Male singers are like dollar bills. We never seem to have enough. Choral conductors have been dealing with this problem for centuries; certainly we have commented about it time, after time. What’s a choral educator to do with only a handful of male singers bobbing helplessly amid a sea of female voices? One possibility […]
“Five from the Folder: Boy Choir” by Ken Taylor
FIVE FROM THE FOLDER: BOY CHOIR by Ken Taylor 1. “Annabel Lee.” Patti Drennan. Hal Leonard 08703365. Beautiful, haunting setting of Edgar Allan Poe; simple TBB with divisi. 2. “Kyrie Eleison” – Dan Davison – Hal Leonard 08501555. Energetic TB piece; it feels like it was written by Mozart. Good for teaching tone […]
Stick Time: What’s Working?
Sometimes it seems that we spend all of our time in rehearsals (particularly in the later stages of the semester) focusing upon what’s going wrong, rather than celebrating what’s going right. Yes, absolutely, we are supposed to identify areas that require attention and devise methods for helping our choirs continue to improve. When was […]
Composition Spotlight: “Fighting Over What We Believe”
COMPOSITION SPOTLIGHT ~ by Jack Senzig (Each week we look at one or two of the best choral works posted in the Composition Showcase here on ChoralNet. This is where we store a treasure trove of works that your choirs will love to sing and your audiences will love to hear.) Fighting Over What We Believe by […]
Name That Choir Tune (No. 2)
Stick Time: Of Art and Patriotism
Throughout music history, our art in its various forms has been used to incite patriotic or nationalistic fervor. Composers have often been called upon to write works with a specific nation in mind. The most obvious use of music in this way is the composition of stirring national anthems (or works that perhaps should be […]