“Dare to be honest and fear no labor.” Robert Burns Last week, I told you the theme for the Choral Potpourri/ Choral Ethics January Blogs would center on the Try Method. Instead of New Year’s resolutions, I am trying four different strategies to change my life for the better. I reasoned four different ways of […]
Choral Potpourri
Choral Potpourri: Choral Ethics: Beginning Anew
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.” Ralph Waldo Emerson Happy New Year, ChoralNet Folks! We here at Choral Potpourri/Choral Ethics will start the New Year blogs this January as we often do; with a theme. As we begin a new year, many of us make resolutions. […]
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: Gloria in Excelsis Deo
“My candle burns at both ends; it will not last the night; but ah, my foes, and oh, my friends – it gives a lovely light!” Edna St. Vincent Millay I have been in a “growlie” mood for weeks. My youngest coined the term for this crabby-it’s-December-and-I’ve-got-so-much-to-do-for-Christmas-and-my-choirs-are-driving-me-crazy mood when he was about three or […]
Choral Potpourri: “……..and the tongue of the dumb shall sing.”
I love “Messiah”. Truth be told, it is probably my favorite large choral work. There’s a little something for everyone–from show piece arias to choruses that are both difficult and poignant to recitatives that move the story along while being musically interesting. The story that is told, using scriptures from both the Old and New […]
Choral Potpourri: Last Man Standing
Dad (Charles Grass) on left, Bob Fosse on right, age 12 as “The Riff Brothers” “If you think you can do better, then do better. Don’t compete with anyone; just yourself.” Bob Fosse Today is my father’s 90th birthday. He is still with us, still sharp as a tack, still very independent and still telling […]