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In a study published last December, the University of Cambridge reported on the discovery of a new manuscript fragment that shows the use of polyphony, written around the year 900. That’s about 100 years earlier than any other manuscript we know of. The piece was discovered by Giovanni Varelli, a PhD student from St John’s […]

THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER by Thomas R. Vozzella   “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, first appeared in Molly Bawn (1878), by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford. How often have we resorted to looking straight into the eyes of one we are beholding to, to close a deal? In terms of choral music, deals […]

CHORAL ETHICS (Part 6): JUDGING OUR COLLEAGUES by Marie Grass Amenta   “If you haven’t got anything nice to say about anybody, come sit next to me.” Alice Roosevelt Longworth   It does no good to gossip about our colleagues and their ensembles.  It doesn’t help the arts community in general or the choral community […]

More from Daniel Coyle: Tip #17 Embrace the Struggle   Coyle: In all of the talent hotbeds, from Moscow to Dallas to Brazil to New York, I saw the same facial expression: eyes narrow, jaws tight, nostrils flared, the face of someone intently reaching for something, falling short, then reaching again. This is not a […]

More from Daniel Coyle: Tip #16 – Each Day, Try to Build One Perfect Chunk   Coyle notes, “In our busy lives, it’s sometimes tempting to regard merely practicing as success. . . But the real goal isn’t practice, it’s progress. As John Wooden put it, ‘Never mistake mere activity for accomplishment.’”   He then […]

Read this line aloud:  “The President conferred with congressional leaders this afternoon on matters of global importance.”   Now, read it again, placing stress on the capitalized syllable:  “The  Pres-I-dent  CON-ferred  with  CON-gress-i-onal  lead-ERS  this  af-TER-noon  on  mat-TERS  of  glo-BAL  im-por-TANCE.”   Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?   In any language, syllabic stress is a critical […]

Can you list all of the “music technology” that you use in your work? It’s a trickier question than you might think. First, there are general tools which help us organize and communicate. Tools such as web browsers, Google Docs, e-mail and text messaging can be an essential part of our toolkit, but we use […]

In the current world of home theatre installations, “surround sound” is all the rage.  Various companies schlep incredibly expensive systems intended to give the listener the impression of “being there” while watching a movie.   Note to the sound-system companies: Your “new” system is not entirely new. We choral folks have been at this for, […]

Today, let’s consider how manner in which text is set affects performance.   Mini history lesson.  One of the ways in which the upheaval of the Reformation affected music is the how texts were set.  There was at that time a movement against florid polyphony, or as Thomas Cranmer said, “the song that shall be […]