Latest Blog Posts
What is your sentence?
We all tend to make resolutions at the beginning of the year; we take stock of our lives and future as we begin a new calendar year. Dan Pink is an author and speaker I've quoted many times in this blog (a few are here, here, and here). He's got two questions that […]
Starting at the very beginning
Let’s start the first Monday of 2011 with a look back – way back – to some finely produced videos of Mozarabic Chant. Here is a bit of the YouTube description of the work: The chant is an heavily-abridged version of Daniel 3:49-52, 57, 88. These verses are not present in 66-book Bibles […]
Selling choral music on ebay
Has anyone done this? I read a “tweet” last night about a guy selling his 400 piece choral collection on ebay – I sent him a message to ask how much he got for it but haven’t heard back yet. I’m curious – because I, like you, have thousands of pieces of choral […]
A great day to dream about the future
Happy 2011! A popular video making the rounds today is the one below – it shows a series of AT&T commercials predicting the iPad, Netflix, video-conferencing, and online teaching. It is pretty impressive – and it also points to the importance of dreaming your future. The ACDA Technology committee is dreaming now about […]
YouTube enhancing choral music
I was recently reminded of this video the other day – an arrangement of “Abide with Me” by composer Greg Jasperse. It is a stunning piece and beautifully filmed by Riddle Films. I thought I would explore more videos by the Nathaniel Dett Chorale and found this one – a video that gives more […]
I Breathed a Song into the Air
Anyone growing up with The Bullwinkle Show like I did may remember the cultural moment in the show when the cartoon moose was featured in "Bullwinkle's Corner", reciting poetry. Yep, go figure. And, unfortunately, it was probably Bullwinkle that led to the cliché"ing" of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem "I shot an arrow into the air, It […]
Eric Whitacre says British choirs are best – or does he?
Grammophone magazine features an article this headline: Composer Eric Whitacre on why British choirs are best. There was a huge backlash, first from Patrick Dupre Quigley making a case for American choirs. Patrick took his case to ChoralNet, and there was a huge discussion about it in the ChoralNet forums. NPR has taken an interest in the […]
Twitter is full of choral music
I get most of my choral news from twitter these days – it is a fascinating exercise to see news and opinions of our art come across that site. Here are a couple of recent tweets I have enjoyed. First, a reaction to the flash mob: Next, a […]
Random act of culture closes mall
Bizarre: Thousands had gathered at the shopping mall's food court to take part in a group rendition of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus as part of a flash-mob concert – when groups of people – often strangers – conspire on social networking websites to turn up at the same place at the same time and start singing. […]