Latest Blog Posts

Following up on my earlier post about Arabic choral music, ChoralNet user John Neal points me to the Tehran Vocal Ensemble: Of course, they perform primarily in Farsi and English, not Arabic. John points to the mixed genders of the ensemble; maybe Iranian culture isn’t as oppressive as news media makes it seem?   They’ve […]

Important administrative audits inside institutional life are always in danger of becoming the victim of benign neglect, and discussions about what some would call “administrivia” can become the object of clichés or relegated to the cynical domain of “buzzwords.” In my academic life, corporate-speak that spilled over into academic-speak, often attempted innovation, but also created […]

The Chronicle of Higher Education reports on a challenge to the 1994 Mickey Mouse protection act which extended copyright terms and retroactively re-copyrighted some works which had passed into public domain: The dispute that led to Golan v. Holder dates to 1994, when Congress passed a law that moved vast amounts of material from the public domain […]

For Memorial Day, an excerpt of Vaughan Williams' setting of Wildred Owen Walt Whitman's poetry, sung by the Atlanta Symphony chorus, conducted by Robert Shaw:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zfHiloldtg

Periodically we get requests on ChoralNet’s forums by well-meaning directors who want to be inclusive of a variety of traditions and include some Arabic music in their programs. The usual answer is that there really isn’t any choral music in Arabic. There has never been any significant tradition of choral music in Arabic-speaking countries, and […]

It isn't often that the president's actions intersect with music, but we have one today – this from ABC News:   The president and the orchestra at Buckingham Palace this evening were a bit out of synch. When the president toasted the Queen the orchestra misunderstood a pause and what seemed to be a cue […]

Last Tuesday I posted an open letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan from a number of arts organization. The following is the reply on behalf of Secretary Duncan received this week:   I’ve been asked to reply to your letter of May 10 to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.  As you may know, in my […]

Building on Monday's blog post about dying industries and choral music, here is the Wall Street Journal chart that highlights the Top Ten Thriving industries.   It looks to me like the move to e-publishing and e-commerce is taking over – when will the music publishing industry move from the paper-postage model and into a […]

I saw this on the Wall Street Journal business page last Saturday – the Top Ten dying industries.   It looks to me like this might have some impact on choral music – but what do I know?  I have three degrees in music, not business.  Still, it seems to me that we will be […]

Dan Kreider argues against part-singing of hymns during church: The beauty of harmony isn’t wrong, and it doesn’t necessarily draw the mind away from the text… but it certainly can. If we are to be singing truth to God, to one another, and to ourselves, we have to consider anything that might distract us. Unison singing […]