ChoralNet - ChoralBlog

Choral Caffeine: Selecting an Edition

Scott Dorsey — %pm, %21 %b %2012 %21:%May:%st 21MayUTC

The academic year is winding down; for some, it’s already in the history books. You soon get to take a well-deserved break from the daily grind.

However, for most of us it doesn’t take too long before our brains start thinking about the next season. Among the myriad details you will probably ponder while mowing the grass is the all-important matter of repertoire. If you are pondering a masterwork for next season (and if not, WHY not?), you might want to consider the choice of performing edition along with simply selecting a piece.

In his article, “The Edition You Chose Matters” (Southern Harmony, Vol.27, No.2), Lee Barrow gives this matter a thoughtful airing.

How does one determine which edition to use? The first step is to examine available scores. If possible, compare two or more editions of the same work, measure by measure. What differences exist? Does an edition use words such as arranged, adapted, based on, setting by or something similar that indicates changes to the original? Is the editor’s name given? Does the music contain a written preface which discusses editorial decisions, sources, etc.? Are there markings in the score that raise red flags for a conductor who is cognizant of historical practices in the different eras?

Lee goes on to discuss a variety of considerations, including differences in publishers, sources, and the influence of the editor.

(To access the full article, simply click the highlighted title. For additional articles on a dazzling array of choral topics, visit ChorTeach.)

ACDA to Publish International Journal of Research in Choral Singing (IJRCS)

Tim Sharp — %pm, %20 %b %2012 %19:%May:%th 19MayUTC

The American Choral Directors Association is honored to announce it is now the publisher of the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing (IJRCS), adding this distinguished research journal to its existing suite of choral publications. Adding IJRCS to ACDA’s supporting cast of online resources and research publications is a partial fulfillment of one of the initiatives outlined for ACDA in 2008: “I envision a twenty-first century ACDA that sets the research and publication agenda for the best thinking, past and present, in choral music."

In its first issue, IJRCS editor Dr. James Daugherty said that the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing “celebrates the uniquely relational character of choral singing by publishing research that contributes to our understanding of choral ensemble practice and pedagogy.” Specifically, IJRCS promotes studies of ensemble singing, choir sound, choral pedagogy, and related areas that employ rigorous, systematic methods, both quantitative and qualitative. Three reviewers from the journal’s international and interdisciplinary board of editors, which includes choral musicians, voice scientists, acousticians, and vocal music educators, referee each manuscript anonymously and independently prior to reaching a decision about publication.

The daily operations and Editorial Board of the IJRCS will remain unchanged by this agreement, including the sole right of the IJRCS Editorial Board to determine research manuscripts acceptable for publication. Serving as transitional liaison will be Dr. Hilary Apfelstadt of the University of Toronto, who is a current member of the IJRCS Editorial Board and ACDA’s Executive Committee. IJRCS will remain an open access journal, free of charge to the choral research community and others.

“The ACDA National Committee on Research and Publication welcomes IJRCS to both the committee's work, as well as to the greater mission of ACDA,” said R&P Committee Chairman, Dr. William Belan “IJRCS's ongoing research in the field of vocal science contributes valuable credibility to our serious pursuit of the choral art.”

To distinguish IRJCS from other ACDA journals (Choral Journal, ChorTeach, monographs, and state and division publications) and to assist each ACDA journal in maintaining its unique contribution to the profession, the IJRCS shall be branded as “The Scientific Research Journal of the American Choral Directors Association.” “It is all together fitting and fortuitous that the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing promises to be an important resource for ACDA's choral conductors, scholars, and nascent conductors currently completing college degrees in music education with an emphasis in choral conducting,” commented Dr. Carroll Gonzo, editor of Choral Journal.

“We are delighted to sing in ACDA’s remarkable choir of publications,” Dr. Daugherty commented. The IJRCS is grateful to Dr. Sharp and the ACDA Executive Committee for their vision in proposing this agreement, and their expertise in shepherding it to fulfillment. We look forward, in concert with Choral Journal and ChorTeach, to serving the members of our profession and thereby the millions of singers with whom they work.”

The ACDA website (acda.org) contains information about submitting manuscripts to IJRCS, and about the journal’s policies. The inaugural issue of the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing as the scientific research journal of the American Choral Directors Association will be available in early September.

Plus ça change...

Allen H Simon — %pm, %18 %b %2012 %15:%May:%th 15MayUTC

In case anyone tells you that the exclusion of music from the list of "real" academic subjects is a new invention, here's a quote from Roman philosopher Seneca:

And what of those who are engaged in composing, hearing, and learning songs, while they twist the voice, whose best and simplest movement Nature designed to be straightforward, into the meanderings of some indolent tune, who are always snapping their fingers as they beat time to some song they have in their head, who are overheard humming a tune when they have been summoned to serious, often even melancholy, matters? These have not leisure, but idle occupation.

Writing on Joanne Jacobs' excellent education blog, Diane Senechal has her high-school students read this letter from Seneca (which also condemns such frivolous activities as chess, sunbathing, spectator sports, and getting one's hair cut) as a starting point for classroom discussion about such activities as Facebook and texting.

Audience awareness

Allen H Simon — %pm, %15 %b %2012 %17:%May:%th 17MayUTC

I mentioned in my last post that we as conductors face away from the audience, but I always feel like I'm aware of them anyway, even if I can't see them. Somehow I sense whether they're attentive, and how they're responding to the music. Part of it is obviously that there's more ambient noise (rustling, coughing) if people are bored, and some of it is indirect response via the singers' expressions (even though they're undoubtedly [ahem] all watching the conductor at all times) but I feel like there's some psychic connection also.

Others have this sense as well?

There's an annular eclipse of the sun today, right after my performance! I'll wear some eclipse viewing glasses (thoughtfully provided by my alma mater) at some point in the performance, although they're so dark I won't be able to see anything. That'll be incentive to get my score memorized.

Creative Ventures into Music Publishing

philip copeland — %pm, %15 %b %2012 %14:%May:%th 14MayUTC

I'm thrilled to see all of these new ventures into music publishing. Today I am featuring Kansas City Music Publishing.

In case you are new to ChoralNet, we talk about music publishing often on this blog. Here are some of the articles from the past:

Transforming Gutenberg Grounded Economics

Publishers vs. Creators

Future Models of Music Publishing

Most Music Publishing Gets it Wrong

Why Dan Publishes with SJMP

Dying Industries and Choral Music

Thriving Industries and Choral Music

In Defense of Music Publishers

With that in mind, I got this email the other day - it sounds like a company that believes in many of the values we've espoused here over the past few years:

My name is Jacob Narverud (jacob@kcmusicpublishing.co). I am the President of Kansas City Music Publishing Co., a new all-digital publishing company in Kansas City. (www.kcmusicpublishing.co)

Here is some information about the company:

BENEFITS FOR THE CONDUCTOR:
-No shipping costs
-Lower prices on all titles
-Items are never out of stock
-Quick access to the complete catalog at all times
-Rehearsal tracks are available for nearly every title
-See and hear the complete score before making a purchase
-Personalize/edit your music before duplicating for your ensemble
-Flexible payment options including PayPal, Credit/Debit Cards, & Invoices
-Scores are sent directly to your email after purchase (no more waiting!)

BENEFITS FOR THE COMPOSER AND ARRANGER:
-A 50% royalty rate on all titles
-A 5 year print and public performance license agreement with the company (you retain your copyright ownership as well as mechanical and synchronization rights)
-Less time between work submission and availability for purchase
-A team of multiple editors
-Audio recordings, biographies, and performance notes available on website
-Advertising and promoting by the company

I encourage you to check out Kansas City Music Publishing. And, in case you are wondering, neither I nor ChoralNet receive anything in return from featuring various publishers or new products.

Dress rehearsal

Allen H Simon — %pm, %15 %b %2012 %16:%May:%th 16MayUTC

Just finished dress rehearsal with the orchestra last night for Haydn's Mass in Time of War (aside: first time I've ever had to tell a tympanist to play louder, but it is a prominent part).

I always find dress rehearsal to be much more stressful than performances. That's the real deadline for knowing your score cold, and there are many more choices to make. That's when the string players will ask why there's a slur in the violin I part and not in the violin II part, and whether we should make them conform. If there's a minor mistake (such as a ragged cutoff), I have to do triage: is this worth stopping for? If not, do I need to remember it until the next stopping place? I always find that every time we stop I've accumulated a half dozen things to say, and having to keep track of that list consumes bandwidth.

Of course, this applies to regular rehearsals, too. But you get more chances in regular rehearsals; the time factor isn't as pressing, and having the orchestra increases the number of items to juggle. And with only one orchestra rehearsal, you've got to get through everything, so you can't stop and fix every little thing.

In performance, the only question when you hear a mistake is: can I fix this via gesture? If one part or instrument is playing too loud or too soft, or the tempo is getting apart, I can do something to fix it; otherwise, I can forget it. Performance is being in the zone, in the moment. Things go well or they don't, and I like being free to think about the music and less about how it's being performed. Singers always ask me after a performance how I thought it went, and I never know, because I forget mistakes immediately, unless they're really egregious.

I also find that the singers are much more focused in performance, which makes them more responsive to my conducting as well as less likely to make mistakes. And if I have a memory glitch and forget some cue in performance, it's much more likely they (either singers or players) will come in anyway, or do the sforzando, or whatever.

Anyway, my typical stress pattern is an increasing amount of stress up to the orchestra rehearsal, then a much more peaceful time between that and the performance. I still might review the music, continue memory work (if I'm going to conduct without a score), prepare notes for the chorus, and so on, but it seems like much less pressure.

Do you all have the same experience? I'm not really subject to performance anxiety, so maybe others get stressed just because of the performance itself (although not actually looking at the audience must help).

P.S. I've stopped calling them "dress rehearsals" when addressing singers since newbies always seem to be confused about whether they have to wear their concert outfits to the "dress" rehearsal. Now I call them "orchestra rehearsals" or "final rehearsals."

P.P.S. I have a grumble about the Bärenreiter score for this work. The conductor's score doesn't have the clarinet parts included in the orchestra layout (except in one movement), but has them as an appendix, implying that they double the oboes the rest of the time. Yet they have a number of independent parts which took me by surprise at the rehearsal. I expect it's because it's an "urtext" edition and maybe Haydn's manuscript score didn't have the clarinets, but they could have included them on small staves. Some editor at Bärenreiter needs to talk to performers more often.

What is the best way to leave the profession?

philip copeland — %pm, %15 %b %2012 %13:%May:%th 13MayUTC

I've noted with respect the way LSU has said goodbye to longtime professor Ken Fulton as he retires this year. They've celebrated his tenure with ceremony and class. LSU also included him on the search committee to choose a new conductor.

It doesn't always go that way, does it?

Sometimes there is no celebration and little recognition.

LSU did it right. A hearty congratulations to their administration, alumni, and students.

Ken, congratulations on a job well done.

Seen on Twitter lately

philip copeland — %pm, %15 %b %2012 %22:%May:%th 22MayUTC

I run a constant search for the word "choral" on twitter. Occasionally, I look to see what it brings up.

Here are some of the latest:

My choral teacher put my in between the two skinniest girls in school for this concert tonight soo basically I'm gonna look like a whale

U of L Cardinal Singers bound for Cuba 'choral summit': The summit will be a cross-cultural exchange of US and C... http://t.co/Eu5zGRyM

Support Retention of Mr. Greg Smith as CCHS Choral Director: http://t.co/Vh7l1D1a

Nothing calms me down after an awful shift at work more than choral music by @EricWhitacre

seriously considering dropping out of the choral department.

Interesting, eh?

How Do You Measure a Year in the Choral Life?

Tim Sharp — %pm, %14 %b %2012 %17:%May:%th 17MayUTC

In the musical Rent, Seasons of Love asks “how do you measure a year in the life?” The clinical way of doing so sounds something like “Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes”, but the song rhetorically asks, how do you really measure a year in the life?

Most of us are completing a year of choral performance, and in various ways, we are called to measure it. For the American Choral Directors Association, I measure activity in members, conferences, budget measurements, programs, and methods of participation and engagement. With those measurements, something similar to “Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred” is likely to appear. But after all the calculations, I am still left with the profound question in my artistic endeavors, “how do I really measure this year?”

If I try to apply math to the performances I have with the Tulsa Oratorio Chorus, I suppose I could count the measures or notes in the Bach motets, cantatas, Magnificat, and Mass in B Minor that comprised our 2011-2012 concert year. Another measurement could be to calculate the several thousand audience members, the hours we spent in rehearsal and performance, the personal time we spent studying and learning the scores on our own outside of rehearsal. All of these are significant measurements, and to be sure, they are healthy numbers.

However, I prefer to measure things differently. Here is how I measure a year in our life:

We experienced profound Celebration in “Singet dem Herrn”

We experienced profound Thankfulness in “Gott, der Herr, ist Sonn' und Schild”

We experienced profound Confidence in "Ein feste burg"

We experienced profound Expectation and Hope in “Wachet auf”

We experienced profound Praise in “Magnificat”

We experienced profound Playfulness in “Pirates of the Carribean”

We experienced profound Joy in Mahler’s “Symphony No. 3”

We experienced Universal Faith in Bach’s “Mass in B Minor”

I am certain that life was richer, better, and more profound for those that we touched in our concert season this year.

May your own measurements lead to a season of productive preparation for another great season of choral music making just ahead.

Mix My Part

philip copeland — %pm, %13 %b %2012 %19:%May:%th 19MayUTC

I got this email about a new service:

I developed an online based software solution for choirs to improve the rate at which they can learn repertoire. The software provides an online multitrack mixer/player and media hosting hub so a teacher/director can prepare recordings of individual voice and instrumental parts and post them for playback by choir or band members very much like a YouTube video so they can be used to practice and sing along at home while controlling each part independently while they all play at the same time. I don't want to burden you with too lengthy an explanation if it doesn't interest you, but maybe you'd like to visit the website and see what my new creation can do.

The website is http://www.mixmypart.com and right there on the home page is a button that says "Launch Demo" which will launch a working version of the software and a sample song. The nice thing about this solution for choir members, is that they would receive an encoded link just like a YouTube video link and everything is right there on a single page for them to use. There's no navigating on different pages and the controls are very obvious.

Check it out - the mixer is pretty cool.

The creative mind at work - Eric Whitacre

philip copeland — %am, %12 %b %2012 %11:%May:%th 11MayUTC

I have long admired how Eric Whitacre uses technology. He recently shared the germ of an idea on his blog - a little motive that may find a way into his next masterpiece:

Read what he said about it here. Keep it up, Eric. Fascinating stuff.

Have you applauded yet?

Allen H Simon — %pm, %11 %b %2012 %15:%May:%th 15MayUTC

One of the newest features on ChoralNet is the Applaud button, which lets you express agreement with a reply to a forum thread without having to write a separate reply agreeing. Quick and easy. It's similar to the Like button on Facebook.

You can also Applaud replies to Community forums or ChoralBlog. But you can't applaud your own messages; we'll all assume you approve of what you wrote without you having to bother to click a button.

Give it a shot.

Choral Caffeine: Humor in the Choral Rehearsal, Part 2

Scott Dorsey — %pm, %16 %b %2012 %18:%Apr:%th 18AprUTC

Let’s continue our look at the value of humor in our work with a little more from Steven Sieck’s article, “Humor in Choral Rehearsals.” Today Steven tells us that “Humor frees singers to make mistakes without fear . . . .”

Singers will make mistakes. If you’ve been in a professional choir recording session, you know that professionals also make mistakes. No one wants to make them, and you don’t want toencourage such a practice in the rehearsal. Choirs perform the way they rehearse. But if you “bite off heads” when a mistake occurs, you, and the singers, get a very different rehearsal experience and a different sound. Submission and trepidation in singers create the opposite of what we conductors desire from our singers.

Choral music is an art form based on the act of giving: giving your voice, your words, and your spirit. I believe singers should feel free to acknowledge a mistake in rehearsals. For example, when the choir works on an especially difficult passage and a number of mistakes occur, I can stop and say “That’s pretty much ready for the CD!” There’s laughter, at first awkward or embarrassed but then relaxed. I can then work efficiently on all the mistakes with no resentment from the singers. You cannot control your singers’ fallibility; however, you can control how you respond to it. In my way of thinking, the use of appropriate humor is the most workable solution to the problem.

(To access the full article, simply click the highlighted title. For additional articles on a dazzling array of choral topics, visit ChorTeach.)