CJ Replay

CJ Replay: 250th Mozart Anniversary Focus Issue

August 1, 2016 by Amanda Bumgarner Leave a Comment

In June 2006, the Choral Journal published a special focus issue on Mozart’s 250th anniversary, guest edited by Lawrence Schenbeck. As Schenbeck states in his editor’s column, “What surprised me in surveying recent research on [Mozart’s] choral music is how much we still have to discover. The four articles have one common, central theme: each offers something genuinely new about the subject—new repertoire, new analysis techniques, new performing materials.” Ten years later, in 2016, I wonder what new light we can shed on this composer and his choral music.

Below are the four articles featured in this anniversary issue with a brief synopsis.
1) “The Choruses of Die Zauberflote in Context: Choral Music at the Theater auf der Wieden” by David J. Buch – Choral music and musicians in the suburban Viennese theater where Mozart produced Die Zauberflote.
2) “Adding Birds to Mozart’s ‘Sparrow Mass’: An Arrangement with Children’s Instruments by Paul Wranitzky” by John A. Rice – A “new” version of Mozart’s “Sparrow” Mass, one that could prove the highlight of a future concert season for you, or at least an engaging novelty for a special occasion.
3) “The Principle of Chromatic Saturation in the Late Choral Music of Mozart and Haydn” by Edward Green – The author applies the concept of chromatic saturation to the choral music of Mozart and Haydn.
4) “Mozart’s Evolving ‘Great’ Mass in C Minor” by Timothy Newton – A guide through the thicket of recent ‘completions’ of the Mass in C Minor, K. 427/417a.

Choral Journal issues such as this one are valuable for choral conductors and choral music enthusiasts alike. The rich history of composition and conducting is relevant still today, and anniversary years are always a good time to reflect and learn.

Click here to download the full issue in PDF format. (Note: You must be logged into the acda.org site as a member in order to access the Choral Journal online.)

Do you have a favorite composer? What work or works by Mozart do you enjoy?

CJ Replay: If You Can Speak, You Can Sing

July 25, 2016 by Amanda Bumgarner Leave a Comment

In just under a month, ACDA is proud to be part of hosting America Cantat 8 in Nassau, Bahamas, the first time this exciting festival is being held in a primarily English-speaking country. The current issue of Choral Journal is a focus on the music, people, and places of this international festival. Even if you are not able to attend America Cantat, you can experience the music of the Americas through this special issue, guest edited by Eden Badgett, ACDA’s festival development director. Click here to learn more about America Cantat 8.

A full list of the articles included in this issue is below. Today’s blog will focus on the article “Voices of Youth—Joy of Singing!” by Zimfira Poloz. She writes in the introduction: “My belief is that if you can move, you can dance; if you can speak, you can sing… It is easy to label a child as a monotone singer. They all, however, have the ability; sometimes the voice is just hiding!”

She continues in the conclusion:

“Children’s choral music is not just an art form but a critical role in the growth of every child. A children’s choir conductor’s job is demanding but also creative and artistic. Working with young singers, we have to study so many aspects of not only the music and conducting but also the voice and singers as a whole. To study and train young voices is a fascinating and rewarding challenge!”

Click here to read the full issue online or to download the PDF. (Note: You must be logged into the acda.org site as a member in order to access the Choral Journal online.)

Do you conduct a children’s choir? What do you find the most rewarding? Do you agree with the author that if you can speak, you can sing? What do you think about the statement that children’s choral music has a critical role in the growth of every child?

Other articles in the current issue of Choral Journal:

The Islands of The Bahamas: Home of America Cantat 8

Choral Symphonic Music from Latin America

Social Integration and Choral Music

A Pedagogical Approach to Contemporary Resources

Theatrical Elements in Choir Concerts

The Story of Songbridge

Music in Paradise: Learning the Rhythm of Bahamian Culture

CJ Replay: Fleeing War, Composing Peace

July 18, 2016 by Amanda Bumgarner 1 Comment

Continuing from last week’s post on the Choral Journal article “The Rediscovery of Antonio Vivaldi,” I want to focus on another article that will be of special interest to scholars of choral history: “Fleeing War, Composing Peace: The Evolution of Jean Berger” by Zebulon Highben, which was published in the August 2015 issue.

Jean Berger (1909-2002) was a leading figure in American choral music in the second half of the twentieth century, but many may not be aware of his origins: “He was born into an orthodox Jewish family in Germany, under a different name, and was later persecuted by the Nazis.” He eventually made his way to America. This background impacted his life and work, and the article discusses two war-era compositions—In a Time of Pestilence and Vision of Peace—as examples of the “connection between Berger’s biography and compositional syntax.”

Included in the article is an interesting section on Berger and Religion (p. 15). Although Berger retained a strong attachment to Judaism throughout his life, he described a “gradual but unstoppable detachment” from the religion of his birth. His relationship to Christianity was also complex. He “felt a personal connection to many New Testament passages” but he “never considered himself Christian and would not set some traditional liturgical texts.”

Click here to read the full article online or download the PDF of the Berger article. (Note: You must be logged into the acda.org site as a member in order to access the Choral Journal online.)

Seven of Berger’s works are discussed in this Choral Journal article. For a complete list of Berger’s works, see the American Music Research Center’s online guide to the Jean Berger Collection (compositions are listed on pages 5 through 22).

Are you aware of Jean Berger’s Jewish background? Just as this article shows that a composer’s early experiences can influence his or her later compositions, do you think the experiences of a conductor can have an influence on teaching or conducting styles and interpretations? Why or why not?

CJ Replay: The Rediscovery of Antonio Vivaldi

July 11, 2016 by Amanda Bumgarner 3 Comments

The May 2015 issue of Choral Journal featured a fascinating article on Antonio Vivaldi. Vivaldi is one of the most performed composers in music history, but until the 1950s, Vivaldi and his music were virtually unknown to the concert-going public.

The article “Discovering the Rediscovery of Antonio Vivaldi” by Miles Dayton Fish “recounts the true story of the uncovering of hundreds of compositions once thought lost to the quest to bring those compositions to the forefront of classical repertoire.” The author’s personal photographs from the Italian National University Library in Turin and the library archives of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana are included in the article.

Below is a Vivaldi article timeline, with main events starting in 1678 when Vivaldi was born to present day. In 1926, Turin monks discovered crates of Vivaldi manuscripts that had been thought to be lost after the composer’s death nearly two centuries earlier. However, the story did not end there. The collection was found to be incomplete, and a search began to find the remainder of the Vivaldi manuscripts. This article is unique in that is reads almost like fiction; it would be especially interesting for those who teach choral history.

Click here to read the full article online or download the PDF of the Vivaldi article. (Note: You must be logged into the acda.org site as a member in order to access the Choral Journal online.)

Are you aware of the unique history of Antonio Vivaldi’s manuscripts? Do you know of any other interesting stories in the choral music timeline?

Vivaldi Article Timeline

1678 – Vivaldi born

1716 – Vivaldi meets violinist Johann Georg Pisendel in Venice

1717 – Pisendel returns to Dresden with 40 Vivaldi instrumental works

1741 – Vivaldi dies and his personal manuscripts are sold to Venetian collector Jacopo Soranzo

1755 –Pisendel dies and his library is stored in a large cabinet at Dresden’s Catholic Hofkirche

1761 – Jacopo Soranzo dies and his collection of Vivaldi manuscripts is divided

Late 1700s – Matteo Luigi Canonici reassembles the Vivaldi manuscripts and sells the collection to Count Giacomo Durazzo

1794 – Count Durazzo dies, and the Vivaldi manuscripts are moved from Venice to the Durazzo villa in Genoa

1860 – Pisendel’s Vivaldi orchestral manuscripts are discovered in Dresden and moved to the SLBU Dresden

1893 – The Durazzo collection is divided between two Durazzo brothers

1922 – Marcello Durazzo dies and leaves his collection to the Turin Monastery

1926 – Monks at the Turin Monastery send Vivaldi manuscripts to Professor Alberto Gentili

1927 – Roberto Foa purchases and donates Vivaldi Turin manuscripts to the Turin Library in memory of his deceased infant son, Mauro.

1927 – The second half of the Durazzo Vivaldi manuscripts are discovered in the possession of Giuseppe Maria Durazzo

1930 – Giuseppe Maria gives permission to sell his manuscripts to the Turin Library

1930 – Filippo Giordano purchases Durazzo manuscripts and donates the collection to the Turin Library

October 30, 1930 – The Vivaldi collection is complete

1933 – Olga Rudge begins working for Count Guido Chigi at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana

1935-1936 – Olga Rudge travels to Turin to examine and catalogue the Vivaldi manuscripts

1938 – The Durazzo stipulation of “no practice/no performance” is lifted

1938 – Ezra Pound transcribes microfilms of the Vivaldi manuscripts from the Dresden library and performs them in Rapallo

1938 – Olga Rudge opens Centro Studi Vivaldiani

September 16-21, 1939 – Vivaldi Festival Week in Siena

September 27, 1939 – Warsaw surrenders to Germany and WWII begins

June 1940 – The Turin Library is damaged in air raids

December 1942-April 1943 – Historical documents and music manuscripts are moved from the Turin Library to the Castle of Montiglio d’Asti

1945 – Manuscripts at the Castle of Montiglio d’Asti are returned to the Turin Library

1945 – Dresden is bombed and Vivaldi manuscripts are damaged

1947 – Italian Antonio Vivaldi Institute is founded in Venice by Antonio Fanna

December 31, 1947 – Louis Kaufman debuts a portion of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at Carnegie Hall

1951 – Kaufman launches a series of all-Vivaldi concerts

2015 – Vivaldi continues to be one of the most performed and recorded composers in history

How Do You Find Repertoire?

July 4, 2016 by Amanda Bumgarner 2 Comments

Occasionally I will browse the forums on ChoralNet looking for interesting discussion. A question in a recent forum caught my attention as one that is likely very applicable to many of our members: How do you organize your repertoire? How do you keep track of pieces you have recently performed? Click the link in the previous sentence to read the responses to that question on the forum.

Along with this question comes that of the repertoire itself. How do you find new repertoire to program in your concerts and rehearse with singers? Both the Choral Journal and ChorTeach offer helpful resources.

The new ChorTeach index has a category for repertoire that specifically details the articles that are available on this topic. Such articles include: “A Thematic Approach to Planning Choral Programs” by Shereé Stoppel; “Finding Repertoire: Confessions of a Recovering Choral Kleptomaniac” by David Giessow; “Repertoire Search Strategies” by James D. Niblock; and “What Do You Program?” by Daniel Monek.

In a previous ChoralNet blog, I shared about the three-part Choral Journal article “Notes for Success: Advice for the First-Year Choral Teacher” that was printed last year. That first blog discussed the question: How Do You Best Establish a Grading Strategy? In the September 2015 issue, the question of how to find repertoire was addressed by four choral conductors. Some of their suggestions are below:

“ACDA has an incredible amount of resources to help you select music for your choirs. Reach out to your divisional and national R&R chair regarding your needs. Additionally, make sure of state contest lists such as the Texas Prescribed Music List. These lists have been governed by committees and the literature has been deemed valuable by experienced conductors.” – Jennifer Alarcon

“Find a music store that carries a lot of sheet music in its library and look through songs. Before each year, I go into JW Pepper’s store in Minneapolis and pour through the songs in their library…some of which I might never have found by searching specifically online.” – Seth Boyd

“The book Shaping Sound Musicians (O’Toole, 2003) lists nine criteria to gauge whether a composition has artistic merit: uniqueness, form, design, unpredictability, depth, consistency, orchestration/voicing, text, and transcendence. Goetze, Broeker, and Boshkoff (2009) offer six criteria for examining potential repertoire for younger choirs: text, singability, form, part-writing techniques, accompaniment, and pedagogical implications. Use these categories or create your own, but thoroughly examine all aspects of any piece you consider programming.” – Philip Silvey

You can read the complete answers by viewing the online e reader or downloading the PDF here. (Note: You must be logged into the acda.org site as a member in order to access the Choral Journal online.)

Now I bring these questions to you: How do you find repertoire? What factors do you keep in mind when deciding what pieces to perform? How do you organize your repertoire? Leave your thoughts and comments below!

CJ Replay: The Star-Spangled Banner

June 27, 2016 by Amanda Bumgarner 7 Comments

In 2014, the United States celebrated the bicentennial of our great anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” As you are more than likely aware, the song was named the official national anthem by act of Congress in 1931. The Choral Journal featured two articles on Francis Scott Key’s great work that readers of ChoralNet might be interested in. One was published in April 2014 titled “A Star-Spangled Bicentennial” and one was published in November 2014 titled “The Star-Spangled Banner as a Poem.” The latter will be the focus of today’s ChoralNet post.

This article is a reprint of an essay written by Eli Siegel in 1953 titled “The Star-Spangled Banner as a Poem” and includes an introduction by Edward Green. Eli Siegel is an American poet and founder of the philosophy Aesthetic Realism. As Green states in his introduction, “The essay stands alone in showing…just how rich the art of Francis Scott Key was. It also points to the ethical meaning of the anthem, including implications for our lives and for our nation now.”

In the essay itself, Siegel writes, “In 1814, ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ was written; and it is my purpose to consider it a poem—belonging to literature. It is difficult for people to see the famous writing of Francis Scott Key as poetry, or as art… It is just as hard to see a work that is too familiar as one that is ‘sprung’ upon us. It is necessary, therefore, to look at ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’ afresh, as sometimes it is necessary to do with the most quoted lines of Hamlet.”

You can read the full article or download the PDF here. (Note: You must be an ACDA member logged into acda.org to view the Choral Journal online.)

Have you ever viewed “The Star-Spangled Banner” as a poem? How do you think this would change the way you perform this work with your choirs?

Feel free to share your thoughts here on ChoralNet in the comment section or even send in a “Letter to the Editor” for publication in an upcoming issue of Choral Journal. I would love to hear from you! Better still, perhaps you should write an article or column in the Choral Journal. You can contact me at .

Choral Journal writing guidelines can be viewed by clicking here.