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

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#52: Friday, July 5, 2019

Commissioning Consortiums

Commissioning a new piece of music is a wonderful way to participate in the life cycle of our choral art. This endeavor directly supports composers, and it furthers the expansion of our current field of repertoire. One way to commission new works is to be a part of a commissioning consortium.

A commissioning consortium is where multiple schools, choirs, or groups buy-in to a larger project. Every commissioning consortium is a little bit different, but here are some things to know:

Generally, you pay a preset fee, and get a PDF of the music when it is finished, along with the rights to make as many copies as you need for your ensemble. In a consortium, you lose the exclusivity that you would have by directly commissioning a piece only for your own ensemble, but the price tag is much smaller, since you are sharing it amongst many groups.

Sometimes there are levels of participation. For example, a “major” contributor may be $500, while a “participating” contributor may be $250. Each level receives the same music in the end, but the higher level of participation might come with a Skype session with the composer, or “commissioned by” naming rights for one movement of a multi-movement piece.

There are two general types of commissioning consortiums. The first kind of consortium is usually driven an event or a conductor/coordinator. This might be a conference or festival event, or may be a conductor who sees the need for a particular kind of piece and wants to make it a reality. Often these consortiums are geared towards a certain level of skill or size of group. There may be one whose texts are geared for middle school choirs, or one that would fit intermediate-level ensembles of all ages, or one ideal for advanced groups with heavy divisi.

In the fall of 2019, North Carolina ACDA put together a commissioning consortium for a multi-movement work for women’s/treble voices. This was spearheaded by Nana Wolfe-Hill at Wingate University, and included colleges and schools from all over North Carolina, along with some from Virginia. Composer Linda Tutas Haugen was commissioned to create this work. The premiere of this work happened during the fall 2019 North Carolina ACDA conference.

Currently, mirabai, a professional women’s choir led by Dr. Sandra Snow, and mirabai member Dr. Meredith Bowen of Radford University are currently working on a commissioning consortium for women’s/treble voices with composer Andrea Clearfield. This is a multi-movement, multi-year project. mirabai will have first recording rights, and the first performance of each piece will be with the National Concerts series at Carnegie Hall, conducted by Dr. Snow. All other groups who are part of the consortium will have the right to perform the work after the premiere has been made. My Hollins Choirs are planning to be a part of this project.

The ACDA Women’s Choir Consortium has been supporting the music for women’s/treble choirs for over a decade. A list of the exceptional composers and their past compositions can be found here.

Groups of all levels have participated in these consortiums, from middle school to high school to colleges to churches to community and adult ensembles. The pieces are often premiered at ACDA regional or national conferences, and then are available for performance by participating ensembles shortly thereafter.

To find out about these and other commissioning consortiums led by individual conductors or conference groups, reach out to your state and regional ACDA and NAfME/MEA leaders. They will often have information about these sorts of opportunities to share.

The second kind of connection and consortium is composer-driven. This is often where a composer, or a composer and poet, have an idea for a piece and then look for participating ensembles to join the endeavor. In the past, these opportunities have perhaps been more difficult to identify, as the composers themselves were doing both the creating and the coordinating, whereas consortiums run by events or organizations have a separate administrator or organizer to make the legwork go faster. With the advent of facebook, online forums, composer-driven publishing companies, and composer websites, these composer-driven consortiums are much more readily available.

Graphite Publishing, a composer-driven publishing company, has coordinated multiple consortiums over the years. She Tore A Map, by Timothy Takach, (blog post #22), was commissioned by the Graphite Publishing 2015-16 Women’s Choir Commissioning Consortium, a group of twelve ensembles, ranging from middle school and high school to college.

Individual composers may also run their own consortiums. Michael Bussewitz-Quarm is currently leading a few for his compositions, including The Radium Girl project, about the young women who toiled painting glow in the dark watch faces and eventually suffered or died from radium exposure. My choirs at Hollins are planning to be a part of this endeavor as well.

You can often find out about these composer-driven projects by publicity from the composers themselves, including their web presence, and forum posts. The recently-released website Consortio is another way for composers to publicize these types of opportunities to potential choirs. You can search by composer, voicing, topic, cost, etc.

Another side benefit to being in a consortium is the connection with like-minded or like-skilled groups. For the NC-ACDA commission, with composer Linda Tutas Haugen, there were three Virginia colleges that joined – Hollins, Longwood University, and Radford University. Because our three schools all had access to the music, we were able to have a Virginia premiere after the North Carolina one. Our three schools gathered and had a joint concert, including performances by each individual school as well as the combined work. It was a great shared experience for our students.

As you are planning your repertoire for a future season or school year, I would encourage you to search for consortium opportunities – either conference- or association-led, or composer-led. Consortiums are an exceptional chance to be directly involved in the creation of new music, and to be an active participant in the continuing evolution of our choral art. Join a group – you and your ensemble will not regret it!

Until next time!
-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. 

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

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#51: Friday, June 07, 2019 

“Crossing the Bar” by Gwyneth Walker 
Text by Alfred, Lord Tennyson 
SSAA, piano or orchestra 

Many of you are likely familiar with the work of iconic American composer Gwyneth Walker, and likely have even heard this particular selection – as vocal solo, SATB, SSAA, or TTBB. However, the piece was such a resounding success on my spring choral-orchestral concert this year, I can’t help but share it! 

Crossing the Bar 
Text by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) 

Sunset and evening star,  
and one clear call for me! 
And may there be no moaning of the bar,  
when I put out to sea. 

But such a tide as moving seems asleep,  
too full for sound and foam, 
When that which drew from out the boundless deep,  
turns again home. 

Twilight and evening bell  
and after that the dark! 
And may there be no sadness of farewell  
when I embark; 

For tho’ from out our bourne of Time and Place 
the flood may bear me far, 
I hope to see my pilot face to face
when I have crossed the bar. 

Gwyneth Walker has been a mainstay of American composers for decades – with hundreds of works for instrumental and vocal solo, chamber, and ensemble configurations. This particular piece was originally written as a soprano solo, for the memorial service of Walker’s mother in 2000. Walker then arranged it for TTBB choir in 2003, as part of a larger group of Tennyson poems for the Orpheus Male Chorus.  

Now the third movement in a set of three for TTBB, Walker continued to adapt this specific movement for SSAA and SATB ensembles as well. I am often wary of programming works for SSAA voices that were originally for other voicings, as transcriptions or adaptations do not always fall well, or may have a challenging tessitura. However, Walker is well acquainted with composing for women’s/treble voices, especially community women’s choirs, and this selection is no exception. 

This piece had been in my “to do” pile for a while, but I hadn’t yet found the right concert. This spring though, my college choirs at Hollins University collaborated with the community Valley Chamber Orchestra for which I am also musical director. This selection, with Walker’s chamber orchestra accompaniment, was a perfect fit.  

As a side note for anyone programing for choir+orchestra—there are two families of choral-orchestral rep: 1) choir and orchestra are equal partners, and the writing is idomatic and musical for the instruments (particular strings), or 2) the choir is the focus, with the orchestra or instrumental ensemble just supporting the choir. Both families of works can be strong for the choir, but orchestra members certainly will find the latter type less appealing. Especially if your orchestra or instrumental group is a standalone community or school entity (not just an adhoc group only intended to serve as accompaniment) make sure to look for rep in the first category, where the orchestra feels like an equal part of the team. 

Generally, if the composer also has written frequently for instruments-without-voices (solos, chamber, orchestra, etc), their choral-orchestral writing is successful as well. Because Walker is equally well-versed at composing for instruments and ensembles of all types, the orchestra in my case was very pleased to be working on this particular selection. We rounded out the combined portion of the concert with music by Holst, Dickau, and Verdi. (See blog weeks #48-50 for information on the Holst.) 

Waller’s piece begins in unison for the choir, and stays primarily homophonic throughout. In C major with minimal accidentals, and 4/4 simple meter with limited rhythmic complexity, this will be a quick read for many ensembles. For groups with less confident readers, or those just starting out with solfege and rhythmic reading, this could be a great piece to directly utilize beginning literacy in real repertoire.  

The unison opening is smooth and flowing, with plenty of opportunity for work on breathing/phrasing and phrase shaping. After the unison beginning, the choral writing morphs into SSA, with lovely, triadic harmony. Walker treats the opening stanza of Tennyson’s poem as the refrain, so it returns, in harmony, throughout the composition.  

Beginning with the third of Tennyson’s stanzas (“Twilight…”), the chorus switches to an SSAA voicing, with the entrances switching back and forth between sopranos-in-vertical-harmony and altos-in-vertical-harmony. Each of these entrances, and almost all of the pitches, are covered in the orchestration as well, so an ensemble less practiced in splitting into that many parts will still be well supported.  

The piece then comes back to a very strongly consonant homophony, before splitting back into Ss vs. As. This split section, at rehearsal letter H, is a great opportunity for clarity of diction, and encouraging responsibility on the part of the singers. The text is “face to face” – and is echoed back and forth for multiple measures. The starting [f] sound, and the closing [s] can be a mess if not lined up properly. But, being that the rhythms are entirely quarter notes and half notes, can easily be accomplished successfully by any ensemble.  

The songs builds to a close with Tennyson’s last two lines, hitting a glorious ff passage about 14 measures before the end. It stays strong and lush and full of energy for the next 10 measures, with lovely suspensions and resolving dissonances. [Note: depending on the size of your chorus and your orchestra, this will be the spot where balance is most difficult between the two.] As the piece comes to close, it slowly melts away to p, as the orchestra lightly plays different inversions of C major, climbing upward. With the final “across the bar”, the work ends on a light, sweet, poignant C major chord.  

As a choir and piano piece, or a choir-orchestra collaboration, this piece deserves a spot in your repertoire. It was a resounding favorite among my college singers and community orchestra alike, and provided a wonderful opportunity for depth of musicality while still being accessible for many levels of performers.  

Title: Crossing the Bar  
Composer: Gwyneth Walker (b.1947) 
https://www.gwynethwalker.com  
Date of Composition:  2003 
Author: Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) 
Date of Text: 1889 
Subject(s), Genre: Death, Life, Memorial, Journeys
Language: English 
Listed Voicing: SSAA 
Voicing Details: Unison, SA, SSA, SSAA 
Ranges: S1: C4-A5 
S2: C4-G5 
A1: B3-D5 
A2: G3-C5 
Accompaniment: Piano, or orchestra 
Duration: ~3:30 
Tempo: 100-112
Publisher:  EC Schirmer 

Further descriptions and details, including program notes, audio, perusal score, and purchasing: 

— https://ecspublishing.com/catalog/product/view/sku/6377* 
— https://www.gwynethwalker.com/lovewas.html 

**Note when purchasing: Because there are multiple voicings of this work, the TTBB version of which is part of a larger set, the work can occasionally be tricky to locate when purchasing. I have most often seen it listed as just “Crossing the Bar,” but it also has appeared as Love Was My Lord and King!, mvt 3. Especially if you are searching for the brass quartet parts or orchestra accompaniment and are having trouble, be sure to search by the full title. 

Until next time! 
-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. 

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

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by Guest Contributor –

Dr. Mark A. Boyle

#47: Friday, April 12, 2019

“Flying” by Rachel DeVore Fogarty
Text based on the words of Amelia Earhart
SSAA, Oboe, Violin, and Cello

I have done my best to commission at least one new choral work during my collegiate career. During my first year at Millersville University, I was taken with the dedication and musicality of the soprano/alto choir, which I had renamed Cantilena. The previous summer, I had met Rachel DeVore Fogarty at the Lehigh University/ACDA Composers Forum. Her music impressed me and when looking for a possible person to commission, I immediately thought of her.

When I contacted Rachel, we talked about what the commission might look like, and I let her know I wanted a text by a woman. The end result – after some back and forth with the custodians of Amelia Earhart name (the name is actually trademarked), Rachel delivered Flying, a choral work for SSAA choir, oboe, violin, and cello.

It has enjoyed an active performance history since 2011, including an offering at the 2013 National ACDA Conference in Dallas by the National Soprano/Alto High School Honor Choir. It’s a stunning work for soprano/alto voices that explores different choral textures, plays with the strengths of the accompanying instruments, and uses various compositional techniques.

The text, a beautiful and very personal statement about the joys of flight, comes to us from one of the most important figures of the 20th century, the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, Amelia Mary Earhart. As it opens, it paints a picture for the reader, and in turn the musicians and their audience:

After midnight the moon set and I was alone with the stars.

Rachel sets the opening with voices alone, singing in a unison rhythm, followed then single entrances from individual parts, conveying that sense of aloneness. She makes good use of dynamic contrast on long notes, letting them rise and fall in volume and possesses a refined ability for text setting.

There is plenty of space in this work, which mirrors the world pilots inhabit – a seemingly endless sky. The violin and cello tend to be active, almost as if they are the engine, while the oboe soars above in longer notes. Regular rising and falling of the line mimic a plane exploring that sky created with rests and caesuras.

As the work progresses, Rachel provides ample opportunity to focus on specific choral ideas – imitative writing, paired voicing, homorhythmic textures, close harmonies, and long, unfolding phrase work. The instrumental parts, which do require solid players, provide harmonic support while playing an active part in creating mood and atmosphere. The ranges are approachable by any mature soprano/alto choir. The soprano 1 part doesn’t go above an A-flat and the alto two part briefly touches a low G.

The structure allows for the high point to happen just about at the golden mean, on the text “I’ve always believed that the lure of flying was the lure of beauty.” It’s a moving moment, and a rewarding one for the choir. As the piece winds down, the flight isn’t over – it just seems to go off beyond the horizon as the opening text and texture (sans instruments) returns – ending on the same chord, accept this time, at a forte dynamic, allowing the final chord to hang in the air after the release.

While there are interesting moments of imitative part writing, the lion’s share is homorhythmic, making the learning process a bit faster.

When Cantilena started work on the piece, they were elated. First, a composition and a text created by two people who were representative for many folks in the room allowed them to see themselves in this work of art. That was priceless.

They were also excited to be bringing the work to life for the first time, freeing those little symbols from their paper prison. If you haven’t commissioned a work for your choir, I highly recommend it. It changed the vector of the rehearsal process. They were willing to work longer and harder as they viewed this piece as theirs.

As with any choral work that sets prose, where we lose the structured nature of a poem with predictable form and a rhyme scheme that helps with understandability, getting the text just right was a challenge. Allowing the triplet rhythms to flow naturally and organically, sometimes against duple partners in other voices, took time, but it was a great pedagogical opportunity. There is a key change, but the instruments really handle the shift. The limited chromaticism is very approachable because of Rachel’s clean voice leading.

Flying works on so many levels and can be used to anchor a themed concert on flight, firsts, works by women for soprano/alto voices, or perhaps a concert considering American ingenuity and pioneering spirit. Rachel has created a work that lives up to its name…it flies. Take a listen and consider programming it. You and your musicians won’t be disappointed.

Title:Flying
Composer:Rachel DeVore Fogarty
www.racheldevorefogarty.com/
Date of Composition:Spring, 2011
Text Source:Writings of Amelia Earhart
Date of Text:Unknown
Subject(s), Genre:Flight
Language:English
Listed Voicing:SSAA
Voicing Details:SSAA – no divisi
Ranges:S1: E-flat 4 – A-flat 5
S2: E-flat – E-flat 5
A1: D-flat 4 – C5
A2: G3 – A-flat 4
Accompaniment:Oboe, Violin, and Cello
Duration:~5:30
Tempo:80 bpm
Commissioning Ensemble:Cantelina, the S/A Choir of Millersville University – Mark A. Boyle, Director
Publisher:Kandinsky Music
Further descriptions and details, including program notes, audio, perusal score, and purchasing: http://www.kandinskymusic.com/  

Dr. Mark A. Boyle is Associate Professor of Music and Director of Choral and Vocal Activities at Seton Hill University. He is also the conductor of the Pittsburgh Compline Choir.

Email:
Bio:     https://www.setonhill.edu/academics/meet-the-faculty/detail/mark-a-boyle-dma/

For a spreadsheet of all “One from the Folder” blog posts and their repertoire, click here.

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

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#46: Friday, March 29, 2019

“8 Ways to Look at a Window” by Marjorie Halloran
Text by Francesca Myhrvold
SSAA, a cappella

Marjorie Halloran is a composer I met at the ACDA Convention in Kansas City, at the Composer’s Forum. When I started speaking with her about works for women’s & treble choirs, I was immediately drawn to her piece “8 Ways to Look at a Window.” The collection of 8 miniatures is a wonderful set of character pieces with great glimpses of personality.

Halloran uses text by Francesca Myhrvold. The poetry tells the story of a girl who gets to choose a new bedroom in their house, instead of sharing with her sister. She chooses the smaller bedroom, with less closet space – but it has a window. Each snippet of text tells a different bit of the story – what she sees from the window, how the window lets in the cold air, and how the first glance through the windows makes her feel in the morning.

The composer notes in the score that each movement should be its own moment and idea, with a few seconds in between to clear the air. No pitches should be given between – ideally the choir can find their next pitch based on the previous movement so as not to disturb the narrative thread.

1. You’ll Be Cold at Night.

This movement is marked “Thoughtfully” at a tempo of mm=90. It opens with a small group or solo. In Eb major, it is entirely diatonic. Phrases are long and legato, with no beat divisions beyond the quarter note. There are a few motivic or imitative entrances, but most of the harmony is made up of stepwise dissonances. There are numerous shifts in dynamics, with some lovely stacked chords to savor. The narrator’s mother warns her that if she chooses the smaller room with the window, she’ll be cold at night from the draft.

2. Looking From My Lighted Room

The second vignette starts off faster (MM=130) and homophonic, but still in legato Eb major like the previous movement. It then shifts style and key, to E major with motivic eighth-note based entrances. The narrator sees “pinpricks of light,” which turn out to be windows of other houses in the distance. Upon realizing she can see them, she then wonders if they can see her.

3. Crueler Than a Locked Door

This 10-measure movement is angular and chromatic – marked “Arduous and sharp” with MM=70. Halloran alternates separate, accented f entrances with pp syncopated homophony. Then she moves into short, spaced-out staccato notes, as the narrator jerkily attempts to open a stuck window.

4. Last Thing I See

In 6/8, this snippet clocks in over 30 measures – one of the longest movements of the set. Marked “Relaxed” and MM=60, it is a bit of a lament that then turns cheerful. The movement begins in a lonely fashion with the text in the Alto 2s and supporting chord structure on “ooh” in the other voices. The narrator used to start and end her day looking upon her sisters. At first, she seems to be regretting the choice of having traded her sisters for a window. Then she gains energy with motivic entrances, homophonic text ostinato, and key changes, as she decides that waking up to the window isn’t that bad after all.

5. Made to be Transparent

Beginning in a nice homophonic G major, the start of the movement feels like a chorale. It quickly changes character though, with a shifting chord structure and unstable final chord, as the narrator contemplates how much the transparency of the window changes as it gets dark outside.

6. No Closet Space

Marked “Grandly” and MM=70, this segment feels as if the narrator is working through her buyer’s remorse from having chosen a room with no closet space. There are moments of c minor, with other non-diatonic chords thrown in the mix. As the narrator comes to happy terms with the fact she has a window, the key center shifts to a confident Eb major.

7. The Lake, the Sky, the City

The narrator’s attention shifts from lake to sky to city and back again, reveling in all the things she can see through her window. Beginning in a very consonant and mostly homophonic Bb Major, the piece moves through some accidentals, but it circles back to the starting key after a few measures. The joke at the end of the piece – a pp “who cares about closets” – will likely get a laugh from the audience. However, be sure to continue the focus into the last movement, so the audience doesn’t think the joke is the end of the full work.

8. Lets in the Good

The final movement of composition touches on the good and bad things the window lets in (air, cold, noise) and keeps from exiting (spiders, warmth, and the narrator herself). Chromatics make this one a bit tricky from a tonal perspective, but then the work finishes with a smooth pp Bb major.

I really enjoy the variety of styles, tempo, texture, dynamics, and tonality available in these 8 quick movements. Marjorie has such great musical instincts and technique – the different personality and character of each movement is immediately noticeable both to the singers and the audience. This piece gives your ensemble so many wide-ranging opportunities for musical growth and expression – all in a nice, compact 8-minute package. I can’t wait until I have the opportunity to program it with my ensembles.

Title:8 Ways to Look at a Window
Composer:Marjorie Halloran
https://www.marjoriehalloran.com/
Date of Composition:2015
Author:Francesca Myhrvold, from River of Words
Date of Text:2014
Subject(s), Genre:Youth, Childhood, Nature
Language:English
Listed Voicing:SSAA
Ranges:S1: Bb3-Ab5
S2: A3-E5
A1: F3-Eb4
A2: F3-C4
Accompaniment:a cappella
Duration:~8:00
Tempo:Each movement has its own tempo/character
Commissioning Ensemble:Marcia Hodges New Music Fund: Youth Inspiring Youth – Commissioning Emerging Composers
Publisher:Marjorie Halloran
www.marjoriehalloran.com  
Further descriptions and details, including program notes, audio, perusal score, and purchasing:
https://musicspoke.com/downloads/8-ways-to-look-at-a-window/

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.

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

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#45: Friday, March 15, 2019

“Wild Embers” by Melissa Dunphy
Text by Nikita Gill
SSAA, a cappella

I met Melissa at the Composer’s Fair during the recent ACDA national conference in Kansas City. On the hunt for new women’s/treble music, I especially wanted something that would speak to the singers in my choir. When I walked up to her table, I knew I’d found the right place. She had a number of works for SSAA ensembles, and every one of them had a purposefully-chosen poetic text that rose off the page along with the music. Her work had life and energy and feisty passion, and I wanted to program it all! Besides being an award-winning composer, Melissa herself is an amazing soul, and is the embodiment of the creative artist I want my students to know exists as a role model. Among her works, “Wild Embers” is at the top of my list for a future performance.

The text for Melissa’s piece is by British-Indian author Nikita Gill. She is often labeled an “Instapoet” for her fame as a writer among the social media crowd, but her poetry has far more substance than the name may imply.

Wild Embers
We are the descendants
of the wild women you forgot.
We are the stories you thought
would never be taught.

They should have checked the ashes
of the women they burned alive.
Because it takes a single wild ember
to bring a whole wildfire to life.
–Nikita Gill

I read the poem on the front cover of Dunphy’s score, and was instantly drawn to the imagery. There is a power and a presence in the text that I know my singers will grab on to – a story to be told that is very real and vital to them.

Thinking in the future tense, I can see this selection being the contextual centerpiece for a choir’s tour or festival set, or for a thematic concert. You could focus a whole set on Fire: both the literal flame and the metaphorical passion/strength/energy. I got going on this idea after looking at “Wild Embers,” and now I’m hooked. You know that feeling once you go down the rabbit-hole of programming…an idea sparks, you run with it, which takes you to another idea and another concert, and so on. I’m already making a list of other possible companion pieces and can’t wait to see what this future concert set becomes.

Dunphy’s musical setting is a nice balance between difficult and accessible. The piece is SSAA, unaccompanied, in 3/2. At certain places in the music, there are four separate musical or rhythmic ideas happening. So, the piece is truly SSAA in areas and may be challenging for groups that struggle with part independence. However, there are also places which are S1+S2 and A1+A2 (two-part with harmony), or homophonic, or unison.

The piece does includes some tight dissonances, voice crossings, and a few tricky rhythms in 3/2 (including borrowed figures). However, with practice, these are all within the grasp of most ensembles.

The nature of Dunphy’s composition emphasizes Gill’s story, beginning with the pp “Shh” that opens the piece. The “shushes” come back at varying points throughout, as if they are the wild ember bringing the fire to life. Dunphy’s opening motives build to a ff melismatic point at “Wild wild women,” and adjust the tonality with added flats. After the ff dissipates back to p, the “ssh” returns, along with a single stomp and thigh clap at the beginning of each measure. This very simple, very clean body percussion brings a rhythmic cohesion and drive to the piece, but doesn’t add additional tonal complexity or visual distraction. Another p ff pp progression happens near the end of the piece, as the wildfire builds and generates energy, then dissipates into a final “ssh.”

I was pleased to meet Melissa and her music at the Composer’s Fair, and I hope many other similarly serendipitous meetings happened with other composers and conductors. Her work has energized me as a conductor, and I look forward to approaching this music and the text with my students next year, as we prepare for a concert set yet to come.

Title:Wild Embers
Composer:Melissa Dunphy
Date of Composition:2017
Author:Nikita Gill
Date of Text:2017
Subject(s), Genre:Women’s history, fire, strength, passion
Language:English
Listed Voicing:SSAA
Voicing Details:SSAA
Ranges:S1: C4-Ab5
S2: C4-E5
A1: C4-D5
A2: G3-D5
Accompaniment:A cappella
Duration:~3:30
Tempo:Moderato, MM=52
Commissioning Ensemble:Acalanes High School Bella Voce; Bruce Lengacher, director
Publisher:Mormolyke Press (mormolyke.com)
Further descriptions and details, including program notes, audio, perusal score, and purchasing:
http://www.melissadunphy.com/about.php
http://www.melissadunphy.com/composition.php?id=7

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.

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

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#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.

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