Latest Blog Posts

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 […]

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 […]

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!”   […]

In the November issue of the Choral Journal (in your mailbox right now) ACDA’s Executive Director, Tim Sharp, says, “Choral composition is the oxygen, water, and nutrient of our life and work as a choral organism.”   It’s absolutely true.  We’re all on a continual quest – a hunt, really – for new music.  Our […]

One of the beauties of choral music is the incredible rhythmic flexibility allowed by the text in combination with the natural dexterity of the articulators.  But what makes the art so special is also the cause of more than a few problems. Put simply, we singers just don’t count all that well.    Thomas Wine […]

Collins, Drew S.  Poetic Structural Devices as a Consideration When Analyzing and Interpreting Choral Scores. Doctor of Musical Arts dissertation.  University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, 2011.        This study focuses on the connection between poetry, choral composition, and choral performance, specifically how an understanding of the constructive elements of poetry can influence the interpretation […]

Yung, Sea Hua.  A Conductor’s Guide to Representative Choral Music of Leopold Mozart (1719-87). Doctor of Musical Arts dissertation.  University of Cincinnnati College-Conservatory of Music, 2012          Leopold Mozart (1719-87) was a well-known musician to his contemporaries and his music was widely circulated. Although he is now primarily known as a violin instructor and […]

(From the Choral Journal article, “Polychoral Compositions of Orlando di lasso,” by Larry Cook)          Orlando di Lasso is a well-known name as composer of motets, madrigals, Masses, Magnificats, chansons, and German lieder. Somehow he seems to have been largely overlooked as a composer of polychoral music. Perhaps he has been overshadowed by the […]

(From the Choral Journal article “Commissioning Works for Children’s Chors: One Conductor’s Story,” by Donna Thomasson)         Have you ever noticed that one of the most common topics among choral directors is repertoire? A comment such as, “My children’s choir has commissioned a new work and we are premiering it next spring,” would definitely […]