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FIVE FROM THE FOLDER: MIXED VOICES by John Warren   1. “Salmo 150.” Ernst Widmer. Colla Voce 30-96620 Rousing, joyful setting by Swiss-Brazilian 20th century composer. SSATBB. Great combination of western classical tradition with Brazilian syncopation and cross rhythms. May be done in Portuguese or Latin.   2. “Sechs Chanson.” Paul Hindemith. Schott C 43 […]

THE POWER OF CHRISTMAS MUSIC, PART II by Thomas R. Vozzella Last year we explored Christmas music and, briefly, how other world religions acknowledged Jesus in their writings. It was not intended as an expose on Carols, Holiday Music, etc.; It was a reflection on why Christmas Music came to be, in its purest point […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “When Oren Brown and Richard Westenberg Speak . . . I Listen!” by Brown Bradley)   Question 4: What exercises should a vocal warm-up include?   RW: For myself, a vocal warm-up period should first warm-up the brain, the ear; with amateur choirs, I use physical warm-ups such […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “Singing Out of the Silence: A Survey of Quaker Choral Music” by Dan Graves)          The practice of singing among members of the Society of Friends is inextricably tied to the history of Quakerism itself. In the mid-seventeenth century, the first generation of Quakers rejected music, although […]

(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “The American Choral Tapestry, Part II,” by David DeVenny )          If America has a national poet, it is certainly Walt Whitman (1819-92). He broke traditional rules of formal structure and rhyme in American verse, and in so doing, invented a poetic voice that captured the democratic […]