Latest Blog Posts

Thanks to several ChoralNet people for their responses to my last blog post!   This post is mostly copied from an earlier post on my own blog–but deals with the same issue from a different angle. It's also on the long side for A ChoralNet blog, but it seemed to make sense to keep all […]

Have you ever noticed that where film music is concerned the chorus tends to occupy the extreme fringes?  Beyond almost any musical reference to Heaven in a film score, our beloved art is utilized to communicate extreme solemnity (Mansions of the Lord, at the end of We Were Soldiers), life & death situations (Battle of […]

We’re visual creatures.  We make far more decisions with our eyes than any of us would care to admit.  We also listen visually.  (If you disagree, then forgo putting your choir in matching attire – let them wear “whatever.”).   Look at the attire of the choir in the accompanying video.  Based on what you […]

Six guys walk into a school assembly . . . it almost sounds like the beginning of joke doesn’t it?   Seriously, though, six twenty-something men walk into a school to present an assembly.   Members of an A Cappella ensemble, they could easily just beat-box their way through covers of pop tunes to the shrieking […]

The Opera Aspirant ~ by Edward Palmer   Opera students bring something special to the choral conductor: a deeper interestin dramatic values in a piece of music. Their instinct for the dynamics of language and emotion puts them in a more inquiring state of mind for things vocal. Their sound will add a special dimension […]

  Welcome to part 2 of our 3-part series on basic recording. Last time, we talked about “Recording In”– ways to get audio into your computer, tablet or another device. Next week, we’ll talk about ways to share, edit and distribute audio. This week, though, I wanted to show you a couple of very useful […]

Just as we did in last Friday's installment of "It's About the Phrase," let's examine dynamics.   As you listen to this performance from the 2009 ACDA National Conference, consider how our colleague established the dynamic profile. As we would expect, some of the crescendos (and corresponding decrescendos) are subito, while others are quite gradual […]

Hi everyone,   Many thanks to Philip for the invitation to share with you through the ChoralNet blogs! Let's get to it.   Since coming to the University of North Texas in 2009, one of my choirs was a chamber choir (24-32 voices), the 2nd of the 3 mixed choirs at UNT. This year, for […]

Garrepy, Stacey A.  Toward A New Stylistic Ideal: The German Motets of Heinrich Schütz. Master of Music thesis. University of Oklahoma, 2011.   This document analyzes the chronological style anomalies (viz. the presence of both late Renaissance and early Baroque influences) in the compositions of Heinrich Schütz as evidenced through his vernacular German motets. In […]