The Chorister
Spring Issue 2012
TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1. 2. 3. 4. 6. 7. 9.
The Chorister: Cover Page Weber: It Takes a Village Picture Page: 2012 Conference Hanson: Middle Level Honor Choir Stevenson: Best Laid Schemes What’s in the Folder? Holler: A Footnote
10. 11. 12. 13. 15. 16. 17.
Bronfman: Building Tone Picture Page Gentry: Guest Article News Flash! Knoll: Expanding Your Community What do the Judges Say? Raber: Kinesthetic Reinforcement
It
Takes
a
Village...
Michael Weber, NDACDA President-Elect It takes a village to plan and facilitate a conference. And so, congratulations to our village of NDACDA. Our 2012 State Conference at NDSU was a success. Big thanks to Rebecca Raber for her leadership. The honor choirs were a great experience for our students under the baton of Dr. Sandra Peter, Mike Seil and Dr. Sylvia Munsen. Kudos to Renae Hansen, Sarah Hanson and Charlette Moe for organizing the honor choirs. Interest sessions by Axel Theimer, Steve Hoemberg and Andrew Miller were insightful and inspiring. The Showcase Concert was a great representation of the work being done in our state. Congratulations to Brian Saylor and the Bismarck Horizon Middle School; Paul Barta and the Grand Forks Central High School Centralian Choir; and Joshua Bronfman and the UND Concert Choir. Thanks to Sheldon Weltz for his work as our state treasurer and his willingness to help with registration and all matters financial. More thanks to the R & S chairs who participated in the reading session: Mike Stevenson, Renae Hansen, Sarah Hanson, Charlette Moe, Philip Voeller, Mike Seil, Pam Burns, Brian Saylor and Mike Rockne. More thanks to Shelley Zeitz and Desiree Bondley for accompanying the reading session. Special thanks to Jo Ann Miller and the NDSU student chapter of ACDA for all of their work as hosts and runners during the c o n f e r e n c e . Recognition to Bruce Southard for coordinating the student chapter meeting. Sara
Lichtblau, Deb Wald and Sarah Barnum deserve thanks for stepping up and helping when ever we need a hole in the wall plugged (they also did a great job with the program). And thanks to Cheryl McIntyre for preparing the rehearsal audio files for the honor choirs. We had approximately 300 singers in the honor choirs. 56 members were registered for the conference. 21 students members registered. There were 5 first year teachers at the conference. The audience for the Showcase Concert Friday evening numbered around 600 (300 honor choir; 100 members/ conductors/student members; and 200 additional audience). The Saturday afternoon concert was over 1,000 (300 honor choir, 100 members/conductors/student members; and 620 additional audience). I think we can safely say we had a major impact on the musical life of over 1,000 people during our conference. That is a great accomplishment for any village. Thanks to all of you who prepared singers, attended the conference, led a sectional, helped plan the conference and made this a great experience for your students. I am constantly impressed with the way our membership is willing to help in any capacity. It is obvious that you care about your students and the opportunities that this organization provides for you and your students. I look forward to working with you on future projects.
Picture Page
Women’s Honor Choir
Middle School Mixed Honor Choir
Middle School Treble Honor Choir
Middle Level Honor Choir Notes
Sarah Hanson, Middle School/Junior High R & S Chair As I sit here at my computer writing the second article of this school year for the Chorister, I’m struck thinking about the many experiences that have shaped my year since just this fall. Personally and professionally, so much has happened in just the last few months that already are working to shape my ideas for spring and into next school year. ACDA Conference, as always, brought a breath of fresh air into my choir room, through me and my students that sang in the Middle Level Honor Choirs in February. This energy is propelling us into spring at full speed. In the spirit of charging ahead into next year, Renae and I are making plans to accept ELECTRONIC SUBMISSONS for Middle Level Honor Choir next year. We’re excited to take advantage of the features that online submission will offer. There will be less paper, packing, unpacking, and postage, for one. It will save everyone the time-consuming step of moving the recording onto a CD. For us, there will be a LOT less data entry (and error!). Not to mention, I’m happy to not have to submit my own handwriting anymore! Submission will follow these steps: 1. Complete two recordings for each student – an acapella America and accompanied solo. 2. Submit one online form for your school. 3. Submit one registration form for each student. 4. Receive a receipt from me via email showing your registered singers and all of their information. 5. Print the receipt and mail it in with your school’s payment. This year, there were 609 audition submissions (250S, 214A, 85T, 60B), and 190 of those students were accepted into honor choirs. The S/A’s that made it in had scores above 91, while T/B scores were 65 and greater. We named 60 S/A alternates, all of these scoring 90 or 91. The twelve T/B alternate scores were between 60 and 65. We called 20 alternates between the publishing of the list and three days before the event. This year our school district’s professional development has been focusing on the
power of feedback for both teachers and students. Helping the student understand where they are in relation to the goal arms them with keys to their own success. When our audition papers and cd’s came back from the judges, they were filled with feedback, and I had a light-bulb moment. If we could somehow learn from this feedback, we can be better teachers! I dug through all of the audition papers with this in mind, and rooted out some of the most common hand-written comments, thinking these were some of the differentiating factors that informed the judge’s decisions when scores were equal. The judges made many positive notes concerning tonal beauty – roundness, sweetness, tall vowels, supported vibrato. Especially in the T/B auditions, the judge noted when pitch was “right on.” Many of the common singing difficulties involved a lack of breath support - inconsistent tone, pitch, vibrato, clipped phrases, or breathing in the middle of a word. Other notes concerned tone – heaviness, difficulties with treatment of vowels or dipthongs, and scooping into notes. These comments were helpful to me in solidifying my
thoughts about how I teach students to work through America and their solo, but I noticed another trend emerging. Several comments made me think about how I could individualize what the student sang to help them do their best. First, the range students sing in is important to attend to. At times, the judge noted that
the student wasn’t singing in the range that is typical of the part for which they auditioned. Changing key students sing America in by just a step sometimes also encourages a more pleasant tone. The length and difficulty of the solo also emerged as an important consideration. Sometimes a less-difficult or shorter solo might allow a singer to do a better job overall. In other cases, the judge marked that they wanted to hear more of a solo to get a better feel for the student’s voice. Some papers even indicated that the judge had a hard time hearing the singer over the piano. That’s a comment that I’ll be taking to heart when working on my microphone placement and recording setup next year! Next, I asked area directors what their best tips are in preparing for all-state. Many of us teach America to the entire choir in many keys to work on “the best of” America tips. Offering choices to students in solo selection came out as a common tip from several teachers. When students rehearse, one recommended that practice recordings come in three levels of difficulty… one with a singer, one with the piano playing the solo notes and accompaniment, and one with just the accompaniment. Small-group or individual sessions with students were mentioned as valuable, and some teachers make visual reminders to students about mouth shape and other cues during recording to offer support. Recording several times was suggested by many teachers, and one even said that her students invite a friend to help motivation, preparation, and poise. Thank you for all of your work, Middle School / Junior High teachers in sending in advice and in all that you did to prepare your students for All-State. The result of this work was fabulous! My students came back with such a sense of pride in what they accomplished, new friendships, and added musical knowledge and experience. Some are even already talking about auditioning next year!
The Best-laid Schemes... Michael Stevenson, Music in Worship R & S “The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, Gang aft agley.” The old Burns quote is so true. I had written an article about a musical for young church singers. That musical was called “LIGHTSHINE”, by Buryl Red. It had lots of neat music, in many styles, and a simple story, based on the Beatitudes. The musical was very GODSPELL-like, and being as GODSPELL is running on Broadway, I thought topical. Well, I checked on its availability through Word music. They had never heard of it. I checked the copy number, and copyright date to try to help find it, and found it was written in 1972. Forty years ago! (I am older then dirt and trees!) Long story short, it is out of print. So… In trying to keep topical, I offer a suggestion for teaching sight-singing, which cross-correlates with “Music in worship”. To provide my high school classes with sightreading exercises, I take a trusty hymnal, any flavor, and select a typical 4-part hymn. I write out the hymn as a line of reading going from the soprano part, to the alto part, to the tenor part, and finally to the bass part. I write the entire exercise out in bass and treble clef,
so they can practice both. When I use that type of exercise in choir as sightreading, I will also have the choir sing the four parts together. The exercise is all in both clefs, so students do not need to sing their usual part. I can have women sing all four parts, men sing all four parts, or play around with things like sopranos singing bass and basses singing soprano. I do not use the words of the hymn ( that is a different can of worms to address). My choir uses solfedge, and when singing the parts together, a neutral syllable. In closing I offer an internet site that I have found helpful: http://www.bwoodchoir.org/ SRPractice.html. The Site has short exercises with play back, and a section called “Multilevel”, which starts simple and leads to exercises that look very much like our sightsinging.
Mi sol, Mi sol, Mi do re mi fa sol la ! Translation for the solfedge impaired “So long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehn, Good-bye”
What’s in the Folder ?
Elementary/Middle School
Ryan Whipple
Kathy Lindquist
Hettinger Schools
Lake Agassiz Girls Choirs
Elementary Be Kind to Your Parents - O’Neill The High Road - Gallina Marienwurmchen - Brahms/Goetze
Canzonetta (Elementary Girls) Animals a Comin’ - Swofford Funga Alafia - Gallina I Will Trust in You - Bailey Bath to the Moon - Thiman Silver the River - Paulus Melodia (Middle School Girls) The Bird’s Courting Song - Miller I Started out Singing - Hagen Give Us Hope - Papoulis/Nunez The Rivers are running Again - Bernon Siyahamba - Leck Shiru - Naplan When I Close My Eyes - Papoulis
Junior High Waka Waka - Brymer Inscription of Hope - Stroope When I am Silent - Varner
Sarah Hanson Ben Franklin Middle School
Lauren Brandenburg Ben Franklin Choir Dream Keeper - Rollo Dilworth Blades of Grass & Pure White Stones - Hatch/Alexandar/Naish Shoshone Love Song - Emerson Blessing - Bart Seasons of Love - Larson/Emerson
Central Cass Children’s Choir Grades 4-5 O Colored Earth - Heitzeg Shine on Me - Dilworth Jubilate Deo - Praetorius/Rao I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing - Gilpen Food, Glorious Food - Bart
Melanie Popejoy Grand Forks Schools The Voice - Graham/Emerson Hushabye Mountain - Sherman/Beck Polly Wolly Doodle - Leavitt
Verna Lindvall Dakota Prairie School
Dalonnes Roemmich
Junior High Choir Sing with Jubilation - Estes John Henry Boogie - Emerson Do You Feel the Rhythm - Gilpin O Susanna! O Eliza! Areerang - Scott
Bottineau Schools
Phillip Voeller Buelah School
Sheila Zinke Valley City School
5th Grade Choir Shine on Me - Dilworth Everlastin Melody - Dilworth Inscription of Hope - Stroope Danny Boy - Strommen Crawdad Song - Miller I Want You Back/ABC - Brymer Siyahamba - Moore When I Close My Eyes - Papoulis All Things Bright - Rutter
7th Grade Choir Rhythm of Life - Barnes We Can Plant a Forest - Papoulis/Breenly Wade in the Water - Emerson The Rose - Nowak 8th Grade Choir Sing with Jubilation - Estes Old American Songs - Copland The Glory of the Father - Hovland Amani - Snyder
Grades 5 & 6 Happiness Runs - Rentz Butterfly - Beck Junk Band Boogie - Gilpin Tama Tu - Albreecht I Have a Shadow - Spevacek Canon Gloria - Moore Dashing Away with the Smoothing Iron- Rutter Chili Con Carne- Edenroth
Bruce Southard Dickinson State University Suggestions Froggie Went a Wooing - Leftridge Take Thy Rest - Leftridge Shady Grove - Ziemann Ye Banks and Braes - Leftridge
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A Footnote... Val e r ie Hol l e r , Smal l School s Re p r e se ntativ e During the recent NDACDA conference, I especially enjoyed the presentation by Dr. Axel Theimer and Steve Hoemberg from Minnesota and the boys from his school. The boys were very similar to what we see in general music classes in grades 7-8. In the Winter 2003 Dakota Chorister Emilie Stordalen wrote an article “Food for Thought.” The thoughts she presented were concerns then, and are still relevant now. These particular points from her article have remained with me and eventually formed the basis for a masters project concerning the boys’ expanding voice. She stated: 1. All good choral work begins in First grade music class. Each class is a choir. 2. Discuss often in lower grades why and when a boys’ voice may change as a natural process of growth.
understanding. Many college professors are doing a thorough job with this. I attended a VoiceCare Network workshop where Leon Thurman, Axel Thiemer, and John Cooksey presented lectures. As Cooksey had developed and demonstrated, I often have boys count backwards while I quietly match the speaking pitch on the piano. The boys enjoy being lined up in order of ascending or descending speaking voice range. And, best of all, they don’t have to sing alone. It’s a revelation to them. Using Cooksey’s voice charts can be helpful. For me, the most effective method was to simply chart their voice range on the board showing highest and lowest pitches using and 5-4-3-2-1 pattern. Sometimes the boys will ask to use ascending rather than descending pitches, and sometimes we use numbers, and sometimes we use solfeg. We chart the new voice, if present, and we chart the falsetto. They can easily tell you when it’s uncomfortable to sing any higher. This gives the teacher and opportunity to explain the expanding voice and then students are willing to sing into their still present upper voice. You may have to skip some pitches to
3. Music classes for every student should continue through 7th and 8th grade to ensure contact and consistent development into high school. In many small schools we have a 7th and 8th grade general music class. Very often it’s “the good, the bad, and the ugly.” Finding strategies to deal with the male voices that not only are experiencing vocal change but sometimes don’t feel they want to be in music class, is a unique challenge. Several strategies have helped me. Gaining knowledge about the human voice as it matures from child voice through puberty gives one physiological
access the falsetto. The boys seem comfortable with their ranges charted and labeled with their initials on a grand staff drawn on the board. It becomes a challenge to see who can sing the most pitches. When they see the ranges, they seem to be more respectful of the
individual voices, and they seem to be more willing to sing a part that matches their range. Interestingly, in my experience, when the voices are charted at the beginning of the school term, the ranges are all over the staff. By Christmas or the end of the year, one can see range clusters that can help indicate sections. Henry Leck believes in using the upper boy’s voice through age 14 in the Indianapolis Children’s Choir. His video “The Boys’ Expanding Voice” can be shown in class. Boys can relate to the discussions Leck has with boys in various stages of expanding voice. Be mindful, however, of the physical portion part way through the video. I skipped this section in the general music class, and left the physical discussion to the Health teacher. Leck’s Artistry workshops provide experience with this philosophy. Select songs from Celtic Thunder DVDs can have an impact on boys, especially when you use the first DVD, because of a changing voice, then follow with a later DVD so students can hear the changes.
The basis for the trust necessary to allow vocal exploration begins in elementary school. If students have a rewarding vocal experience in elementary, especially in 5th and 6th grades for boys, then the difficult junior high years are more manageable. I wish I could say these strategies guarantee choral retention in high school; they don’t. But at least, one can feel that a serious attempt was made to provide a positive choral opportunity. As Emilie Stordalen stated, “Excellence should be the expectation beginning in first grade. Remember the word is excellence, not
Building Tone for Young Men Joshua Bronfman, Men’s Choir R & S Chair The basics of building tone for men’s choir are actually pretty simple. I look at the structure as three-fold: Breath, Focus, and Space. Breath is the foundation, as it allows the other two to happen. Focus adds brilliance and vibrancy, and space adds depth, color, and maturity. By focusing your warmups on these ideas, you can create a great men’s sound. Below are a few exercises I’ve stolen from various other choir and voice pedagogues, that I use on a pretty regular basis when working with men.
Breath I don’t do a lot of breath exercises in isolation because I feel it is hard to reproduce the type of breathing we use in singing when you are not singing. The one exercise I feel is most valuable is where you have your singers lie on the floor and breathe, feeling their stomachs rise and fall during inhalation and exhalation. I also talk to them, while they are lying down, about feeling an elevated sternum (I find talking about the sternum fixes any issue that might make young adult uncomfortable). This way they can feel the correct way to breathe. Stand them up and have them try to replicate the breathing motions they felt on the floor. Remind them the sternum remains up and relatively static throughout the entire cycle of inhalation and exhalation. Repeat often. Focus When utilizing these next exercises, call the singers’ attention to the sensation of focus. We all have been told to “feel the sound coming out of your forehead,” or “place the sound behind your teeth,” or even “bite the apple.” Make them notice where the sound appears to be focused…it can be different for different students. 1) Descending 5-note scale on Nya (a like at, not ah). Make it super bright…so bright its almost
ugly. Make them really chew on it and exaggerate the nya. Moderate tempo. 2) Ascending and descending 5-note pattern on Zee. Moderate tempo. Remind them to keep the vowel vertical, because the sound can get really spread. 3) 1-3-2-4-3-5-4-2-1 on Vee. This can be used with other vowels, but the ee is the most focused and forward. Feel the buzz in the lips and nose. Fast-ish. Space 1) 5-54321. Start just on a hum all the way down, then in subsequent exercises move to Mm-oo then mm-oh, mm-eh, etc. Hold the mm on the top pitch and descend on oo or oh or whatever on eighth notes. Feel buzzy lips on the mm with an open throat, and don’t drastically change that space for the vowels. 2) Noh-oh-Nah-ah-Noh (1-3-5-3-1) any rhythm. I do it in 6/8 (dotted quarter, eight, dotted quarter, eighth, dotted-half). Make sure vowels are “vertical” and that the sound doesn’t get too dark and in the back of the throat. Resonance Balance – Combining Space and Focus 1) Descending 5-note scale on “Boy.” This should be nice and slow, and they should really savor the space of the “oh” and the focus of the “ee.” Make the ee a little longer than you would if you were singing it in a piece. Start in a low register and move upward. 2) Descending 5-note scale on “My.” This is faster and more aggressive than the “Boy” warmup. Point out the space of the ah and the focus of the ee. They shouldn’t sing this gently. They should rip into it a bit. Moderately fast. Start around middle C and descend. It can also help for them to jab their finger in the air repeatedly as if they were scolding someone. 3) Ah-Eh-Ee-Eh-Ah. Ascending and descending 5note pattern. Two notes per syllable (ah-ah-eheh-ee-ee-eh-eh-aa). Fast. Men benefit from a more closed position on top. This is the opposite for women (I would reverse the vowels for women…closed to open and back). Remind the boys that as they get higher, to add breath energy. If they don’t energize their breath, this exercise can cause tension, so be careful. Watch for protruding chins and craned necks. Start low and ascend.
Picture Page
NDACDA Honor Choir Students
NDACDA Reading Session
NDACDA at Regional Conference in Madison,
Choral Effects in Two Works by John Adams A n n a w h e e l e r G e n t r y , G u e s t C o l u m n During fall 2009, the Phoenix Symphony program featured two significant and complex works for chorus and orchestra by John Adams: On the Transmigration of Souls (with the combined choirs of Arizona State University and Western Illinois University), and a concert staging of Nixon in China featuring the Phoenix Symphony Chorus. On the Transmigration of Souls was originally commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to memorialize the one year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Nixon in China is a grand opera for soloists and chorus that depicts President Nixon’s historic 1972 visit to China, the first time a sitting President of the United States visited The People’s Republic of China. Each of these works, inspired by significant events in the American memory, presents the potential to stir the emotions with both symphonic and choral sounds. On the Transmigration of Souls (2002) is a piece that, rather than focusing on those who were lost on September 11, utilizes the words of the surviving loved ones. The work—for which John Adams was requested to write for chorus and orchestra—resulted in a multidimensional, multi-media work for orchestra, mixed chorus, children’s chorus, soundtrack (with city sounds, footsteps, cars passing by), and narration (a reading of a list of victims). Adams realized “that the public did not need any more images”2 or “any sort of dramatization of the event.”3 Instead he chose to create something meaningful from the aftermath, compiling the text from words and phrases on posters and scribbled-upon snapshots around ground zero in the days following September 11. Text includes, not necessarily in this order: Missing… It was a beautiful day. Remember… She had a voice like an angel. My brother. We will miss you…we all miss you… we all love you. I see water and buildings. A wedding band…a diamond ring. He used to call me every day. My daughter. He was the apple of my father’s eye. I love you.
In this way, the composer was able to refer to loss and to the grief4 of those left behind. John Adams states that On the Transmigration of Souls is one of the most experimental pieces that he has written.5 Overall, he took Charles Ives as a spiritual model—from Ives’s Symphony No. 4—where there is no exploitation of emotions.6 In spite of this claim, On the Transmigration of Souls does evoke a wide
range of emotions, from internal reflection to visceral abhorrence. Mark Grey, soundscape designer for the original Pulitzer Prize winning performance with the New York Philharmonic, described Adams’s objective. His goal was to convey the presence of many souls and their collected energy in order to create what he termed a "memory space," where the listener could reflect on grieving and loss.7 The layer of haunting sound from the children’s chorus can be perceived much the same as the boys’ chorus that represents the lost souls in Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, where the disjointed metric feel presents an ‘other worldliness’ to the operating pulse below. The mixed chorus has consistently difficult repetition of text and meter (reminiscent of Adams’s minimalist roots) throughout the piece. The demands for the chorus are challenging, but the effect results in a dramatic and unsettled mood to the listener, a mood that anxiously longs for some sort of absolution, whether it be musical or psychological, or both. With Nixon in China (1987), Adams intended for the opera to be a totally Americansounding work, crafting it to appear to be written by a committee.8 Pulling from different eras of American popular music such as big band, blues, jazz, cabaret and dance hall music, as well as Motown, the composer took exacting inspiration from silent movie music, Hollywood film scores, and even the background music for black-and-white Lowell Thomas newsreels associated with great historical personalities (i.e. F.D.R., Mao, Churchill, Hollywood celebrities, etc.). In fact, Adams purposely used first and third inversion dominant-seventh chords throughout Nixon in China to achieve the effect that he associates with early grainy, newsreels of great historical events. Further influences from other composers included American sounds of Copland, Bernstein, Reich, and Stravinsky during the period that the latter lived and worked in Los Angeles. Librettist Alice Goodman, who also collaborated with John Adams (along with stage director Peter Sellers) for the opera The Death of Klinghoffer, insisted on heroism as a theme in Nixon in China. With this declamation came the significant choice to use Madame Mao’s original name, Chiang Ch’ing, during the course of the opera. It is Chiang Ch’ing’s early career that served as the composer’s link between silent movie music and film newsreels, directly tying in her life as a Chinese movie actress in the 1930s, during which time she and Mao Tse-Tung had their first meeting and began a torrid love affair. Adams found that Hollywood
movie music would be a key to Chiang Ch’ing’s personality, defining her inner character with a period and style rather than a motif or theme. Throughout the opera, the chorus is at Chiang Ch’ing’s ‘beck and call.’ Adams developed a sophisticated intervallic and rhythmic repetition during Chiang Ch’ing’s principal aria entitled ‘I Am the Wife of Mao Tse-Tung’ where he scores augmented fourths and minor sixths repeatedly, while in the text she sings the words “joy” and “book” again and again. Symbolically illustrating her cultural influence on the people (the masses) of China, the piece melts from coloratura aria into choral masterpiece. The opera depicts both men and women of the chorus as dutiful androgynous militia, and when they make their musical entrance, it is difficult to differentiate between women’s and men’s voices—a psychological metaphor—as the ensemble obediently joins in her cause by repeating “joy” and “book” over and over. It is interesting to note that although the word “revolution” is uttered only once by Madame Mao, it is sung on the highest pitch in the first half of the piece, standing out with stunning severity beyond anything else to that point. In each of these two works by John Adams, the chorus presents dramatic effects with precision, whether with haunting austerity as in On the Transmigration of Souls, or with revolutionary homogeneity as in Nixon in China. In both cases, the words sung by the chorus are abstract, yet poignant; comprehensive, yet distilled. John Adams was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1947, and grew up in a home where his father played both jazz and classical clarinet, where “Benny Goodman and Mozart sat side by side on the same shelf.” He studied composition at Harvard with Roger Sessions and Leon Kirschner, and occasionally played clarinet with the Boston Symphony. His early musical experiences included a mélange of American music, and he chooses to honor that diversification in his compositional style. After graduation, he moved from the east coast to the San Francisco Bay Area. In 1981, after living on the west coast for over a decade, he described himself as “a minimalist who is bored with minimalism.”
On the Transmigration of Souls (Nonesuch) and Nixon in China (Nonesuch) are both available on CD or as MP3 downloads.
COMMISSION
NEED A MENTOR?
Are you a new teacher, or someone that would like a few fresh ideas to work into your classroom? Contact the NDACDA president to be connected with a veteran teacher to mentor you!
RECRUIT & INVITE
Don’t forget to recruit new members to our organization! We want to make our organization a vital and living resource to all of our state’s teachers.! If you know someone who should be a NDACDA member, please refer them to the President or Membership Chair.
THANK YOU!
Thank you to all the folks who work together to make NDACDA a supportive and vibrant organization for its members. We appreciate your hard work and dedication!
News Flash!
DAVID BRUNNER has been chosen by the Commission Committee to compose a new piece for the 2013 NDACDA Junior High All State Mixed Choir. He will also serve as conductor for the honor choir festival. We look forward to 2013!
NDACDA
Visit the VoiceCare Network for information about this summer’s sessions! wwwvoicecarenetwork.org
Educating the next generation of outstanding musicians.
Dr. Tom Porter Director of Choral Activities Katherine Henjum Associate Professor of Music, Voice Contact the U-Mary Music Department to learn more: music@umary.edu www.umary.edu/music 800-408-6279, ext. 8301
The University of Mary Music Department is defined by a commitment to excellence. Vocal music students have the opportunity to study Concert Choir, Vocal Jazz, Vocal Arts Ensemble, Chamber Choir, Musical Theater, and Private and Class Voice Lessons. Performance ensembles are open to all students. Students from other disciplines mix with music majors to create a diverse and welcoming community. For more information on student ensembles, click here. Scholarships opportunities to music majors and minors and ensemble participants. For more information on student scholarships, click here.
Expanding Your Community Gloria Knoll, Community Choirs R & S Chair Community choirs………I am convinced of the importance of community choirs in the perpetuation of our musical heritage.
School to the Men’s Chorus was quite a leap. But, the men are just as musical and fun-loving as the teenagers.
For this Chorister issue, I have decided not to write anything academic or philosophical. Rather, I would like to highlight the efforts of two choirs that are under my direction. First, the Bismarck-Mandan Elks Men’s Chorus has been in existence for more than 6 decades. A few of the members have been there for 5 of those decades ! The members of this chorus are dedicated singers who meet for rehearsal every week throughout the year. They are called upon to share their talents and love of music by businesses, churches, nursing homes and other service organizations. The Chorus performs an average of 25 times per year. The transition for me from Middle
Hopefully in reporting of my other choir, I will not be stepping on the toes of the Music and Worship R & S Chair (sorry Michael.) This Methodist Church Choir is one of the best sight-reading choirs I have ever directed. Their dedication is also amazing. The choir sings at either one or two services
every Sunday f r o m September through May, with rehearsals each Wednesday. Besides the Sunday services, the choir p r e s e n t s programs that are open to the community. This past Christmas they presented a dinner show which was open to the community and sold out two performances. There have been other opportunities to be involved in the community with performances with the Civic Chorus and other church choirs. In May, of 2013, the choir is planning to expand their “community”. A performance tour of Germany, Austria and Hungary is in the works. We are fortunate to have signed on with a tour company that specializes in performance tours. This choir is a group of adult singers who “think outside the box”. They are willing to try new things. They are willing to share their music.
1. What is the first thing you notice about the solo/small group you are judging? 2. After correct rhythms/pitches, what is the next thing you most greatly value in your contest judging? 3. What is the comment that you've said the most often to students?
What do The first thing I notice about a group that I am judging is their attire, followed immediately by their demeanor.
the judges say?
Of utmost importance to me is tone quality, be it vocal or instrumental. When judging vocal groups, I probably most commonly say "Form the vowels with your lips." Instrumental judging (flutes) "Make sure the flute and lips are parallel." --Charlotte Morey
1. Do they stand with confidence and good posture; are they focused; is the first breath in the music relaxed and low? 2. Singing with beautiful, resonant, confident tone projected into the room. 3. Sing all the way to the end of the phrase, don't let up with your tone or energy during the longer notes in the phrase. Make sense of the words, emphasize the correct syllables and direct the energy of the phrase to the most important word of the phrase. --Tom Porter
1. Is the singer relaxed and confident? 2. How does the singer prepare for the first note? The preparation almost always predicts what will happen. If the singer takes a couple beats for a relaxed, low inhalation, then the first phrase generally goes better than if they take a quick half-beat breath to sing "Sebben, crudele." I also listen to that initial breath. If it is noisy, then chances are the singing will have tension or some other vocal issue. Young singers tend to get more tense as they move through a song with faster and noisier inhalation as they go. I have spent most of my life trying to rid my singing of tension, so I never expect absolute perfection in this area. However, a relaxed and well-prepared initial breath seems to delay tension and trains the singer to imitate that relaxed breath throughout the song. 3. I watch for how the student holds themselves, in particular the upper body. Over the years I have learned that the slightest hindrance to rib cage flexibility affects exhalation, which in turn affects onset, tone, phrasing, etc. 4. Is the student beginning to connect the pedagogical dots in their singing? Is the breath coordinating with the onset? Is posture affecting breath, relaxation, tone, etc.? 5. Phrasing is important because it trains breath and musicianship. I listen for where the singer takes the phrase: what words or syllables are important and how does the singer bring them out? Is there dynamic movement throughout each phrase? Phrasing is also an indicator that the singer knows what they are singing about. Phrasing connects with expression. Because we are working with high school students, I do not look so much for a deep emotional connection to a song, but that the singer can communicate to me the song's most basic meaning through the delivery of text and some facial expression. Most used comment: Relax, breathe in, breathe out.
--Bruce Southard
The first item that comes to notice is how the soloist or ensemble presents itself: posture, confidence, engaging the audience from the moment he/she/they enter the room. Second: Vocal quality - whether or not the students are singing in a pedagogically sound manner. Third: (The second item hinges on this one) Breathing. I cannot stress enough how important it is to teach students the correct manner of breathing to sing. A Porsche sitting in the driveway with no gas does no one any good. A voice needs a consistent column of air with a well-trained breath mechanism to reach its full potential. Fourth: Stylistically correct and musically sensitive singing. Singing with the heart and the head supporting each other. Understanding musicianship, comprehending the style of the selection, making healthy technical decisions based on a developing sense of musicianship. Fifth: This one develops in coordination with the fourth one - expression. I want to be moved by the student'(s) emotional connection to the selection. Most often repeated comment: LEARN TO BREATHE CORRECTLY TO SING WELL --Leesa Levy
Kinesthetic Reinforcement to Grasp the Abstract
Rebecca Raber, NDACDA President & Chorister Editor We are teachers of an abstract art. Our medium is a complex mechanism...one which we cannot see or touch. The presentation of the art takes on a mysterious form, relying on a finite science of sound to transmit human emotion and individual expression from each musician’s voice to the listener’s ear. After the listener physically receives the sound, the brain immediately decodes and quantifies it into an initial judgement. Is it pleasing to listen to? Are there wrong notes? Is it in tune? Should I keep listening? After this rudimentary cerebral survey has been completed, the intellect and emotion then decide if the musical sound possesses any expressive value.
can we directors make this elusive process easier? We can do so by attempting to make these abstract elements of singing a more concrete process. What follows is information that may serve as a reminder to directors on the importance of adding something new into your rehearsal processes. Or perhaps it will even inspire them to re-approach the rehearsal planning in a renewed and refreshed manner.
What is the intangible connection that humans beings crave through art? As a singer, the production of this intangible and unseen entity is something that is very uniquely personal and an indelible reflection of “who we are.” It is a unique vocal-fingerprint. It is not surprising that those who claim they “do not sing” are frightened and somewhat intimidated by this indefinite art form. For those, there is indeed a sense of the unknown, the untouchable and even the “uncontrollable” in singing. If singing “success” is not achieved, the failure seems very personal and public. Many have trouble coping with that kind of pressure. What’s more, for the sake of those who do sing, we directors are always seeking the most efficient and “easy” manner of rehearsal. Our subject matter is not that which may be grasped by purely academic means. It is a complex and deeply intertwined process of both human intellect and emotion...one that is uniquely and ultimately expressed through an abstract instrument that we can neither see nor touch. How
Kinesthetic Intelligence
Music Education students learn about Howard Gardner and his Theory of Multiple Intelligences in their undergraduate education courses. Gardner’s model identifies these abilities that all human beings possess in varying degrees. These abilities combine to form each person’s unique “intelligence.” ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦
Logical-Mathematical Verbal-Linguistic Visual-Spatial Bodily-Kinesthetic Musical Interpersonal Intrapersonal Naturalistic (added in 1999)
While it is extremely important to recognize all these possible inherent “intelligences” when planning for your students and their learning, it is equally and perhaps more important
to recognize that your teaching can serve as an impetus to develop and enhance these abilities as well! Most of the categories of Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence have direct associations with the choral classroom. One of the categories, “Bodily-Kinesthetic” intelligence, describes those who have strong inclinations toward learning things through bodily or physical means. These learners prefer and excel in activities that involve moving rather than by reading or hearing the same information. Whatever the unique individual “intelligences” are within your student ensembles, one concept remains true: developing the BodyKinesthetic sense in all singers during rehearsals yields great benefits to the entire ensemble. In many ways, learning and singing choral music mainly involves the use of our aural and visual senses, in addition to the obvious use of the vocal instrument. Using kinesthetic techniques will help reinforce those senses and will allow students the opportunity to learn more fully and more quickly. Using Movement
A teaching technique that has been utilized for many years is incorporating physical movement and gesture into the choral rehearsal. Directors have long known that reinforcing vocal/ technical or musical concepts through gesture can dramatically increase student understanding and decrease the amount of time it takes to absorb said concepts. Wilhelm Ehmann in his book, “Choral Directing,” states “body movement...fosters skill and level of understanding. Through gaining a visual concept of the music, the singers experience the composition within their own bodies and it is
benefits the whole group and their music-making. Because the essence of the technique is movement, a beneficial byproduct is also a release of physical tension that is sometimes present in singers, even unbeknownst to them. Because the body is intent on creating or recreating the desired gesture, there is a freedom and ease that is transferred to the singer and the singer’s body. Tone production and tuning is often improved immediately by the lack of tension in the instrument and the abundance of vitality and energy which accompanies the motion. Probably one of the most obvious benefits of using movement to reinforce musical concepts is that it saves time and effort for both the conductor and singer. Using a simple gesture to convey a thought or action can take the place of dozens of
words of explanation. Additionally, there is no guarantee that the listener will interpret those words correctly and the need for further explanation and clarification will lead to wasted time and frustration. There is a far better chance that using gesture will yield unified and clear results. After the conductor has used kinesthetic reinforcement in the
draw upon in both rehearsal and performance. The conductor may use a variation of a learned gesture incorporated into performance conducting and even though the students are not the ones making the gesture, they recognize its meaning and they are able to respond to it in a unified manner. Even though kinesthetic reinforcement is clearly a studentcentered learning tool, the conductor may reap the benefits of a more efficient choral rehearsal. In Conclusion
classroom for some time, it is natural that students will react quickly and predictably to familiar gestures in the future, thereby creating a “vocabulary” of gesture for both student and conductor to
We can all incorporate a bit more gesture into our rehearsals, especially if we have a tendency to teach from the piano. The motions we have been using for years can be updated and refreshed to invigorate ourselves and our students. If students fully grasp a concept, there will be less time spent reminding them about it in the future. It’s not only about saving time in today’s rehearsal, but it’s also about saving time in tomorrow’s rehearsal.
Desired Concept
Reinforcement Gesture
smooth-legato singing
move hand side to side (palm down) like frosting a cake
staccato singing
throw a dart on each note
sing lightly
pretend you’re setting a volleyball on each note
release at top of range
shoot a three-pointer on the high note
forward focus
put finger on forehead, ask to “sing through your finger”
lifted soft palate
moving hand up (palm toward)...flipping fingers away
lifted soft palate
make a peak with hands on the “offending note”
scooping
giant arm circle moving overhead
projecting sound
throw a softball in from left field
light, buoyant sounds
juggle ping pong balls or thing bingo lottery balls
accented note
lean into the note or take a step forward on that note
pressing or sitting on a note
pull a thread up out of the quilt as you’re sewing
vocal energy
lean into the note or take a step forward on that note
long note vitality
tug on a fishing line...pull it in towards you
breath, lifted rib cage
make your best ballerina pose...hands curved over top of head