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It’s all about the phrase

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The e-mail arrived from a young colleague in her first year of teaching. Her words were were direct, and the pleading tone was crystal clear: "They're singing the correct notes. NOW what do I do?" To which I replied, "Now, the FUN begins! Now you get to create the magic and the majesty of choral music. Now you get to play with the PHRASE!"
 
That is exactly what we are going to do together every Friday from now until Christmas on ChoralBuzz . . . we are going to focus on the question of "NOW what do I do?" with a new audio feature called, "It's About the Phrase."
 
Each installment of "It's About the Phrase" will feature a small fragment from a choral work – no more than a few bars – performed by two different choirs. By comparing isolated examples in a side-by-side fashion, we hope to stimulate thinking about the importance going beyond the notes, beyond the meter, beyond the tempo . . . and allowing the music to breathe.

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  1. YEA!  What a great thing to share!  Just used this idea last night working on the fugue in the “Credo” of Beethoven’s Mass in C (“et vitam venturisaeculi. Amen.” “and the life of the world to come. Amen.”    AMAZING how thinking of the movement of the melodic line of the fugue phrase INSTEAD of just the notes makes the music come alive AND really be fun!  The singers in The Houston Choral Society almost began to dance as the music came alive!

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