Latest Blog Posts
Choral Caffeine: Post-Easter Renewal for the Church Musician
For a church musician, the Lenten/Easter season is incredibly demanding. In some churches, Holy Week can demand two dozen hours of musical service. Now with the season behind us, church choral directors are probably eager for a little perspective and perhaps a bit of a re-charge. In his article, “A Time for Sowing: Planting […]
Choral Caffeine: An Island of Humanity
It seems that as the world becomes more fragmented and in some ways quite hostile, there are increasingly those who are making tiny strides in their own way to improve civility and common decency. In her article, “Cultural Awakening: An Opportunity for Healing and Harmonizing” (Minnesota Star of the North, Vol. 36, No. 2), […]
CJ Replay: John Stainer
(An excerpt from the Choral Journal book review, John Stainer: A Life in Music [Jeremy Dibble, author], by Stephen Town.) “Any study of the Victorian musical world and the later nineteenth century sooner or later brings one into contact with John Stainer. A towering figure in the field of Anglican church music and […]
Saturday Respite: A Taste Treat
One is well aware of the Reason for this Season. The candy is just a plus (at least now that Lend is over . . . Yum!)
Saturday Respite: A New Way to Pass Piano Minimums
I have enough problems with my fumbly fingers on the 88-toothed monster. Now THIS guy . . .
CJ Replay: Choral Music of Holst
(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “The Shorter Works of Gustav Holst,” by Elmer Schock.) Holst’s choral music comprises both large and small works. The Hymn of Jesus is probably his best known larger work; it was written in 1917 with’ a text from his own translation of the Apocrypha and was […]
CJ Replay: Latin Pronunciation in the U.S.
(An excerpt from a Choral Journal “Letter to the Editor” by Cliff Ganus.) One who listens to recorded examples of liturgical music can often determine the nationality of the choir by noting the hard or fricative consonants or modified vowels which are more related to French or German than to Italian. The absence […]
Flaming Pink Hippos
Anyone who has ever written a lengthy document such as a thesis or dissertation knows that after a certain point the writer becomes so numb that they are almost blind to the words on the page. At the height of writing our own dissertation, one’s advisor found a fairly glaring mistake. Pointing it out, […]