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Shannon Marie Gravelle

Songs of (re)Imagining: Reena Esmail

May 11, 2022 by Shannon Marie Gravelle Leave a Comment

In late Summer 2021, I was perusing music. Looking for music for my tenor/bass choir, I came across composer Reena Esmail. I put a couple of her works on my “maybe program” list, coming back to them later and ultimately deciding to program one (which I’ll dive into in a moment!). While attending the Midwestern ACDA conference in Chicago in February 2022, I heard her piece Tuttarana sung by 3 ensembles. 

 

I should pause here to tell you that I absolutely LOVE her music. I also love her mission. I am lifting this from her bio: “Indian-American composer Reena Esmail works between the worlds of Indian and Western classical music, and brings communities together through the creation of equitable musical spaces.” More on those spaces in a moment.

 

Some of her music isn’t updated on her website because it is waiting on the premiere or a recording of the premiere. I’m really look forward to hearing and seeing “The Tipping Point,” “When the Violin” is on my maybe program list. Same with “The Love of Thousands.” And “Even After All This Time” (the version with the clarinet). Then she ALSO has a selection of pieces that can be performed with both choir and community singing! Pieces like “Take What You Need” that come in multiple different versions, which I’m absolutely in love with.

 

The piece I want to highlight for the rest of the post is TaReKiTa. Ms. Esmail wrote the piece for the Urban Voices Project. The story behind its creation is beautiful. She went to work with the Urban Voices Project (a street choir for the residents of Skid Row in LA). While there, she taught them Indian rhythm. The singers loved what they were learning, and she felt pulled to write them a piece. So, she put together “TāReKiṬa” in about an hour, recording the vocal parts herself and then teaching it to them. I also appreciate how Ms. Esmail clarifies that the piece does not require Indian classical singers to perform.

 

Ms. Esmail provides a series of three audio guides. I had my tenor/bass choir watch them a few times in our rehearsal process, and they were incredibly beneficial. The piece is vibrant and engaging. My small, but mighty, tenor/bass choir is comprised of primarily music industry/audio production singers, and the notes were learned quickly by them. Yet, even after the notes and rhythms were learned, there was work to do with vowels and terraced dynamics. And time keeping– once they became comfortable, there were times they decided to rush. This work kept them engaged during rehearsals. 

 

I think of this piece in three sections. I found that my singers described it by these sections (“Where we move into the new pitch center” or “when we sing the stuff we’ve already sung but the baritones are echoing us” or “where we start the coda-type thing” were some phrases used along with measure numbers). When asked how they would describe the piece, many of my singers used words such as “celebratory” or “energetic” or “continuous movement forward.” 

 

Please check out Ms. Esmail’s music. Her catalog is here and gives you options for a variety of ensembles. “TāReKiṬa” is offered in SATB, SA, and TB voicing (from the Oxford Publishing website). Enjoy!

 

Filed Under: Others Tagged With: Choral Music

Songs of (re)Imagining: Margaret Bonds

April 27, 2022 by Shannon Marie Gravelle Leave a Comment

Margaret Bonds (1913–1972) was an American composer and arranger, notably setting many texts by Langston Hughes (a close friend) and arranging African-American spirituals. When she was growing up, she lived in a home that had visits from Florence Price and Will Marion Cook. She studied piano and composition with Florence Price and William Dawson during high school and later earned degrees in both of these areas. Her music often addresses issues of race.

 

There are some composers I would love to spend more time studying– Margaret Bonds, Florence Price, Julia Perry, to name a few– and to that end, I’m starting my studies on Bonds here. Below is a list of some of her choral music, and information I could find that might be helpful to conductors who might be considering programming her music. 

 

I first came across Margaret Bonds when I was teaching a class to my undergraduate music majors on silenced voices. I looked at the dates and the regions that they studied in music history, and we went over those exact dates and places… but instead of talking about Claudio Monteverdi or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Olivier Messiaen, we only learned about voices of women. And not Fanny Mendelssohn or Clara Schumann, since they had small boxes about them in the history book my students used. In preparation for the course, I learned about Bonds. Even in the last few years, access to her music has opened up a little.

 

I was thrilled to see some of Bonds’ music on Dr. Marques Garrett’s list of non-idiomatic choral music of Black composers (here! Check it out if you haven’t. It’s also where I learned of Remel Derrick– and I adore his music). 

 

I’ve also followed Dr. Michael Cooper, who researches and edits the works of Bonds. He is a blogger, and I really enjoyed his blog from April 23, 2022. Dr. Cooper works with Hildegard Publishing on Bonds editions, which has a Margaret Bonds Series.

 

Choral Music Titles:

 

The Ballad of the Brown King

  • SATB
  • Soloists
  • Orchestra
  • Cantata
  • Used to be published by the Sam Fox Publishing Company. Currently out of print. Alfred Music controls the rights… I think. Wouldn’t it be lovely if we could all request them to bring it back into print?
  • Mary had a little baby, Mvt IV
    • SSSA

Children’s Sleep

  • SATB
  • Text: Vernon Glasser
  • Written as a chorus section in a children’s opera called Winter Night’s Dream. Published in New York by Carl Fischer in 1942.

Credo

  • Editor: John Michael Cooper with Hildegard Publishing
  • SATB, Soprano and Baritone soloists, piano/vocal score (not a reduction)
  • Based off of W.E.B. Du Bois’ “Credo” from 1904
  • Movement sold separately:
    • Especially Do I Believe
  • Soprano solo
  • Not yet available, but soon

Fields of Wonder

  • TB voices
  • Text by Langston Hughes

Hold On

  • SATB, piano

I Shall pass through this world

  • A capella
  • I can’t find this located on the publishers website (Bourne Music).

I Wish I Knew how it Would Feel to Be Free

  • Editor: John Michael Cooper with Hildegard Publishing
  • SATB
  • Soprano Solo
  • Coming in 2022
  • Orchestra?

Mass in D Minor

  • SATB, Organ
  • Only the Kyrie exists, and it’s only the voice parts with some organ indications
  • There is no complete score of the Mass. 

The Negro speaks of rivers

  • Text: Langston Hughes
  • SATB
  • Published by Handy Brothers Music Co

No Man has seen His Face

  • Editor: John Michael Cooper with Hildegard Publishing
  • Very diatonic, Accessible
  • Text by Janice Lovoos

St. Francis’ Prayer (Hildegard Publishing)

  • SATB, piano
  • Editor: Louise Toppin with Hildegard Publishing

Sinner, please don’t let this harvest pass

  • SATB, soprano
  • Can’t find a place where this is published?

Simon Bore the Cross

  • SATB cantata, solos
  • Text: Langston Hughes
  • Based on the spiritual He Never Said a Mumblin’ Word
  • GIA Publications
  • Two selections sometimes extracted from the cantata:
    • Don’t You Know, Mary?
    • The Crucifixion
  • Overall, an accessible cantata for singers

Sleep Song

  • Editor: John Michael Cooper with Hildegard Publishing
  • SSAA Chorus
  • Coming soon
  • Text by Joyce Kilmer (1886–1918)

Standin’ in the Need of Prayer

  • SATB
  • Soprano solo
  • Looking yet for where this is published.

This Little Light of Mine

  • SATB, piano
  • Soprano solo

Touch the Hem of His Garment

  • Editor: John Michael Cooper with Hildegard Publishing
  • SATB, piano
  • Soprano/Tenor solo
  • Short sacred chorus
  • Text by her friend Janice Lovoos
  • Accessible to amateur singers (including church musicians)

We Shall Overcome

  • Editor: John Michael Cooper with Hildegard Publishing
  • SATB, hand drum
  • Soprano solo
  • Coming soon

You can tell the world

  • SSA or TTBB

Filed Under: Others Tagged With: Choral Music, Equity, Repertoire

Songs of (re)Imagining: Amy Gordon

April 13, 2022 by Shannon Marie Gravelle Leave a Comment

Amy Gordon, an LA-based composer, has a catalog of almost 40 choral works, including pieces for treble choirs and online performance. In addition to her compositional activity, she teaches theory and has created a theory-themed Escape Room game (called Escape Tone), available in both Easy and Intermediate for purchase on her website.

 

This blog is going to highlight two of her pieces. I reached out to the composer and asked her to share two pieces that might be accessible for a variety of ages or organizations. She suggested these two pieces, and I am thrilled she shared these two! She has works that span a variety of difficulties and explore a wide array of text uses, so if you enjoy these two pieces, I recommend checking out her website.

 

In Times of Hibernation for SATB Choir and cello is part of a larger five-movement, Songs of Hope in Strange Times. Each cycle chronicles a stage of the pandemic, but can also be applied more broadly. The second movement focuses on the idea of waiting as we wait for events to unfold and time to move forward. The piece was commissioned by the LA-based SACRA/PROFANA, and premiered in October 2020 on YouTube: In Times of Hibernation. 

 

The movement is loosely supported by the cello part, but also allows the choirs to sing independently. Options for a solo, story-telling dynamics, and relative extended techniques in combination with the incredible, composer-written text provide an opportunity for singers to explore a very personal story.

 

Half the world in slumber

Half know neither night nor day

The ticking of the clock stopped

The rustle of pages silent.

Is it here, in this state of waiting,

We hold our breath with time?

 

I Celebrate Life for SATB Choir and piano or Treble Choir and piano (link for SSA here) is the second piece in the short cycle Light Up. 75% of the proceeds from this piece go to the Equal Sounds Corona Relief fund, which is an organization that supports artists who lost gigs when COVID hit. The text is by Rhoda Gordon, Amy’s late grandmother. Set in changing compound meter, the piece energizes and engages the singers and listeners through “the additive processes popular in Minimalism.” Both the Treble and SATB arrangement allow for quick success of pitches, enabling the singers to spend time working balance, dynamics, articulation, and text expression. There are also rehearsal tracks available free of cost to any choir interested in a virtual performance of this piece.

 

Listen to the Treble arrangement here.

 

I celebrate life

With beauty,

With color,

With singing;

I realize

The joy of being

Through seeing

The glorious

Creation I am part of.

The most powerful

Life to celebrate by

Is love.

 

Filed Under: Others Tagged With: composer, Equity

Song of (re)Imagining: Modesta Bor

March 23, 2022 by Shannon Marie Gravelle Leave a Comment

I was first introduced to Modesta Bor (1926–1998) by my friend, Dr. Nicholas Miguel. I was looking for public domain works that were written by women for treble or equal voices and that would fit the educational goals and skill level of the ensemble I was programming for. 

 

Modesta Bor was born in Venezuela, and studied in both Caracas and the Moscow Tchaikovsky Museum (a place I did some research when I was working on my dissertation). She returned to Venezuela and worked as the head of the music department at the Central University of Venezuela, composing, teaching, and conducting choirs. Her oeuvre includes music for orchestra, chamber groups, solo piano, piano and voice, incidental music, and choral music for mixed and equal voicings. Her music incorporates a Venezuelan folk style as well as traits she learned in her formal studies of Western European classical music. Her music, moreover, “elevates the llanero, the common rural laborer, and comments on the social issues of her people,” writes Dr. Miguel in his dissertation (v). In fact, her music was strongly influenced by her political beliefs, and she often chose topics and poetry that coincided with her beliefs in equality and social justice.

 

You can find her most completed catalog here: https://fundacionmodestabor.wordpress.com/catalogo/. This includes a catalog of her choral works. The music is published through Ediciones ARE, and you can find her published music here. If you would like to perform something you find, I recommend contacting Ediciones ARE (and the editor, Armando Nones). When it came to cost, the company shared it at no cost (although, it does have a link to a donations page that you should consider if you use music from them, which is a new and needed addition to the website). I began by exploring the music in the Obra coral Original de Modesta Bor. There are a variety of pieces for both mixed and equal voices, but all were possible for my college choir. Many of these pieces would be suitable for high school, and even middle school depending on your access to rehearsal time.

 

Some links to sample music for you to listen to:

 

Coral Nacional Juvenil Simón Bolívar de Venezuela

 

VI Seminario Internacional Intensivo de Dirección Coral, Costa Rica 2022

 

A Una Niña Meredith College 2021

 

Enjoy the exploration of this composer! I found the most difficult part of looking through her music is that I didn’t know the content of the text, since there are no available translations. Since I always consider the text in addition to the music performance concepts, not having translations made the music selection process significantly longer. Still, this music is worth the time and effort it takes.

 

Filed Under: Others Tagged With: Choral, Equity, Repertoire

Songs of (re)Imagining: Paul John Rudoi

March 9, 2022 by Shannon Marie Gravelle Leave a Comment

I’ve been writing since June 2021. This is the first blog post in which I’ve interviewed or highlighted a cishet white male. “But Shannon, if this is a blog centering equity, why are you sharing the voice of a cishet white male?” Good question. Equity work needs to involve everyone. In particular, cishet white men need to be having conversations about equity with other cishet white men. An emerging trend I’ve observed is that many white folks don’t see themselves in equity work; or maybe they are overwhelmed by it (“I’ll say something wrong and people will get mad” or “I’m not sure what to do so I’m just kind of doing nothing” are common refrains). Let’s demystify the work a bit by having open, and at times hard, conversations.

 

I first met singer/composer/conductor Paul John Rudoi when he was singing with Cantus. He left Cantus to pursue his masters with Dr. Sharon Paul. After completing his degree, he moved to the Twin Cities, where he is currently working a handful of gigs (National Lutheran Choir and at a church job), as well as developing a few new ideas (compositions and composition-based). 

 

When COVID first hit, Paul received some criticism on a piece he wrote that set a Langston Hughes poem (composed pre-COVID). As Paul shared how the piece and subsequent conversations unfolded, it was clear that he was still reflecting. He held space for all of the conversations that followed the criticism, and took learnings from each of them. It’s been confusing– people who share similar identities give him very different feedback. Yet, Paul shared to me: Isn’t it deserved that white men should be silenced for 100 years or more? Why do we have so few living Black composers that are popular? It’s not because there are not enough creative Black people. We haven’t been bringing up everybody with the idea that they can create music. White people generally have a lot more resources available to them, and this leads to a lot of white composers of classical music.

 

In addition to listening and understanding, Paul is trying to figure out his role in the composition field. He has gotten more comfortable in sending out educational material with his music, understanding that context for the conductors (to share with students and for their own knowledge) is important. He knows he can give conductors a place to start with their research. 

 

Beyond that, Paul emphasized that we need to be talking about generational change. “We are having the same conversations as we did 70 years ago with Civil Rights or 150 years ago in Transcendentalism,” he points out, following it up with “we’re just hoping kids will wake up on their own with better perspectives on how to treat each other.” He doesn’t have an answer, he said, but he can support others who have a better way of offering generational change. “We are going to watch the world burn and pretend it’s not a big deal.”

 

“Do you want to keep writing?”

 

“I think so.”

 

And then Paul continues… 

 

… maybe he can be an advocate for young kids who want to compose? With that, he started talking to me about the Creative Literacy Clinics he’s led. He works with kids to create sounds and put them together. When they thought a sound was funny, it sounded cool. They made weird sounds into a microphone, and then when he looped that sound for them, it sounded cool. 

 

This is maybe the first point in our conversation where Paul sounded excited and hopeful about next steps in the field. He has led some workshops with students about creating music in ways that don’t involve sitting at a piano and writing down a composition. 

 

We didn’t leave that conversation feeling as if we solved anything. That wasn’t the point. I appreciated hearing Paul grapple with how his voice fits in the composition field. It especially struck me that Paul was in continuous assessment of when to use that voice and when to leave space for other voices, in combination with learning and yes, sometimes making mistakes. Paul doesn’t feel a need to expand the choral repertoire. If he’s going to write, it has to be associated with figuring out what the systemic issues are and trying to translate that into music. And this will bring up potentially uncomfortable conversations, some about equity. And he will lean into that discomfort, not shy away from it.

 

Filed Under: Others Tagged With: composer, Equity

Songs of (re)Imagining: B.E. Boykin

February 23, 2022 by Shannon Marie Gravelle Leave a Comment

Dr. Brittney E. Boykin is a native of Alexandria, VA. She began studying piano at 7-years-old with Mrs. Alma Sanford, who taught her through multiple competitions. Dr. Boykin studied piano at Spelman College with Dr. Rachel Chung, and after graduation, attended Westminster Choir College, where she was awarded the R and R Young Composition Prize. Dr. Boykin obtained her PhD in Music Education from Georgia State University, and currently teaches at the Georgia Institute of Technology. 

 

Dr. Boykin has written choral music (SATB, SA, TB, and 2-part voicings), art songs, and instrumental works. You can find many of her pieces here, plus one piece on MusicSpoke (Castelloza’s Song– which was commissioned in conjunction with a research presentation at the 2021 National ACDA Conference. The text is by Na Castelloza, a 13th century trobairitz who scholars think was a woman of color. The text and music are both fantastic, and I’ve programmed the unison version for my treble choir in May. Such a good educational piece on so many levels). Dr. Boykin’s “We Sing as One” was commissioned by Spelman for the 133rd Anniversary of it’s founding– for the 2014 Founders Day Convocation. You can read more about “We Sing as One” from Dr. Shelbie Wahl-Fouts’ blog post in December 2020.

 

At a Midwestern ACDA reading session, one of my students sent me a picture of the cover of “Stardust,” and said “THIS, Dr. Gravelle!” I already had it in a program-next-year pile, and was working on this blog. Stardust is found on Graphite Publishing. It was commissioned by the Pershing Middle School Treble Chorale in Houston (director Marcus J Jauregui) for the 2021 Texas Music Educators Association Convention. The text, which you can find on Graphite Publishing, was written by poet and librettist Brittny Ray Crowell. The commissioner, Marchus J. Jauregui, wrote a succinct preface, saying: “When we sing, we pray twice, and it is my prayer that this piece stirs all who hear it to call for justice for the people of color taken from this world before their time and without concern for their humanity.”

 

For SSA, piano, and djembe, “Stardust” has many teachable concepts, including rhythmic and unison work. The piece begins in unison, which I’m always drawn to– partly I love the unison-to-parts sound, but primarily I love how honest it keeps the choir ( regarding both rhythm and intonation). After the unison, “Stardust” breaks into a duet call-and-response, then splits into homophonic, triadic movement. The highest note for sopranos is an F5, and no voice sings in extended ranges. “Stardust” is perfect for middle school or older. I hope to program it for my collegiate Treble Choir. “Stardust” would work well on a concert touching on ADEIB, but would also work well on a concert with themes about perseverance, justice, strength, or even a theme of space (“Stardust” is the title, after all. And it’s okay to program a piece with ADEIB themes on a non-ADEIB-themed concert). 

 

Music of Life was premiered at the 2017 Women Composers Festival of Hartford. The music is available in both SAB and SSA, but labeled as Voice 1, Voice 2, and Voice 3, allowing flexibility with who is assigned which part. The text (found below) is by poet, novelist, and newspaper editor George Parsons Lathrop (1851–1898).

 

Music is in all growing things; 

And underneath the silky sings

Of smallest insects there is stirred

A pulse of air that must be heard.

Earth’s silence lives, and throbs, and sings.

 

If poet from the vibrant strings

Of his poor heart a measure flings,

Laugh not, that he no trumpet blows:

It may be that Heaven hears and knows

His language of low listenings.

 

“Music of Life” is written in compound meter and includes a rhythmically active piano part. In D minor, the highest note is the picardy third F#5 on the final chord in the top voice.  Like “Stardust,” this starts in unison, divides into parts (either 2 or 3 parts, depending on the passage) and finishes in an inverted chord. The piece includes a section of partner melodies (the primary melody, a counter melody, and a descant). There are lots of concepts to draw from this piece, from vocal development to the compound meter to building part independence.

 

 

The piano writing makes it evident that Dr. Boykin is a pianist, as the piano part falls into the hands nicely for both “Stardust” and “Music of Life.” Similar to the first piece, “Music of Life” could be sung by middle school students or older. The substantive text chosen by Dr. Boykin makes both of these pieces suitable for a wide age range, depending on the educational aims. Both of these works would be easy to program for a variety of themes.

 

Filed Under: Others Tagged With: ADEIB, choir, high school, middle school

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