Conducting + Star Wars + LEGOS? Seriously!? That’s a trifecta from my perspective! Come to think of it, a light saber might come in handy in a rehearsal. Hmmmm . . .
Saturday Respite: Darth Vader Conducts
Stick Time: Large Need NOT Be Lumbering
There is no doubt that an honor choir is a wonderful experience for the students involved. The opportunity to study in an intensive environment with other select and highly-motivated singers under the baton of a master teacher can be life changing. (Truly, many of us in the choral profession can trace our “light-bulb” moment to […]
CJ Replay: Josquin’s “Illibata Dei virgo nutrix”
(From the Choral Journal article “Dating Josquin’s Enigmatic Motet Illibata Dei virgo nutrix” by Leslie Clutterham [scroll to p.9]) Most modern analyses of Josquin’s miniature masterpiece Illibata Dei virgo nutrix have focused on the text and music of only the first part of the motet. The secunda pars, difficult toclassifY stylistically, has been […]
CJ Replay: U.S Choirs Viewed from England
(From the Choral Journal article “An Englishman’s View of North American Youth and Children’s Choirs” by Malcolm Goldring) The first thing I would say is that, to a foreigner, you take your choral singing seriously. You may think that this is a strange thing to say, considering our vaunted cathedral choral schools, but […]
CJ Replay: Women’s Choral Music
(From the Choral Journal article “Literature of Quality for the Treble Choir” by Raymond Sprague) All choirs should perform literature of high quality; yet as I search for music for my women’s choir, I am accosted by musical pap of the lowest caliber. Insipid texts, bland rhythms, static or predictable harmonic structures, and […]