“Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.” Henry Ford We begin Choral Ethics 2017 with a January’s worth of letters (emails) concerning Four Rs; Being Ready, Being Reliable, Being Respectful and Not Being Revengeful. Each blog will present several writers problems and a bit of our email conversations concerning them. The New […]
Choral Potpourri: Let There Be Peace on Earth
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Leonard Bernstein Have you ever noticed the best holiday stories portray some sort of dream? From the ballet, “The Nutcracker” to all of the many incarnations of Dickens, “A Christmas Carol,” someone is always sleeping and […]
Choral Potpourri: Communication Without Words
“Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.” Leonard Bernstein We all know music’s ability to heal and sooth. We know how it comforts the ill and the despondent. Music can help both the dying on their trip “home” and the woman giving birth as she brings new life into the world. It teaches […]
Choral Potpourri: We Had A Plan
“To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.” Leonard Bernstein If you are anything like me, your December concert and worship music for this year was planned during the summer or before. Your plans are coming to fruition or close to it. You are calm, knowing things are […]
Choral Potpourri: Going Back
“In the olden days, everybody sang. You were expected to sing as well as talk. It was a mark of the cultured man to sing.” Leonard Bernstein Is what we do “relevant?” Are the Old Masters we sing, or even the New Masters, relevant to the world as it is now? I have been doing […]
Choral Potpourri: Choral Ethics; Songs My Mother Taught Me
“My mother was a lady like yours, you will allow……” Jimmie Rodgers My Mother would have been 89 years old today. Born on Thanksgiving Day, she loved the holiday, the food and having her family around her. Today my family is gathering to celebrate Thanksgiving of course, but also to reminisce about Mom on her […]