South Central Chapter Newsletter Autumn 2009
The College Music Society – South Central Chapter Newsletter Autumn 2009
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Dear South Central Colleagues:
It was good to see so many of youou at our recent national CMS conference in Portland. From the list of conference pre-registrants listed in the back of the conference program, I counted twenty-six attendees from our three-state region. Of those twenty six, twenty participated in the conference as presenters (papers, posters, performers, composers), panelists, or session chairs. It was great to see our regional chapter so well represented!
Although it would be difficult to single out the most memorable sessions I attended, several of them readily come to mind: Dr. Elizabeth Sayrs of Ohio University highlighted her new multimedia e-text for introductory music theory; Dr. Brendan McConville of the University of Tennessee-Knoxville spoke about using Facebook as a pedagogical tool in the music classroom; Dr. Peter J. Jutras of the University of Georgia lauded the benefits of RMM (recreational music making) and adult music study; Dr. Terry Lynn Hudson of Baylor University presented a superb lecture-recital exploring the inspiration for Ravel’s Forlane in his piano suite, “Le Tombeau de Couperin”; Dr. Nico Schüler of Texas State University created a novel poster describing a number of online karaoke exercises for college students designed to spark motivation and enhance sight- singing skills; composer Morton Subotnik sampled from his Creating Music website (www.creatingmusic.com) designed for children to explore music composition without any previous knowledge of music notation; Ling Fung Chan, graduate student at the University of Florida, explored the complex autobiographical aspects of Robert Schumann’s Davidsbundlertänze, Op. 6; and Dr. Stacey Davis of the University of Texas at San Antonio cited the latest research and pedagogy surrounding the topic of error detection in the aural skills classroom.
In addition to these sessions, the nine CMS regional presidents came together for a panel discussion on the topic “Music in a Changing Society.” When it came my turn to speak, I pointed out the importance for music departments to develop a mission/purpose statement that is not only consistent with their departmental goals and objectives but also one that articulates the type of student they wish to produce. This, of course, is no easy task; departments must be willing to take a good hard look at their strengths and limitations if their mission/purpose statement is to be realistic. Once this statement is articulated, internalized, and absorbed into the department’s conceptual framework, hopefully there will be a passion for sharing it with our students.
Please do not hesitate to contact me at any time with any ideas, suggestions, questions, concerns and comments you have regarding our chapter. I look forward to hearing from you!
Sincerely yours,
Chris Thompson, South Central Chapter President e-mail: [email protected]
MESSAGE FROM THE EDITOR
Thanks to everyone who contributed introductions, events, and articles! I wanted to make sure to update the chapter on the plans for future newsletter issues. Please watch your inboxes this February for a “call” for items for the Spring issue (submissions due February 28th for publication in early March), and again in September (for publication in early October).
I would like to expand the Member News, Events, and Concerts sections. Even if few of us can attend a particular event, we can inform our students of music events and lectures. Articles are also welcome. Newsletter items should be sent to Renee Rodriguez at: [email protected].
BOARD MEMBER INTRODUCTIONS
Dr. Chris Thompson (chapter president) is an Associate Professor of Music at Williams Baptist College in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas where he has taught since 1998. Before coming to Williams, he taught one year as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. At Williams, he teaches the four-semester sequence of music theory and aural skills courses as well as music appreciation, music fundamentals, applied piano and applied composition.
Chris currently serves as President of the Walnut Ridge Schubert Music Club (National Federation of Music Clubs) and as Vice-President of the Delta Music Teachers Association of northeast Arkansas. For the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association, he serves as co-chair of state auditions and is the state coordinator for the annual Student Composition Competition. He is a founding member and faculty advisor for the Zeta Alpha student chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon International Music Fraternity, the only student chapter currently active in Arkansas.
Chris was born and raised in the Kansas City area where his parents, Patricia and Kent Thompson, have lived for nearly sixty years. His father is a retired lawyer, and his mother continues to maintain an active piano studio of pre-college and adult piano students. He has one sibling, a sister, who lives with her husband and two sons in the Cleveland, Ohio area. He holds degrees from the University of Kansas (B.M., Piano), the University of Missouri-Kansas City (M.A, Music), and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (Ph.D., Music Theory).
President-Elect Daniel Adams is a Professor of Music at Texas Southern University in Houston. He teaches courses in music theory and composition. Adams has been active with the CMS South Central Chapter for approximately 20 years, having previously served as Treasurer and Board Member at Large. Adams holds a Doctor of Musical Arts (1985) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, a Master of Music from the University of Miami (1981) and a Bachelor of Music from Louisiana State University (1978). He currently serves as a member of the Percussive Arts Society Composition Committee, and the Board of Directors of the Houston Composers’ Alliance. Adams is the composer of numerous published musical compositions and the author of several articles, reviews, and encyclopedia entries.
In 2004 he appeared as an invited guest conductor for the premiere of a commissioned work at the Teatro Nancional' in San Jose, Costa Rica. He has also served as a panelist in the US and Europe on topics ranging from music composition pedagogy to faculty governance. His book, "The Solo Snare Drum: A Critical Analysis of Contemporary Compositional Techniques" was released by HoneyRock Publishing in March of 2000. He has received grants and awards from ASCAP, the Percussive Arts Society, the American Symphony Orchestra League, Meet the Composer, the Greater Miami Youth Symphony, the Minnesota Composers Forum, the Maryland Clarinet Composition Contest, and the Music Teachers National Association. His music is recorded on Capstone Records and Summit Records.
Art Gottschalk (Composition Advisory Board Member) attended the University of Michigan, studying with William Bolcom, Ross Lee Finney, and Leslie Bassett. He is a Professor at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, and Chair of the Department of Music Theory and Composition. He directed the university’s electronic and computer music laboratories until 2002. In 1986 he co-founded Modern Music Ventures, Inc., a company which held a recording studio complex, a record production division, four publishing firms, and an artist management division. Gottschalk's teaching specialties include music business and law, film music, music theory, music composition, and counterpoint. As a film and television composer he numbers six feature films and twelve television scores among his credits. Among other awards, he is a recipient of the Charles Ives Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, annual ASCAP Awards since 1980, and has been a Composer-in- Residence at the famed Columbia/Princeton Electronic Music Center and for the Piccolo Spoleto Festival.
He has been recently honored with Special Recognition by the ASCAP Rudolph Nissim Awards, the First Prize of the Concorso Internazionale di Composizione Originale – Corciano, Italy, and with the First Prize of the Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra composition competition. With well over one hundred compositions in his catalog, his music is recorded on New Ariel, Crystal, Summit, Capstone, Beauport Classical, ERMMedia, Golden Crest, and AURecordings, and is published by Subito Music, Shawnee Press, European American Music Distributors, and Spectrum Press (ASCAP). His book, Functional Hearing, is published by Scarecrow Press, a division of Rowman & Littlefield.
Dr. Richard Davis has been a member of CMS for just over 20 years and an active member of this chapter since 1999. He has served as vice president, president elect, president, past president and is our current Board Member for Performance. Dr. Davis also kindly sent the following: “In this decade I have seen some wonderful changes in our chapter. The newsletter, the bulletin, healthy conferences with student participation, and a stable executive structure are all signs that our chapter has made great strides toward serving our fellow faculty members. But it is not just the outward organization that has improved. The academic level of presentations, the quality and diversity of performances presented in recital, and the continuing stream of good compositions mark our chapter as outstanding. (I can say that after attending other regional conferences!)
As the Board Member in Performance I hope to encourage the membership to continue to bring interesting music to conferences. We are an organization founded on and strengthened by our breadth. Let us continue to remember that not everything interesting comes from a PowerPoint presentation.
As I get older, I have less patience for reading résumés, but it is the most efficient way for us to get to know each other. Forgive me as I change to the third person.
Richard Davis, baritone, has combined a career as both singer and teacher. After a successful season at Wolf Trap he acquired management in New York City and sang roles in regional opera houses for three years. He directed Rigoletto with a professional cast for the South Texas Lyric Opera last spring.
As a teacher he has served on the faculties of Columbus College (GA), Eastman School of Music (CED), Nazareth College (Rochester,NY), Oberlin Conservatory, Penn State University, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, and Pittsburg State University (KS). He has had student winners at regional and state NATS competitions for many years. He has published articles in the American Music Teacher, Journal of Singing, NATS Journal, and the Choral Journal. His book, A Beginning Singer's Guide is in its second printing and is available from Scarecrow Press. The book has received good reviews from scholarly publications and eminent vocal pedagogue Richard Miller. Planned as a text for voice lessons and vocal pedagogy classes, it guides undergraduates to an understanding of the vocal mechanism and the immediate issues of learning to sing.
Richard Davis is active in the National Association of Teachers of Singing and the College Music Society. He holds the Doctor of Music in Performance Degree (with Distinction) from Indiana University. Dr. Davis has a Vocology Certificate from the University of Iowa. He teaches voice and directs opera at UTPA. He has recently designed new courses in music appreciation and world music for the UT Telecampus and WEBCT at UTPA. Dr. Davis likes to travel, spend time with his family, and collect old cars.”
NEW MEMBERS
Dr. Ryan Gardner is the Assistant Professor of High Brass (trumpet and french horn) and Director of the Jazz Band at the University of Arkansas – Fort Smith. Originally from Santa Monica, California, Dr. Gardner received his Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music with highest distinction. His Master’s degree is from Rice University – Shepherd School of Music and his Doctorate in Trumpet Performance is from the Manhattan School of Music. Here, he worked with former principal trumpeter Mark Gould and the former second trumpet player of the New York Philharmonic, Vincent Penzarella. Dr. Gardner also serves as the trumpet professor at a new summer chamber music festival, “Manhattan to the Mountains” at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. Dr. Gardner continues to enjoy a successful free-lance and teaching career in Fort Smith and New York City. As an orchestral performer, Dr. Gardner has played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Honolulu Symphony, the Charleston Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the Verbier Youth Festival Orchestra directed by James Levine in Switzerland to name a few. He has also performed in many prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. Dr. Gardner is an avid chamber musician playing with the Eastman Brass Quintet, the Rochester Philharmonic Brass Quintet, the Houston Symphony Brass Quintet, as well as concerts with the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound and Crash Ensemble. He has also been privileged to work with artists such as Ray Charles, Doc Severinson, the Canadian Brass, Michael Tilson- Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen, and David Zinman to name a few.
Scott Pool is currently Assistant Professor of Bassoon at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he began his tenure in the fall of 2009. Prior to his appointment at UTA, Scott was Associate Professor of Bassoon at Georgia’s Valdosta State University. In 2008, he became a faculty member of the Schlern International Music Festival in Voëls am Schlern, Italy where he coaches and performs chamber music. A proponent of new music, Scott’s performances often include new works and solo commissions; his premier of Chris Arrell’s Blur for Solo Bassoon was presented at Georgia’s acclaimed Spivey Hall in 2007. Recognized as a Moosmann Artist, Scott has performed concerts and recitals throughout North and South America and Europe, and his bassoon performances have been featured on National Public Radio and from local to national television broadcasts. He is also an active member of the International Double Reed Society with numerous conference performances and presentations; his latest performance was featured at the 2009 conference in Birmingham, England. Scott has served as principal bassoon with the Valdosta Symphony Orchestra and the Albany (GA) Symphony Orchestra, and was bassoonist with the Cypress Chamber Players. He has also performed with the Tucson Pops, the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra Symphonica UANL of Monterry, Mexico and the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, and was also an active musical participant with Oklahoma City’s Lyric Theater and the Arizona Theater Company. In addition to the bassoon studio at UTA, Scott teaches courses on Music Theory and Ear Training. Prior to completing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Arizona, Scott earned music degrees from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Central Oklahoma. He has studied with Will Dietz of Tucson, Arizona and Carl Rath of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Dr. Edward White and Dr. Katherine White are new members of The College Music Society. Dr. Edward White is an Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, where he teaches voice, music theory, and the vocal performance workshop. He holds degrees from the University of Kentucky (D.M.A. 2009), the University of Texas (M.M. 1999) and from the University of Alabama (B.M. 1996). Dr. White has sung over 25 roles with regional theaters such as Cincinnati Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Birmingham Opera, Brevard Opera, Opera in the Ozarks, Texas Opera Theater, Kentucky Opera Theater, and Southern Ohio Light Opera. He has also appeared as a soloist for the Fort Smith Symphony, Lexington Philharmonic, and the Texas Bach Festival.
Dr. Katherine Sherwood White has performed leading roles with Cincinnati Opera, Central City Opera, Kentucky Opera Theater, and Texas Opera Theater. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from Northwestern State University (LA), a Master of Music degree from the University of Texas, and a Doctoral of Musical Arts degree in vocal performance from the University of Kentucky. As part of her doctoral studies, she designed and implemented a series of educational presentations on the subject of American art song for elementary school students. Dr. White is currently an adjunct member of the music faculty at the University of Arkansas Fort Smith where she teaches voice and music appreciation. The Dr.’s White currently reside in Fort Smith, AR with their daughter, Evelyn. MEMBER INFO
Dr. Ryan C. Lewis is Assistant Professor of Percussion at Ouachita Baptist University where he teaches Applied Percussion, Percussion Techniques, and Music History courses and directs the Percussion Ensemble and Tiger Marching Band Drum Line. Previously he served on the music faculties of Claflin University, the University of South Carolina, and Florida State University, where he directed the Caribbean Steel Drum Ensemble. Lewis received recognition for outstanding undergraduate teaching at the University of South Carolina and was awarded “Teacher of the Year” honors as a public school General Music Teacher in Florida.
Lewis holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Percussion Performance from the University of South Carolina, a Master of Music in Percussion Performance from Florida State University, and a Bachelor’s of Instrumental Music Education from Furman University. He is an active member of the international Percussive Arts Society and the College Music Society, and is an Artist-Educator for Innovative Percussion sticks and mallets. His primary teachers include Scott Herring, John W. Parks IV, Gary Werdesheim, Leon Anderson, Jonathan Haas, and John S. Beckford.
Lewis has performed as timpanist-percussionist with many professional symphony orchestras and under the direction of maestros Keith Lockhart, David Zinman, and Leonard Slatkin. He has served as Principal Percussionist of the Spartanburg Symphony Orchestra and presented a solo timpani performance at the 2007 Percussive Arts Society International Convention. Lewis has performed with the symphonic and opera orchestras of the Aspen Music Festival and the Rome Festival of Italy, as well as the South Carolina Philharmonic Orchestra, Augusta Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Greenville Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Hendersonville Symphony Orchestra, Long Bay Symphony Orchestra, and Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra.
An avid chamber musician and collaborator, Lewis performs with his own piano-percussion group, Duo Matre, and has appeared with So Percussion, composer-conductor John Harbison, Mannheim Steamroller, Afro- pop guitarist Habib Koité, and Chinese zheng-master Haiqiong Deng in her Carnegie Hall debut.
His scholarly activities include published articles in Percussive Notes and Musical Reference Services Quarterly, and research presentations at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention and College Music Society National Convention. Lewis frequently presents clinics, masterclasses, and guest lectures at music educator conferences, high schools, and universities centering on world music cultures, hand drums, jazz drum set, fundamental techniques, symphonic performance practice, and historical aspects of percussion instruments.
Lewis reads science fiction-fantasy novels rather slowly and plays racquetball rather poorly, but manages to cook rather decently. He and his wife, Marie, live in Arkadelphia with their children, Carson and Morgan, and their escape-artist beagle, Hannah.
EVENTS / CONCERTS
Inscape Chamber Orchestra
Sunday, October 11, 2009, 5:00 p.m.
Episcopal Church of the Redeemer
6201 Dunrobbin Drive
Bethesda, MD
Among other works, member John R. McGinn’s (of Austin College in Sherman TX) piece Score for Score (2009) for 20 players will be premiered. The complete program is as follows:
Michael Torke: Ash
Richard Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
John McGinn: Score for Score
György Ligeti: Old Hungarian Ballroom Dances
See http://www.inscapemusic.org/ for more details.
Composer Arthur Gottschalk has four premieres in the coming two months. On October 6, his Brunetti Variations, a double concerto for violin and bassoon, will be performed by Kenneth Goldsmith, violin, and Benjamin Kamins, bassoon, with a chamber orchestra conducted by Christian Macelaru. Steven Parker will perform Charades, for prepared trombone, at the Santa Fe New Music Festival on October 17. On October 26, Sonata for Bass Clarinet will be given its premiere by Richard Nunemaker, bass clarinet, and Scott Holshauser, piano. And The Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra, Arkady Leytush, conductor, will perform his Paradisum Fanfare on November 20.
ARTICLE
The following article was contributed by Dr. Carl Smith of El Paso Community College.
Late Twentieth-Century Choral Composition Techniques: the use of a synthetic scale in a choral- orchestral setting of Psalm 150, composed by Sir David Willcocks
Sir David Willcocks, Music Director Emeritus, King’s College, Cambridge University, England; former
Director of the Royal College of Music; and former Director of The Bach Choir, continues to enjoy world-wide reputation as conductor, scholar, administrator, and expert on English cathedral music. However, another area of music in which he achieved significantly is his choral compositions. Choral conductors may be acquainted with his arrangements of Advent and Christmas carols in several anthologies such as 100 Carols for Choirs, many of which were composed for the King’s College Service of Nine Lessons and Carols during his tenure there, 1957-
1974; but his compositions other than those for Advent-Christmastide season may not be as well-known.
A review of recent literature on the topic of choral music composed by Sir David obtained no results.
Literature on the topic focused on interviews and documentation of his conducting, not choral music composed by him. Concerning his conducting, Sir David indeed has a most prestigious track record. He conducted the premiere British performance of Maurice Durufle’s Requiem, 1952, at the Three Choirs Festival; he collaborated with Benjamin Britten in conducting the Grammy Award-winning recording of Britten’s War Requiem in 1963; he was Director of Music for the Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Princess Diana; and he conducted concerts with the South Africa Symphony in Johannesburg, and the Cape Town Symphony in Cape Town.
Sir David’s choral compositions encompass a wide array of secular and sacred choral music. This article presents an analysis of one composition, a setting of Psalm 150 “O praise God in his holiness,” which uses the following synthetic scale: C D E F# G A Bb C. This scale has several names: overtone scale (Persichetti 1961,
44), disputed by Hulen as “no true overtone scale” (Hulen, no date); Lydian-Mixolydian, or #4, b7 scale (Kostka and Payne 2004, 477-478); and an asymmetric synthetic scale (Bufe 1994, 12). In the examples cited above the scale described is the one Sir David employs : C D E F# G A Bb C. In a conversation between the author and Sir
David in Summer 2008, Sir David confirmed the author’s perception that the synthetic scale is indeed a hybrid
Lydian-Dorian Scale, using the lower tetrachord of the Lydian Mode C D E F#, as the lower part of the scale, and the lower tetrachord of Dorian Mode, or Mixolydian Mode G A Bb C as the upper part of the scale, with the two tetrachords connected by a half step, F# - G.
Whether identifying the scale as Lydian-Mixolydian or Lydian-Dorian depends on the perception of the theorist analyzing the work. One point remains clear: the combination of half steps and whole steps in the upper tetrachord G A Bb C fit either Lydian-Mixolydian, or Lydian-Dorian Modes in terms of the whole steps and half steps in the lower tetrachords of the two modes.
Oxford University Press published the psalm setting originally as an SSAA version, written for Jean
Ashworth Bartle and the Toronto Children’s Choir. Later, Sir David rewrote the work for SATB divisi, in an expanded work for full orchestra. Psalm 150 is the pivotal third movement of the work, with four more psalm- settings to flank Psalm 150.
Concerning the expanded work, Sir David stated:
A Ceremony of Psalms was composed in 1989, in response to an invitation
from the Green Lake (Wisconsin) Festival of Music to write a work
for baritone solo, chorus, and orchestra to mark the tenth
anniversary of the founding of the festival.
The verbal text was selected from the Book of Psalms [Bishop Miles
Coverdale version, 1535], a collection of 150 Hebrew religious poems
which were sung in the worship of the temple in Jerusalem. The five
psalms reflect the emotional range of these poems, for they voice
joy and sorrow, thanksgiving and despair, penitence and faith,
hope and love….
The first complete performance of Ceremony of Psalms was given on
29 July 1989 at the Music Hall, Arts and Communication Centre,
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, as part of the Green Lake
Festival of Music. Sir David Willcocks conducted the Green Lake Festival Chorus and Orchestra, with Douglas Morris [Choral
Director and Professor of Voice, Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin].
In addition to the expanded work, Oxford University Press Music Department publishes “O Praise God in his sanctuary” as a separate anthem (A 382, SATB (with divisions) and organ). This version is the topic of this paper. Since the text of the psalm is critical to the presentation of the scale and resulting vertical structures, a citation of the psalm text follows.
Sir David chose the Miles Coverdale version of 1535 for the psalm text :
O Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in the firmament
of his power. Alleluia.
Praise his in his noble acts; praise him according to his
excellent greatness. Alleluia.
Praise him in the sound of the trumpet; praise him upon the
lute and harp.
Praise him in the cymbals and dances; praise him upon
the strings and pipe.
Praise him upon the well-tuned cymbals: the loud cymbals.
Let every thing [sic] that hath breath praise the LORD. Alleluia, praise the Lord.
In the introductory comments to A Ceremony of Psalms Sir David includes a brief description of the five psalm texts selected for the work. For Psalm 150 he states “Psalm 150 exhorts all living creatures to recognize the majesty of God and to praise God through music.” Sir David begins the musical setting by citing the synthetic scale clearly: C D E F# G A Bb C, with C as the tonal center, shown in Example 1.
Example 1.Synthetic Lydian-Dorian scale, with C as tonal center.
The chorus sings the first verse in unison and octaves, dividing into six parts in the second half of the verse, ending on the word “Alleluia.” For the remaining five verses of the psalm, Sir David employs transpositions of the original scale, as documented below in Table 1:
mm. Psalm Scale Verse
1-9 1 C D E F# G A Bb C
10-20 2 A B C# D# E F# G A
21-26 3 Bb C D E F G Ab Bb
27-32 3 G A B C# D E F G
33-37 4 A B C# D# E F# G A 38-42 4 F G A B C [D omitted] Eb F
43-50 5 Db Eb F G Ab A natural Bb Db
51-62 6 C D E F#G A Bb C
Table 1: The Lydian-Dorian scale and transpositions of the scale.
The vertical harmonies Sir David uses reveal a fascinating aspect of the use of the synthetic scale to the author: the pitch classes of the scale may be vertically spelled in two major-minor seventh chords a whole step
Example 2. Seventh-chords in the work. apart: C E G Bb and D F# A C. The vertical seventh chords constitute an important structural device in the work. Regarding the vertical seventh- chord structures, Sir David uses major-minor seventh chords in m.9, m.
20, and m.32. He uses an unusual Db augmented triad with a M7th in m.40; in m.50, he uses a Bb7 with a major
9th); and in m. 54, he uses a g minor triad with a Major 7th. The chords are shown below in Example 2:
Verse 1 concludes with the chorus singing the word “Alleluia” on a C major-minor seventh chord in third inversion. The chord does not resolve traditionally (normally an F major triad in first inversion), but rather sets up the statement of the second verse, which begins with A as the tonal center. Refer to table 1 for the transposition of the scale.
The chorus sings the text in six-part divisi SSA TBB, in antiphonal statements; and concludes the verse singing “Alleluia” divisi, on an A major-minor seventh chord, again in third inversion. Verse three “Praise him in the sound of the trumpet” occurs with Bb as the tonal center, but quickly changes to G as the tonal center for the remainder of the verse. The chorus sings the word “harp” on a G major triad; and the expected seventh-chord in third inversion occurs at the end of m. 32. (See Table 1 for the transposition of the original scale in Bb and
G).
The G major-minor seventh chord in third inversion at the end of m. 32, sets up the return of the A major tonality, in m. 33. For this verse the chorus sings “Praise him in the cymbals and dances,” in a manner similar to the previous verses. Trebles and altos state the text; and tenors and basses answer antiphonally. This verse features an interesting ostinato in the accompaniment in mm. 35-37, using vertical structures from the transposed synthetic scale: a series of descending six-four chords on A, G#, G, and f#. A D# minor seventh chord with a b7 occurs at the end of m. 37, setting up the new tonality of F in m. 38. Refer to example 1 for the synthetic scale with F as tonal center. Note the omission of the pitch “D” in this statement of the scale. The missing pitch is stated rather rapidly in the ascending accompaniment. The verse concludes with a straightforward F major triad in first inversion, setting up the new tonal center of Db for verse five. In the orchestral version cymbals play an enthusiastic role in this verse, “Praise him upon the well-tuned cymbals” with chorus singing in unison and thirds in the transposed synthetic scale. (Refer to Table 1 for the citation of the new scale.) The verse ends with the chorus singing the phrase “loud cymbals” on a Bb major-minor seventh with a minor 9th. The chord may also be spelled as a Db major-minor seventh chord in third inversion on top of a Bb major triad. This alternative spelling seems to be consistent with the use of seventh chords in third inversion in earlier verses.
Sir David imaginatively sets the final verse in a three-part point of imitation using the original synthetic scale with C as the tonal center. (See Example 3, p. 9). The last seventh- chord, derived from the synthetic scale, occurs in m.54: a g minor triad with a major seventh resolving to a bright C major chord in m. 55. (See Example
2, “seventh-chords in the work”). The psalm concludes with the chorus singing the words “Alleluia, praise the
Lord” on a resounding C major triad, and the original synthetic scale is sounding in unison and octaves in the accompaniment. A brilliant C major chord brings the work to a triumphant close.
Example 3. The synthetic scale as used in verse 6.
“O praise God in his Holiness” is a late twentieth-century choral composition by a gifted composer who understands clearly the use of choral forces and a highly-creative accompaniment, The significance of this choral work is the use of the synthetic Lydian-Dorian scale in all verses, and the use of vertical chord structures, particularly seventh chords, and the unusual chord progressions that make the work sound fresh and exciting.
The only extant recording known to the author is the recording made in July 1989—at the premiere performance of the entire work, A Ceremony of Psalms—at the University Of Wisconsin-Oshkosh Recital Hall as the concluding concert of the 1989 Green Lake, Wisconsin, Festival of Music.
Reference List
Bufe, Chaz. An Understandable Guide to Music Theory: The Most Useful Aspects or Theory for Rock, Jazz, and Blues Musicians. Tucson, Arizona: Sharp Press, 1994.
Hulen, Peter Lucas. “A Musical Scale in Simple ratios of the Harmonic Series Converted to Cents of twelve- Tone Equal Temperament for Digital Synthesis.” Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana. http://persweb.wabash.edu/facstaff/hulenp. (Retrieved July 9th, 2009.)
Kostka, Stefan, and Dorothy Payne. Tonal Harmony: With and Introduction to Twentieth-Century Music. Fifth edition. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2004.
Persichetti, Vincent. Twentieth-Century Harmony: Creative Aspects and Practice. New York: W.W. Norton & company, Inc., 1961.
Willcocks, David. A Ceremony of Psalms. For Baritone solo, chorus, and Orchestra. : Oxford and New York: Music Department, Oxford University Press, 1987.
Willcocks, David. “O praise God in his holiness.” Oxford and New York: Music Department, Oxford University Press A382, 1990.