Tuneful Tuesday...except this is Sunday.

Everyone in the world NEEDS to sit down and listen to the Bach Magnificat. You just haven't lived until you do.

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Choral sound...

I don't like the word "blend." I think it's too cheap for what we do. I've heard the phrase "homogeneity of sound" lately, and I like this better; it has a better quality to it. But even this term, I think, bleeds too much - it doesn't really seem to allow each section to stand on its own. What if it's described as a conglomeration of SATB homogeneity of sound, meaning each section "blends," if you will, within itself while retaining its own identity that stands, not too distant, but in the next cubicle from the other sections.

I guess this is the wordy definition for combine, coalesce, mix, or meld.

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Tuneful Tuesdays

So, I'm stealing the brilliant ideas my wife has and having a cute, catchy title for certain blogs...hey, it'll help me blog at least a little bit once a week.  What I'm going to do every Tuesday is blog what I've been listening to a lot or a little during the week, and hopefully it will go beyond choral music...but not too far.

This week I've listened to a couple of pieces by Damijan Mocnik - The Prayer and The Beatitudes. He's a Slovenian composer, and these two pieces are amazing. He has written a lot more than these, but I only have recordings of these two by the Atlanta Singers on their album entitled Antiphonica. On that same album is Missa Antiphonica by Henk Badings, a Dutch composer. All three pieces are amazing.

I've also listened to John Adams' Shaker Loops. Great stuff! I recommend listening to these daily.

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Bach...

I also recommend Bach's Mass in B minor, even if you can't get to it everyday. Once a week might fulfill the void for you.

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Beethoven...

If you haven't had your daily skimming of Beethoven's  Missa Solemnis score, or at least daily listening, I highly recommend you get right on that...

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East Carolina Conducting Institute

This week I have been mesmerized and elated to have conducted a marvelous group of folks in a few pieces of music: 1) Rheinberger's Benedixisti, 2) Dan Forrest's A Basque Lullaby, 3) Robert Lau's Sing to the Lord a New Song, and 4) Ken Neufeld's arrangement of  Morton Bay. The Benedixisti I have already talked about, so I won't say much. Though I liked the piece a lot, I think it could use a final bar line after the 3rd measure. A Basque Lullaby has a different text. It talks about fairies, silver wings, and flower buds, which is set to a GORGEOUS musical setting. Sing to the Lord a New Song is fantastic. I conducted it on our culminating concert on Friday. It's portions of Psalm 148, 149, & 150 set to mixed meter of 7/8, 3/8, 3/4 and it has a middle section of 4/4. It's way fun, and I will definitely be returning to that piece when I get a capable church choir. Morton Bay is a fermata frenzy...I didn't like it as much as I thought I might.

Dr. Bara is going to be a treat...I might not want this next two years to end if it's anything like this past week. He's brilliant and funny and an extremely good and patient teacher. Great combination for any kind of teacher...as a matter of fact, I don't think teachers should be anything BUT that.

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Rheinberger...

stunning composer. I had the most pleasant experience conducting his Benedixisti with a group of musicians from all over the country - mostly North Carolina, but California, Illinois, and Connecticut were represented...and certainly represented well here at ECU's Summer Choral Conducting Institute. I spent my podium time thinking about what my hands and arms were doing. I am guilty of not spending much time in score study because I felt I would neglect my conducting gesture. Perhaps that's a cop out, but I really wanted to focus on delivering a comfortable and expressive gesture without having to stop the choir to explain my musical interpretation. I felt I would have spent more time talking to them rather than showing them.

Good stuff. It's going to be a splendid week!

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New Post? OMG!

Congratulations Mr. Musical Mind, you've managed to not post for an entire semester. Maybe that means my mind is only musical...momentarily? Momentarily musical. That's probably it. My mind is quite momentary these days.

But it's off to East Carolina University to study choral conducting with Dr. Dan Bara, an Eastman School of Music DMA recipient as well as a graduate from the University of Michigan. It will be a challenging two years, but I've never been one to turn down too many of those. After three years of experiencing what teaching choral music is like in the rural high school, I am ready for a lot more guidance.

Reelfoot

I am a believer in the idea that music is all around us all the time. Sometimes it's in the form of "noise," but noise can be musical...not necessarily lyrical or up to our standards, but musical. Music is evident in nature, and here I post not noise, but nature's music in pictures on a cold, rainy day.

Finally! Choral Music!

Today I had the pleasure of conducting UT Martin's New Pacer Singers on Hymn to the Creator of Light. It was quite a different choral experience than I am used to. Usually I have to fix notes over and over and over and over...and over. Not so today! They actually allowed me to move beyond notes and make music. :::sigh::: I love my occupation.