ChorTeach Preview

ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For submission information, to view the index, or to read the latest issue, visit acda.org/chorteach.

Volume 11, Issue 4, is now available online and contains the following four articles:

Singing Seniors
Nicole Aldrich, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri

“Older adults can bring a wealth of experience, wisdom, and grace to our ensembles. Along with these, they bring their older bodies and voices. And while the older adult voice is not the same instrument as the one the singer enjoyed in her or his younger years, it is simply not true that older adults should accept the voice changes as inevitable. Choral directors can do much to keep their “chronologically gifted” singers performing at a high level for years.

“Choir directors typically are most aware of the physical changes that singers undergo as they age because these changes have effects that we can hear in rehearsal: loss of vocal range, change in vibrato rate or size, loss of breath control, decreased endurance, pitch inaccuracies, breathiness, and changes in loudness, etc. Some of these physical changes include muscle wasting and related changes in balance, posture, and coordination, reduced vital capacity in the lungs, and stiffening, thinning and deterioration of the vocal folds which can cause the vocal folds to bow. Bowed vocal folds do not close as strongly. This can lead to breathiness, hoarseness, and vocal strain. Hearing loss, side effects from medications, and other health problems are also factors for some older adults.”

The Concert Spiritual—It is Closer to Western Classical Music than You Might Think
M. Roger Holland, University of Denver

“Most of us are aware of the origins of the Negro Spiritual. This folk music emerged in the crucible of American slavery when Africans were brought to the Americas in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries and labored under the harshest of circumstances. Infusing elements of their African culture along with Bible stories they learned from Christian missionaries, they sang about their present plight and desire for freedom. These “sorrow songs,” later called spirituals, became a huge part of what sustained the enslaved African community, gave them a sense of hope, and affirmed their humanity. The Negro Spiritual (or spiritual) is what musician and scholar Wendell Whalum refers to as the root and trunk of Black music.¹

“After emancipation, many freed blacks wanted nothing to do with anything that was reminiscent of slavery and sought to divorce themselves of any vestiges of this terrible history, including the singing of spirituals, seeing this music as unsophisticated and an indication that one was uneducated.² This mind-set no doubt contributed to the reluctance of the students at the Fisk Free Colored School (now Fisk University) to sing spirituals as they toured to raise money to support their school. Eventually, a small group of classically trained singers known as the Fisk Jubilee Singers embraced this folk music of their heritage and enthralled audiences worldwide.”

¹ Wendell Phillips Whalum, “Black Hymnody,” Review & Expositor 70, no. 3 (Summer 1973): 353.
² James Weldon Johnson. The Books of American Negro Spirituals. Vol. 1. (New York: Da Capo Press, Inc. 1989), 49.

Getting Inside the Mind of the Composer
Carl Ashley, First Baptist Church, Goldsboro, North Carolina

“Have you ever stopped to think about why composers compose? Many, if not most, of the great composers agree that composition cannot really be taught. Stravinsky once said, “A composer is or isn’t; he cannot learn to acquire the gift that makes him one… The composer will know that he is one if composition creates exact appetites in him, and if in satisfying them he is aware of their exact limits. Similarly, he will know he is not one if he has only a desire to compose or [a] wish to express himself in music.” (Conversations with Igor Stravinsky, by Robert Craft, n.p.)

“It is the performer’s responsibility to strive to recreate the composer’s intent. Composition is a form of artistic expression, just as performance is. If we do not fully understand the composer’s thoughts, we cannot fully understand his or her creation. One contemporary arranger once noted that she could only write down about ten percent of what was in her head. Because of this, some people claim that approaching a work from the perspective of the composer is impossible, since we can only have limited knowledge of the instrumentation, acoustics, or traditions of performance. In addition, our audience may come from a different background and culture, and not relying on the composer’s view gives the performer freedom. On the other hand, how can the music be truly appreciated unless it is performed as intended?”

The Missing Link: An Intermediate Step for Introducing New Music to Your Choir
Bo Shirah, McAllen High School, McAllen, Texas
Micah Bland, DMA Student, University of Southern California

“Since the time of early American singing masters who traveled from town to town selling their music books and teaching the public how to read music using a sol-fa system, the process of introducing and learning a choral work has seemed to remain relatively unchanged. Currently, two main approaches seem to dominate the secondary American educational system. The first being rote teaching, in which the teacher plays or sings the notes, with the students echoing until the content is learned. The second being a sight-reading method incorporating alternative syllables which represent a correlating pitch, such as solfege or numbers.

“It is in this second method that many educators approach the music learning process in a ritualistic fashion where students first count the rhythms, chant the solfege syllables in rhythm, and finally sing the syllables in rhythm. While this method is effective and utilized by many educators, there remains a missing step in this sequence of music teaching.”

ChorTeach is ACDA’s quarterly online publication, designed for those who work with singers of all levels. A full annotated ChorTeach index is available online at acda.org/chorteach. Over 160 articles are organized into seventeen categories. For submission information, to view the index, or to read the latest issue, visit acda.org/chorteach.

Volume 11, issue 3 contains the following five articles:

• Stronger When We Work Together
Michael Jeffrey, Pine Island Schools, Pine Island, Minnesota

“‘Today we’re going to start a group project…’ Those are words that are dreaded by every type-A student. As a high school and college student, there were few words that I hated more when they came out of teachers’ and professors’ mouths. Now, as an adult, my experience with collaboration is very different. It has led to some of my favorite musical performances in the last several years. I have been consistently surprised at how much collaboration I have found in southeast Minnesota. Youth choirs, including Bella Voce, the Honors Choirs of SEMN, and Northfield Youth Choirs, are working creatively with other ensembles and musicians for their concerts.

“Choral Arts Ensemble, an adult, auditioned choir in Rochester, is hosting its third annual Singing For Life High School Festival for which three regional high school choirs attend and perform with the Choral Arts Society in a side-by-side concert. Events like these abound, and they result in performances that are creative, engaging, and memorable for audiences and students alike.”

• I Heart (Love) Sight Singing!
Jane Vanderhoff , Garden City High School (retired), Garden City, Kansas

“Sight singing is the unbreakable principle, the sacred cow, the ‘must do,’ most days, anyway! It is the key to a singer’s progression/growth; it breaks the artificial ceiling of rote singing; it gives students independence and musicianship to get started. It is the key to their success! In my classroom it takes many forms. I use different books from year to year or throughout the year, write exercises on the board, use portions of songs, have students sing in groups or alone, sing the exercise backwards, switch from line to line, sing portions of a song, have one group clap the beat while another counts/claps the rhythm, anything to keep the brain moving in a musical direction.

“For beginning sight readers, I have assigned a pitch to a section (SSA or TTB usually), and they must sing their pitch as it occurs in the exercise, in rhythm. If there are more notes than sections, I sing the leftovers. If they sing on their own, they can choose any exercise in the book for me to sing on the spot. All of these ideas have been stolen from someone else!”

• Ten Commandments for the Children’s Choir Director
Henry Leck, Indianapolis Children’s Choir, Indianapolis, Indiana

“The following material was developed to convey, in a condensed form, some of the important elements of being a children’s choir director. By seeing these ideas as ‘ten commandments,’ one should not construe that this writer has seen the burning bush. As we all know, teaching and conducting are a continuous process of learning and growth. Children make that process an exceptionally joyful one, for they have a tremendous intelligence and artistry within them waiting to be nurtured.

“If a choral director takes the time to understand the child’s voice, its subtleties and capabilities, the results can be completely rewarding artistically and personally.

“1. Create good mental focus. Rapid learning only occurs when the mind is focused. Excellent musicianship becomes apparent only when the mind is acutely sensitive to its physical and aural environment. With this level of mental intensity, the text can take on life and begin to link the singer aesthetically with the audience.”

• Catching Up with VOCES8
Patrick F. Casey, Newberry College, Newberry, South Carolina

“As a lifelong instrumentalist heralding the virtues of chamber playing, I am increasingly drawn to the amazing world of vocal/choral creations. Since first hearing VOCES8 perform in the winter of 2014, I have found this ensemble’s impeccable sensitivity and synchronicity to be completely engaging. I managed to visit with co-founder Barnaby Smith in Greenville, South Carolina, on November 13, 2018, after VOCES8 worked with area choirs in a ninety-minute master class.

“Barnaby, as the ensemble’s co-founder and artistic director, will you briefly share the early history of VOCES8? The group was actually founded out of a group of friends. We met when we were singing together in the Royal School of Church Music’s Millennium Youth Choir. When we were about college age, we got a little bit too old for that choir, so my brother, Paul, and I started to arrange sleepovers for our friends at our parents’ house, which was an excuse to socialize and have a bit of a party, and then, of course, do a lot of singing together.”

• The Care and Preservation of the Voice
Tony Thornton, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts

“As conductors and singers, we work very hard over a period of weeks to prepare for performance. Concert week may include additional rehearsals and certainly a dress rehearsal. This added stress can cause the immune system to weaken, making the body susceptible to illness. It would be a pity to become ill right before the concert. Below are twenty tips to help conductors and singers maintain excellent vocal health throughout the year.
• Strive for good general physical and mental health at all times through exercise, meditation, and proper diet.
• Get plenty of rest. If the body is tired, the voice is tired.
• Along with proper diet, a daily multivitamin, extra Vitamin C, or zinc may help you stay healthy. However, always consult with a physician before adding new supplements.
• Always warm up the voice before teaching or singing.
• Speak, conduct, and sing with proper alignment, which will allow breath to move more efficiently in and out of the body.”