For a church musician, the Lenten/Easter season is incredibly demanding. In some churches, Holy Week can demand two dozen hours of musical service. Now with the season behind us, church choral directors are probably eager for a little perspective and perhaps a bit of a re-charge. In his article, “A Time for Sowing: Planting […]
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CJ Replay: Choral Music of Holst
(An excerpt from the Choral Journal article, “The Shorter Works of Gustav Holst,” by Elmer Schock.) Holst’s choral music comprises both large and small works. The Hymn of Jesus is probably his best known larger work; it was written in 1917 with’ a text from his own translation of the Apocrypha and was […]
CJ Replay: Latin Pronunciation in the U.S.
(An excerpt from a Choral Journal “Letter to the Editor” by Cliff Ganus.) One who listens to recorded examples of liturgical music can often determine the nationality of the choir by noting the hard or fricative consonants or modified vowels which are more related to French or German than to Italian. The absence […]
Flaming Pink Hippos
Anyone who has ever written a lengthy document such as a thesis or dissertation knows that after a certain point the writer becomes so numb that they are almost blind to the words on the page. At the height of writing our own dissertation, one’s advisor found a fairly glaring mistake. Pointing it out, […]
Choral Art in the Worship Community of Tomorrow
(An excerpt from the interest session, “Promoting Choral Art in the Worship Community of Tomorrow: Providing Opportunities for High School Singers to Sing Quality Sacred Literature” by Eddie Quaid. Presented during the 2013 ACDA National Conference.) In Houston, Texas at historic St. Paul’s Methodist Church there exists a unique choir. From the beginnings […]
Yoga for Conductors and Singers
(An excerpt from the interest session, "Yoga for Conductors and Singers," by Steven A. Russell. Presented during the 2013 ACDA National Conference.) It’s 6:45 AM. Two people get out of the elevator on the 38th floor of the Sheraton in Downtown Dallas. One has a yoga mat rolled up under her arm. The other […]