Latest Blog Posts
First World Choir Problems
Eric Whitacre tweeted this pic last week. Not sure if he created it but I loved it:
History Lesson: Eric Ericson
This is my first official post here at Choralnet. I'm looking forward to sharing with you all in the coming year. I had the pleasure of working with Eric Ericson in 1993 while I was singing in the Portland State University Chamber Choir under Bruce Browne. I was a college freshman still figuring my […]
Introducing Joshua Bronfman
We welcome Joshua Bronfman as a new blogger for the ChoralBlog. Dr. Joshua Bronfman is Associate Professor and Director of Choral Activities at the University of North Dakota, where he directs the UND Concert Choir, Chamber Choir, and Varsity Bards. He also teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in choral conducting, choral literature and choral […]
CJ Replay: Use of French Latin
(From the Choral Journal article “The Use of French Latin for Choral Music,” by Anthony R. Reeves) An area not fully integrated into the general practices of most choral conductors, however, concerns the use of colloquial Latin pronunciations for choral music. Some conductors feel it is simply too time consuming to work out complex […]
CJ Replay: Choral Music of Dvořák
(From the Choral Journal article, “The Choral Music of Antonín Dvořák: A Sesquincentennial Review,” by John Guthmiller) Antonín Dvořák once described himself as a “simple Czech musician.” This may seem an unduly humble self-characterization. However, Dvořák was in many ways quite simple. He was a man with an elemental faith and unpretentious habits, a […]
CJ Replay: War Requiem
(From the Choral Journal article “A Prayer for Peace Now: Britten’s War Requiem Revisited, by Charles Matoni. A performance of the War Requiem will be a special feature of the 2013 ACDA National Conference.) The War Requiem is obviously [Britten’s ] profoundest work. It is the most dramatic and unnerving setting of the Requiem […]
Choral Caffeine: Dealing with Boys
NEWS FLASH: There is a difference between boys and girls. Despite the efforts of those who would seek to androgenize the species, no amount of PC babble is going to change certain things. Face it: we boys can be a little squirrely (and some of us never quite outgrow that). Rather than try to […]
Choral Caffeine: Multi-Disciplinary Multi-Culturalism
As school districts slash away at budgets like crazed pirate boarding parties, those in the arts are frequently left fighting for their professional survival in an acrid, toxic workplace. Many who have successfully navigated these difficult waters have done so through creative inter-disciplinary efforts. In her article, “New Bridges to Cross: Ideas to Stimulate […]
Scholarly Abstractions: Male Singing Societies
Palant, Jonathan. Unifying a Nation: Male Singing Societies and Part Songs in Nineteenth-Century Germany. Doctor of Musical Arts dissertation. Michigan State Univversity, 2007. The start of the nineteenth century marked the beginning of an emerging consciousness of German identity among certain speakers of the German language. Culture and politics merged and began to […]
Choral Caffeine: You are 130% Smarter
Depending on your field of endeavor, certain things are just accepted as fact based almost solely on anecdotal observation. I suspect the general reaction by most of us in the choral profession to the publication of the study linking music to brain activity (now commonly called The Mozart Effect) was a resounding, “Well, Duh!” […]