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Irish

One from the Folder: Repertoire Thoughts for Women’s/Treble Choirs

February 1, 2019 by Shelbie L. Wahl-Fouts Leave a Comment

#42: Friday, February 1, 2019

“An Oiche” (The Night) by Michael McGlynn
Text: Traditional Irish

SSAA, a cappella

Greetings from Ireland! The Hollins Choirs are just returning from Ireland, and I wanted to share our experience with “An Oiche,” by Michael McGlynn.

On the trip, we were based in Dublin, Galway, and Limerick, with day-trips to other locations and performances. Our tour coordinator (shout out to Lauren at Music Contact International!) had set up a workshop for us in Dublin with the educational coordinator from the vocal group Anúna. Before preparing for the tour, I had heard of Anúna and had listened to them, but wasn’t well-acquainted with their full repertoire. When their educational director, Lucy Champion, reached out to prep for the workshop, I made a point to choose a piece from Anúna’s catalog to add to our tour folder.

“ANÚNA is Ireland’s flagship a cappella vocal ensemble representing the beauty of Irish musical heritage and literature all over the world. In 1987, Irish composer Michael McGlynn founded the choir in an effort to create a physical voice for his compositions, some of which are strongly influenced by the history and mythology of his homeland.

(from ensemble’s website, http://www.anuna.ie/  )

Composer Michael McGlynn, founder of Anúna, has written and arranged an extensive catalog of music, for a variety of voicings and instruments.

“Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1964, Michael came late to choral music, singing in his first choir at the age of nineteen. Despite the rich and sophisticated musical forms that lie at the centre of Irish traditional music, choral music does not exist as part of that tradition. His love of traditional song and the literary culture of his homeland led him to create the choral ensemble ANÚNA in 1987 as both a vehicle for his compositions and a unique choral form for Ireland.”

(from composer’s website, http://www.michaelmcglynn.com/ )


For more detail about Michael and his compositions, see these excellent resources, taken from the composer’s website:

·  Doctoral dissertation at the University of Miami, Florida “The Choral Music of Irish Composer Michael McGlynn” (Dr. Stacie Rossow) available to download from their site in PDF format HERE.

·  Dissertation at the University of Louisiana entitled “An Overview of the Choral Music of Michael McGlynn with a Conductor’s Preparatory Guide to His Celtic Mass” (Dr. Karen Marrolli) is available to download from HERE.

For my students, I wanted their first foray into Irish to be successful, which meant choosing a piece from Michael’s repertoire that was slow enough for them to catch the text of a language that was unfamiliar to them. I ended up going with “An Oiche,” a lilting 6/8 piece in SSAA, with S1 melody. It’s a beautiful selection, and one well worth the time. (We did it a step down, which fell better for the S1s).

You can hear Anúna’s performance of the song here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXS4XVEAtoA

Pitches can be learned primarily on solfege or through rote patterns. Rhythms are standard for compound time, with nothing out of the ordinary. In rehearsal, I was able to send S2/A1/A2 off to sectionals run by student leaders, while I worked with the S1 melody line. With the full group, I focused on the ebb and flow of dynamics, to give the work shape and life.

The sheet music for this and other selections by Michael can be found on his website. Pieces come with IPA transcriptions, translations, and often an mp3 of the pronunciation as well. This was invaluable to me in rehearsal. The text is a traditional Irish story of relationships and love.

What made this piece such a success was how it permeated the ensemble. Wherever we happened to be, during our pre-tour preparation, the melody would inevitably start floating up from the group. Someone was always humming a phrase here or a line there.

When we had our workshop with Lucy, Anúna’s educational coordinator and long-time member, the work she did with us was amazing. Anúna performs conductor-less, so much of her  workshop was about my students finding the pulse within themselves and taking responsibility for the beat/forward motion/precise entrances. We have worked on those things on our own, but sometimes hearing it from someone else is what it takes to make them real.

Within the workshop, we also spent time with another member of Anúna, polishing our Irish. A few points that IPA doesn’t convey well:

  • Ts are dental, not hard
  • The vowels are more similar in mouth shape, and generally brighter, than you might think – try not to separate a / e / i / o / u as much as in Western classical music.

There were other subtleties to the text as well, and I would spend some quality time with the mp3 to discern those intricacies.

If the song floated mysteriously from my group before the workshop, now it was ever present. So much so that the next day when we stopped at Corcomroe Abbey in County Claire, my students spontaneously broke into the song while exploring the ruins of the 13th century monastery. It was organic and haunting and magical to hear the harmonies drifting across the stones. I wish your singers the same beauty and joy with the piece as mine have!

Corcomroe Abbey. With a few seconds of "An Oiche" by Michael McGlynn.

Posted by Hollins University Choirs on Monday, January 28, 2019
Title:An Oiche (The Night)
Composer:Michael McGlynn
http://www.michaelmcglynn.com/
Date of Composition:1999
Text Source:Traditional Irish
Subject(s), Genre:Love, relationships, belonging
Language:Irish
Listed Voicing:SSAA
Voicing Details:S1 melody plus S2/A1/A2
Ranges:(as written, in Bb)
S1: F4-F5
S2: Eb4-F5
A1: C4-Eb5
A2: Gb3-Gb4
Accompaniment:A cappella
Duration:~4:00
Tempo:40 “Flexibly and with phrasing”
Further descriptions and details, including program notes, audio, perusal score, and purchasing:
https://store.michaelmcglynn.com/Sheet-Music/Detail/AnOiche

Until next week!
-Shelbie Wahl-Fouts


Dr. Shelbie Wahl-Fouts is associate professor of music, Director of Choral Activities, and music department chair at Hollins University, a women’s college in Roanoke, Virginia.
Email:
Bio:     https://www.hollins.edu/directory/shelbie-wahl-fouts/

For a listing of all current and past blog entries by this author, click here.
For a spreadsheet of all blog posts and their repertoire, click here.

Filed Under: One From the Folder, Treble Choirs, Women's Choirs Tagged With: A cappella, Anuna, Irish, Michael McGlynn, SSAA

One from the Folder: Repertoire Thoughts for Women’s/Treble Choirs

December 14, 2018 by Shelbie L. Wahl-Fouts Leave a Comment

#37: Friday, December 14, 2018

“Ardaigh Cuain,” arr. David Mooney
Traditional Irish words and melody

SSAA, harp (or piano)

In “Ardaigh Cuain,” David Mooney has arranged a traditional Irish text and melody into a lovely, lilting selection for women’s/treble choir and harp.

There are four verses to the Irish text, with a four-measure refrain. Set in compound time, most of the song is in 6/8, with one measure of each refrain in 9/8. I love the flowing nature of Mooney’s arrangement. It is slow and deliberate, but never sluggish. The melody gently tumbles from one measure to the next, cascading as if a waterfall.

Verses 1 and 4 are both in unison, with arpeggiated chords from the harp underneath. These verses bookend the song, giving it a rounded form. If looking for solo opportunities, one or both verses could be a solo or small group, with the full ensemble entering for the refrain. This can also cut down on the amount of text to learn as a full choir, if you are pressed for time. However, tutti unison with treble voices can have such a haunting quality when done well; I would encourage full-choir unison on both verses. Unison singing provides the opportunity to refine the tone and blend of an ensemble, no matter the level.

The main section of Verse 2 is a 3-part canon on the melody. Soprano 1 enters first, with Soprano 2 and Alto each half a measure behind. Because this section is a direct presentation of the melody from Verses 1 & 4, there is no new material to learn. The octavo here is marked as S1/S2/A1, as if the Alto 2s do not sing here. Despite the marking, an even 3-part SSA split would likely be best, as the voices need to be balanced. Another option would be to assign students from each voice part to each canon entrance, so that the timbre is as consistent as possible across each line.

For the four-measure refrain after Verse 2, the setting becomes SSAA. Texture is now homophonic, as opposed to the imitation of the preceding verse. The moment where the music coalesces from overlapping entrances to a strong chordal presence is entrancing. This is also the first place in the song where the alto voices sing in a lower tessitura than the general melody. Adding those few pitches below the staff expands the vertical stability of the harmonies. It feels weightier and more settled for those measures – a lovely contrast to the earlier unison and canon. 

Verse 3 is melody plus harmonic “oohs.” There is a small amount of divisi within each ooh line, usually one additional chord tone here or there. In the score, the melody is written in the S1 line, while the harmony is written to be sung S2/A1/A2. For practical purposes though, the top harmony line is likely best suited to your lighter, more floaty S1 voices. One option is to read the score as S2/S1/A1/A2, which puts your S2s on the melody, and brings your S1s down to read the higher harmony. Another possibility is to make the melody line a solo or small group and distribute your ensemble as standard SSA. No matter how you conquer this verse, it is a lush harmonic framework that is designed to stand alone a cappella without the harp.

Because of the strophic nature of the verse and chorus, the learning of the pitches and rhythms for this piece can come together rather quickly. On one hand, the material can be taught by rote on a neutral syllable. Or, the repetition can be an excellent way to reinforce the reading of minor-key solfege and of subdivided rhythms in compound meter.

The harp accompaniment consists mainly of repeated patterns or block chords, with brief interludes of more complexity between the verses. It is likely accessible by a strong intermediate student. I previously programmed the work with the Ball State Women’s Chorus using a grand (pedal) harp, and now am hoping to introduce the selection to Hollins students next year and utilize our folk (lever) harp. If a harpist is not available, the part can be played on keyboard or piano.

The most difficult aspect of teaching or learning this piece will be the language. Once it is learned, it flows beautifully. However, for English-speaking singers, even those who have studied Italian, French, or Spanish, reading the Irish text can be a challenge. Especially with the vowels, what you see is not necessarily what you get.

I will be honest – I initially came across this piece as a first-semester master’s student, leafing through boxes of repertoire at a conference booth. It sat in my “to program” stack for a bit, because I wasn’t confident I could teach the Irish text correctly. Once I had more experience under my belt teaching languages though, I jumped at the chance to program it. Thankfully, this edition has an IPA transcription at the front of the music, as well as a phonetic transliteration in the score. With these two tools, and frequent reference to recordings made by the composer and native Irish performers, accurate pronunciation can be easily within reach.

This arrangement is an elegant setting of a traditional Irish melody and text. Along with other selections in Mooney’s Irish Choral Series, this piece provides a beautiful glimpse into Irish musical heritage and tradition. It is a quality addition to any program and a beautiful lyrical selection for your ensemble.

Title: Ardaigh Cuain
Music Source: Traditional Irish
Arranger: David Mooney
Date of Arrangement: 2000/2002
Text Source: Traditional Irish
Subject(s), Genre: Longing, home
Language: Irish
Listed Voicing: SSAA
Voicing Details: Unison, SSA, SSA div, SSAA
Ranges: (assuming solo/small group, with SSA oohs, on Verse 3)
S1: D4-G5
S2: D4-F5
A1: Bb3-F5
A2: G3-F5
Accompaniment: Harp (or piano/keyboard)
Duration: ~4:30
Tempo: MM=40 (Dotted half)
Series: David Mooney Irish Choral Series
https://www.canticledistributing.com/choral.html?choral_series=16475
Publisher: ECS Publishing / Canticle Distributing
Further descriptions and details, including program notes, audio, perusal score, and purchasing:
https://www.canticledistributing.com/ardaigh-cuain.html

Until next week!
-Shelbie Wahl-Fouts


Dr. Shelbie Wahl-Fouts is associate professor of music, Director of Choral Activities, and music department chair at Hollins University, a women’s college in Roanoke, Virginia.
Email:
Bio:     https://www.hollins.edu/directory/shelbie-wahl-fouts/

For a listing of all current and past blog entries by this author, click here.
For a spreadsheet of all blog posts and their repertoire, click here.

Filed Under: One From the Folder, Others, Treble Choirs, Women's Choirs Tagged With: harp, Ireland, Irish, SSA, SSAA

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