THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER by Thomas R. Vozzella “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, first appeared in Molly Bawn (1878), by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford. How often have we resorted to looking straight into the eyes of one we are beholding to, to close a deal? In terms of choral music, deals […]
GUEST BLOG: “Choral Ethics (Part 6): Judging Our Colleagues” by Marie Grass Amenta
CHORAL ETHICS (Part 6): JUDGING OUR COLLEAGUES by Marie Grass Amenta “If you haven’t got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me.” Alice Roosevelt Longworth It does no good to gossip about our colleagues and their ensembles. It doesn’t help the arts community in general or the choral community […]
Stick Time: Stressing Stress
Read this line aloud: “The President conferred with congressional leaders this afternoon on matters of global importance.” Now, read it again, placing stress on the capitalized syllable: “The Pres-I-dent CON-ferred with CON-gress-i-onal lead-ERS this af-TER-noon on mat-TERS of glo-BAL im-por-TANCE.” Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? In any language, syllabic stress is a critical […]
Stick Time: 500-Year-Old Surround Sound
In the current world of home theatre installations, “surround sound” is all the rage. Various companies schlep incredibly expensive systems intended to give the listener the impression of “being there” while watching a movie. Note to the sound-system companies: Your “new” system is not entirely new. We choral folks have been at this for, […]
Stick Time: Text vs. Musical Line
Today, let’s consider how manner in which text is set affects performance. Mini history lesson. One of the ways in which the upheaval of the Reformation affected music is the how texts were set. There was at that time a movement against florid polyphony, or as Thomas Cranmer said, “the song that shall be […]
Name That Choir Tune (No. 20)