The Spring 2013 issue of the International Journal of Research in Choral Singing is now available!
The current edition includes such articles as "The English Choral Tradition and the Secular Trend in Boys' Pubertal Timing" (Ashley), "Changes in Tone Quality as a Function of Focus of Attention in Untrained Singers) (Atkins and Duke), "The Effects of Watching Three Types of Conductor Gestures and Performing Varied Gestures Along with the Conductor on Measures of Singers' Intonation and Tone Quality: A Pilot Study" (Brunkan), and much more of interest to the choral musician.
(An excerpt from the interest session, “Integrating Common-Core Learning Standards into the Choral Curriculum," by Victoria J. Furby. Presented during the 2013 ACDA National Conference.)
Changing lesson planning ideas to address the Common Core Learning Standards is presenting new challenges to integrate literacy into the choral music classroom. Many choral music teachers are struggling with the idea of teaching more than they already do. For secondary choral musicians, the Common Core Learning Standards can be approached in a variety of ways; the best ideas will be those that enhance and support the music instruction leading to the best possible cumulative performances that choral musicians desire.
The Common Core Learning Standards have been adopted by forty-five states across America, and are designed to provide a set of benchmarks that students should achieve at each grade level in both literacy and mathematics. In the elementary grades, all teachers are expected to support the acquisition of math and literacy skills across the curriculum. At the secondary level, where most choral musicians work, teachers should be prepared to utilize the set of standards developed for Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects. “Just as students must learn to read, write, speak, listen, and use language effectively in a variety of content areas, so too must the Standards specify the literacy skills and understandings required for college and career readiness in multiple disciplines” (www.corestandards.org). These standards are designed so that students are not just “musically literate” and able to read musical symbol systems, but also “literate about music”; in other words, that students can use the appropriate vocabulary and language in order to write and speak about music.
Choral musicians have a unique opportunity to teach some traditional language instruction through the text of their repertoire. However, it is important that choir directors also strive to teach literacy about music. Below are several ideas for literacy assignments that would also help prepare students to become literate about music, while enhancing musical knowledge and performance quality.
{} Describe the vocal quality you hear in this recording using appropriate musical terminology.
{} Evaluate this recording of our performance using appropriate musical terminology?
{} Define these musical terms.
{} Research and write a one paragraph biography of the composer of one of our concert pieces.
(Teachers: use this as program notes for your concerts!)
(The ACDA National Conference is just one of the many benefits of membership in the American Choral Directors Association. Join ACDA today.)
(An excerpt from the panel session, "Paradigm Shift: The New Conductor/Composer Dynamic," by Deborah Simpkin King. Presented during the 2013 ACDA National Conference.)
PROJECT : ENCORE™ is an initiative formed for the purpose of promoting post-premiere performances of significant new choral music. It takes the form of a continually-expanding, robustly searchable database of premiered compositions, submitted by either the composer or the premiering conductor, then evaluated by an international panel of renowned conductors of new music. Approximately 2/3 of the works submitted are accepted into the database. Compositions included span all scorings and all difficulty levels. Search functions are expansive. In this exciting time in which the virtual explosion of composer publishing efforts can be overwhelming, PROJECT : ENCORE™ seeks to provide a body of vetted works to which conductors can turn with confidence for quality and freshness in programming, and direct access to working composers. In short, it is a bridge directly connecting composers and conductors through an evaluation process historically born by music publishers.
For composers it is a resource for enhanced visibility and for the PE™ endorsement earned through evaluation and certification of merit by an international panel of prominent conductors.
For conductors it is a robust and deeply nuanced tool for searching out new, critically endorsed choral music.
V1 of the PROJECT : ENCORE™ newsletter, Sing It Again!, was unveiled in the session in Dallas. Composers and conductors alike are encouraged to sign up for this quarterly publication, which seeks to become the 21st-century e-salon (a la Paris, early 20th century), where composers, poets, conductors – our modern-day prophets! - meet and exchange vision and information.
(An excerpt from the interest session, "Vocal Jazz Concepts for Young Choirs," by Natalie Wilson. Presented during the 2013 ACDA National Conference.)
As we choral directors strive to provide a multi-cultural program for our singers, we must include our own cultural music – jazz. The skills that are required to learn music from other cultures- their language, rhythms, tones and harmonies are the same that are required to learn jazz.
Specific drumming patterns and techniques for creating a bass line and piano part for young players were shared and practiced. Improvisation was encouraged to begin with the melody on neutral syllables and to practice cacophony by having all singers improvise simultaneously. This helps the singers develop confidence by not calling attention directly to them individually.
Choral directors should trust their musical instincts to personalize jazz charts to complement their ensemble. Listen to quality examples, ask questions and give it a try. Your stylistic interpretations are a compliment to the composer/arranger. Give yourself permission as the director to tailor the chart to meet the needs of your ensemble.
Jazz is a living, evolving art form. It is our responsibility as directors to nurture our own cultural music and help guide the direction as it evolves. Take a risk to go beyond your comfort zone and share some vocal jazz. You can do it!
(The ACDA National Conference is just one of the many benefits of membership in the American Choral Directors Association. Join ACDA today.)
(An excerpt from the interest session, "The Legacy of Lawson-Gould" by Alice Parker with Sally K. Albrecht and Michael Spresser. Presented during the 2013 ACDA National Conference.)
Walter Gould and Robert Lawson Shaw established the Lawson-Gould choral catalog in 1953, first publishing the music of Alice Parker and Robert Shaw, consisting primarily of public domain hymn, carol, and folk song arrangements. In 2005, Alfred Music acquired the print rights to this catalog. To open our ACDA session, we read through two new additions to the catalog, then master composer, conductor, and teacher Alice Parker took the stage.
Ms. Parker explained her arranging process and the working relationship that she and Mr. Shaw enjoyed. She researched the music, sketched out the arrangements, then presented them to Mr. Shaw, who marked changes and suggestions as he heard them. It was a wonderful collaboration, which resulted in many subsequent performances and recordings by the Robert Shaw Chorale. She instructed us to first read the text for its true meaning, reminding us to make those "flat dots" and words on the page come to life. Her energy, expertise, and musical spirit captured us all as she led us in song through several of her favorite Parker-Shaw arrangements, giving us time-tested pointers along the way!
The following publications were included in our music packet (SATB unless noted otherwise):
37909 - There Is Sweet Music Here - Ray
38130 - De Profundis - Robinson
LG00905 - I Will Arise - Parker, Shaw
LG00907 - Wondrous Love - Parker, Shaw
38217 - Saints Bound for Heaven - Parker, Shaw (SSAA)
LG51109 - John Saw duh Numbuh - Parker, Shaw
34779 - Search Me, O God - Priano
37974 - Evening - Gray (SSA)
LG51026 - Vive l'Amour - Parker, Shaw (TTBB)
LG51107 - My God Is a Rock - Parker, Shaw
LG51452 - Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye - Parker, Shaw
LG51331 - Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal - Parker, Shaw
Please visit alfred.com for more information on these and other Lawson-Gould publications.
(The ACDA National Conference is just one of the many benefits of membership in the American Choral Directors Association. Join ACDA today.)
While, yes, this is a promotion for Verison's “How Sweet the Sound” competition, it is still an amazing (albeit brief) sampler of some of the current trends in gospel choral music.
A beautiful new exhibit has been added to the McMahon International Choral Music Museum at the ACDA national headquarters in Oklahoma City. “Dresses through the Decades” shows some of the developments that have occurred in the design of choral performance apparel. The display is on loan to ACDA through the generosity of Southeastern Performance Apparel of Dothan, Alabama.
“This was a particularly exciting project for me, because ACDA has been a huge part of my life, as I’m sure it is for any successful choral conductor,” said John Baker, Music Specialist at Southeastern Performance Apparel. “Certainly, Southeastern enjoys a wonderful relationship with the entire choral profession, and we are absolutely delighted to be able to help ACDA and the McMahon Museum in this way.”
The McMahon International Choral Music Museum, located in Oklahoma City’s vibrant Arts District, is open 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.
(An excerpt from the interest session, “Building and Maintaining Dynamic State Websites," by Howard Meharg. Presented during the 2013 ACDA National Conference.)
Websites are the “home-base” for information…the principal source for quick information and news for our constituents. We have a responsibility to communicate the ACDA message to our members. As my wife so aptly puts it in her mixed metaphor, “We’re falling down on the ball” if we fail to take advantage of all the tools at our disposal to make this happen.
Websites provide one tool. Nine states still print and mail newsletters. Virtually all state and divisions provide either articles in HTML or full newsletters in PDF. Social networking tools are also helpful, as are blogs, but I maintain that the website should be central to meeting the information needs of our members.
The website must be monitored and it must be up-to-date. An outdated site is basically useless. Make it easy to contact leadership, find information on conferences and workshop, provide the latest news, links to other resources, info on how to join ACDA, and provide either PDF versions of newsletters or headline links to HTML pages with articles by association leaders. Our leaders have much to say that can be helpful to us all, and especially our newer members. Don’t give up on asking them to write!
It’s vital that states and divisional leaders find the right PERSON for the job. This will be an interested, committed for the long-term individual with either the skills or the desire to learn how to build and maintain sites, work with photo-editing software and other peripheral applications or software. Presidents and officers must also be committed, for they are the principal source for content for the pages. A webperson can soon become discouraged when it seems no one is “out there” to provide material for updates! Hiring or paying someone to build the site is just the beginning. Content cannot materialize from thin air. Leaders must be prepared to work closely with the webmaster.
I urge all state leaders to work with the national office to get, maintain, and use email and email mass-mailing tools such as Constant Contact. It’s not only a direct way to communicate vital information, it also serves as a tool to remind members to check the website for latest information and full details.
(The ACDA National Conference is just one of the many benefits of membership in the American Choral Directors Association. Join ACDA today.)
(An excerpt from the interest session, "Sweat, Tears, and Jazz Hands: The History of Show Choir from Vaudeville to Glee," by Mike Weaver. Presented during the 2013 ACDA National Conference.)
As any American choral historian knows, Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians were doing show choir before show choir was cool. Long before television, audiences could see the Waring crew singing popular songs of the day along with accompanying staging and visuals – lighting, props, choreography and sometimes dancing. Show choir as we know it today, arrived by way of technology… and Waring rode that technological train all the way from phonographs, to radio, to synchronized sound (talking pictures), to television in 1949. Absolutely, Fred Waring and The Pennsylvanians were the inspiration for the country’s first “swing choirs”.
The earliest singing/dancing choruses were The Indiana Singing Hoosiers (1956), The Young Americans (1962), The Ball State Singers (1963) and The University of Wisconsin Singers (1967) – with the latter two groups founded by UCLA Choral Master, Don Neuen. And just as university groups were appearing, vocal jazz, too, was being seen as viable and exciting to young music educators. The advantage that vocal jazz had over swing choir, however, was the fact that no universities were teaching young choral directors the skills needed to produce a quality singing, dancing ensemble. Newbie choral educators in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s (!) were on their own to figure it out. It would not be until the early 2000s that directors of show choirs would receive marginal assistance from the ACDA by way of separating the long standing category of “Jazz/Show Choir” into two separate entities – Thanks to, 2001 National Chair of Jazz/Show division, Diana Spradling.
Today, due to the hit television series Glee, the show choir art is enjoying being the fastest growing genre in music education. Featuring music from almost every genre – show choir not only attracts students to choral programs, but serves as a training ground for future musicians and performing artists. Bravo!
(The ACDA National Conference is just one of the many benefits of membership in the American Choral Directors Association. Join ACDA today.)
The student of today has posed many a problem for us, and the better educated, more liberated students of the 1980s will not pose fewer problems. The students must be listened to, but not capitulated to, if in the process we lose our direction toward aesthetic education. Bernstein so well analyzed student potentials and problems in his discussion of the ”Principle of Hope, the Not-Yet-Happened,” in the Music Educators Journal. He explained student unrest, student apathy, and student despair so clearly, yet when talking of student artists' capacities he stated:
“It's the artists of the world, the feelers and the thinkers, who will ultimately save us, who can articulate, educate, defy, insist, sing, and shout the big dreams. Only the artist can turn the ‘Not-Yet’ into reality.”
The audience, at least one of our major reasons for performing, has appeared to be shrinking. In reality our potential audience members are probably being selective and going where they can find what they think is the best. We have become mediocre in trying to find and perform some of everything they think is the best. We have lost them to recorded music, where the quality has not been diluted by our trying to be Jacks-of-all-Trades.
(An overview of the interest session, "Conducting Women’s Choir: Strategies for Success," by Debra Spurgeon. Presented during the 2013 ACDA National Conference.)
This session featured a panel of 12 conductors who had contributed chapters to the new book titled Conducting Women's Choirs: Strategies for Success (GIA Publications). Each author spoke for about five minutes on the most salient points from their chapter. Debra Spurgeon, editor and co-author introduced the panel and spoke of the status of women's choirs today. She was followed by Jeanette MacCallum who introduced the music of the Venetian Ospedale composers. Hilary Apfelstadt spoke on Canadian composers' contribution to the women's choir repertoire. Mary Hopper related her experience in building community in the ensemble. Iris Levine spoke on the joys of working with community women's choirs. Sandra Snow addressed philosophical issues related to single gender ensembles. Shelbie Wahl spoke on the importance of singing texts and music composed for women by women composers. Lori Hetzel relayed how she works with a voice teacher in her rehearsals to build vocal technique. Joelle Norris addressed the need to build confidence in young singers. Lynne Gackle relayed her experience with adolescent girl's voice change. Phillip Swan spoke about the issues he faces as a male conductor working with an all female choir. Janna Montgomery addressed the special acoustical needs of the women's ensemble, and Sandra Peter demonstrated seating and placement of the women's choir.
(The ACDA National Conference is just one of the many benefits of membership in the American Choral Directors Association. Join ACDA today.)
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