| Comment: Re: thoughts on the impact of Glee | Dean Estabrook | January 8, 2011 |
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And whoa .... did you check out the YouTube version of the just the men singing Great Day!? Where did those voices come from? That's an example of what I think all America should hear and see. And, yes, I loved the trio too!
Dean |
| Comment: Re: thoughts on the impact of Glee | Dean Estabrook | January 7, 2011 |
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Emma .... I, for one, really appreciate your comments and willingness to share them with us. I think your Choir Director is doing you, and all of his students a great service in many ways. As I retired from teaching H.S. choirs several years ago, I value highly the chance to hear the opinon of a c... |
| Comment: Re: thoughts on the impact of Glee | Dean Estabrook | January 7, 2011 |
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I REALLY agree with your final paragraph! When I watched Sing Off, and the Yale Whiffenpoofs (sp?) were on, I thought what a joy it would be to see and hear a sing off of the truly "best choral ensembles" in America (which the program purported to feature) vie against each other, with a panel ... |
| Comment: Re: thoughts on the impact of Glee | Dean Estabrook | January 6, 2011 |
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Actually, I have very little with which to quibble inre John's comments. I certainly agree that the intent of the productions was not to portray a typical H.S. choral program. My concern with all that still is, that no matter what the intent was (is), the result may still be the one I stat... |
| Comment: Re: thoughts on the impact of Glee | Dean Estabrook | January 6, 2011 |
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I have not yet heard, on either Glee, or Sing Off, any attention paid to a healthy, resonant, vocal production. If the folks singng on those shows could transfer the dedication and emotinoal involvemnet they evince in the performance of their musc to a "traditional" choral setting with a quality v... |
| Comment: Re: Unexpected Gifts | Dean Estabrook | September 23, 2010 |
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Yep, I agree .... however, I just had a visual of a pile of grime around the feet of each singer as they were thus cleansed .... lol.
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| Comment: Re: Unexpected Gifts | Dean Estabrook | September 3, 2010 |
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Amen Scott ... I must say, if your ensemble is reading at that level, you are going to be one busy guy .... but man oh man, the rewards in store! It might do well for a group at that level to just turn off the lights one time and do exactly what I described .... they are going to need some of th... |
| Comment: Re: Thank you song | Dean Estabrook | August 30, 2010 |
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I was wondering when someone would suggest the Lutkin .... old as the hills, but I still love it.
Dean M. Estabrook
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| Forum message: Unexpected Gifts | Dean Estabrook | August 30, 2010 |
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Just experienced a moment of numinous, ineffable grace .... slowed down my day, sat, closed my eyes, and listened to a recording of Lauridsen's Ubi Caritas, as rendered by the Don Brinegar Singers. Transported by unexpected gifts ...
Dean M. Estabrook
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| Comment: Re: Will the Apple "iPad" Revolutionize Music Publishing? | Dean Estabrook | February 6, 2010 |
| My understanding is that Harry Conic (sp?) Jr.'s band is already playing from e-music stands. Perhaps someone can confirm this . I'm thinking that for my (until recently) church choir, which always ordered 60 copiees of octavos, the financial burden would probably be beyond reach.
Dean |
| Comment: Re: Chanticleer on Prairee Home Companion | Dean Estabrook | January 21, 2010 |
| Well .. for some reason ... I couldn't get it to play.
Dean
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| Comment: Re: Latin Pronounciation | Dean Estabrook | January 11, 2010 |
| Allen is certainly correct inre the pronounciation of Latin embedded in English discourse. I'm sure, however, that I risk being thought of as elitist, when even at a dinner party, say, I will be found uttering, "A-beh-oos Coh(r)-poos." Somehow, it just seems right to me ... and I was raised a ... |
| Comment: Re: Latin Pronounciation | Dean Estabrook | January 10, 2010 |
| Thanks folks ... it's nice to be reinforced once in awhile ... esp. at my age, when retrieving data from the old "punkin" is not what it once was. What brought up my question, was encountering the phrase, "Ex nihlo" many, many times in reading Karen Armstrong's book (on the Kindle I gave my wife for... |
| Forum message: Latin Pronounciation | Dean Estabrook | January 9, 2010 |
| Would the work, Nihilo, be pronounced, "Nee-kee-loh"? by virtue of Mihi, being pronounced, "Mee-kee."
Dean M. Estabrook |
| Comment: Re: The Sound of Music Transforms the Train Station | Dean Estabrook | January 4, 2010 |
| To me it has a lot to say (read, "sing') about the ineffable, surging joy which dwells within the human soul. Undeniable and far too latent, when it does shine through, numinous and spellbinding, we should all give thanks. And so I do ....
Dean M. Estabrook |
| Comment: Re: Adult community chorus behavior | Dean Estabrook | November 20, 2009 |
| John, you are probably correct in the use of "Diva." Although, gender specificity aside, the last definition in my cyber lexicon, to wit, " diva |ˈdēvə| a haughty, spoiled woman : she's such a diva that she won't enter a restaurant until they change the pictures on the walls to her likin... |
| Comment: Re: SATB church an outdated model? | Dean Estabrook | November 20, 2009 |
| Hmmm., kind of unusual. I've always said, "Tenors and Basses move away, Sopranos and Altos move into town." I think in this case I'd have the Altos sing Sop. as best they could ... after all, most Altos are simply Sopranos with acrophobia.
Dean Estabrook |
| Comment: Re: SATB church an outdated model? | Dean Estabrook | November 19, 2009 |
| Well, as far as models are concerned, I want an 80 voice choir, capable of singing SSAATTBB literature with stunning balance. Show me where that choir is, and I'll consider going back into church choir directing. When the male numbers dwindle to the ones cited above, consider doing SAB music. ... |
| Comment: Re: Adult community chorus behavior | Dean Estabrook | November 19, 2009 |
| Is the term, Diva, gender specific? In almost 5o years of directing school, community, and church choirs, I have never been sorry to have gotten rid of a malcontent such as is described in this case. In my first year of teaching a high school choir, having followed a much beloved charism... |
| Comment: Re: The War on Pronouns, cont'd | Dean Estabrook | November 2, 2009 |
| " Oh sinner person, who you gonna run to?" Has a nice flow, don't you think?
Dean |
| Comment: Re: TED gives us lessons from the great conductors | Dean Estabrook | October 30, 2009 |
| Whoa ... you gotta love the possibilities of this ...
Dean
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| Comment: Re: Sacred vs. Secular | Dean Estabrook | October 27, 2009 |
| Stephen's approach seems beyond reproach (ireprehensibilis est and Bruckner come to mind). And, it's nice to hear of the season referred to as "Christmas" ... (a daring appellation these days).
Dean Estabrook |
| Comment: Re: Glee | Dean Estabrook | October 22, 2009 |
| Pity, that ...
Dean
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| Comment: Re: Glee | Dean Estabrook | October 21, 2009 |
| John wrote, " When my quartet, The Four Saints, was touring full time in the '60s, ..." BTW John, I just noticed one of your albums on E Bay with a starting bid of $1.98, I believe. Do you still get royalties?
Dean |
| Comment: Re: Glee | Dean Estabrook | October 20, 2009 |
| Well, Carl ... I gotta agree with you. And, even sadder, essentially the same thing is happening in the church where I USED to direct the choir. More and more prevalent in the worship services is the almost concupiscent drive to include texts and slick schlock to attract newcomers. I simply can'... |
| Comment: Re: Glee | Dean Estabrook | October 19, 2009 |
| The world of H.S. choral singing depicted in the show is precisely antithetical to my experience ... however this is no surprise, since I graduated H.S. in 1958! But, somewhere, deeply concealed in a non-cynical moment, I was hoping to hear a really accomplished choir singing Os Justi or the l... |
| Comment: Re: Repertoire for 6th Grade Choir | Dean Estabrook | October 14, 2009 |
| Velvet Shoes, by Thompson ... or is it called, We Shall Walk in the White Snow? ,,,, it's been years, but a great piece ,,, easy range ... unison until the very end, then a little bit of 2 part.
Dean |
| Comment: Re: foreign languages | Dean Estabrook | October 9, 2009 |
| John asked, "One question: did they stay in the choir?!" Amazingly enough, yes they did. Tragically, the husband, died of pancreatic cancer a few years after the incident, but his wife remains in choir today (although I no longer direct it. Thank you all for your kind words.
Dean
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| Comment: Re: Last Words of David - "Mosso" | Dean Estabrook | October 7, 2009 |
| As an aside, I once took a class with Howard Swan, in which he worked on the Thompson piece with us. He mentioned that when he did it with the Oxy Glee Clubs, he thought it would be more effective to start the Basses on the high D, rather than have them make the octave jump up to it. True to... |
| Comment: Re: How Sweet the Sound | Dean Estabrook | October 6, 2009 |
| I dunno ... as I listened and watched, I almost felt assaulted by by a wall of amplified sound and lots of angry, furrowed brows demanding that I be joyful. Also, the repetitive nature of it was sort of mind-numbing to me. No question that great energy was expended, but for a "Sweet Sound," ... |
| Comment: Re: A New "Abide with Me" | Dean Estabrook | October 4, 2009 |
| He is truly missed ...
Dean
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| Comment: Re: foreign languages | Dean Estabrook | September 26, 2009 |
| Here is a letter I sent to two of my church choir members when they essentially promised to never sing with us again if the piece were in Latin (In this case, J.C. Bach's Magnificat. was at issue. FWIW ...
I appreciate knowing where people stand on a given issue, and therefore welcome yo... |
| Comment: Re: a little Merton to begin the week | Dean Estabrook | September 22, 2009 |
| While I certainly buy into the value of silence, especially in it's application to music, I do think it's possible to have rhythm without an alternation of sound and silence. Lots of Baroque music comes to mind, or Adagio For Strings by Barber for example. Unless he's referring to the most min... |
| Comment: Re: I was once a soloist in the Verdi Requiem ... | Dean Estabrook | September 22, 2009 |
| Well, as for the Sousa, we'll just call it a double stinger. Inre the vocal duet for a half note, hopefully your timbre and vowel shape matched the soloist's perfectly and all was well from the audience's perspective.
Dean M. Estabrook |
| Comment: Re: The Furious Power of Music | Dean Estabrook | September 18, 2009 |
| These words state the case most eloquently for the elimination of Praise Music in a church service ... if one seeks an aural experience equal to the profundity of the liturgy from which worship springs. "Gauzy sweet nothings" ... e.g., laid back, hyper-syncopated anthems accompanied by a sli... |
| Comment: Re: Biebl Banned | Dean Estabrook | September 17, 2009 |
| Mark's example of reading the Bible reminds me of a very dear friend who, though an atheist himself, read the Bible to all three of his children as they were growing up. He averred that it contained great writing in many passages, and it was his duty to expose them to all forms of great art.... |
| Comment: Re: Biebl Banned | Dean Estabrook | September 16, 2009 |
| Charles said: But we can't seem to stay out of each other's faces, and because of that we create a need for government intervention and litigation. Yes, it is that which is inhibiting the free flow of the sharing of art. I would not mind at all attending a concert in a hall (school or othe... |
| Comment: Re: Biebl Banned | Dean Estabrook | September 15, 2009 |
| In reply to Jane Becktel's observations ... just the fact that Australians are even allowed to call the season around Dec. 25, "Christmas" and not be castigated, gives me yet another reason to move "Down Under." I don't know how the USA has gotten to this point, but I find it increasingly stra... |
| Comment: Re: Your school's answering machine | Dean Estabrook | September 12, 2009 |
| I will have to admit, that "PC-ness" usually puts me in curmudgeon mode pretty quickly. To wit, if I were to move to say, China, to go to school, I would not expect to be taught in English (nor would I expect to fly the American flag from my house or insist on taking a day off from school ... |
| Comment: Re: Your school's answering machine | Dean Estabrook | September 11, 2009 |
| Says everything I wished to say when I was teaching. Non PC doesn't bother me a bit...
Dean
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| Forum message: Biebl Banned | Dean Estabrook | September 11, 2009 |
| If the choir of the school in question were going to sing the Ave Maria, I would anticipate an uproar from the ACLU or one of its adherents. But instrumentalists playing the Biebl .... ? Give me a break. I suppose that if they had simply renamed it, say, "Pride of the (f... |
| Comment: Re: Eliminate income tax for teachers | Dean Estabrook | August 31, 2009 |
| Chris ... in no way was the "Are you kidding?" line directed at your post. It was, in fact, directed at the original concept, which I also believe would never fly. I was only attempting to express what I perceive as being the common bias against teachers.
Take Care,
Dean |
| Comment: Re: Eliminate income tax for teachers | Dean Estabrook | August 26, 2009 |
| I can hear the uproar now .... "They only work nine months a year, get an excellent salary, benefits, and a great retirement!" Are you kidding?
Dean |
| Comment: Re: Balm for the soul, inspiration for the weary | Dean Estabrook | August 23, 2009 |
| Yep, Balm indeed. I find myself returning to these pieces again and again when I just need to be transported in the most profound, sumptuous manner. My recording is by the Shaw group ... amazing!
Dean M. Estabrook |
| Comment: Re: Bernstein the Communist? | Dean Estabrook | August 19, 2009 |
| One wonders if Lennie got wind of this, and if so, what his reaction was ..
Dean Estabrook |
| Comment: Re: A new standard in choral music? | Dean Estabrook | August 16, 2009 |
| Whoa ... I don't think I would buy the performance as a "new standard for choral music," per se, but it may very well be a new standard for Barbershop Chorus work. I can't understand how some of the effects, e.g., costume changes and prop presentation were pulled off ... just amazing. This l... |
| Comment: Re: Mama just killed a man? | Dean Estabrook | August 16, 2009 |
| Strange ... very strange .... I don't quite know what to make of it ...
Dean |
| Comment: Re: Nurturing Creativity | Dean Estabrook | August 12, 2009 |
| I don't know how many times, as a H.S. Choral Director, I had to bite my tongue when a talented (or not) student would sit down in my office and profess an intention to become a professional opera singer. Being aware of the odds against that happening, and not wanting to shatter dreams, I always... |
| Comment: Re: Concert themed on the Psalms | Dean Estabrook | August 10, 2009 |
| Boy, I don't know .... I would say that almost all of those suggestions ... many of which I did with my church choir, would be most challenging for a 30 voice, medium ability level, un-auditioned H.S. choir ...
Dean Estabrook |
| Comment: Re: Bobby and neuroscience | Dean Estabrook | August 4, 2009 |
| Yeah, the whole concept of "hard wiring," etc., even came home to me more profoundly when the recent discussion by ... I can't remember whom, gave evidence that a super low B-Flat (audible with the proper equipment) exists throughout the cosmos. Blows my mind ... as does the work of Bobby. Gre... |
