Amanda Bumgarner

One of the many challenges that leaders of community choruses faced when Covid-19 lockdowns began in March 2020 was figuring out how to sustain a connection with their audience members in the absence of live performances. The forced cancellation of concerts nationwide led Philip Brunelle, founder and artistic director of VocalEssence and organist choirmaster at Plymouth Congregational Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota, to conclude that his imperative was “to give people a sense of joy when they were stuck at home.” Capturing the interest of viewers meant that the project needed to be musically stimulating and visually engaging; and to help with the latter, Brunelle enlisted his son Tim Brunelle, a marketing professional and videographer, to work with him on the project.

With father as creative director and presenter and son as videographer, the team set about creating a one-of-a-kind video catalogue of choral composers whose compositions have been performed by VocalEssence or the adult choir at Plymouth Congregational Church over the past fifty-three years. They titled the series Musical Moments, and the first video debuted on March 23, 2020, featuring Dominick Argento (1927-2019), an American composer who lived most of his life in Minnesota. To Brunelle, Argento “was just a natural…I had studied with him, I had performed a lot of his music and I commissioned him.” Each individual composer video is eight to ten minutes in length, but in the project’s last week the daily videos were expanded to include eight brief composer “snapshots” rather than focusing on a single composer and were lengthened to twelve to fifteen minutes each.

Their initial plan was to make fifty videos, but as the pandemic continued, Brunelle and his son decided to keep going. The completed Musical Moments project encompasses a total of 330 videos, of which 320 feature one composer, five feature eight composers, four show Brunelle discussing general topics related to choirs, and one is a conversation between Philip and Tim Brunelle about the project. Altogether, the series examines a total of 361 composers. The final episode aired on July 2, 2021.

Read the rest of this article, along with a table of selected composers, at acda.org/choraljournal
Musical Moments project: https://www.vocalessence.org/category/musical-moments/.

The May 2022 issue of Choral Journal is online and features an article titled “FLOWERS AMONG THORNS: A STUDY OF INDIANAS BY CARLOS GUASTAVINO AMID ARGENTINE POLITICAL UNREST” Benjamin T. Saunders. You can read it in its entirety at acda.org/choraljournal. Following is a portion from the introduction.
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Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000) is one of the most recognized and prolific Argentine composers and pianists of the twentieth century. He composed and performed his neo-romantic works amidst the political turmoil and upheaval that took place in Argentina throughout his life. He is best known for his compositions for solo piano and solo voice, but little focus has been on his original choral works and the choral arrangements of his songs. This article studies the original choral composition Indianas (1967) by Carlos Guastavino, with a focus on political and historical context, the influence of Argentine folk music and the Nuevo Cancionero, and a brief analysis of Guastavino’s musical language, including his homophonic and syllabic compositional style, direct modulations, and extended harmonies.

Carlos Guastavino composed Indianas in 1967 for SATB quartet or SATB chorus accompanied by piano. The titles of the six movements are 1. “Gala del día,” 2. “Quién fuera como el jazmín…,” 3. “Chañarcito, chañarcito…,” 4. “Viento norte,” 5. “Al tribunal de tu pecho,” and 6. “Una de dos.” Guastavino set texts in Indianas from various Argentine poets. The text of “Gala del día” is by Arturo Vazquez, “Quién fuera como el jazmín…,” “Chañarcito, chañarcito…,” and “Al tribunal de tu pecho” by León Berarós (1915-2012), “Viento norte” by Isaac Aizenberg (1918-1993), and “Una de dos” by Juan Ferreyra Basso (1910-1984). These poets penned metaphors that compare the elements of nature with love and life. Guastavino dedicated Indianas to Antonio María Russo (b. 1934), an Italian-born Argentine citizen who was a respected choral and orchestral conductor and colleagues with Guastavino at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música “Carlos López Buchardo” [The Carlos López Buchardo National Conservatory of Music].14 The following year, Guastavino composed Indianas No. 2 for TTBB chorus and piano.

Read the rest of this article in the May 2022 issue of Choral Journal.