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GUEST BLOG: “The Business of Conducting,” by Jameson Marvin

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THE BUSINESS OF CONDUCTING by Jameson Marvin
 

       I think that the business of being a conductor today requires knowledge of “world music”. Sharing knowledge of cultures through learning a wide diversity of music from many countries I greatly admire. However, I feel that many compositions today, “playing on the theme of world-music” are contrived and offer little meaningful content. That is a pity. I well understand the huge impact choral music has on opening cultural doors and gaining cultural insights that inspire understanding.  I have traveled widely with the Harvard’s Glee Club, Collegium, and Choral Society, to Africa, Asia, Western and Eastern Europe, and North and South America. We often share concerts with the local choirs – what a fabulous experience that has been for all of our students, especially when we sing music (often folk songs) of each others’ country. These three to five week summer tours are incredibly inspiring and deeply enrich students and audiences alike.

       I also observe a fetish to perform contemporary music whose value is not very high; though it may entertain, it will not have lasting value. I think some conductors are intimidated by the “specialists” who have cornered the CD market of early-music performance. We seem to be afraid to sing Renaissance and Baroque music with our “too-large” choirs; and that is a huge pity. Over the past 25 years or so we have witnessed an extreme decrease in the performance of quality choral music from the 15th through the 19th centuries: by far the richest repertoire. We must perform music of the past five centuries (as well as quality music of the 20th and 21st) to educate our students in the vast wellspring of the richest choral tradition: western literature, or we will lose it!
       Jazz is a great American art form – it is a solo or solo-ensemble art form. I think we demean this uniquely American genre by it stuffing it into a choral context. Show choirs belong in Las Vegas, or on TV. We do not need to hear microphone-enhanced pop music performances at choral conventions. We are saturated with it daily on radio, TV, and CDs.

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Comments

  1. Kyle,
    5-10 that ARE from that period is easy for us. You make the point that the above assert – that the music is unkinown to many and therefore, NEW to those who have not heard. Jim’s premise is well proven if you /one cannot name at least 10 items. My little group is now preparing a Tallis and two Victoria, unfamiliar to most.
    Thanks!!

  3. By Richard and Len, it seems that Jim Marvin’s main point was so enlarged upon that it became obscured. Yet, both seem to agree in their later lines.
    Academic posits require and stimulate large exposition; but simplly put, in my opinion, perhaps more should be mined from the GOLDEN years.

  4. I’ll say, “hear, hear!” to all three of you! It’s a challenge to give our singers the broad experience called for, but it’s important. I was lucky to sing as an undergraduate with Rod Eichenberger at a time with the University of Washington Chorale when we sang a Bach motet every year, music by renaissance composers, Gabrieli, Brahms, Bruckner, Poulenc, Stravinsky, and some new “on the edge” pieces, as well as spirituals–all on a regular basis. The program we took to Europe in 1971 included Gabrieli’s Jubilate Deo, Bach’s Komm, Jesu, Komm, Brahms Schaffe in mir Gott, Ravel’s Trois Chansons, and other works which don’t come to memory (except some spirituals). While in Vienna, we were part of a symposium where we also sang Kodaly’s Psalmus Hungaricus and Mahler’s 8th Symphony (and a quartet from each of the 7 university choirs present sang the Stravinsky Mass in a service at Stefansdom).
     
    I continue to try to give my students broad exposure to a variety of repertoire. Even though I conduct a choir devoted to early music (renaissance through early classical) that regularly sings with a period-instrument orchestra, or a cappella (although my choir is larger than one might ideally want), my other choir, a 50-60 voice group of undergraduate singers also sings Bach, or Lotti, or Palestrina or Kuhnau, etc. I agree with Jim that larger choirs shouldn’t shy away from early music–it’s an important experience for them. I will still do those works with an “historically informed” performance style, to the extent that I can–but I’m not a purist who says they shouldn’t do this music because they’re too large a group. They need to know this music!
     
    And I agree with Len that it’s more challenging today to cover all the ground that one might like, with the importance of world music, of doing work by living composers, even commissioning works. Neverthless, with my larger undergraduate group last year I did Canadian Allan Bevan’s substantial Nou goth sonne under wode (which I commissioned when I was with Pro Coro Canada–and got to know Allan through Len, since Allan had been a student of Len’s at the U of A) with our 2nd orchestra at UNT (you can find it on YouTube). This year with that same ensemble I commissioned a work by Kevin Walczyk, which turned out to be a 25 minute cantata, challenging, but moving and worthwhile.
     
    Choosing significant repertoire from many periods, with liturgical or poetic texts, of many styles, including world music and the newest music is a challenge, but a joyful one!
     
    Thanks to Jim and Edward and Len for their contributions!

  5.  
     
    Edward,
     
    I hadn’t gotten around to reading this thread until today, so will take the bait! I am in total agreement with Jamison and you on the question posed, i.e., that we as a choral community have a responsibility to our singers to provide them with as broad a base as possible in their engagement with the vast expanse of choral rep available to us. Just as an example from German repertoire, early in my career I tried to follow the policy that my students should learn and perform at least 2 motets each by Schütz, Bach, Mendelssohn and Brahms in the four years of their undergraduate experience; as I’ve grown older of course I’ve become more aware of the equally satisfying works by other lesser known composers – the extended Bach family, Homilius, Rheinberger, Reger and so on. The tension I feel though (and I am sure others do as well) is trying to find a balance between our commitment to having our students know these works from the inside (as opposed to just learning about them in history or choral lit classes), and our continuing commitment to the work of contemporary composers of worth, including those (often emerging and still learning the craft) in our own communities whom we are striving to promote. Arriving at that balance requires a lot of careful planning, especially in the context of the wealth of rep we can choose from, all the while dealing with limited rehearsal time. 
     
    Many of us also have the opportunity to “spread the gospel” through invitations to do choir camps and honor choir engagements, and here too we can make a difference in these singers’ experience through stretching them with repertoire we choose. Responses from singers at such events from my experience confirm that they appreciated the opportunity to learn quality repertoire from earlier periods, perhaps even more than the latest offerings by today’s ‘hot list’ of composers (insert your own names here!)
     
    We have a very wide range of choirs in my city, all with different platforms as to their repertoire choices, so singers can also make informed decisions as to where they will participate. A few years ago I was invited by the conductor of a youth choir in our city whose main repertoire happened to be focused on contemporary idioms, to do some workshops with them on a piece he had selected that was completely removed from their experience to date, Bach’s motet “Lobet den Herrn alle Heiden”. It was a stretch for them, to be sure, but I told them early on that once they knew this work, it would remain with them in their memories all their singing lives. By the end of the year I heard them perform the work for memory with their conductor, with vocal confidence, musicality, stylistic awareness and technical precision. 
     
    Len Ratzlaff

  6. Dear Community of Choral Conductors,
    I am profoundly disappointed and ashamed that no one else has responded to this perceptive commentary. I responded immediately and briefly thinking that many would be endorsing or disagreeing. Perhaps many are quietly in agreement; one would certainly hope!
    The centuries of choral gold that are mentioned in the Marvin piece as neglected are so, due to several mistakes and or pressures, in my opinion. 
          1. One forgets that what seems old hat to him/her is brand new to the                 younger. 2. Publishers are great sellers of the new. 3. Competitions 
              dictate works for singing, denying free choice for the donductor. 
             4. CDs of the “new” aid in learning, foiling the sight singing ability.
            5. Tone cluster fascination neglects the necessary drama for best singing
            6. One questions whether phonation is learned in present contexts.
     
         Question: Are young singers rendered incapable of the  centuries of GOLD?
     
          Fellow artists, please digest/ponder Dr. Marvin’s deeply thought piece!
     
          Dr. Edward Palmer
     
          
            
        

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