I guess we encouraged his quirky behavior because the Lauridsen piece gets much louder toward the middle and he did the following: as we continued to sing, he held up one finger on each hand, then another, then another, until all 10 fingers were up. And with each finger, we responded by growing louder and louder until we arrived at the mf (mezzo forte) indicated in the piece. CRAZY! We knew exactly what he wanted, even though we had never seen these gestures before and he didn't have to say a word!
Now there is a new ACDA Radio Station - Russian Orthodox Music:
In cooperation with Musica Russica, ACDA has added a 5th "channel" to ACDA Radio--"Russian/Eastern Orthodox (Sacred)".
The chant and choral music of Eastern Orthodox Christianity is a direct descendant of one of the oldest continuous artistic vocal/choral traditions in Western civilization. ACDA is now making this music available, free, through their website by streaming The Rudder, a 24/7 Internet Radio station that provides a serene listening experience of choral beauty through the transforming music of Orthodox liturgy. The Rudder joins the four other streaming channels already available through ACDA radio. This new channel acquaints listeners with Orthodox music in a variety of styles, national origins, and languages, including traditional liturgical chant of Byzantine and Slavic traditions, Orthodox choral music from Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria,Georgia, and Greece, as well as compositions and arrangements by American Orthodox composers.
The Rudder is programmed by Dr. Vladimir Morosan founder and president of Musica Russica and Life Member of ACDA, who has worked in Orthodox liturgical music for over 35 years, as a scholar, choral conductor, teacher, and music publisher. The Rudder is powered by the Orthodox Christian Network, an agency of the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops in America.
Nothing quite says Christmas like a concert about gambling, drinking and lust, right? The texts of Orff’s famous Carmina Burana were mostly written by itinerant students wandering from inn to inn to study with great teachers, before there were university centers, and we are not surprised that in their spare time they wrote poetry and sang about wine, women and song. (That these songs were ever collected and discovered is the surprise.) And after all, drinking and lust are traditional at this time of year, though usually we call it the office Christmas party…
--
So I’m celebrating finished-Hanukkah and almost-Christmas on Monday by singing about gambling, lust and drinking. And I’m okay with that.
There's a serious moral to this, of course, that one needs to be careful about how much certainty to pretend about conclusions reached regarding ancient history. I like to ask students how much they think a future musicologist could conclude about jazz music lacking recordings, but only with written-out arrangements, how-to books, and lead sheets.
All we know about Baroque music is written-out arrangements, how-to books (treatises), and lead sheets (figured bass). Surely when you booked a band for your Baroque party they spent the time improvising on ground basses, but how little we know about what that must have sounded like. And how-to books assume some kind of prior experience listening to the music. That's one of many reasons I'm skeptical of the authentic-performance movement; some of their conclusions might be as ridiculous as the Beatles history shown above.
The relationship between cellphones and music has almost always been a quirky one, producing bouts of the surreal punctuated by an occasional flourish of the sublime. Latest to join the melodic fray are Georg Essl from the University of Michigan and his "mobile phone ensemble." Each of the participating students has designed a noise-making app for his or her iPhone, which is used in conjunction with the built-in accelerometer and touchscreen to make (hopefully beautiful) music. Though we may consider this a gimmick for now, Professor Essl is most enthusiastic about the future prospects of utilizing smartphones to make music with legitimate aspirations. The debut performance of this newfangled orchestra is on December 9, or you can check out a preview in the video after the break.
As musicians, we always have to jam our Christmas shopping in between the Lessons and Carols service on the 20th and the Christmas Eve Final Rehearsal on the morning of the 24th, but here's a little suggestion list for the tiny tots on your list, courtesy of The Week:
FIRST PRIZE: The E-Z Bake Electric Chair
SECOND PRIZE: Mr. Potato Head’s neighbor, Mr. Crack Head
THIRD PRIZE: Text ‘n’ Drive Big Wheel
Selected honorable mentions:
Obstructive View-Master
Trick Bungee Cord
Jihad Joe
Don’t Tickle Me There Elmo!
Free-Range Ant Farm
Hamster Embalming Kit
Baby’s First Bong
Cripps & Bloods Action Figures
Abandoned Refrigerator Secret Hideout
Botched Boob Job Barbie
Co-Dependent Ken
Dart Board with an Automatic Return
Ginsu Hula Hoop
The Hula Square
Subprime Monopoly
The Solid Color Rubik’s Cub
Horny, Horny Hippos
Extra special bonus: Amazon sells the Laptop Steering Wheel Desk. Be sure to read the reviews. And look at the product pictures.
Greetings from the ChoralNet Board of Directors, Manager, Webmaster, and all those working to make ChoralNet your online place for choral music news and networking. Thank you for your support during 2009 and past years. We look forward to improving and expanding the global choral networking possibilities through continued cooperation with our Partners and users. Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and productive new year to all!
...if volunteer choruses are serving as a canary in the coal mine, the air appears to be better than we thought. Because if old choruses are closing, new ones are springing up to replace them -- with far smaller budgets and more flexible organizations.
1) VOICEBOX, PUBLIC RADIO'S NEW PROGRAM DEDICATED TO THE ART OF SINGING, HAS JUST BEEN AWARDED A $25,000 GRANT FROM THE PHYLLIS C. WATTIS FOUNDATION
2) THE SERIES IS OFFICIALLY LAUNCHING ON KALW 91.7 FM ON JANUARY 1 FROM 10PM TO 11PM
Upcoming programs:
Why do we sing? - January 1, 2010 10pm, KALW, 91.7 FM
Do human beings have an innate ability to sing? When people say they can't sing, should we believe them?
The inimitable Ella Fitzgerald - January 8, 2010 10pm KALW, 91.7 FM
America's First Lady of Song changed the face of jazz vocals. VoiceBox explores the story behind the voice.
Hooray for Community Choruses, January 15, 2010 10pm KALW 91.7 FM
There are more than 500 choruses in the Bay Area and one in five Americans sings in a choir. Why are Americans so passionate about singing for pleasure?
Men with high voices, January 22, 2010 10pm KALW 91.7 FM
Once upon a time, countertenors wouldn't go about publicizing the fact that they sang high. These days, male sopranos and altos are kings of the classical and pop worlds.
Mavens of Cabaret, January 29, 2010 10pm KALW, 91.7 FM
VoiceBox explores the vocal pyrotechnics of the smoothest cabaret artists from the Bay Area and beyond
Too big, and you risk giving yourself gangrene. Too small, and ... well, actually you don't even need one. Are maestros too attached to their batons?
As musicians, we always have to jam our Christmas shopping in between the Lessons and Carols service on the 20th and the Christmas Eve Final Rehearsal on the morning of the 24th, but here's a little suggestion list for the tiny tots on your list, courtesy of 
Greetings from the ChoralNet 
1) VOICEBOX, PUBLIC RADIO'S NEW PROGRAM DEDICATED TO THE ART OF SINGING, HAS JUST BEEN AWARDED A $25,000 GRANT FROM THE PHYLLIS C. WATTIS FOUNDATION
