the 2005 Junior High/Middle School Honor Choir in Los Angeles, California, February 2-5, 2005:

I understand that I will be staying in the same room with the participant. I further understand that I will be responsible for ensuring that the applicant attends all honor choir rehearsals and performances. I understand that the ACDA is not responsible for the costs of my transportation, lodging, or meals.

Parent/Chaperone's Signature

Sponsor Information: Muse be a current member of the ACDA (Members will be verified by the ACDA National Office and new and renewable membership must be paid by October 1, 2004).

Name: _ ACDA Membership# _

Preferred address:------City _ State Zip _

Horne phone ( ) Work Phone ( ) _ E-mail address

Sponsoring organization school church community __

Character Recommendation: This student has demonstrated rhe outstanding musical ability, attention span, and exemplary behavior necessary to represent his/her school, church, community choir, city, and state, in the National ACDA Junior High/ Middle School Honor Choir in Los Angeles, California.

Director's signature ------

Administrator, Private Teach er or Minister's signature _

Financial Obligations

1. All transportation and expenses will be made and paid for by the honor choir participants. ACDA assumes no financial responsibility to and from the national convention.

2. A $100 non-refundable participation fee with acceptance letter, registration form, code of conduct contract, and medical form postmarked November 15, 2004.

52 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 CDs/Tapes 1. The applicant or teacher of the applicant must send in the CD/cape with the application form. Remember: regardless of who sends in the CD/cape, the postmark deadline will be strictly adhered to! 2. Use a CD/high-bias standard cassette tape and the best recording equipment you have available. The use of Dolby noise reduction is highly recommended. Audio enhanced recordings will be disqualified. 3. Clearly mark the applicant's name and voice part on the CD/cape. On the CD/cape box, mark the applicant's name, grade, school, city and state, voice part and title of prepared solo. Do not give the name of the student on the CD/cape. 4. Do not record with ambient noise in the background, such as room noises, TV, etc. 5. Be sure that the prepared solo is sung in the proper key for voice part auditioning for. 6. Record the items on the CD/cape in the order listed below and rewind the tape before sending it. 7. Audition CDs/capes will not be returned.

Audition Process 1. Vocalization: Sing an unaccompanied major scale on the syllable doo. Select from the starting pitch below according to voice part preference. Starting pitch MUST be heard on the tape.

Sop. I - A above middle C Alco I - D above middle C Sop. II - F above middle C Alto II - Middle C

Tenor I - G below middle C Bass I - C below middle C Tenor II - F below middle C Bass II - A below low C

2 America the Beautiful: Starting on the pitches listed below, sing the first stanza unaccompanied. Accompanied singers will be disqualified.

Sop I - Bb above Middle C Tenor I - A below middle C Sop II - G above Middle C Tenor II - G below middle C

Alto I - F above middle C Bass I - E below middle C Alto II - D above middle C Bass II - D below middle C

3. One to two minutes of an Art Song or Folk Song, age appropriate, (with or without accompaniment) that may be suitable for a competition or festival. Please be sure that the selected piece is the best representation of your voice. English language is preferred. Limit the piano introduction to no more than ten seconds. Pop, Gospel, and Contemporary Christian pieces are not suitable and will be disqualified.

Audition/Notification Process Time Line Friday, October 1, 2004 Audition Material Postmark Deadline Packet must include: 1. Audition CD/cape 2. Audition Application 3. The $25 non-refundable fee (checks made payable to ACDA) sent to: 2005 National Junior High/Middle School Honor Choir Sandi Gesler, National Chair American Choral Directors Association Post Office Box 2720 Oklahoma City, OK 73101

"Monday, November 1, 2004 Notification of all singers accepted Tuesday, November 15, 2004 Postmark deadline for singer acceptance forms and fees due to National Honor Chair Wednesday, December 1, 2004 Music Packets mailed to choir participants

*When you receive acceptance notification. immediately call the hotel and make a room reservation! There will be two honor choirs housed in the same hotel, so don't delay!!

If you wish to access the list of students, their teachers, and state, please visit the ACDA Web site:

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 53 American Choral Directors Association

The Foundation of Artistry:

An Annotated Bibliography of Distinctive Choral Literature for High School Mixed Choirs

Linda Allen Anderson, Annotator

• .. M_on~~r~ap-hN_o._11 -- 2002 Editor, Nancy Cox

National Honor Choirs A Practical Guide for an Equitable Audition

INCE 1985 National Honor The time is at hand to prepare for the • Do not make a national audition a Choirs have become an inte• Los Angeles Convention, February 2-5, "ya'll come" event for a choir. gral part of ACDA national 2005. Three honor choirs will be a vital Send only the best singers. Send• conventions. Whether choral aficiona• part of that convention including High ing substandard singers and dos agree or disagree with the honor School, grades 10-12; Junior High/Middle substandard recordings inevita• choir concept, the choirs are here to School, grades 7-9; and Elementary Chil• bly confounds an otherwise ex- stay. Few other facets within the realm dren, grades 5 & 6. peditious process. of the American Choral Directors Asso• • If there are multiple honor choirs ciation have enjoyed the growth and Proper Procedures for the and students are entered in one popularity that honor choirs have. Submissionof Audition or more of them, it is the From these choral opportunities, sing• CDs/Tapes responsibility of the director to ers of all ages have life-changing experi• follow all the instructions cor• ences that include: singing under the When considering submitting audition rectly even though criteria may tutelage of outstanding clinicians, cho• tapes, one of the most commonly asked differ. ral literature that is far above and be• questions is, "As a choral director, private • Do not send tapes to the wrong loca• yond mediocrity, performing in voice teacher, or home schooling parent, tion and expect the chair to world-class venues, and sharing the art what can I do for my singer in order to correct the problem. Once again, of good choral singing with new friends. receive the most fair and accurate audi• it is the responsibility of the A tangible negative aspect of a project tion possible?" The following are answers director to do it right! of this magnitude is the prodigious ex• to that query: • If the judges feel a student's tape pense incurred as a member of a na• has been digitally altered or tional honor choir. When convention Tape Preparation studio enhanced, the singer will sites are considered and the expense • Read all instructions carefully and be disqualified. incurred to facilitate a first class honor follow them explicitly. If a choir at the national level, the cost is requirement is not understood, relative. However, considering the singer contact the chair for clarification. Singer/Teacher will gain a life-long musically aesthetic • Students will be disqualified if InformationForms experience, cost prohibitive suddenly instructions are not followed. • As the teacher, check the informa• becomes cost effective. Many schools, There has to be a reward for the tion each student submits. The cities, states, and divisions have devised teachers and students that do it handwriting must be legible, the creative funding to financially assist those right! information must be correct, and that are accepted into these prestigious • Avoid the rush! Submit tapes early, all information requested must choirs. In this day and age, because of not on the postmark deadline. be answered. ACDA and hotel liability issues, parent/ When hundreds of tapes are • When completing director informa• chaperones are required to accompany received per day after the dead• tion, the legibility of handwrit• their singers. This, too, can be problem• line has come and gone, and the ing is equally as important, the atic, but can be accomplished with audition process is looming, the information must be current and creative financing. Where there is a will, margin for error increases sub• correct, and all information re• there is a way! stantially. quested must be submitted.

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 J SSUE 1 SS ---··-··------·------• Complete every form even though honor choir chairs to correct • A scale sung correctly multiple forms and tapes are monetary issues. All honor choir • Impeccable diction sent. Do not assume that honor revenue and expenditures are • Precise attacks and releases choir chairs will understand what exclusive and budgeted sepa• • Expressive musicality is intended if the information rately. is not present on the form • Failure to provide required parent/ If repertoire is required for the audi• • Do not wait until just before or on chaperone information on the tion process and clarification is needed to the postmark deadline to join/ form may cause disqualification. determine whether or not a song is ac• rejoin ACDA. Once the deci• Each singer must be accompa• ceptable, contact the chair for guidance. sion is made to submit a tape, nied by a parent/ chaperone! Remember: Submitting thirty audition immediately call the national tapes from the same school, with each office to see if membership has student singing Amazing Grace, isn't expired. Then promptly take Recording the Voice going to bode well with national level measures to become a member • If a tape is used, it needs to be of the judges. in good standing. highest quality; Dolby low noise As an ACDA member, the choral • Membership numbers will be is preferred. director has the power to be the vehicle checked. If a member number is • Do not record the singer if there is that young singers embrace in order to invalid, expired or omitted from ambient noise: i.e., babies cry• have an opportunity to experience the the form, students will be dis• ing or bouncing basketballs in a pride and privilege of being a member of qualified. This includes life gym. The singers need all the an elite choir. Attention to detail, the members. If a membership num• advantage you can possibly pro• ability to closely follow instructions, and ber is not known, refer to the vide which should include quiet choosing of the finest singers will facili• back of the Choral Journal; the surroundings. tate a more accurate audition process and number is located above the • Use the best recording machine and produce successful results. name. If for some reason it isn't microphones that are available there, call the national office and to you Nancy Cox, National R&S Chair they will supply that informa• • When judges are listening to hun• Los Angeles Honor Choirs Coordinator tion. dreds, perhaps thousands of • Check and recheck that some form tapes, the first minute and a half of payment (other than cash) is of each tape is crucial to the judg• included with every entry sub• ing process. They expect to hear mitted. Purchase orders are not the following within that time Jazz Choirs sufficient. If sending a school sys• frame: tem check with multiple entries, • A lovely clear voice (not Creative Vocal Jazz: list the names of the students on necessarily a big voice) How to Personalize Your the check. If sending recordings • Exceptional tone quality to multiple honor choirs, ensure • Accurate tuning and inter• Performance that there is a separate check for vals ANY of the elements of jazz each honor choir. Do not expect (such as improvisation, M spontaneity, creativity, and "what is not on the page") are often lost in stock arrangements available through major publishers. We must, as educators, NORTHWEST MUSIC PUBLISHERS reinforce these creative qualities if our p.o. box 219204 - Portland, Ore 97225 students are going to be true to the jazz [email protected] philosophy and ideals.

Listen to definitive resources Secular Music for Mixed Voices • Steal ideas and concepts SATB• Lonesome Dove • Go to the original source SATB• • Find other recordings or versions of Shenandoah the same tune SATB• Annie Laurie • Find other versions of the same or SATB• Two Brahms Folk Songs similar groove/style SATB• All My Trials SATB• She Walks in Beauty Teach Improvisation and program at least one improvised tune per SATB• The Bells concert. Most jazz choirs shy SATB- Late Have I Loved Thee away from jazz improvisation and are terrified of scat singing. 56 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 Realize improvisation is the heart • Attempt non-traditional instrumen- use it as a starting point for your and soul of jazz! tation/accompaniment interpretation • Let the unique qualities of your • Add group scat soli, improvised "The ink is never dry'' -don't be a students shine! solos, vocalizes, or "shout cho• slave to the page! • Do not strive to sound like every rus" to an existing chart. • Change rhythms to fit a more other jazz group natural speech pattern • Feel free to re-write rhythm section • Let the poetry/lyrics guide your parts (hire jazz musicians to help Invite jazz musicians to your rehearsals phrasing make the parts more hip in jazz • Adapt voice parts as needed (trade style) Cultivate musical dialogues melody, re-voice chords) • Blend/mix tunes to create fresh new • Solo versus ensemble versions/ medleys-exam pie: Be willing to listen to your musical • Use of space of rhythm section "hits" blues tunes are an easy way to instincts to break up predictable textures, accomplish this. forms, and phrasing • Transcribe or "lift" parts of defini• Hopefully, these ideas will give you • Add instrumental solos or textures tive recordings and insert into permission to try to personalize your • Simplify (i.e. use of unisons, 2-parts, your chart. vocal jazz performances. Experimentation and 3-parts) will lead to opinions; opinions will lead • Experiment with a different Arrange your own charts to passion; passion will lead to perfor• groove-example: a shuffle • Start with unison melodies mance believability and attitude. rather than a swing ("head charts") • Use a different style- • Add simple 2-part (3rds and 6ths) example: a samba rather than • Add a few 4-part chords in strategic Vijay Singh, National Chair swmg places. Be knowledgeable about R&S Committeefor jazz Choirs~~~ • Investigate different tempos jazz theory and chord structures. • Try a different key • Transcribe an existing recording, and

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CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 57 4TH ANNUAL LINZ INVITATIONAL CHORAL FESTIVAL

PRESENTED BY INTROPA TOURS

DR. KENNETH FULTON, Artistic Director

JUNE 7 - 11, 2005

LINZ, AUSTRIA

58 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 2005 ACDA NATIONAL ELEMENTARY CHILDREN'S HONOR CHOIR Los Angeles, California February 2-5, 2005 Iris Lamanna, Conductor

Voice Requirements: Treble Voices, Grades 5 & 6

Considerations: Participants must be accompanied by a parent/chaperone.

Please photocopy these pages, and type or print legibly. Send separate application form and audition CD/tape for each applicant. There is no limit on the number of applicants from a single school, institution, or sponsor. A $25 non-refundable application fee (check or money order payable to ACDA) must be paid for each applicant. Organizations may submit one check for multiple applications. PLEASE DO NOT SEND CASH OR PURCHASE ORDERS. THE ENTRY DEADLINE OF FRIDAY, OCTOBER i-, WILL BE STRICTLY ADHERED TO, AND NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE FOR POSTMARKS AFTER THAT DATE! ADDITIONALLY, ALLACDA MEMBERSHIP NUMBERS WILL BE CHECKED!

Applicant's last name _ First name _ Date of birth

Address Mailing City State Zip Code

Home phone ( , _ e-mail address _

Male Female Height in inches Voice part (Choose one only- Sop I, Sop II, or Alto)

(Sponsoring choir or organization: including school, church, community, etc.)

Name of parent or legal guardian: _

Singer Statement of Obligation: We have read the guidelines and applications forms and fully understand that selection for the 2005 National Elementary Children's Honor Choir brings with it significant musical and financial obligations. We understand that as a member of the honor choir, the applicant must pay a $100 non-refundable participation fee and that ACDA is nor responsible for the costs of the applicant's transportation, lodging, or meals. We further understand that the applicant will be staying in a hotel, designated by the convention committee, and must have a parent/chaperone in the hotel room. We also understand that rhe applicant must attend all honor choir rehearsals February 2, 3, 4, 5, and two convention performances Saturday afternoon, February 5, 2005, that includes a concert for the parents, and a concert for the ACDA membership. The applicant will be committed ro having rhe music fully prepared according ro the instructions included in the music packet.

Signature of Applicant _ Dare ! __

Signature of Parent/Chaperone: Date / __

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 59 Parent/Chaperone information: Each singer must be accompanied by parent/chaperone. Please do not depend on the student's teacher as the sole chaperone. Since they are members of the organization and pay member registration fees, they attend convention events, which leaves the student un-chaperoned. ACDA will not be responsible for patrolling the halls of the hotel at night. Additionally, a meal plan will not be provided by the hotel, therefore students will eat in hotel restaurants or fast food establishments outside the hotel.

Student Name

Parent/Chaperone's name

Home Address

Home phone ( _ Work Phone( ) _ e-mail address ------

Relationship to applicant

Parent/Chaperone Statement of Obligation: If this applicant is selected for the 2005 National Elementary Children's Honor Choir in Los Angeles, California, February 2-5, 2005:

I understand that I will be staying in the same room with the participant. I further understand that I will be responsible for ensuring that the applicant attends all honor choir rehearsals and performances. I understand that the ACDA is not responsible for the costs of my transportation, lodging, or meals.

Parent/Chaperone's Signature ------

Sponsor Information: Must be a current member of the ACDA (Members will be verified by the ACDA National .Office and new and renewable membership must be paid by October 1, 2004.)

Name: _ ACDA Membership# _

Preferred address: City _ State Zip

Home phone( ) Work Phone( ) _ e-mail address

Sponsoring organization _ school church community

Character Recommendation: This student has demonstrated the outstanding musical ability, attention span, and exemplary behavior necessary to represent his/her school, church, community choir, city, state, in the National ACDA High School Honor Choir in Los Angeles, California.

Director's signature

Administrator, Private Teacher or Minister's signature

Financial Obligations

1. All transportation and expenses will be made and paid for by the honor choir participants. ACDA assumes no financial responsibility to and from the national convention.

2. A $100 non-refundable participation fee with acceptance letter, registration form, code of conduct contract, and medical form postmarked November 15, 2004.

60 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 1 CDs/Tapes

1. The applicant or reacher of the applicant must send in the CD/rape with the application form. Remember: regardless of who sends in the CD/tape, the postmark deadline will be strictly adhered to! 2. Use CD/high-bias standard cassette rape and the best recording equipment you have available. The use of Dolby noise reduction is highly recommended. Audio enhanced recordings will be disqualified. 3. Clearly mark the applicant's name and voice part on the CD/tape. On the CD/tape box, mark the applicant's name, grade, school, city and state, voice part, and title of the prepared solo. Do not give the name of the student on the CD/tape. 4. Do not record with ambient noise in the background, such as room noises, TV, etc. 5. Be sure the singer sings his/her song in the same octave they vocalize or sing "My Country ... " in. 6. Record the items on the CD/tape in the order listed below and rewind the tape before sending it. 7. Audition CDs/tapes will not be returned.

Audition Process -ACDA National Elementary Children's Honor Choir

1. Vocalization: Sing two unaccompanied major scales on the single syllable "doo." One, from the middle of your range to your lowest comfortable singing pitch, and the other, from the middle of your range to the highest comfortable singing pitch. Please state the key of the scale before you sing it!

2. My Country 'tis of Thee (America): Starring on the pitches listed below, sing the first verse unaccompanied. Accompanied singers will be disqualified.

Sop I - A above Middle C Sop II - G above Middle C Alto - E above Middle C

3. One to two minutes of an Aria, Art Song, or Folk Song, (with or without accompaniment) that may be suitable for a competition or festival. Limit the piano introduction to no more than 10 seconds. Pop, Gospel, Contemporary, and Contemporary Christian pieces are not suitable and will be disqualified.

Audition/Notification Process Time Line

Friday, October 1, 2004 Audition Material Postmark Deadline Packet must include: 1. Audition CD/rape 2. Audition Application 3. The $25 non-refundable fee (checks made payable to ACDA) and send to:

2005 National Elementary Children's Honor Choir Lynne Gackle, National Chair American Choral Directors Association Post Office Box 2720 Oklahoma City, OK 73101

"Monday, November 1, 2004 Notification of all singers accepted Tuesday, November 15, 2004 Postmark deadline for singer acceptance forms and fees due to National Honor Chair Wednesday, December 1, 2004 Music Packets mailed to choir participants

"'When ..rvo u receive accetJtan"'- ce notific~ ation, immediatelv., call the hotel and make a room reservation!!

If you wish to access the list of students, their teachers, and state, please visit the ACDA Web site:

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 1 61

The Best First Church Choir Rehearsal

NLESS you are one of those rare church music such as a projected outline of the next program, a choral directors that stays in one place your entire short demo of a piece of music you intend to pro• career, some day you are going to find yourself in gram, or a unique way of making announcements, to a new place with a new group of people. Statistics tell us that show the choir that along with your detailed rehearsal church musicians change jobs fairly regularly. School directors plan, you are in control. face a new choir every year, but the difference is that in a Your new ensemble has the need to be certain you school, the conductor is able to stay in the same place while the are the authority, and chat you intend to kindly use students are the ones that do the moving. Church musicians, that authority for the good of the ensemble. By plan• on the other hand, face that new-start and the opportunity to ning one or two preplanned activities during the signal the kind of choral environment they want to shape at rehearsal you will show that you are the architect for the prime-time moment of a location change. the rehearsal hour. Your new ensemble will learn to like The first rehearsal with a new group of singers can be you in time, and they will find you interesting at the exhilarating as well as a bit intimidating. Expectations are very first rehearsal. But what they really want to know is high on the part of the conductor and the new group of that you are in charge, and that you are going to bring singers. This anxiety is built on high hopes, inevitable com• leadership to the ensemble. Your greatest hope in the parisons with former conductors, a desire on everyone's part to first rehearsal is to know the music better than anyone get to work, and the very real dynamic of the power of the first in the room so that you can personify leadership with impression. To help create the best first impression in a new the music first, and the overall time spent in the church choir rehearsal setting, the following ideas could be a rehearsal. helpful outline in creating the best first rehearsal. • Do not do anything in the rehearsal that is not written out for the ensemble to see so that they will get the message • Hand out your detailed, complete rehearsal plan at the that you are a communicator. Either hand material start of the rehearsal to show the ensemble that you out, use an overhead, have lists on the wall, or use are extremely organized. Show the ensemble that you whatever written methods are available to you to dem• are organized by duplicating your detailed rehearsal onstrate as many layers of written communication as plan and markings sheets. The point of handing out possible. Make the ensemble believe you are the best your rehearsal plan is for the ensemble to see what communicator in the world. you have thought about, what is important to you, Discover the traditions, the logistic requirements for and what details you are going to work on in this performances, and any other routines to which the en• rehearsal. Encourage the ensemble to make the mark• semble is accustomed, and have those written out ings you have outlined on the rehearsal plan during and placed on an announcement board. You can tell the times in the rehearsal that you are working with the ensemble chat you want all newcomers to be famil• other sections. iar with these procedures (while they are really for the No ensemble respects or likes disorganization. In veterans and for you to remember as well). Verbal fact, nothing undoes them like an unorganized leader. announcements are okay, but be sure chat they are also In your early rehearsals, organize everything in the re• written out on the rehearsal sheet. If you can have the hearsal room that can be organized, and insist that next performance list ready, hand it out for them to see this is your style. Communicate organization. As per• during the rehearsal. All these written out activities formers begin talking about their new conductor, will demonstrate to the ensemble how much you care don't be happy until you hear the comments coming about communication. back to you chat you are the most organized person • Memorize the music you are working on for the first they have ever seen. Organization will be your first rehearsal, and rarely look down at the score so that you new friend in this new position. can look your ensemble members in the eye as you • At the first rehearsal have one or two preplanned activities convey your passion for the music. Be prepared, dern-

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 63 onstrate that you are prepared, ahead of time and that did not taneiry" to show the ensemble and build their trust in appear on your rehearsal sheet. what they can look forward to you as someone that is prepared There is something about hav• each week as a part of your style and wants to communicate. By ing these markings and musical of leadership. For example, in• definition, we only look at the desires written down that will troduce your family to the en• music when we are not secure keep anyone from saying "we semble; do something comical and do not remember what is on didn't do it that way before." The that no one knows you can do; the page. Therefore, every time rehearsal sheet brings another give away fast-food or ice cream we look at the page, we commu• level of authority to the rehearsal coupons to everyone that was nicate some degree of insecurity for you, and working through on time; read a note from a to the choir, no matter how all of the items on the list dem• former director that introduces subtle the look is. In contrast, if onstrates careful planning. In you to the ensemble. you never look down, you may time, the ensemble will not One activity I planned never communicate insecurity, worry about the future perfor• for such a first rehearsal was to and this is your desire for your mances with such careful plan• read a message from the com• first rehearsal. Furthermore, if ning and execution on your part. poser of one of the pieces that you ever do begin to feel inse• • Talk about your conversations with we were rehearsing. This was a cure, your passion and knowl• the previous director or the re• simple process to achieve. I sim• edge of and for the music will be cent past history in an affirming ply faxed a note to the composer your friend during the rehearsal and positive style to show the asking for a few words about the process. ensemble that you acknowledge piece that we were rehearsing. It • Work through everything on your this part of their past, and that was no problem for the com• rehearsal sheet that you handed you want to participate in it. poser to send a few sentences out to the ensemble to show Show the ensemble that now back to me by fax. During the them that you are calm, ordered, you are with them, their history first rehearsal, I told the en• and that this order is something is now a part of your history. semble what I had done and then they too can calmly anticipate. Don't be afraid of it, but rather, read the meaningful words to the You can remind the ensemble talk about it, and celebrate it ensemble. In addition, I read the when you are working with a with the ensemble. They should salutation of the fax, which was particular section that those not feel comfortable reliving their addressed personally to the rehearsing can look ahead on history with you, and you can members of that particular en• your rehearsal sheet to mark and start the process by taking the semble. This surprise proved to study areas in the music that are first step in the first rehearsal. be a wonderful "planned spon• coming. Try not to give instruc• • Plan for one surprise in the rehearsal taneity" for the ensemble, which tions that you did not analyze as a moment of "planned spon- by that point in the rehearsal process had grown to appreciate

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64 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 showing the ensemble your the early weeks of your arrival other officers in the ensemble, desire to get to know them that the ensemble is familiar with accompanists, or other ensemble quickly. Then do it. Work with a and that you already know, members or leaders. chart at your first rehearsal and everyone will feel more confi• First impressions are very important, the following rehearsals if neces• dent. In addition, by choosing and the most important first impression sary to aid your memory. music that is both appropriate you can give to your new ensemble is that This may be the most important for the coming season and with you are a leader, you are knowledgeable, thing that you will do in your which everyone is familiar, this you are prepared, you are organized, you first days with your new en• will allow you to do all the above are a communicator, and that you are a semble. Nothing is more impor• activities with more confidence. caring person. These steps will leave no tant than knowing the names of You will be able to discover the doubt in the minds of the ensemble that the performers. This is work, but right pieces for these choices by these are your leadership skills and de• it is important work. A video of talking to the former director, sires. ~'"')!• the individual members saying their names will give you some• thing to review every day in the FIRST ANNUAL coming week, and nothing will Crescent City Choral Festival make a greater impression on a festival for high school choirs your new ensemble than for you to go to the next rehearsal and Cheryl Dupont, Artistic Director name every person. This will David Brunner, Guest Artist communicate how serious you March 10-13, 2005 • New Orleans, Louisiana are about getting to know them, especially if there are 100 people • Open to all high school choirs representing you are working with. I have school, church, or community For More Information: 504-488-5973 made this the top priority of • Featuring the premiere of a commissioned work by David Brunner [email protected] every new setting that I am in. • Participants stay at hotel in downtown www.neworleanschildrenschorus.org People love nothing more than New Orleans hearing their own name. You Sponsored by the New Orleans Children's Chorus and Youth Chorale cannot let this come slowly over time. If anything needs a proac• tive and quick-start approach it is the memorization of everyone's name. To assist you at the first and following rehearsals, have an officer of the ensemble make a seating chart for you with the names in each position. This chart, along with your video (or picture) will take you a long way toward knowing the names of your ensemble members the first week. • Choose music that you know very The National Male Choirs Repertoire 8e Standards Chair well for the first rehearsal, and if at all possible, also choose is beingvaDated. If you are interested.in tbis position, pieces that the ensemble is please send a resume and short "Statement of Intent" to: familiar with so that you can communicate clearly with the ensemble, and so that they can be confident in their playing or Nancy C.OX, National R&S Chair singing. As you bring new 824E.1illm insights to music that they are already secure with, everyone's Altus, OK 73521 trust level will rise. As you build [email protected] trust with your new ensemble, the music that you choose will Applicant submission deadline is ~~ber_i§,_g004 be a part of that trust-building work. If you can plan music in

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE l 65 STUDENT CONDUCTING AWARDS APPLICATION GUIDELINES

The ACDA Student Conducting Awards were initiated during the 1993 ACDA National Convention in San Antonio, Texas. This highly successful event will again be offered at the 2005 ACDA National Convention in Los Angeles, California. Originally underwritten by the University Music Service in Hershey, Pennsylvania, the ACDA Student Conducting Awards are now funded through ACDA's Endowment Trust.

The objectives of the ACDA Student Conducting Awards are three-fold: 1) To acknowledge and reward outstanding graduate and undergraduate student conductors; 2) To encourage score preparation and advancement of conducting skills; and 3) To promote student activity at the ACDA National Convention.

The following cash prizes will be awarded to the winners of the semi-final round of the conducting awards: First Prize, Graduate Level: $1000.00; Second Prize, Graduate Level: $500.00; First Prize, Undergraduate Level: $500.00; Second Prize, Undergraduate Level: $250.00.

In addition, the sixteen semi-finalists (up to eight undergraduate and eight graduate) will each receive a $200 scholarship funded by corporate sponsors to defray costs to attend the National Convention.

INITIAL SELECTION PROCESS

I. Eligibility Requirements Applicants must meet the following criteria:

A. Hold valid A CD A student membership. Membership Forms are availableat

B. Be a full-time undergraduate student (junior or senior status) or a full-time graduate student at a college or university in the United States at the time of application

C. Submit a complete application portfolio including the following materials: 1. Application form 2. Verification of taping validity (See II-H below) 3. Verification by a University official of the student's class standing and full-time status 4. Audition videotape

II. Video Tape Preparation Guidelines Applicants will prepare and submit a VHS video-taped audition that meets the following criteria:

A. Ensemble Preparation 1. The choir may be selected by the applicant. 2. The choir is to be fully familiar with the music to be presented on the video audition. The choir should NOT BE SIGHT-READING during the audition taping. 3. The choir is to be prepared by a conductor other than the applicant. Applicant is not to prepare the choir in advance of the taping, nor will the applicant have first-hand knowledge of the choir's work in rehearsal or performance on the audition literature.

66 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 B. Musical Parameters-Undergraduate 1. Undergraduate applicants will conduct two compositions for mixed chorus in the video audition, including: a. a sacred seventeenth- or eighteenth-century accompanied work, AND b. a secular unaccompanied composition from the nineteenth or twentieth century 2. Excerpts of longer works may be selected 3. Keyboard reductions may be used for orchestral accompaniments

C. Musical Parameters-Graduate 1. Graduate applicants will conduct two composmons for mixed chorus in the video audition, including: a. an accompanied composition from the Romantic period, AND b. an unaccompanied twentieth- or twenty-first century composition that has mixed meters 2. Excerpts of longer works may be selected 3. Keyboard reductions may be used for orchestral accompaniments

D. Video Conducting and Rehearsal 1. The applicant should rehearse the choir in such a way as to focus on gestural communication, rehearsal technique, and the development of the musical product (in much the same manner as a guest conductor in a festival setting). 2. The video judges will place primary value on gestural language and rehearsal technique.

E. Camera Angle 1. A camera angle will be selected that shows a full frontal view of the applicant and all conducting movements. 2. The choral sound and comments of the applicant must be clearly audible on the tape 3. The applicant will begin each selection by announcing the title and composer of the work to be presented.

F. Personal Identification 1. The applicant will not identify him/herself, nor the institution of higher learning on the recording.

G. Audition Format and Duration 1. The video taping of each selection will be consecutive 2. The video tape will not be edited in any manner 3. The video tape will show the applicant conducting and rehearsing the choir for a minimum of ten minutes and a maximum of twelve minutes 4. It is recommended that time be equally divided between the two selections

H. Verification 1. The video taping will be monitored by two FULL, ACTIVE ACDA members (non-students) who will certify on the application form that, a. the applicant has not previously rehearsed the music with the choir nor heard the choir rehearse or perform the music presented on the video tape, AND b. the applicant meets all of the criteria specified in these guidelines NOTE: An incomplete or erroneous application will disqualify the applicant.

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 67 III. Video Tape Review Process A. The National Student Conducting Awards Committee, hereafter known as the "NSCA Committee," will appoint a team of video judges who will review all tapes with the goal of selecting a maximum of eight undergraduate and eight graduate students to advance to the semi• final round. B. The video judges will place primary value on gestural language and rehearsal technique. C. Applicants for the ACDA Student Conducting Awards will be notified on or before December 30, 2004 of the student conductors selected to advance to the semi-final round in Los Angeles, California.

CONVENTION SESSION FORMAT AND EXECUTION

I. Semi-Final Round The semi-final round for both the undergraduate and graduate levels will be held during the ACDA National Convention for the purpose of selecting a maximum of four undergraduate and four graduate students to advance to the final round. The following guidelines will be followed:

A. Audition Literature Choral repertoire for the semi-finals rounds will be selected by the NSCA Committee, in consultation with the conductors of the demonstration choirs, and mailed to the semi-finalists by December 30, 2004.

B. Schedule The undergraduate and graduate semi-final rounds will be held during the ACDA National Convention in Los Angeles, California. The undergraduate semi-final round will occur on Wednesday, February 2, 2005. The graduate semi-final round will take place on Thursday, February 3, 2005. (These two dates may be switched, depending on the requirements of the demonstration choirs selected.)

C. Demonstration Choir A demonstration choir selected by the NSCA committee will be provided for the semi-final round. The choir will be prepared to sing the selections initially for each student conductor in a straight-forward manner without nuance or extreme interpretation and will follow the directions of each conductor as much as possible.

D. Judges Judges will be selected by the N SCA committee. The identity of the judges will not be announced until the end of the round. A non-scoring adjudicator will also be provided to offer constructive written comments on each student's conducting. Student conductors will receive these written comments via mail no earlier than four weeks after the event.

E. Conducting Order The semi-finalists will meet in a separate room to draw for conducting order and will remain there except when they conduct in the performance room.

68 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 F. Conductor Identification Each conductor will be identified before the judges and audience by letter name only (contestant A, etc.).

G. Semi-Final Audition Duration Each semi-finalist will be given eight minutes to conduct/ rehearse the choir. A timer will be present to monitor the conductor's progress.

H. Scoring Conductors will be evaluated on a numerical scale on items including, but not limited to: 1. Conducting Technique a. Clarity b. Use ofleft hand c. Cuing d. Releases 2. Interpretation a. Tempo b. Expression/Style c. Dynamics d. Facial expression e. Body language 3. Rehearsal Technique a. Eye contact b. Precision c. Verbal directions d. Control of singing diction e. Confidence f. Effectiveness of verbal directions g. Pacing h. Treatment of rhythmic and tonal acuity

I. Tabulation and Results After all semi-finalists at each level have finished conducting, the judges, without conferring, will rank the students. The scores will be tabulated by two division chairs of Youth and Student Activities. The four students at each level who are selected by the judges will be announced as the ACDA Conducting Finalists and will advance to the final round.

J. Tie Score If required, two or more conductors involved in a numerical tie in the voting will be recalled for an additional five-minute period of conducting.

K. Public Access On-site conducting in the ACDA Student Conducting Awards will be open to all convention attendees.

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 69 II. Final Round The final round for both the undergraduate and graduate levels will be held for the purpose of selecting the winners of theACDA Student Conducting Awards. The format will be similar to the semi-final round, with the following exceptions:

A. Conducting Participants Only those selected to advance from the semi-final round will participate.

B. Schedule The final undergraduate and graduate rounds will be held on Friday, February 4, 2005 in Los Angeles, California.

C. Choir Conductors will rehearse the same choir they worked with in the semi-final round.

D. Non-Scoring Adjudicator There will not be a non-scoring adjudicator provided for the final round.

E. Order and Score Tally The finals will be conducted with the undergraduate finalists conducting first, after which the votes of the judges will be tallied. The graduate finals will immediately follow. After the graduate finals are completed and votes are tallied, the winners of both the undergraduate and graduate ACDA Student Conducting Awards will be announced.

Note: An incomplete or erroneous application will disqualify the applicant.

Mail the completed application form, videotape, and all supporting documentation in a single package to:

Dr. Gene Brooks ACDA Executive Director P.O. Box 2720 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73101 postmarked no later than October 18, 2004.

All application materials become the property of the American Choral Directors Association and will not be returned to the applicant.

DISCLAIMER No member of the NSCA committee, nor any judge, teller, or person connected with the selection of semi-finalists or conducting of the semi-final or final rounds shall be involved with any decision involving that person's student (over the past three years) who has applied or been selected as a participant in the ACDA Conducting Awards. The NSCA Committee is under no obligation to award semi-final, final, or winner status if satisfactory candidates cannot be identified. All decisions made by the judges are final.

70 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 ACDA STUDENT CONDUCTING AWARD APPLICATION 2005 ACDA National Convention February 2-5, 2005

Last First M.I.

Street Apt. No.

City State Zip

School Address: Street Apt. No.

City State Zip

Telephone: Primary

Secondary

Fax

E-mail

College Status: 0 full-time undergraduate junior or senior 0 full-time graduate student

ACDA student member: Membership No. _

College/University: _

ENDORSEMENT OF MUSIC FACULTY MEMBER Must befrom Applicants College/Universityand an active member of ACDA

I hereby endorse the above applicant for the ACDA Student Conducting Awards. I have read and understand the application requirements and certify that this student meets the stated requirements.

Signature: Date:

Title and School:

Day Phone: ( __ ) _

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 71 VERIFICATION OF VIDEO-TAPING PROCEDURE Must be by two full active non-student members

We certify that the enclosed videotape is an unedited conducting performance by the student applicant and that this student did not rehearse the choir in advance nor hear the choir rehearse/perform the music prior to the production of this video.

Date of taping: Location:

Composition No. 1: Composer:

Title:

Composition No. 2: Composer:

Title:

Name of ACDA member: Signature: Print

Name of ACDA member: Signature: _ Print

SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS TO BE ENCLOSED 1. Statement from a university official verifying class standing and full-time status. 2. Complete resume of conducting experience.

STATEMENT OF APPLICANT With my signature below, I certify that I have read, understand fully, and accept the regulations for participation in the ACDA Student Conducting Awards program, and that all statements made on this form are factual.

Signature: Date:

Application and videotape must be postmarked by October 18, 2004, to

Gene Brooks ACDA Executive Director P.O. Box 2720 Oklahoma City, OK 73101

72 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 Christmas Spirituals Masters In This Hall for Choirs For two-part choir (equal or unequal for SATE accompanied and WHAT'S voices), flute, oboe and keyboard unaccompanied 3867664 $2.00 NEW FOR set of parts Compiled and edited by Bob Chilcott 3867672 $50.00 and Ken Burton CHRISTMAS! 3435411 $12.95 Alexander Dmitriev Two Songs of Mary I Sing of a Maiden; Sweet Was the Song Three Carols for Christmas For SATE unaccompanied Love Came Down at Christmas 3867788 $1. 75 and In the Bleak Midwinter by Robert Lockwood Howard Helvey The Cherubic Pilgrim The Cherry Tree Carol by Ernest Bacon For SATTBB unaccompanied For SATB unaccompanied 3867818 $2.50 3867699 $1.70 Glenn L. Rudolph Dwight Bigler God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen All You Who Are For two-part choir and piano To Mirth Inclined 3867591 $1.60 For SATE, brass quintet and piano (with optional percussion) Lester Seigel 3867753 $2.75 Jesus, Jesus, Rest Your Head Christmas Spirituals for Choirs is a set of parts For baritone solo and SATB fresh and inspiring collection of 12 3867761 $41.95 unaccompanied new spiritual arrangements and origi• 386780X $1.60 nal pieces in a gospel style for SATB Ian Brentnall groups of every size and ability. As Joseph Was a-Walking Reginald Unterseher Ken Burton: And His name shall be For SATE, oboe and organ First Snow called; Go, tell it on the mountain; Star 3867826 $1.75 For SA and piano of the night; The Virgin Mary had a baby boy; Wasn't that a mighty day! Don Michael Dicie 3867605 $1.60 Bob Chilcott: Away in a manger; He is Born Jingle Bells Behold that star; Mighty wonder; For two-part choir and piano Remember, 0 thou man; Rise up, For SATE and keyboard shepherd, and follow (with optional flute and oboe) 3867680 $1.60 Roderick Williams: Children, go where 3867656 $1.60 I send thee; Mary had a baby Mack Wilberg Infant Holy, Infant Lowly For SATE and orqan 3867966 $1.60

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CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 73 a world-class compe Keynote Arh Associates .. Celebro+ing 20 years of quali+y choral festivals 800-522-2213 .. www.keynoteads.com .. [email protected]

The ACDA Endowment Trust is a tax• deductible avenue through which helpful programs and meaningful projects enhance the art of choral music.

It is a select, volunteer body which continues to commission numerous choral compositions from renowned composers and student composers from American universities. It also offers prizes and awards to student conductors and student ACDA chapters.and helps fund the new Media and Research Center located at the ACDA National Headquarters in Oklahoma City.

It is a valuable adjunct to ACDA, which depends upon your contiaued generosity to maintain these valuable resources.

YOUR GIFfS KEEP GIVING They are perpetual. Only a portion of the Endowment-generated income is used for the various projects. They are protected. Endowment gifts are set aside, and kept separate from operating and capital-fund accounts. They are personal. While the Endowment has a large general fund, you can designate funds for either the Raymond W. Brock Memorial Fund, the Charles Hirt Fund, or the Allen C. Lannom Fund. Guillaume de Machaut Motets Machaut must have regarded his sively any novelties in texture, rhythm, or The Hilliard Ensemble motets as important to his compositional melody. The hocker, for example, comes 2001, ECM New Series, ECM output, because he placed them as the across in the hands of the Hilliard En• 80001859~02 second genre after his revered lais and semble as a natural occurrence, yet retains 62'26" before the now-famous Messe de Notre its significance to the work as a whole. Dame in his compilation of a "complete Since this advance copy did not m- HE motets of Guillaume edition" manuscript.3 His preferred tex• de Machaut (1300-1377), ture in these motets is three voices (tenor, T though described by one duplum or motetus, and triplum); only scholar as "conservative and backward• four use four voices, adding an untexted looking" because of their heavy use of contratenor. All the motets are double French texts, nonetheless provide a rich texted. Only two have a Latin duplum melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic palette and French rriplurn. The majority, fif• for the extraordinary voices of the Hilliard teen, feature two French texts, while the Ensemble. 1 The ensemble's recording of rest are in Latin. Machaut favored eighteen of the twenty-three known works plainchant tenors, since only one of the in this genre (a twenty-fourth exists, but French motets has a secular French tenor its attribution is spurious), is exemplary (Tant doucement m'ont attrait - Eins que and should delight both the medieval ma dame - Ruina, no. 13, performed on scholar and the casual listener. this recording at track 1 O). All the motets The life of Guillaume de Machaut is make use of the Ars Nova technique of synonymous with the spirit of the Ars isorhythrn, and Machaut's skill as a struc• Nova and the creeping secularism that turalist shows through his use of hocket, informed the fourteenth-century Catho• obvious cadences and sequences that high• lic Church. Machaut moved with appar• light the beginnings and endings of the ent ease in religious and secular circles, ta/ea. with his name first appearing as secretary The brief overview-Machaut's motets to King John of Bohemia, who secured contain far more complexities than can Machaut a canonicate at the Reims be addressed here-serves simply to key Cathedral (1340). Machaut seems to have the listener into the brilliance of the per• had a flexible arrangement with the formances presented here by the Hilliard church (canons were to sing at Office and Ensemble. The individual voices (counter in a minimum number of masses per tenors David James and David Gould; year),2 for he continued to accompany tenors Roger Covey-Crump and Steven King John on his travels, and after John's Harrold; and baritone Gordon Jones) death in 1346, was attached to such royal blend wondrously, yet each strand of tex• households as King Charles of Navarre ture shines through, even in the thicker (Charles the Bad) and King Charles V of four-voice works. Tuning is impeccable, France, all the while maintaining his rela• rendering Machaut's dissonances particu• tionship with the Cathedral. That larly satisfying. The motets present rhyth• Machaut found secular life far more satis• mic challenges, particularly in making fying than religious service is evident from clear the isorhythmic structure. Machaut his extensive poetry, which focuses on the employs devices that aid the listener, and pleasures of life outside the church, and the ensemble wisely allows Machaut's his secular compositions far outnumber compositional skill to guide the perfor• his sacred works. mance, rather than highlighting exces-

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 77 elude liner notes, it was impossible to by ear alone whether the tenor was sung NOTES 1 evaluate the group's decisions regarding with text or not, because the acoustical Richard Hoppin, Medieval Music (New York: texting of the tenor, or their choice of considerations of the recording and the W.W. Norton, 1978), 411. which motets to exclude (nos. 1, 6, 12, long note values of the tenor. As with any 2 Ibid., 397. 14, and 17). The scholarly decisions of motet, text declamation is an issue. The 3 Paris, Bib!. Nat., f. fr. 1584. Interestingly, the Hilliard Ensemble have always been text was hard to follow in this recording, the musical compositions are presented solid in the past, but it was difficult to tell particularly without benefit of a printed only after all of Machaut's poetry, leaving text or translations, but this was more the us to question which he considered his fault of the genre than of the ensemble's most important. For an overview of the work. Individual melodic lines were in• manuscript contents, see Hoppin, p. 400. Elizabethan Dinner Scripts credibly clear. Although the repertoire featured on this recording might be obscure for many Villancicos y Danzas Criollas de • 25 pages of dialogue listeners, it certainly merits attention and la Iberia Antigua al Nuevo Mundo • Music Suggestions carefully considered performance. The 1550-1750 • Humorous Jester Hilliard Ensemble gives it through per• La Capella Reial de Catalunya I • Singer Introduction & Roasting formances that are as entrancing as they Hesp rion XXI, Jordi Savall (cond.) • Lorde's Greeting are hauntingly beautiful. Listeners should 2003 Alia Vox: AV 9834 (series La Cost: $125 pay particular attention to the group's Ruta del Nuevo Mundo, vol. 1) work on motets 2 and 16. This recording 77'03" For more information, call Cornell is recommended highly to scholars of me• Runestad, 402.375.1968. To order, dieval music or to anyone else who sim• NE could translate the tide send payment & e-mail address to ply receives pleasure from such purity of of this collection as "Creole Eric Runestad, 525 S. Harvest Ln, approach to sound. 0 Songs and Dances from Old Sun Prairie, WI 53590. Script sent Spain to the New World," but then cru• by e-mail in Word or PDF. Vicki Stroeher cial distinctions would be lost. Criolla can Elizabethan Dinner Scripts Huntington, WV refer to anything Latin American.

Innsbruck Rome Sacred International Children's International Music Festival Choral Festival at Choral Festival Canterbury Cathedral

ArtisticDirectors ArtisticDirector ArtisticDirectors Dr. Eph Ehly & Rene Clausen Dr. Z. Randall Stroope Alan Heatherington & Mr. Bob Chilcott June 29 - July 4, 2005 June 18 - 22, 2005 June 26 - 29, 2005 Join a combined choir of 500 Festival Chorus performs in the Featuring the Mozart Requiem voices in performance of the accompanied by the Verdi Requiem at the Chiesa del Nave of the Canterbury Cathedral. Salzburg Mozarteum Gesu, accompanied by the Nova Individual choirs may perform in both the Quire and the Nave. Orchestra Amadeus Orchestra of Rome.

78 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 Villancico properly denotes a Spanish Juan Perez Bocanegra in the Quechua performances than the ones recorded here. poetic genre first cultivated in the language of Peru, was also the first poly• fifteenth century; it was "originally de• phonic work printed in the Americas. Lawrence Schenbeck rived from a medieval dance lyric and Gaspar Fernandes (1570-1629), chapel Atlanta, GA associatedwith rustic or popular themes."1 master at the Puebla cathedral, wrote a Certainly the rustic and popular loom number of villancicos that mingle NOTES large in this high-spirited selection of Re• Castilian with Nahuatl, the Aztec tongue, naissance and Baroque music. In their including "Tleycantimo choquiliua." It is 1 Narron/Grove Concise Encyclopedia of imaginative recreations of historical per• based on a local Indian dance, as is an• Music (New York: Norton, 1988), 803. 2 formance, Hesp rion XXI and its director other Christmas villancico, "Ay que me Unfortunately Savall does not list his sources. Jordi Savall have often sampled folk style, abraso," which moves to a guaracha beat But see Malena Kuss, "Robert M. and they continue that approach here. (originally Afro-Cuban, here Mexican). Stevenson: A Selected Bibliography," The chamber choir La Capella Reial de Bantu and Yoruba phrases crop up

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 79 American Choral Directors Association presents Raymond W. Brock Endowment Trust Commisioned Choral Works Volume One A Psalm Triology 0 for a Thousand Tongues Samuel Adler (1998) Theron Kirk (1991) Portland State University Choir St. Charles Choir Bruce Browne, conductor Paul Salamunovich, conductor I Thank You, God Sing a Migbt;y Song Gwyneth Walker (1999) Daniel Gawthrop (1994) ACDA National Women's Choir The Baylor A Cappella Choir Diane Loomer & Moma Edmundson, conductors Donald Baily, conductor The God of Glory Thunders Alleluia For The Wdters Adolphus Hailstork (1999) Daniel Pinkham (1995) Oklahoma State University Chamber Singers ACDA Men's National Honor Choir Jerry McCoy, conductor Allen Crowell, conductor Flanders FielJs That I Shall Never Look Paul A. Aitken (1999) Upon Thee More University of Mississippi Concert Singers James Mulholland (1996) Jerry Jordan, conductor The Texas Tech University Choir Kenneth Davis, conductor The Circle of Our Lives David Brunner {2000) God Be With Us Children's Choir of Washington Stephen Paulus (1997) Joan Gregory, conductor The University of Iowa University Choir William Hatcher, conductor Nunc Dimittis Dan Pinkston {2000) Ouachita Baptist University Choir order, contact Charles Fuller, conductor A ox 2720 a City, OK Order Online at 0 < acdaonline.org/catalog/> Charles Edward McGuire, Elgar's discusses Handel's works primarily, but life and works approach; and Elgar orato• Oratorios: The creation of an epic includes a valuable chapter on the En• rio studies-Andreas Friesenhagen's "The narrative. glish composers since 1880 (Mackenzie, Dream of Gerontius" von Edward Elgar: Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate Parry, Standford, Cowen, Sullivan, and Das englische Oratorium an der Wende zum Publishing Limited, 2002. Elgar, the latter compared to Wagner), 20. jahrhundret (1994), Percy Young's 83 music examples; 356 pp. and Howard Srnither's A History of the Elgar, Newman and The Dream of $79.95. ISBN: 0~7546~0271~0 Oratorio (in three volumes; one and two Gerontius: In the Tradition of English Ca• (hardback). in 1977 /three in 1987), which concludes tholicism (1995), and Michael Foster's with the eighteenth-century oratorio (the Elgar's Gigantic Worx [sic]: The Story of the nineteenth-century version being reserved Apostles Trilogy (1995), which do not dis• OR most concert goers in the for the projected but unpublished fourth cuss the oratorios together or vis-a-vis the United States, Edward Elgar volume); disquisitions on the so-called oratorio tradition. McGuire's book does; F (1857-1934) has been known [in-de-siecle renaissance of English mu• it explores Elgar's four oratorios, The Light as a nationalistic, even imperialistic, com• sic-Frank Howes's The English Musical of Life (1896), The Dream of Gerontius poser of superbly-crafted, extraordinarily• Renaissance (1966) and Robert Stradling (1900), The Apostles (1903) and The King• beautiful orchestral music-the ravishing and Meirion Hughes's The English Musi• dom (1906), within the British music fes• and searching Enigma Variations, the jin• cal Renaissance, 1860-1940: Construction tival tradition and against the music goistic and self-assured Land of Hope and and Deconstruction (1993), which privi• dramas of Richard Wagner. What it does Glory, and the extroverted and urban lege instrumental music over choral mu• not do is present a study of the nine• Cockaigne Overture. With the recent sic and treat English composition before teenth-century secular cantatas and secu• American performances of The Dream of 1900 as inferior to Austro-German sym• lar oratorios (it concentrates on sacred Gerontius, the image of Elgar has changed phonic paradigms; biographies and testi• works); it does not present a comparison for casual listeners; they have learned what monies-Thomas Dunhill's Sir Edward of the orchestration of the nineteenth• choral devotees have always known and Elgar (1938), Diana McVeagh's Edward century sacred oratorios (most were pub• what recent scholarship has argued: in Elgar: His Life and Music (1955), Jerrold lished in vocal score only and the author the United Kingdom and on the Conti• Northrop Moore's Edward Elgar: a Cre• could not access every manuscript full nent, Elgar's oratorios have remained ative Life (1984), and Robert Anderson's score); it does not present a study of popular and frequently heard from their Elgar (1993), which are limited by their Leitmotiv by nineteenth-century oratorio conception, and Elgar is an international or universal composer and his music is part of the rich history of European com• position. Cheryl Dupont, Artistic Director One book that reflects these facts is Elgar's Oratorios: The creation of an epic Bob Chilcott, Guest Artist narrative by Charles McGuire. It is com• prised of a preface, seven chapters, two sponsored by the appendices, a bibliography, and an index. New Orleans Children's Chorus The preface presents a survey of the lit• erature, i.e., what has and has not been -open to all children's choirs, high school treble done, and delimits the scholarly problem choirs, boychoirs, and girls' choirs by audition to be investigated. The informed reader for more tnformotton: will recognize the authors and titles con• New Orleans Children's Chorus ·application deadline October 1 787 Harrison Ave. Ste. 202 sulted by McGuire for his study, e.g., HewO rleans, LA 70124 . performance in St. Louis Cathedral (504) 488-5973 genre treatises-Arnold Schering's [email protected] · botel in historic French Quarter Geschichte des Oratoriums (1911), which www .neworleanschildrenschorus.org

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 81 composers (such an investigation is he labels laudas and histories. "Laudas more likely termed a cantata rather than needed); it does not present a detailed followed the pattern of Handel's Messiah, an oratorio, a history could be called ei• treatment of the thematic, harmonic, and adopting biblical or biblical-sounding ther" (p. 40) and (2) Elgar's oratorios were orchestral construction of the works un• texts in a series of devotional prayers. Such not all so-called by the composer (but der question (rather, this is an application oratorios lacked a real, obvious narrative were accepted as such by publishers and of narrative methodology); and it does structure" (p. 31), the author explains. listeners). For his purposes, McGuire not present a definitive history of the nine• "These compositions might have been designates "all sacred works with soloists, teenth-century British oratorio (an enor• based on a specific psalm, but were more chorus and (usually) orchestral accompa• mous project that has yet to be tackled). often constructed from a selection of texts niment that were meant either for enter• Chapter one, "The Nineteenth-Cen• from various parts of the Bible. Laudas tainment or aspects of lighter ritual, tury British Oratorio," begins with a brief usually did not have named characters" including both laudas and histories, as explication of the educational, moral, and (pp. 31-32). Conversely, histories "were simply 'oratorios" (p. 44). social contexts of the oratorio (under the narrative, patterned after Mendelssohn's What makes Elgar's oratorios different chapter divisions and their subtitles of Elijah and the Old Testament oratorios of from the prevalent English oratorio tradi• "Sight-Singing and the rise of the Tonic Handel. Usually, history oratorios set one tion? Three distinctive attributes, in the Sol-Fa method," "The music festival," and single discrete 'event', such as a battle, considered opinion of the author, are their "Singing and 'moral fibre"') and concludes conversion or miracle" (p. 32); but, ac• focus, subjects, and musical materials. with a consideration of the problem of cording to McGuire, there were excep• First, "Elgar focuses on characterization defining the oratorio as a genre and relat• tions-compositions "such as Stainer's to grant the audience a close view into ing Elgar's compositions to it ("Towards a Crucifixion, that set the passion of Christ" the workings of his characters' minds. definition of oratorio," "Elgar in relation (p. 32). Nonetheless, "histories taught by Elgar presents each of the central charac• to the nineteenth-century oratorio tradi• dramatic example, but still retained acer• ters . . . as fallible and human, . . . and tion," and "A problem of terminology''). tain amount of moralizing text" (p. 32). each oratorio's spiritual and philosophical To comprehend the typical characteristics It is noted that scholars use other terms, message grows not from the actions and of the oratorio in the late nineteenth cen• such as "epic and contemplative" (like events of the oratorio's plot, but from the tury and form a reasonable definition, Messiah) and "dramatic" (on the order of characters' reactions to those events" (p. McGuire examined printed editions and Elijah), to describe this division, e.g., see 35). Second, "Elgar's oratorios are all his• manuscripts of 288 works, which he lists Barbara Mohn, "Personifying the Saviour? tories. Each of Elgar's compositions con• in Appendix B under the title of "Narra• English oratorio representation of the centrate on segments of dramatic action tion in British Oratorios and Oratorios words of Christ" in Nineteenth Century as seen by the characters within the ora• Performed in Great Britain, ca. 1730- British Music Studies, Vol. I, edited by torio ... , and the action scenes contain a 1944." Much of McGuire's exposition Bennett Zon (Ashgate, 1999). The prob• more passive, psychological type of centers on two types of oratorios, which lems are: (1) "while a lauda was much drama'' (pp. 35-36). Third, "Elgar's ora• torios differ from those of his contempo• raries because of their scope and the musical materials (especially techniques of unification) used within each compo• sition" (p. 36). To amplify these state• ments, the author explains that three of

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82 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 Elgar's oratorios focus on several events, made Elgar's oratorios extremely innova• lime music-if not some of the greatest whereas "most of the history oratorios in tive," which McGuire goes on to prove in music of the late Romantic era" (p. 36). Appendix B focus on one event" (p. 36). the subsequent chapters of his book, Chapter two, "Narrative and the Ora• Three "rely upon a named narrator to showing how the composer "lavished a torio," investigates the narrative structures frame the work and present it to the au• great deal of compositional and emotional of the typical nineteenth-century English dience" (p. 36), whereas few composers attention upon them" (p. 36). Certainly, sacred oratorios through musicological of the time "used a narrator in such a Elgar aficionados and scholars will agree means (historical context and musical el• clear majority of their oratorios" (p 36), with McGuire when he writes: "they con• ements) and narratological definitions although the use of narrators was not tain some of his most profound and sub- (plot, structure, division, and method of uncommon. As we know from other studies, Elgar's oratorios have been compared to Wagner's music dramas. McGuire concurs with this comparison, writing that "such a charac• Sing Beautifu terization is certainly valid," for Elgar in• corporated something like Leitmotiv in ~ins.With all four works, and in three of them, "he moved away from the smaller scene seg• mentation of the traditional oratorio (very much in the 'opera-by-the-numbers' style), to a technique of using longer, elided movements, clearly reminiscent of Wagner's music dramas" (p. 36). More• over, two of the works "comprise an epic that is ofren compared to Wagner's Ring" (p. 36). These attributes "of narration, unification, and greater scope of subject

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 1 83 narrative). McGuire begins with an expli• rative approaches to music discourse, Preludes to Parsifal and Gerontius, cation of the component parts of narra• McGuire's discussion is very clear and 'Sectionalization' and a different use of tive theory applicable to the oratorio helpful; equally helpful is his interpreta• themes: 'Sanctus fortis"', and "Narrative (under the chapter divisions and their sub• tion of Elgar's perception of Wagner's structures-Two-level narration of the titles of "The structure of narrative plot music, and of Elgar's understanding of first movement, Two-level narration, sec• in oratorio-Models of narrative struc• Wagnerian Leitmotiv and how that varies ond movement, Three-level narration of ture; Existents and events; Structure and from the current definition. To aid in his the second movement." The chapters are the oratorio's narrator"); continues with discussion of the latter, McGuire invokes replete with music examples and graphs an exploration of the differing strategies a description of the Leitmotiv used by that supplement the written discourse and employed within an oratorio, including Carl Dahlhaus in his study Richard assist the reader in comprehending it; text-based narrative structures, and inte• Wagners Music Dramas (1992). In however, the former, especially the full grated ones, wherein both text and music McGuire's opinion, Elgar's themes differ score examples, are quite small and, thus, act to forward elements of narrative to its in each oratorio, but they develop from very difficult to decipher. This small com• dramatic conclusion (under "Narrative work to work to become closer to what plaint serves to introduce a larger and structures used in oratorio-General Dahlhaus considered a real Leitmotiv. more important one: there are an unusual structures of the genre; Vivid description; Most importantly, for the purposes of his number of misspellings (e.g. in the bibli• Framing narration; Character self-narra• study, McGuire discusses Elgar's ography, Meirion Hughes's forename is tion; Presence of framing narrators in ora• Leitmotiv-like themes only in relation to spelled Marion) and repeated words or torios" and "The dual function of the narrative. phrases that mar the presentational as• oratorios"); and finishes with a brief con• Chapters three through six examine in pects of the book. This is rather atypical sideration of the influence upon Elgar of turn each of Elgar's oratorios, using the of Ashgate and a subsequent printing Wagner and his method of integrated nar• methodology introduced in chapter two; should correct this deficiency of the rative (under "Musical narrative-Wagner and a listing of the chapter divisions and author's superbly researched and written and Elgar: a national and personal re• subtitles for chapters three and four should book. sponse" and "Leitmotivs and reminiscence be sufficient to illustrate how McGuire Chapters five, six, and seven are titled, themes"). frames his discussion. Chapter three, "The respectively, "The Apostlesand the Narra• For those readers unfamiliar with nar- Light of Life and the Traditional Orato• tive Construction of an Epic," "The King• rio," includes "Genesis of the composi• dom and the Epic Continued," and tion," "The libretto-Didacticism, Text "Epilogue: Elgar and the Oratorio after construction," "Use of themes-The The Kingdom." These chapters are replete 'Meditation', The use of themes within with engaging discussions, e.g. the differ• the work," and "Narrative structures• ence between "tableaux" (p. 191 passim) The Contralto Narrator, The Blind Man's in The Apostles, as opposed to "tableaux narration"; chapter four, "The Dream of entendus" (pp. 154 and 165 passim) in ~ Gerontius and Operatic Narrative," in• Gerontius, both of which are distinctly AMBER WAVES cludes ''Aspects of text-The idea of different from the French "tableau," analo• music publishing 'dream', Differences in text construction," gous to the English word for an operatic We specialize in artistically crafted choral and vocal music "The Wagnerian influence-The use of scene. They are more interesting, perhaps, by up-and-coming composers. the term 'Prelude', A comparison of the than McGuires's chapter four on Catalog Samples: cdttor-iu-ctnet Gerontius,to which many readers will turn R. Douglas Heh'<;·ring initially due to its status as Elgar's most A\.\'M1002: Canticle: Mosaic in Remembrance and Hope - famous oratorio; the comparisons of Carson Cooman n.b. Newman's Gerontius to Elgar's Gerontius, A\.\'M1004: Te Deum - R. Douglas Helvering and of Newman's text to Elgar's pruning AWM1007: Amazing Grace - Janis M. Lane of it, are excellent (p. 133-138). Clearly, AWM1013: Nobody Knows De Trouble I See - Scott Smith the author was profoundly immersed in A repository of historical material related A WM1014: The Star-Spangled Banner - to the 70-year career of D. Anthony Frccek-Ktng Fred Waring and the A\.\'M1016: Precious Child - David M. Gardner Pennsylvanians AWM1018: Black-Eyed Davy - Kenton Bales ht~Music Manager Resources for the choral director/ AWM1021: New world Carols; An American Triptych• Carson Cooman music educator and student. Ir Software 5.0™ Includes recordings and 9000 titles AWM1022: Ami I Saw a New Heaven - Cross-platform ... Mac or Windows R. 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84 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 his subject matter and the book he pro• Michael Allis, Parry's Creative am sitting in the Royal College of Music duced is an exemplary one. Process. Library, where I have been re-examining McGuire's concluding paragraph, a Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate specific manuscripts of Parry and portion of which follows, suggests several Publishing Limited, 2003. 262 pp. Stanford. lines of fruitful research. "The British cho• $84.95. ISBN: 1-84014-681-8 My own interest has been a part of a ral tradition merits additional research, (Hardcover). trend of the last twenty years or so by particularly in the arena of compositions musicologists to reassess British music, not written specifically for festivals, the OME of the books Ihave cho• which has resulted in the publication of multitude of genre-names, the dramatic sen to review in this column significant analytical, biographical, and increase of oratorio composition between S have reflected a personal re- manuscript studies, the last appearing 1880 and 1900, and a comparison of the search interest, i.e., the English compos• most recently, e.g. Alain Frogley (ed.), oratorio with the similar tradition of the ers and music of the nineteenth- and Vaughan Williams Studies (Cambridge: secular cantata. Aesthetic questions also twentieth-centuries, that has taken me on Cambridge University Press, 1996); Alain remain: what caused a society devoted to many occasions to the cities, towns, and Frogley, Vaughan Williams's Ninth Sym• Handel's Messiah and Mendelssohn's villages of the United Kingdom where phony (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Elijah to embrace three of Elgar's orato• the composers lived and worked, and to 2001), part of the series Studies in Musi• rios wholeheartedly in the space of six The British Library, the Royal College of cal Genesis and Structure; and Byron years, discarding several hundred by other Music Library, the Oxford University Adams and Robin Wells (eds.), Vaughan composers? While the study of narrative Bodleian Library, and the Cambridge Williams Essays (Aldershot: Ashgate Pub• in Elgar's compositions provides one win• University Library where their manu• lishing Limited, 2003), in which appears dow on this tradition, oratorios them• scripts are deposited. A 1993 recipient of my own monograph, '"Full of fresh selvesdeserve much more light and further the Ralph Vaughan Williams Fellowship, thoughts': Vaughan Williams, Whitman contemplation" (p. 301). Let us hope that created and supported by the Carthusian and the Genesis of A Sea Symphony." scholars will build upon the fine work of Trust to examine the composer's volumi• Hubert Parry (l 848-1918) has not Charles Edward McGuire's Elgar's Orato• nous autograph manuscripts bequeathed been neglected, as is evident from the rios: The creation of an epic narrative. to The British Library, my archival work works by Jeremy C. Dibble, C. Hubert H has expanded to include Parry and Parry: His Life and Music (Oxford: Stephen Town, Stanford, Finzi and Rubbra, Bliss and Clarendon Press, 1992), Bernard Book Reviews Editor Dyson. Indeed, as I write this review, I Bernoliel, Parry before Jerusalem: Studies HOW TO CARRY

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CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 85 of his life and music (Aldershot: Ashgate his services to British music. In 1900, he sions and Observations. As the tide stipu• Publishing Limited, 1998), and Anthony was appointed Heather Professor of Mu• lates, Allis's intent is to study the creative Boden, The Parrys of the Golden Vale: Back• sic at Oxford, where in 1884 he had been process of Parry, and his examination of ground to Genius (London: Thames Pub• awarded an honorary doctorate (in 1883 the composer's manuscript material re• lishing Limited, 1998), and it was only a the University of Cambridge had be• solves "problems of chronology, a num• matter of time before the publication of a stowed a similar honor) and made ber of projected works are identified which book-length work dealing specificallywith choragus to the university. In 1902, on have not been discussed in any detail else• the compositional procedures of the com• the occasion of King Edward's corona• where, and several compositions by Parry poser, Parry's Creative Process by Michael tion, for which he essayed I was glad, are traced from initial sketch or draft Allis, Senior Tutor in Postgraduate Stud• universally recognized as a masterpiece of through to the completed work" (p. 3). ies and Lecturer in Academic Studies at ceremonial music, he was made a bar• This process is intriguing in itself, but the Royal Academy of Music, London, onet. Though ill health forced him to Allis's investigation has greater significance the subject of this review. relinquish the chair at Oxford in 1908, because it corrects some misperceptions Who was Parry and why is he impor• he remained director of the Royal College about Parry, which the author outlines in tant? Parry was one of the architects of of Music until his death (at Rustington) chapter one. According to Allis, there are the English Musical Renaissance. He in 1918, when his cremated remains were two accusations made against the com• joined the faculty of the Royal College of placed in the crypt of St. Paul's Cathe• poser which are still repeated, and which Music at its inception in 1883 as profes• dral. Thus, Parry's place in music history weaken Parry's reception as a composer sor of music history and of composition. as one of the pivotal figures in the renais• and lessen the value of his creations: first, In the former role, already he had written sance of English music is based on his the insinuation that the act of composi• essays of extraordinary insight for George brilliant didacticism, composition, and tion was easy for Parry; and second, that Grove'sDictionary ofM usic and Musicians, scholarly writing, perhaps his greatest con• he was an upper class amateur who "ap• but he had only begun the composition tribution, and his example was a model proached his craft with a lack of criti• of his enormous musical oeuvre. His ap• on which subsequent English composers cism" (pp. 4-5). In Allis's opinion, the pealing social background and his educa• patterned their lives. only way to meet and re-evaluate these tion at a prestigious public school (Eton) Allis's book is divided into nine chap• accusations is to scrutinize each composi• and an ancient university (Oxford) were a ters: (1) Parry's Reception and the Cre• tional stage, which he does admirably and significant reason for his appointment. ative Process, (2) Materials: Manuscripts, methodically. Through his examination Ultimately, Parry's indefatigable pro• Sketchbooks and Papers, (3) The Sketch• of the extant manuscript material, as well fessional activities led to public accolades. ing Process, (4) Drafts, (5) The Scoring as Parry's own writings in letters, diaries In 1895, he succeeded Grove as director Process, ( 6) Rehearsal, Performance and and published works, "the picture that of the Royal College of Music, and in Publication, (7) Attitudes to Text, (8) emerges is that of a composer who often 1898, he was knighted in recognition of Cases Study: A Birthday, and (9) Conclu- found composition difficult, and who ap-

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86 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 proached all the stages of his craft with Because it is a choral-orchestra work, one Parry's sketches-(1) the formulation of criticism and professionalism" (p. 5). notes in the pertinent table (see Table initial thoughts and (2) subsequent re• In chapter two, Allis provides an over• 2.5, pp. 40-41) that there are three extant workings of compositional problems• view of Parry's manuscripts-most of scores: the autograph vocal score used by which he clarifies for the reader. There are which were dispersed to several institu• the printers for publication and the auto• pre-draft sketches, "the initial stage in the tions after his death-that are now housed graph full scores. Allis indicates that the compositional process for the majority of in three magisterial collections. In 1921, former, completed on twenty-six-stave the songs" (p. 50); draft sketches, "which a large number were deposited in the Bellamy paper (in 1907), is deposited in intersperse the succession of drafts in the Royal College of Music Library, and the Bodleian Library as Mus.c.117; while solo songs (and in the instrumental and complemented by additional manuscripts the latter, completed on twenty-six-stave choral works)" (pp. 52-53); concept from Novello, Parry's main publisher, in Bellamy paper (in 1907) and twenty-four• sketches, the "first notated ideas for the 1925-30, and, 1964. Thus, the RCM pos• stave Bellamy paper (when rev. in 1914), orchestral, chamber, instrumental and cho• sesses the full scores of most of the choral respectively, are housed in the Royal Col• ral works, which were usually written on and orchestral works, full scores of the lege of Music Library as Add.4213 and two staves" (p. 57); and developed incidental music and some orchestrations Add.4213 [sic]. However, the identical sketches, initial ideas expanded "into larger of selected songs, the piano score of shelf marks require clarification that Allis sections, ranging from paragraphs to en• Guinevere, and parts for the Wind Nonet does not provide, for the two full scores tire movements" (p. 59). To illustrate each and String Quintet. In 1952-53, at the are actually bound together in one vol• of these sketch types, Allis compares dis• request of Dorothea Ponsonby, Parry's el• ume. crete sketch material to the published ver• dest daughter, Gerald Finzi gathered to• The first score features the original sions of several selected compositions. gether more manuscript material, which ending from f.209 (recto) to f.217 (recto) Before describing some of the details of was given to the Bodleian Library in Ox• with each folio being crossed-out. Inserted Parry's drafting process in chapter four, ford. In 1959, this, too, was increased by thereafter is the incomplete second score, Allis defines the difference between a rough material found at Parry's London address, in fact the revised ending of the last part draft and a draft proper. Briefly, "a rough 17 Kensington Square, and, as a result, of the work. It begins with f. 209 and is draft contains material ... between sketch the Bodleian collection includes most of 29 folios in length, i.e., from f.209 to and draft" (p. 79); it usually begins "in the the chamber music, church music, organ f. 238 (an overleaf), though the only fo• same fashion as a draft [proper]" but the works, songs, and drafts of choral and lio numbered is f. 209. Allis's informa• notation soon deteriorates and often ceases piano music. The last repository of manu• tion on the ink and pencil colors is not suddenly (pp. 79-80), or "the notation is script material is Shulbrede Priory in specific to The Vision of Life either, and extremely difficult to read due to the speed Lynchmere, on the Surrey/Sussex border, one would need to examine the auto• at which it was written and a higher level owned since 1905 by Parry's daughter and graphs in situ to corroborate his general of deletion than usual" (p. 81). A draft son-in-law, and presently occupied by remarks on Parry's writing materials and proper displays "a full texture and [is] con• Parry's great-granddaughters and their on other aspects of the autograph's visual tinuous, containing material which is in a family. The manuscripts include sketches appearance that he does not mention. relatively fixed state, although subsequent and drafts of songs, piano, organ, cham• Indeed, to accurately describe and docu• revision was often necessary" (p. 79). The ber and orchestral music, along with the ment the manuscripts, one would need difference between the types of drafts is autograph full score of De Profandis; also to scrutinize the autograph vocal score significant with regard to questions of contained in this collection are Parry's vis-a-vis the autograph full scores, as I chronology. Having examined almost all diaries, notebooks and sketchbooks. have done, and any sketch or draft mate• The bulk of the second chapter cen• rial, if it existed, utilizing a methodology ters on the identification and description similar to that outlined in the subsequent of the sketchbooks and their contents chapters of Allis's book. housed at Shulbrede Priory; these date As the author indicates in chapter from the composer's studies with George three, there are two distinct types of Elvey at Eton to a small number of works from the 1880s. Thereafter, Allis discusses the paper (Carbone]: Dantier; Lard• Esnault with its three types of embossed "The people at Gateway are fun, stamp; J & ]A; Monckton; Impervious; conscientious, knowledgeable, A.L.; B.C.; Acme; C.A. Klemm; B.F. and extremely thorough. I give Wood; Lermetz; and Breitkopf & Haertel) them six stars out of five!" and the ink and pencil colors (black and red ink; pencil; blue, green, purple, and -Bruce Phelps red pencil) used by Parry. Chair of Music Dept. & Director Here, the author supplies a great deal Anoka High School, Anoka, MN of interesting and important information, but it is useful only in a general way. Let www.musicfestivals.com us take a specific composition, The Vision 1-800-331-8579 of Life (1907/rev. 1914), as an example. CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 87 Library, I had noticed that the format of his awareness of his own craft of compo• performance, and publication stages, as the composer's drafting procedure exhib• sition, resulting in the change of format further opportunities to refine his musi• its a significant change around the years in the drafts from 1892/93 onwards" (pp. cal material. Concerning the former, 1892-93, but I did not know why until I 82-83). Parry's habit was to create (1) a draft full read Alliss book. Before the date in ques• The remainder of chapter four focuses score, written in pencil, which was then tion, "all drafts were notated on both on the extant drafts of Parry's Songs of developed into (2) a full score proper, rectos and versos, but from late 1892 on• Farewell, six valedictory motets created penned in black ink. "Not only do the wards, drafts proper of solo songs, unison by the composer at the height of his com• sources illustrate a distinct methodology, songs, part-songs, keyboard works, choral positional powers, and several instrumen• with the successive stages of draft full works, small-scale chamber compositions tal works. The drafts reveal Parry's revising score and full score proper, and the delib• and works for the theatre appeared on practices regarding texture, structural defi• erate documenting of later revisions in rectos only, with versos being reserved for nition and clarity, thematic and harmonic earlier manuscripts, but the majority of draft sketches; only the separate group of alterations (small- and large-scale), and a alterations were concerned with texture, rough drafts appeared on both rectors and preoccupation with beginnings, endings, sonority and individual tone color, ... versos after 1892/93" (pp. 81-82). Allis and especially areas that were worked challenging traditional assumptions that discovered a note in one of Parry's diaries upon more than others, i.e., areas of ex• Parry had little interest in such matters" supporting his premise "that in 1892, ceptional harmonic, melodic, textural, or (p. 153). The latter is one of the most Parry read a detailed study of Beethoven's rhythmic complexity, which for practical fascinating chapters in the book, and Allis working processes"-Gustav Nottebohm's purposes Allis terms the crux. shows how Parry continued to revise his account of the 1803 sketchbook, the In chapters five and six, Allis contin• musical texts-after the stages of sketch• Beethoveniana of 1872, and the Zweite ues to illustrate how Parry used the scor• ing, drafting, and scoring-during the Beethoveniana of 1887-"which increased ing process, and the rehearsal, stages of rehearsal, performance, proof• ing, and publication. He concludes with the following: "any attempt to discuss de• finitive versions of Parry's works is some• "Askold Murov 's music arouses your admiration by its profound what problematic, as it is likely that any emotionality and high professionalism. His talent is serious and most subsequent rehearsals, performances or original. " -- Dmitry Shostakovich editions would have produced further al• terations" (p. 169). Do You Know This Man? Choral conductors will find chapter seven particularly apropos, as it deals with Askold Fedorovich Murov, eminent teacher Parry's choice of texts, his editorial deci• at the Novosibirsk State Conservatory, the founder of sions when setting them, and his role as the 'Siberian School,' composer of 11 symphonies and collaborator and author. There are super• music in all genres, known alt over Eastern Europe, lative discussions of the secular cantatas even though much of his music was unpublished, used with texts fashioned from great literature Siberian folk poetry and musical Idioms, but with original by Parry ( Unbound, L'Allegro and distinctive style, to critique social issues of his day, ed If Penseroso, The Pied Piper of Hamelin); and to preserve the native musical treasures of his of the sacred cantatas and oratorios with adopted Siberian homeland. Now coming to a choir texts constructed by Parry out of Biblical near you in this historic edition! A cappella music for sources and with or without additional mixed choir and women's choir. Never before published lines of his own inspiration ( Voces outside Russia. Edited for instant accessibility with full Cyrillic text, phonetic text, Clamantium, The Soul's Ransom, Judith, and underlaid singable English lyrics faithful to the original. Your choice! Job, King Saul, The Vision of Life); and of rf~§ l/tuMAI (ACKOnbA MypoB) ( 1928-1996) the choral odes and cantatas with texts provided by contemporary poets (Ode to From Siberian Folk Poetry Music, Invocation to Music). I shall list what I believe to be the more salient of A song cycle for a cappella mixed choir Allis's observations, as follows. First, al• Edited by Gregory Cheminsky though Parry's textual choices reflected #I On Barablnskl's Open Plain (Oo BapaBHHCKHM CTem!M). his classical education and his desire to #2 Here Come the Starlings (CKBOpll,bl Ilpanerernr)! set them, it is important to understand #3 The Little Orphan (CHpOTHHKa B3pocna). (SSAA) that the Festival committees who com• #4 The Chain Gang (CKpbtllOCH Connue 3a Crena). missioned the choral works had consider• #5. In the Valley, In the Meadow (Bo [lontttte /lyroemre). able power over their subject matter; in #6. Village Life is Very Good (C11611pCKHe Op116ayrKH). other words, Parry had little success in (antu!l

88 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 1 lines of his own inspiration ( Voces specific work. The explication is exem• Clamantium, The Soul's Ransom, Judith, plary but I would have preferred its appli• Job, King Saul, The Vision of Life); and of cation to one of the cantatas or oratorios. the choral odes and cantatas with texts The last chapter is replete with Allis's ex• provided by contemporary poets (Ode to cellent conclusions and observations, and CONTINENTS EXPERIENCE THE MUSIC Music, Invocation to Music). I shall list I particularly appreciated the author's in• what I believe to be the more salient of clusion of Parry's attempts to define "the Allis's observations, as follows. First, al• elusive, unwritten element of the creative PERFORMANCE TOURS though Parry's textual choices reflected act which the source material is unable to BANDS, CHOIRS, ORCHESTRAS his classical education and his desire to convey, and which sets the whole compo• Performances arranged Experienced tour managers. Anywhere in set them, it is important to understand sitional process in motion-the initial in• the world. Sightseeinga nd fan. Include any music festival e.g.: that the Festival committees who com• spiration" (p. 238) and the penetrating We have been asked to make special a17angements for Choirs, Bands and Orchestras to the missioned the choral works had consider• quotations from Parry's books, Instinct and International Youth and Music Festival in Vienna able power over their subject matter; in Characterand Style in Musical Art. They July 9-12, 2005,]uly 18-11, 2006 other words, Parry had little success in underscore that Parry was an intellectual • Festival 500, St. Johns, Newfoundland, June 30-July 10, '05 moving the committees beyond the com• and intensely interested in the act of com• • Shrewsbury lnt'I Music Festival, June '05 positional/textual paradigms of the day. position. • Bavaria lnt'I Youth Music Festival, July '05 The implication is clear: if the works A stereotypical Victorian polymath TORONTO INTERNATIONAL CHORAL FESTIVAL were noble failures, the cause may be with incredible industry and stamina, March 30-April3, 2005 •April 21-23, 2006 traced to the conservative requirements Parry pursued a multiplicity of profes• 2005 Conductor: Bob Chilcott of the British music festival culture. Sec• sional and recreational activities (e.g., as OTTAWA INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL (International Choirs & Orchestras) ond, concerning Prometheus Unbound, an administrator, author, composer, con• May 20-23, 2005 •May 21-24, 2006 Parry's selection of Shelley's poem was of ductor, and pedagogue; and as an athlete INTERNATIONAL MARCHING BANDS IN OTTAWA the utmost significance at the time, be• and yachtsman); yet, as a member of the May 20-23, 2005 •June 28-]uly 2, 2005 cause "it is a study in political revolution establishment, he was atypical in his un• May 21-24, 2006 •June 28-]uly 2, 2006 and moral regeneration-an anti-estab• orthodox spiritual beliefs and radical po• SALZBURG CANTUS lishment, dangerous text, which is a far litical views (e.g., he was an agnostic, (International Choirs & Orchestras) cry from [the] association of Parry with labeled "reverent" by Graves his first bi• July 14-18, 2005•July13-I7, 2006 the image of Miltonic safety'' (p. 179); ographer and "reluctant" by Dibble his UNISONG • Ottawa • Canadian Choirs and, in Allis's opinion, the choice of text second; and he very often attempted to June 28-July 2, 2005 •June 28-july 2, 2006 has more to do with the work's status as distance himself from the privileged classes HANDBELL CHOIR FESTIVAL FOR NORTH marking the beginning of the English into which he was born by adopting a AMERICANS IN ENGLAND & SCOTLAND ·July 2005 En masse, on own and with UK. ringers Musical Renaissance than Parry's very strong bias against Conservatism). NIAGARA INTERNAllONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL declamatory method and use of Leitmotiv. With the exception of some elements of (for choirs, bands & orchestras) Third, Parry's setting of L'Allegro ed fl Parry's reception history, Allis's book does July 6-10, 2005 •July 5-9, 2006 Penseroso situates him at the center of the not consider the fascinating biography of 2005 Conductor: Stephen Hatfield development of English preoccupations Parry-that was not the author's intent. YOUTH ORCHESTRA FESTIVAL • Ottawa with the pastoral theme. Fourth, Allis re• More to the point, his book is the first Canadian May 2006 InternationalJuly 2005 futes the perspective that there is a pre• publication to deal specifically with Parry's ponderance of cantatas and oratorios with creative process. Based upon my own CANTERBURY (UK) INTERNATIONAL CHORAL FESTIVAL archival examinations of Parry's auto• a biblical source in Parry's enormous out• July 20-24, 2005 •July 19-23, 2006 put and that the composer lacked textual graphs, I must say that Allis has described 2005 Conductor: Jonathan Willcocks criticism; he writes: "what is impressive precisely the composer's manuscript ma• NIAGARA INTERNATIONAL SACRED MUSIC FESTIVAL about this particular sub-genre is the range terial and compositional stages, and he June 15-19, 2005 of biblical quotation, the effective way in has done it in a manner that can be fol• Conductor: Jonathan Willcocks which these writings are used to convey lowed without too much difficulty by the MOZART WORLD CHORUS specific ideas, and consequently, the struc• uninformed but interested reader. How• Sept I7-19, 2004 •Sept 16-18, 2005 Oct I3-15, 2006 tural variety which is produced" (p. 182). ever, I do not believe this is a book for the Salzburg (choirs & individual singers) Lastly, Parry's use of his own texts in his layperson; rather, it will have relevance MOZARTISSIMO choral works has been generally underes• for the Parry aficionado or the scholar June 21-]uly 2, 2006, 250 years of Mozart timated; hence, there are several pages who studies manuscripts and pursues ar• Contact: Lois Harper, BA. M.Ed. ARCT that analyze this topic. The remainder of chival investigations. It is to the latter Arts Bureau for the Continents the chapter considers Parry's collabora• that I recommend highly Allis's admi• 350 Sparks Street - Suite 207 tion with Arthur Benson, Robert Bridges, rable text on the great English composer, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K·1 R ?SB and Una Taylor. Hubert Parry. Phone: 613-234-3360 I 800-267-8526 In chapter eight, Allis selects one com• Fax: 613-236-2636 position as a case study, A Birthday, also E-mail: [email protected] www.abc.ca known as My heart is like a singing bird Stephen Town, (1909), to show how Parry combined Book Reviews Editor ~~~ sketches and drafts in the genesis of a CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 89 .~n-7~hll'-e 8~,k,~te Precision crafted from fine Start with our affordable 2 octave, 25 lightweight aluminum, Suzuki note set. Add sets as your experience ToneChimes have adjustable clapper level increases. 3rd octave, 4th octave heads for variable expression and and new 5th octave bass note add on overtone tuning for perfect harmonics. sets put on a spectacular show! Beautiful yet cost effective ways to share the music. <&m'!19l!tWnt Rugged, heavy duty padded travel <&onQl~t~k cases (models HB-25/72a/72b). Only suzukiz:-:~himes feature tubu• 25 note set has wheels and pull lar bells with rounded tone chambers. handle-another Suzuki exclusive! They're easy to hold and easy to play ToneChime tables are both beauti• for extended periods. ful and functional.

£<-)most_ J.· ,_,4!Pi~~te (orlll,(){l/(/t(}1/la1I / Bring t(leauty of handbell playing Suzuki Tonechime method to your school, church or musical books show you a step by step ensemble with the lowest cost approach on how it's done, even Chimes available today. if you've never played before. Don't pay more! Scored for 25 notes. Now in 73 volumes. 07) .r ~~JeU/tilijumo~ t, JO ca /rtna. Suzuki ToneChimes have the highest standard in quality and projectable sound than any other manufacturer of Chime instruments. "Agnus Dei" from Missa secunda "Distant Land: A Prayer for version with orchestra. There is an instru• Hans Leo Hassler (1564~1612) Freedom" mental prelude, which adds a little to the Ed. John Leavitt John Rutter length of the work. However, the parts SATB SATB with keyboard are available for rental from Hinshaw for Hal Leonard Corporation Hinshaw Music #1908, $1.60 those who choose the version Rutter used #08596736, $1.50 at the Carnegie Hall premiere. 0 DOUBT most choral OHN LEAVITT'S practical conductors are acquainted Jon Thompson edition of the final movement N with John Rutter's best-sell- Langley, BC J of Hassler's Missa secunda is a ing settings of familiar Latin sacred texts clean, attractive score that will be useful in addition to well-known blessings and for the church choir, community chorus, poems in English. In "Distant Land" Ave verum corpus or college mixed choir. This version pro• Rutter's compositional craft extends to David N. Childs vides editorial dynamics in brackets over the text as well as the music. Subtitled "A SATB Hassler's conjunct, inverted-rainbow vo• Prayer for Freedom," this piece was com• Santa Barbara Music Publishing cal lines. Most of Leavitt's dynamic sug• posed in 1990 and inspired by the fall of #462, $1.55 gestions are reasonable, usually indicating the Berlin Wall and the release of Nelson a new dynamic for each point of imita• Mandela from the prisons of the South ITH his Ave verum corpus tion or homorhythmic portion. Changes Africa of apartheid. Despite the broad David N. Childs has pro• within sections, such as the sudden cre• significance of these world-changing W vided an attractive addi- scendo from piano to mezzo forte in the events, Rutter's text approaches the long• tion to the repertory of works for the tenth measure, might seem abrupt for ing for peace from a J udeo-Christian per• Lenten season. This setting of the stan• some tastes given the era of the composi• spective. The call for unity in God and dard Latin text displays some of the rhyth• tion. A poetic translation is given on the the allusion to the second chapter oflsaiah mic flexibility and metric variety that inside cover sheet, although no singing make this octavo as textually suitable for characterizes Imant Raminsh's well-known translation is offered. The piano reduc• a church choir as a community or college setting of the same text. The piece begins tion is clearly labeled "for rehearsal only." ensemble. with a -like solo for tenor and then Unfortunately, this edition does not As an exercise in note reading, "Dis• conform to ACDA's recommended edito• tant Land" would not be difficult for most rial standards for choral publications. An choirs despite surveying three separate initial incipit, and notes regarding the keys. Most of the writing is homorhyth• editor's source materials would improve mic and the majority of the melodies can this edition significantly. Information be found in the soprano voice (some• lillHER COLLEGE about the original key/ mode of the Agnus times reinforced by alto). The division of Full-Time, Tenure-Eligible Position Dei is crucial. The three sharps in the key the tenor and bass parts into two parts in Music: Director of Choral Activities signature hint at a transposition; how• each means that a strong men's comple• With the retirement of Weston Noble, ever, a conductor without ready access to ment is required in the choir that would Luther College seeks a new leader for the Denkm fer Deutscher Tonkunst is left tackle this offering. In addition, the basses its choral program. Responsibilities to guess at the original. Without that descend down to their lowest & and el> include conducting Nordic Choir, documentation, any edition lacks cred• and have many repeated f's. The richness teaching conducting, recruiting ibility. that Rutter clearly requires is not achiev• students, and maintaining a nationally recognized collegiate choral program. able without a number of strong second A position description is available at Jon Thompson basses. http:! I dean.luther.edul openings'. Langley, BC Conductors fortunate enough to have For more information, contact Karen Martin-Schramm, access to an orchestra of roughly Classical Assistant to the President, Luther College, Decorah, IA 5210 I; telephone 563-387-1001, e-mail marschka@l proportions (the score also calls for harp luther.edu. Review of applications beginsin late Septem• and tuba) might consider performing the ber 2004 and continues until the position is filled. EOE

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 91 proceeds hornorhythmically, aside from a arrangements in this publication, which the text. The underlaid text to both halves brief soprano solo that is reminiscent of may be performed together or separately. of the full anthem is the first stanza, but the opening notes. The harmony is en• The first arrangement begins quietly an adventuresome conductor could riched by many seventh chords but also with men's voices later joined by sopranos choose to attempt a different text the includes the spare sound of the open fifth. and altos. The harmonies remain fairly second time through. Although the chant-like portions are traditional, with a few secondary domi• eminently singable, some of the writing nants and the occasional suggestion of Felix Cox in the central section is rather disjunct. Coplandesque fanfares. The tempo is Whitewater, WI In measure 64, the composer not only marked "very freely," and fermati separate spans an eleventh in the soprano voice the major phrases, giving a sense of ex• but also shows a penchant for setting the pressiveness and solemnity that leads to Tapestry of Thanks soprano's top notes on unfriendly vowels the climactic, forte ending. Anna Laura Page and Jean Anne (F, G and Af on an [i] vowel). Choirs electing to continue to the full Shafferman In all, this is another strong effort from anthem enter a different sonic world at SATB, accompanied, opt. narra• the New Zealand-born Vanderbilt pro• the word "brave," which cadences decep• tor, congregation, fessor whose choral compositions already tively the flatted sixth chord in 4/2 posi• Brass, timpani, solo trumpet number a dozen in the Santa Barbara tion, leading to a half-step modulation Alfred Publishing Co., 21552 catalog. The music would pose a chal• upward. The dynamic level begins at forte, lenge to most church choirs but would the tempo increases, and the texture be• repay the effort spent in learning it. There comes six parts, SSATBB. The harmonies EGINNING with Aurelia are several divisi in the lower three voices increasingly turn to appoggiaturi and other (The Church's One Founda• and a strong group of second basses is a non-harmonic tones. The musical style B tion), transitioning into requisite for choirs attempting this work. becomes more theatrical, with the final Materna (America, The Beautiful) and cadence, featuring parallel triads moving ending with Lancashire (The Day of Jon Thompson chromatically upward against upper and Resurection, Lead On, 0 King Eternal), Langley, BC lower pedal notes. this medley of topical hymns has many This arrangement would be appropri• advantages. Appropriate biblical refer• ate in a number of different settings. The ences are included in the preface to the Star-SpangledBanner first half works well for a smaller, more music, and the narrator's interjections are John Stafford Smith solemn occasion, while the second half, taken from Psalms and Isaiah. The op• Craig Courtney (arr.) especially if combined with the optional tional trumpet part is composed of rela• SATB parts for concert band (published sepa• tively short phrases and can be performed Beckenhorst Press #BP1640, rately), lends itself to an outdoor perfor• by a talented high school player, so $1.40 mance with massed choirs. Although this churches with a limited budget will be piece may be learned quickly, the ranges able to draw on student talent. A repro• HE Star-Spangled Banner is of the individual vocal parts are, like the ducible bulletin insert is included on the performed in many settings Star-Spangled Banner itself, quite wide. back of the octavo to allow the congrega• T ranging from sporting events Basses, for example, are asked to sing in a tion to follow along and join in singing to memorial services. Finding a single ap• range from f to c!P. on the last stanza. The first stanza of the propriate arrangement can be problem• Explanatory notes give the story of the more familiar America, the Beautiful has atic. Arranger Craig Courtney has solved Star-Spangled Banner's origin in the War been printed with the B section so that this problem by providing two distinct of 1812 and provide all four stanzas of the whole piece might be used for a pa• triotic service. Page and Shafferman have brought to• gether three traditional hymn tunes not usually associated with Harvest or Thanksgiving and imbued them with new thanks-oriented texts, creating a suite eminently suited to evangelical protes• tant churches or even community Thanksgiving services. The range of the soprano line never breaches the top-line ff (written g,). The choral parts are simple, but the keyboard accompaniment could be considered advanced for some church accompanists.

S. Timothy Glasscock Louisville, KY

92 CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 God's Son to Whom the Heavens ily approachable range of these melodies Advent Canticle Bow gradually expands to allow for a moving Lloyd Larson Linda Cable Shute climax. The harmony, based in triads and SATB, piano SATB, piano, optional C instrument an f-minor tonal center, contains beauti• Hal Leonard 08743552 $1.50 Concordia Publishing House, ful suspensions at each cadence. Hoffman 98-3716, $1.75 utilizes a variety of rhythmic patterns fea• LOYD LARSON has set a turing simple and compound divisions of wonderful arrangement based the beat, and changes meter fluidly to L on the words from Isaiah 40: HIS joyful anthem takes allow for proper text stress. 3-5. This joyously setting permits the text about three minutes and is The moderate difficulty of this piece to dictate the form, allowing for unison, T suitable for the intermediate makes it accessible to a wide variety of canonic, and brief moments of four-part choir. It is attractive for its use of 6/8 and performing groups at all levels, yet does singing. The piece is ideal for beginning varied textures. The barcarolle-like melody not detract at all from the piece's inherent senior high SATB choirs, middle school begins the standard stanza/ chorus struc• beauty. In fact, Yih'yu l'ratson allows an SATB choirs, or average church choirs. ture with unison women but quickly excellent opportunity for less advanced The choir begins in unison with a me• changes to a melody doubled in the so• choirs to approach unaccompanied sing• lodic theme that reappears several times prano and tenor. The second stanza is an ing and basic musical issues such as phras• throughout the composition. Although elegant fagato using all four voices. The ing and listening across the ensemble. the key signature is F major, the choir third stanza begins unaccompanied. The Two other versions of Yih'yu l'ratson sings el- and the piano plays el- consis• soprano descant (going up to a2) added to are available from the publisher, for can• tently through the first twelve measures. the final statement could be omitted, if tor (high or low voice), and keyboard. The choir continues unison singing the choir lacks sopranos. This piece is through m. 16, at which point a brief appealing for its skillfully used composi• R. Daniel Hughes, Jr. two-measure, four-part section begins. tional devices and may be performed by a Astoria, New York During the unison singing the pianist modest-size choir. plays ostinato patterns, but, at the four• The optional C instrument is recom• part section, doubles the choir for added mended as an oboe, but may easily be support. Stanza two begins in unison, but played by flute or violin. An intermediate pianist will quickly learn the accompani• ment. God's Son to Whom the Heavens Bow will make a light, swift, and joyful addition to your church's Christmas lit• erature.

Peter Hill Edison, NJ

Yih'yu l'ratson [May the Words of My Mouth] Stanley M. Hoffman SATB unaccompanied lone Press, a division of E. C. S. Publishing Company

TANLEY M. HOFFMAN'S setting of this traditional S Sabbath prayer is a beautiful and accessible addition to the Jewish cho• ral repertory. The text is in Hebrew, and the edition offers a singing translation in English: "May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing to you, 0 Lord, my rock and my re• deemer." The piece is written in the style of a State Street across the street from the State Capitol hymn or chorale, featuring homophonic Andy Swanner, Associate Minister of Music I Organist texture throughout. Melodic lines consist 6019491922 • [email protected] • www.lbcj.org of primarily stepwise motion, and the eas-

CHORAL JOURNAL VOL. 45 ISSUE 1 93 quickly ventures to two-part (Women/ Bells Ring for Peace listener's interest. Editorial markings are Men). Two-part polyphonic singing and Neil Ginsberg clear, easy to read and understand, and the addition of e~, a~, and d~ further Three-part mixed with piano they compliment the natural shape of the expand the piece's harmony. The singing Heritage Music Press 15/1785H melody. The English text is a simple ode at m. 33 again moves into four-part har• $1.60 to peace, and Bells Ring for Peace ends mony and the piano accompaniment re• with a simple statement, "Peace," sung by turns to doubling the choir. The last stanza ELLS RING FOR PEACE is various voices in English, Latin, German, is 14 measures of strict canon. Beginning an accessible, yet worthwhile Hebrew, Turkish, Japanese, Arabic, Ko• with the women's voices and followed B piece for three-part mixed rean, and Chinese. shortly by the men's voices, the original chorus and piano. The piece is built upon Bells Ring for Peace would be a nice melodic theme returns until the last mea• a traditional German round, and a simple vehicle for practicing basics of tone and sure. Here the voices double each other statement of this round begins the piece, phrasing, since the piece has a simple sense (soprano/tenor and alto/bass) all ending with a light, lyrical accompaniment. The of rise and fall. Developing, or even ad• on unison fs. round is then filled out in the three voice vanced, middle school choirs would find Lloyd Larson has done a beautiful job parts, and original material ends the piece. Bells Ring.for Peace a good piece to use for of providing enough dynamic contrast Interpolated within the thematic material a fall concert, or to start the year, al• and harmonic variety to each stanza, is a short, syncopated rhythmic phrase, though this piece would work well for which in turn, keeps this piece interesting which recalls the ringing of bells. This mid-year concert or festival settings, as and delightful. This piece would work occurs several times, to nice effect. well. well for the Advent season, as a spring The piece flows along in 3/4 time, but concert opener, or for festival evaluation. the primary pulse is on the downbeat, Mark Rohwer almost in one. Ranges are moderate, and Flower Mound, TX Gary D. Packwood could be handled by developing voices Montevallo, AL without much difficulty; there is a brief divisi in the baritone part. Enough har• Lord Emmanuel, Come monic interest underscores the traditional Peter McGrail melody to keep both the performer's and SATB, assembly, keyboard, guitar OCP Publications 11949 $1.20

HIS original advent text is largely a paraphrase from T Isaiah 40. It is a simple, straight forward setting in strophic form: three verses with nary a key change in sight. The stanzas are unison, and set pri• marily in e minor, with the treble voices ranging from d~1 to d2• A soloist, or vari-

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~ind ~t :;;Fast! with www.allthingsmusical.com The Complete Music Education Resource Web Site All Music Products, Services, Events, Classifieds - on Searchable Databases' Toll Free 1-888-803-6287 ous vocal combinations could sing the verses. The refrain shifts to E major, and employs four-part harmony. The part writing is strong, and works effectively to communicate the greater intensity of the text at that point. The anthem is written in a celebratory fashion, conveying eager anticipation for the coming Messiah. The changing tonal• ity gives the piece energy and shape, and makes it reminiscent of a Hebrew folk melody. The feeling of a folk song is fur• ther enhanced by the use of guitar, and the edition includes a two-page guitar part, complete with melody line and chord chart. The keyboard accompani• ment is quite supportive, usually dou• bling the melody and most of the harmonies, as well. Also included in this edition is a page for the assembly to use. Permission to photocopy is granted, and the entire melody line and text are in• cluded. This would allow the congrega• tion to join in at the discretion of the director. I would suggest using this piece with a youth choir, since the ranges are appro• priate and the part writing is strong and accessible, but an adult choir might also enjoy singing it. Its accessibility might make it a welcome addition during a busy Advent/Christmas season.

Alicia W Walker Atlanta, GA ~~·

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CHORAL JOURNAL VOL 45 ISSUE 1 95 ADVERTISERS INDEX ACDA ADVOCACY RESOLUTION ACFEA Tour Consultants 17, 36 ACIS Performance Tours 50 WHEREAS,the human spirit is elevated to a broader understanding Alliance Music Publications.. 11 of itself through study and performance in the aesthetic arts, and Ambassador Tours 23, 92 Amber Waves Music Pub 84 WHEREAS,serio us cutbacks in funding and support have steadily American Boychoir School 37 eroded state institutions and their programs throughout our country, Arts Bureau for the Cont. 89 Augsburg Fortress Pub 38 BE IT RESOLVED that all citizens of the United States actively Baylor University 15 voice their affirmative and collective support for necessary funding Blue Heart Tours 25 Cantus Quercus 79, 82, 88 at the local, state, and national levels of education and government, to Choral Music Exp 65, 81 ensure the survival of arts programs for this and future generations. Chorogrip 25 Coastal Sound Music Acad 86 Collegium Records 20, 83 Concept Tours 16 BOOK and MUSIC PUBLISHERS and D & C Industries 82 COMPACT DISC DISTRIBUTORS Disney IFC Send books, octavos, and discs for review to: Elizabethan Dinner Scripts 20 Choral Journal Field Studies Center of NY BC P.O. Box 2720 First Baptist of Jackson, MS .. 93 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 73101 First United Methodist 79 Fred Waring's America 84 Telephone: 405/232-8161 Gateway Music Festival. 87 Gladde Music Publications 40 CHORAL REVIEWERS Grueninger Music Tours 77 ACDA members wishing to review choral music should contact: Hawaii Music Festivals 82 Lyn Schenbeck Heritage Festivals 26 Director of Career Development, LaGrange College Hit Show Club 79 Houghton College 18 Artistic Coordinator, Friendship Ambassadors Foundation International Fine Arts Inst. 39 lnterkulture Foundation 34 BOOK REVIEWERS lntropa Tours 58 ACDA members wishing to review books about choral music should John Ness Beck Foundation . 40 contact: Kapellmeister Enter., Inc 32 Stephen Town Keynote Arts Associates .. 7 4, 95 Northwest Missouri State University Kingsway Tours 2, 3 Knight-Shtick Press 31 Department of Music Luther College 91 Maryville, Missouri 64468 Lyric Choir Gowns 95 Telephone: 816/562-1795 Manhattan Concert Prod .44 Masterworks Chorale 24 COMPACT DISC REVIEWERS Music Celebrations, lnt'I 78 ACDA members wishing to review compact discs should contact: Music Maestro, Please 8 Music Manager Software 84 David Castleberry Musi ca Mundi Concert Tours. 4 7 Marshall University National Singing Seminars .... 87 Department of Music Northwest Music Pub. Co 45, 56 Huntington, West Virginia 25755 Oxford Univ. Press/Music 73 Telephone: 304/696-3127 Portland Community Chorus. 32 Regency Cap & Gown Co ..... 64 St. Rita Catholic Community . 11 CHORAL JOURNAL SDG Records 10 SUBMISSION INFORMATION Seafarer Press 13 Articles submitted for publication in the Choral Journal should meet estab• Shawnee Press, Inc .46 lished specifications. Although the length of articles varies considerably, submis• Shenandoah Robe Co 83 sions generally consist of ten to twenty typed, double-spaced pages. Referenced Small World 85 material should be indicated by superscript and end notes. Any artwork and a one• Smolka Tours 57 to two-sentence professional identification of the author should also be included. Sound Byte Studios 12 For complete writer's guidelines write to: Managing Editor; Choral journal: P.O. Southern Music Company 94 Box 2720; OKC, OK 73101. Articles submitted via e-mail attachment should be Suzuki Corporation 90 sent to . Texas Christian University 16 The Tempowatch Company .. 94 Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison .. 30 Witte Travel & Tours 64

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