2 4 64 by Shaw Website

February

4, 1964

Dear People -Letts remind ourselves that it is the business of the Cleveland Orchest:-a Chorus to perform all kinds of music in the style and spirit of their writin~, that choral music becomes for us a dramatic art -- its emohasis is upon communication. And it I s our business first to understand the musical a~d emotional (spiritual) idiom of whatever music we approach and second, to communicate that understanding to our listeners. Our three chief scales of criticism and construction are (1) treatment of tone, (2) treatment of rhythm, and (3) treatment of speech. Now, all three of these will be variable. No one of us is to assume that the Honegger King David and Verdi Requiem call for identical techniques or attitudes. ---Our tone is to range from strenuousness and stringency to sheen and hush; and tenderness with respect to sacred ideas and persons is not to register with the same patent-leather efficiency as rnnarling, I love you. 11 --But each has its place. Rhythm is the name given to music's Time-ness. Its elements are first, recurrency -- alternating stress and rest -- and second, (and more subtly) direction -- the going some-whereness which ushers in the whole field of phrasing and dynamics. These, too, are to be variable within our technique. There is, however, in this instance an underpinning vital to all rhythmic Full value here and styles, and that is the integrity of the "weak" beat. the feeling of movement -- or we become sing-song and static. Our treatment

of speech has three

attentions:

(1) Clear and vigorous voweling, with emphasis upon compound vowels (diphthongs and triphthongs): lay (ay-ee), low (o-oo), lie (ah-ee), loud (ah-oo), loy (aw-ee), and many words beginning with Y and W or ending with R. (2) Vigorous and rhythmic singing of the consonants which have pitch: M, N, and NG, anticipating wherever possible the hummedconsonant of a word by singing it on the previous word and pitch (thus: OurM usic); and exoloitation ( for intonation I s sake) of the beginning pitches of the "sub-vocal 11 consonants: V, L, G, J, D, B, Zand TH. (3) Unanimous phonation of the explosive and sibilant consonants always as though they began syllables -- never as though they ended them (thus: Thi -- si -- zuh -- luh -- vlee daee).

All these things

are basic

to our singing

together.

They should be habits. R. So

ANNO UNCEME~ ;':':'3: Sunday

February

3:00 p.m.

Tenors

Sunday

February

S:oop.m.

All

Mo:1day

February

8:00 p.m.

All

Aeneas - -ÂˇDic:o- -& -----

Febr11ary 11, 1964 I

Whereas, it's

the only way choruses

Whereas, it settles balance,

can be understood,

half the problems of intonation, and phrasing, and

Whereas, I'm going to keep on hollering Be It Resolved:

til

it's

Leave us save our ears and voices

and color,

settled a helluva

beating.

leave us

(1) Exaggerate the duration and loudness of consonants having M's, N's, NG1 s, L's, B's, G1 sJ D's and J 1 s. (2) Exaggerate the duration and loudness of the maker-uppers of diphthongs and triphthongs: like say-ee for say, so-oo for so, lah-ood for loud, bah-eet for bite, ee-oo foryou~oo-awk forwalk, fee-uh for fear, vaw-ees forvoice. - - --- -- -(3) Phr;se ideas as well as melodies, breathe according to sense, not whimsey. Meld words together; tie final consonants across to the next word. Leave us have no solo sibilants. Practice by reading arry newspaper paragraph in a monotone, steady, sustained no breaks except at ends of sentences. pitch:

I've written and talked a lot about the Timeness of Music and the wonderful directives to choral singing which derive from that awareness. Time providing Music its medium, its ''matter" to be shaped -- not doubling back on itself, fresh every instant, each song a new song, and every performance a first performance •••••• the here-nowness of Music, its Going Somewhere-ness. If any stray soul has missed those eternal verities send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to And~ Truth Shall Hake You Inc., (same address). Anyway, I 1ve got another

pearl:

DEPARTMENT OF ANTITHESIS: Time's contradictory quality is that of Recurrence, Pulse, Rhythm. It 1 s the extension into Music of the heart-beat, the seasons, the tides, the biped, gestation, and when you get right down to it -- wither by confirmation or denial -- most of man1 s religious mysteries. It's the beat the beat the beati It's the here it comes again-ness. What it boils down to for members of the COGis that we don 1t sit around lis t ening to our beautiful voices when we1 re supposed to be in the next bar. Tirr.e·, s tides move right along, and we move along with them. 11Restsn. are not what comes after releases -- rests are what comes before attackS.:---And both releasesand rests are dramatic accents. It is rhythmic integrity which gives motion and vigor to music. We1re going to shade and color within that frame, not without it. Here comes that brass ring again -- get ready~R.

Sunday Sunday Monday

February February February

16 16 17

3 :00 p .m. 4:00 p.m. 8:00 p.m.

s. (c.c ., 2/24/44)

Altos All - Dido & Aeneas ---All

February 18, 1964 ••••• It's terribly difficult to write. Rhythm is at once the most physical and vulgar of music's architectures, and the most subtle and extrasensory. It's muscular and it's intuitive - and words are of little help to either. But these things come to mind: It should be our commonalways-present understanding, it seems to me, that Music I s untouched canvas is Time. Everytime we sing -- every time, rehearsal or performance, we work on Time. Music is from Now to Somewhen. It has not mass, substance, dimension, shape, weight. It has Time. Sculpture is a Space-Art; it has mass and propor ·tion. Painting is a Space-Art; it has height, breadth, and by the illusion of perspective, depth; it has design and proportion; it has color and light (and this may introduce a qualification, for the quantum and relativity theories may make Light and Time pretty close neighbors -- for all I lmow). Ballet deals principally with movement through space. Drama and literature have strong Spatial preoccupations. But Music has Time 1 Now Time has dual implications. On the one hand it has Eternality. And for all we know forever may be of instant's duration. At any rate, Eternality must be One-ness. There can be no last-time or this-time in Forever. There can be only Now. In one there cannot be Two. Eternality is indivisable. Now and Forever are one and the same. On the other hand Time has -- by all our experiences -- the implication of Change and of Recurrency, of Cycle and Growth. Tomorrow is a very real thing to most of us. All of man's moral and religious systems are built upon it. We fight wars so that there will be a Time when no wars will be fought. We ascribe to Time periodicity: we say we have high-tide twice a day, thirteen full moons a year; we say it takes nine months to mature the human embryo; and from there on man still has a 11 traditional Seven Ages11. We believe we can 11shapen Time, change it, give it form. It seems to me that without a very sure awareness to Form in Time (aspects of which are Recurrency and Growth) and without a very strong faith in the power of men to change and determine their own Life-Time, we're in no position to give Time-Form to Music. "Form11 is not too fortunate a word, for it suggests the static and set. That isn't at all what we mean by Time-Form. Time-Form is heartbeat, ~ulse; Time-Form is yesterday, today, tomorrow; Time-Form is Rhythm. And within Rhythm, Time-Form is movement, going somewhere, growth. This issues

in a lot of very practical

procedures

for us.

At the head of the list is the absolute inviolability of the pulse of great music. Any tampering or insensitivity here will crip9le or kill. Music has a right to its own life. It has its own pulse, its own heart-beat. It has its own growth, its own 11Seven Ages11• ( In a paradoxical, but not contradictory sense, Drama resides in the inevitable, in the thing everybody knows is going to happen, in mustness. And most of the mustness in Music is the beat, the beat.) Any great artist

-2phrases within the rhythm; he does not distort He lets music live its own life.

rhythm to fit

his phrase.

There is, of course, some music (most of it badly written) which is enhanced by a free rhythmic and dynamic play upon the emotional content (most of it is shallow) of words and ideas. That is a valid style for a particular type of music -- and for no other â&#x20AC;˘ Second is the integrity and importance of the 'tweak" beat. In all dance and march rhythms it is this poor little weak-beat that does the work. It has the vitality. It keeps people moving. It gets things done. It lifts. It's the up-beat. -And in all sustained melody this is the beat of unrest, of growth. It moves. It is not the beat of repose. It is not the beat upon which the music stands still. It is the searching bear:- Everything happens here. The "strong" beat offers refuge -- but it is only temporary refuge. Within the instant in all great rrelody is restlessness, yearning, intensification, accent. No one can fail to sense this quest and remain an artist. The third application of rhythmic singing is rhythmic speech. It is imperative in choral song that compound vowels and pitch-consonants have rhythmic proportion. Their duration is only definable in terms of rhythm. Rhythm offers the only basis for coordination of 200 people, and it alone insures the listener of intelligibility. It is not enough merely to sing M's, N1 s, NG1 s and the disappearing vowel sounds of diphthongs and triphthongs. They must be sung rhythmically. R.

s. (c.c.

10/3/44)

ANNOUNCEMENTS: If there are still some who are interested in Mr. Shaw's performances in either Bowling Green or Cuyahoga Falls please let me know by the end of this week. I'm afraid we already have too many people who want to go to Elyria -- so if you can possibly change it would help to know. I call your attention to the rehearsal of Sunday, March 8, ALL MEN the date of Mr. Shaw's Cuyahoga Falls concert.

Saturday

February

1130 p.m.

All - Di.do & Aeneas

Sunday

February

4:00 p.m.

Perf.

Sunday

February

5:30 p.m.

Basses

Monday

February

8:00 p.m.

Everyone

---

- Di.do & Aeneas

---

March

4, 1964

Half-ideas are transient-shaped Or else they must dissolve somehow each into each. If only they would stand completely still Until one found the words their size. "I see, your measurements are thus and thus That's clear enough. 11 You inventory your entire stock "Now this should fit" and turn to find It realJ_y doesn't fit at all. You have a cubed suit For a sohered thought. You were sure that thought had corners •

••••• X tried to get down on paper some of the things that are jamming my mind with reference

to music and the spiritual

qualities.

We have, almost from the beginning of the COC, assumed the function if not the particularized truths -- of that relationship, and now with a frightening clarity and in a flood of specific detail I begin to understand that music is spirit. I guess the first Bible verse I l,earned ''by heart" in the Beginners Class at Sunday School was "God is love". It must have been at least twenty years later that it occurred to me that what it probably meant was "You know what God is -- Love"~ And the same thing happens now with "Music is spirit" -- but this time in overwhelming detail. We began years ago by assuming that song was a story -- it had a tale to tell, an argument to deliver, or a mood to convey. It's function was dramatic. Song was drama. Our first understandings of spirit in music were limited then to understandings of the text; and our techniques centered around systems of enunciation and a practical speech discipline, if also text was seen to qualify tone and sonority. We understood spirit, too, as synonamous with our own corporate enthusiasm for the music we sang. It was very evident in concert performance that here was a group of people who loved to sing together and who somehow believed their song. But at this point and from this time on the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus begins. I have never felt so sure of anything in my life. The ends for which we have assembled take shape; the pace and manner of their achievement grows more conscious and clear. I believe that the essential musical properties -- harmony, melody, rhythm, tone and dynamics -- under whatever critical microscope -- are to be understood finally only as relations of qualities.

-2-

I believe of one-ness to and that at the itative symbol

that the relations of a note to its octave is the relation two-ness (which it is in te~ms of vibrations per second) same time the fact of their recogniza .ble unity is a qualknowledgeable only to men's spirits.

I believe that when voices switch functions for even the span of two notes, so that one voice sings what the other sang and what the secAnd the fact ond sang the first now sings the human spirit is involved. of a fugue wherein voices propose identity in alteration is a spiritual phenomenon. I believe not a blueprint

that form in music is a symbol of relations of construction technique.

I believe that result of sensitivity

intervals have quality; to truth and untruth

and values,

that good intonation in tonality.

is the

I believe

that the voice is fantastically responsive to musical understanding, and that in every instance the sense of what must be precedes the How. And I am no longer so concerned about the inability of any choir (including the COC) to master the long line of a long piece in a single sitting; for there are a hundred miracles in every measure worthy of the whole of a man's understanding.

I believe, then, that spirit in music is not the wholesale emotional orgasm that weeps appropriately in public, but rather the marshalling of one's keenest, most critical intellectual and moral forces to the p oint of complete consciousness -- 1 til one hears in terms of values and the movements of values, until the most pedestrian minutiae of pitch and rhythm are heard inwardly in relation to adjacent minutiae; and finally in relation to wholes of form, tonality and intent. I beli eve that we are only at the beginning. I believe we can s cale and direct every rehearsal to this end, and that in those hours will lie the 11'life we have lost in living -- the wisdom we have lost in knowledge -- the knowledge we have lost in information".

R. S.

(C.C. - 11/19/46)

ANNOIB{CENENTS: There is a new Oasis for the relief of partched and scratchy throats. Newly installed and perhaps unknown to you it is located out in the upper foyer. Hopefully it will ease, nay eliminate, the bedlam in our skinny little hallway. Sunday

March

3:00 p.m.

Rehearsal

Monday

March

8:00 p.me

Everyone E. B.

for ALLmen

March 10, 1964 Too few of us realize the short - maybe too short -- s9ace of time between us and our first meeting with Mr. Shaw after tour. One I:Ionday and two Sundays s13parate us f:-om 1,rednesdaY, '· t1ar.0h 25, at"' 8 ~00 p,.ni. ·· The Collegiate Chorale received a letter date lined "late Monday ni ght" ~lmost a score of years ago, but it's pertinent -- so terribly pertinent 11a reacquaintance with the fundament als of choral to Casey's rehearsals: musicians hip 11. Snafued enunciation and careless dispirited rhythm. Things we shoul d be able to take for granted. Pitches sometimes are hard to find: disson -· ances and the speed with which notes succeed each other offer difficulties onl y solved by a slow and extremely precise process. We enlarge; we put the music _under the microscope; we cut to half-time and quarter-time; we analize, look for pitch cues and thematic materials. That is a legitimate method of learning. Even orchestras sometimes are forced to it. -But enunciation and the elements of rhythmic form and stress are basic. (To these eventually should be added an understanding of choral tone, though it must remain considerably more flexible and variable.) We have a right to assume that these disciplines are second-nature. -Like a pro-football team. They assume the familiarity of the fundamentals. The boys know how to tackle. They know how to block. They know how to handle the ball, and how to fall without breaking their necks. What they study is formations and the execution of plays. Well -- we assume the techniques of enunciation and rhythm. We study the intricacies of harmonic and melodic patterns. We spend time on phrasing, balance and an occasional problem of vocal agility. We shouldn't have to take time for much else. Let's take enunciation first. What we have is an artificial, arbitrary, but immensely prac'ti o al system. Nobody claims anything more for it than that it works. It is built particularly for American speech, though~ of its principles may carry over into foreign tongues. The Rules Are: I II III IV

Pure, vigorous vowels. Carefully broken-up dipht hongs. Long and intense hummed consonants .• Explosive consonants always exploded as though they began a syllable. V Rhythmic, proportionate allocations of hummedconsonants and secondary vowels.

I - We will purify our vowels to the extent understood -- even without context~

that

th ey never be mis-

Note that this is one of the most delicate adjustments of the singer's art. Note that it is not necessary to emasculate in order to purify. We do not have to sing hooty "oos" and rasping 11ees 11 to make ourselves under -

-2-

stood. It is perfectly possible to have vowel defin ~ition without grotesque facial contortion and the fracture of vocal line. The vowels are formed at the "voice box" (or whatever you want to call it), not by the teeth, nose or position of the tongue in the mou.th. Their chief resonator is the throat column directly adjacent to their point of origin; and though in particular instances the mouth and jaw may aid clarity and faci .li ty ( as in the difference bet ween OH and 00; or prestissimo, pianissimo passages of caluclated dexterity) the fundamental voweling area is before the mouth. Try it. Put your hands up alongside and forward of the hinges of your jaw. Drop your javr slightly and naturally. Now say all the vowel sounds you can think of. Not.e how firm, full and virile they sound. For contrast sake try t o form them by facial gesticulation; try to cut off all resonance before the mouth. Note how whiney, thin, r eedy and emasculate they become. Actually II

-- all

it takes is a little

mind.

- We will exaggerate the intensity and the duration of the di stinct We 1 11 sing them loudvowel sounds in diphthongs and triphthongs. er and longer and more clearly. We will never -- never sing one vowe l sound where two belong. Always for "ay" (as in say) we will

sing

we will

sing

Always for "oy" (as in boy~ we will

sing

Always for

ow11 (as in~)

I" (as in sky) we will

Always for

"eh ") and "ee".

ah 11 and

"oo".

aw11 and

ee 11•

sing "ah" and "ee".

yoo 11 (as in yoo-hoo) we will

Always for "ear" (as in ear) we will

(almost

sing

ee 11 and 'loo".

sing "e e " and

"u~ ".

Note that this holds no matter how fast the tempo, or whatever the duration of the diphthong. Break it up; sing both parts separately and distinctly. II I· ·- We will exaggerate the intensity and the duration of the consonants that have pitch. We will sing M1 s, N's and NG1 s longer ·· and louder. A - If the hummed consonant is an initial consonant and preceded by a vowel (as in new !:. :asses) (what a lyric i) we will sing the 11m11 as though it belong ed to both words, thus 11newM-Masses 11., B - If the hummed consonant is a final ed by a vowel (as in "I'm asleep")

consonant and followwe will sing the "m"

-3as though it belonged to both words, thus

I'm-Masleep

11•

C - We will ·oe conscious of the fact ( chiefly for the sake cf intonatior..) that the 11sub-vocal 11 consonants have an initial pitch, and that they are to be sung on the pitch they are supposed to be sung on. Thus B, D, J, G. L, V, Zall have a fragmentary initial pitch. Sing it.

JV - All explosive and sibilant consonants will be pronounced as though they _began syllables, not as though they ended them. Thus_, "what is this all about anyway 11 becomes 11hoouh-ti-zth-saw-luhbahootehn-nee-ooayee. 11 V - We will

give always proportionate (that is, rhythmic) time value to the various portions of speech sound that make up a word. That is to say, hummed consonants and the final vowel sounds in diphthongs will always have an actual rhythmic allotment, varying up to½ of the full time value, and depending upon tempo and style.

This is hard to illustrate, but suppose you had the word 11home11 on a half-note in fairly rapid time. We would sing the first value "ooM11, quarter-note value 11Ho11 and the next quarter-note coming immediately to the M. Thus, count "one-two, one-two," "Ho-ooM, Ho-ooM". Or take the opening line of the "Star Spangled Banner 11• Now, instead of quarter-note values on 11Oh, say can you", think eighth-note values on "Oh-oo say-ee ca-aN you-OO11• There is one put on paper sonants and in very fast sub-di vision.

further refinement of this; and it's also tough to without musical notation. It is that hummed conthe final vowels of diphthongs do not fall (except tempi or short note values) exactly on the rhyth.~ic

For example, sing to yourself in a slow tempo, 110h come all ye faithful". Now, instead of half-notes on "come" and "faith", think quarter-notes on "Kuh-uhM" and 11Fay-ayEE 11,, Iiote that if we sang 11Kuh-M11 and "Fay-EE", it would sound quite artificial, but if, on the second-quarter value, we preface th e LI and the EE wi t h just a fragment of the main vowel sound, most of the angularity and artificiality disappears. This allows then an enlarged duration for the secondary vowel or hummed consonant, but maintains the normal accent of the primary vowel. OK?

I II III JV

Pure, vigorous vowels. Carefully broken~up diphthongs. Long and intense hummed consonants. Explosive consonants always exploded as though they began a syllable. V Rhythmic, proportionate allocations of hummed consonents and secondary vowels.

-4Nm, what all

this

issues

in is

:Musically,

2..

Dramatically, a continuous intensity of mood and sense. Ther e are no spasmodic, diverting interruptions of the songs story. We end phrases where it makes it make sense textually and beauty musically. If someone has to breathe, he does so in the middle of a vowel or hummed consonant :1 and jumps back in the middle of a vowel or a hummed consonant.

the legato

phrase,

which is the substance

of melody.

3 • Uniformity

and discipline. For instance, in the case of the exploded consonant, the technique of tacking it on the following syllable places it on the oeat or sub-division thereof. So far as I can tell, that'sthe only instant capable of absolute definition and unanimous ,mderstanding. -And, people, that's the point of a chorus; doing the same thing together at the same time•

-Which brings comes slower.

us 4:00 sin

a.m. and the Second Lesson. of singers

and choruses

From here

is their

on it

The cardinal

unmusicali ty.

I've heard people quote Mozart something like this: '1What is music? Music is first of all Rhythm; in the second place Rhythm; and finally - Rhythm. 11 O.E.D~: The cardinal sin of singers and choruses is their lack of rhythm.

I 1 d like to be able to tell you all I feel about Rhythm and the Time -n 0ss of music, and make it sound fresh and exciting. As a matter of fact , I've written to you so many times about it that I'm sick and tired of the whole subject. It all sounds like SLOGANS. -Or the "Infatuation with the Sound of Own Words Department''. -Yet I know it's sar y , '!Jasic, urgency

right. And I know it's the one absolut 8ly necesof the choral art - ( or any other musical art).

Up above it says "sick and tired of the whole subject". That's not quite true. I'm not tired of doing it, only tired of talking about it. I t I s al ways fresh and exciting in the music. We work always with new r.i2:r<_,r,:n s , new patterns, new accents. That I s the wonderful invigo r ati ng 1)3I't. These excerpts, analytical and critical, are awfully shy of th e inten se practical organic excitement that comes with actual performanc e; but it ought to do us good to review them. I can think of a couple of emphas es that haven I t been emphatic enough up to now. The first is that little notes are just as i~ port ant a.s bi g notes, that they have places, and that they should be put in t he ir pl ace s . Sixteenths and eighths and quarters are not just t hing s tha t 1 s ome between bigger things. They are not "introducings : or preparations or pick-upss I get a horrible picture from the way you sing of little, ti t ·0y eighth-notes running like hell all over the place, to keep from

-5being stepped on. Millions of I em! Meek, squeaky little self-respect. Standing in corners, hiding behind doors, su bway stations, peering out from mider rugs. Refugees. Dammit, you 1 re all a b1mch of Whole-Note little dots ! Oh - ( I can I t stand it t) I just Look, this in the census, long.

is a democracy. Little Eighth-notes can vote.

Nazis. thought

things. ducking

No into

And dots l Poor of a double dot !

people count. They're included They carry ID cards. They be-

Dialogue: Sixteenth

note marches up to a bar,

COG, tt'I'm sorry,

my little

''Gimme a glass

man, that's

o I beer.''

only for whole notesa

Moral: Give

1 im

a drink. R. S.,

ANNOUNC,'EMENTS:

Some weeks ago in a letter there were some words to the effect that w8 ar a not a Monday evening social club", and, with an eye to the no t too distant future, it seemed necessary to say it again. I know it is not easy to sit quietly while the conductor works with a single section, but please try. There has been no count made of the number of ns-S-H-H I s'' Casey uses up of an evening, but I don 1 t suppose he should have to use any . 11

LADIES NOTEt l Mono.ay

Sunday March

March

1 :4.5p .m.

8:00 p.m.

Rehears a l ALL women Rehearsal

ALL

Sept e~;1 ber 23, 1964 Many, m=1. ny thanks for the great pleas ureso f l a.s t Monday 's r ehe arsal. Your promptness in the registr a-:.ion pro cedur 8::: , and 1 your intens e i:nt er e;:;t and discipline in the r ehe.:1.rsa. . i.t self make for a would. every night were Monday night glow~ I sh all write

next week concerning some of t he experi ences t our, and of the implic o.t,j _ons th e.;r may have for our own organization. --But I' d l ik e to save those lete. lett ers until our 1964-196.5 membership is ccm:p af the South American

Until then, may I a.s k two favors which I fe el wil l he l p our rehearsals considerably? In th e firs t instance, our new associates next Monday will be extremely qualified and pers onable folk. Ours is not primarily a social club -- but now that our own initial greetings are past, it probably would be a good thing to be thoughtful of gr eet i ng our newer friend s and co-wor ke rs. In the second place, while it is natural that most of us find habitual seats and seat-mates at rehearsal, I am not convinc ed that this makes for th e great est music al or social product~ Diff er ent positions and di ff ere nt as s ociat es brin g varying factors of tone, rh yt hmic ens emble and att enti on -- all of which build our musical homogeneit y more rapi dl y and more s ecur ely. It would be fine if we could devis e s ome "r ot ati on" pl an i n reh earsal seating, but this is an enor mous probl em in l ogis tics, given movabl e chairs et al. May I r equest that yc.u shi ft your general r ehearsal locale from week to week -- fr ont to middle to back, and that you find at least one new ne ig h bor each session ? All of us sh ould profi t th er eby. Until

Monday, then , many th anks and good wish es -

ANN OUNCEM ENTS : Monda y

Se:pt ember

8 :00 p. m.

October 1, 1964 There is a very strong interest in the choral art in all South American republics, but of those visited (all but Bolivia and Venezuela) the choral movement in Chile is most remarkable. Our schedule in Santiago, after a noon-time arrival, briefings and a press conference, began with an evening reception for the entire company (thirty-six vocalists, twenty-four instrumentalists) given by the Federation of Choruses of Chile in a high-school gymnasium. I had been asked to arrive a few minutes after oi1r group, which, as guests of honor, were placed in the front and center of a l arge expanse of tiered seats flanking one side of the basket-ball court. As I step ped through the door onto the basket-ball floor I was sure I had been ushered into the wrong arena. Here were some four- to five-thousand yelling, shouting, banner-waving "fans" -- obviously here to greet the Beatles, Mickey Mouse or Liz and Richard. It was a fantastic evening. Having first been greeted by songs of friendship and welcome - which these thousands had rehearsed for weeks ahead -- we then were treated to an amazing staged full-hour revue of folk-music and -dance -- lighted, costumed and choreographed with full professional competence but with amateur, native and animal vitality. Following this each of the choruses there represented filed by with gifts and souvenirs -- pottery, metal work, sculpture, pictures or pennants. -And after we had "improvised" our scoreless hymn of thanks and murmured some words of appreciation -- with unpremeditated but fortuitous references to how a young late great North American would have enjoyed being there (which references occasioned the evening's only moment of silence and tears: this man was really loved down there), after, also, an hour of auto- and photo-graphs, we were ushered into what must have been a combination locker room and cold storage for informal mingling, snacking and wining. For the next three days, in addition to our rehearsals and performances, I met every morning with nearly one hundred choral conductors, assembled from Chile's interior -- of which there 1 s very little -- and from her extremities -which are about twenty-five hundred miles distant from each other. We rehearsed and rehashed, paneled and seminared, traded literature, techniques and compliments. We learned that there were more choruses in Santiago than at which one Iaj.ght shake a single stick. In addition to choirs associated with schools and religious institutions, every factory, bank, department store, insurance company or agency of public service or government seems to sprout some sort of choral activity. Frequently these were also coordinated with groups of dancers and strummed strings. -The point was that music was not a spectator sport but daily do-ityourself bread, wine and TV. On the fourth day we were invited to a twi-night reception-dinner afforded by the chorus of The General Tire Company of Chile. The factory was located about an hour's ride out of Santiago, and we reported first to a quonset qubhouse built by the members of the chorus with materials donated by the Company. Here we were wined, canapeed and sung to by a charming motley of executives, workers, wives and children. -For this chorus not only crosses management-labor lines, but also those which separate the generations. The youngest members would surely be no more than six years old, and the eldest, retired grandparents.

-2-

Follo wing this there was a gargantuan barbecue dinner at a public park pubhouse which began with Chilean wines and bouillibaise, continued with Chilean wines and great joints of braised meat, Chilean wines and salad, and ended with Chilean wines and dancing. It was at this point in the evening that I won my spurs. Rowels rampant on my corrugated rubber-soled seven-leg boots I was led by a lamb to her daughter and allowed the first dance. That is, it was the first dance for me. Every dance is a first for me. For them it was fun time -like turning a turtle upside down. -There's not a lot to this dance: just feet, hands, hips, eyes, spurs and handkerchiefs. The only trouble is that everything is supposed to move at once. I didn't seem to be able to figure out how to keep my poncho out of my spurs. Everytime I'd step on it, it'd jerk my chin down on my knees. (I remember thinking it wasn't quite fair: two against one. The chin was bound to lose.) This was supposed to have been an ancient gaucho dance Ah, art. Ah, dipof courtship. Courtship t Rape would have been less risky. lomacy. To return to this letter's matter. The manager-director of the factory, a North American from Akron who'd been handed this job about wartime drove me from the reception to the dinner. It was one of those "Now, I don' t know anything about music, but ••• " beginnings, but what followed was extraordinary: "··· what is there about this singing in choruses that gets to people and gets to the best in them? I've been here for more than twenty years. We always had all sorts of labor-management problems and trouble. A few years ago some workers came to me to ask if they could start a chorus. Why not? Pretty soon I noticed that the chorus included people from all levels and elements in our factory. When they asked for some help in building a clubhouse, I saw that they got the space and materials, but they did the work. I don't know how it happens, but ever since that damned chorus began we've never had a serious management or When labor problem in this company. I 1ve never seen anything work like this. some problem comes up these guys sit down together like they could stand each other and its all settled. Nothing has been so important in this big company as that little chorus." All this

-- and Mozart too. R

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Enclosed is a revised rehearsal schedule. Please change of date of the Oberlin concert. Please destroy

note in particular the the original schedule.

Sunday

October

5:00 p.m.

Tenors

Monday

October

8:00 p.m.

All

October 13, 1964 I had intended to write to you this morning, as the second in the series of letters outlined , last week, on the "theory of rhythm," and music as a "time-art." However, I think it would be better to save that until next week, since matters of text and language arose during last night's rehearsal -- some intentional, some inadvertent ; and irretrievable -- and since, from here, it appears that these ought to be the focus of next week's rehearsal. In the main, last night's rehearsal was concerned with aspects of phrasing: in particular, the use of loudening and quieting -- of crescendo and diminuendo -- as the principle techniques of forming "phrases" out of consecutive notes; and, in two cases at least, the suggestion that time need not always march rachet-like on -- which must have confounded a singer or two after the assembly-line metric premises (?f the week previous. ("Phrasing" should be the subject of a letter two weeks away.) The rehearsal of eight days ago was substantially a basic and bruising rhythdrill -- not directed primarily at learning the rhythmic and metric matters of the Mozart Requiem (though that was one result), but even more stringently and pertinently, I feel, using the metric motives of the Requiem to sharpen and rlrill our basic rhythmic sensibilities.

Therefore, since it is one of the legs of the choral stool, the emphasis of the next rehearsal ought to be text: words, language, enunciation, meaning, poetry and associated phenomena. It occurs to me at this pondering that language as related to music has four meanings. In the first place language almost always has a reasonably decipherable, dictionary-, "literal-" meaning. One can usually find near-equivalents -- even from one language to another. "Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine" at the very least means, "Rest eternal give them, Lord." (From here on out we may wish that we knew a little bit more about "meaning" -- and its meanings; but le t 's go ahead, and see if we still can accomplish something with the commongarden variet y of meaning.) I said above "almost always" because there are texts, of course, which are so obscure as to resist paraphrase or translation. Such a text, in part, is that of Christopher Smart, used by Benjamin Britten in Rejoice in th e Lamb: For For For For For For For For For For For For For For For

His K is Lis Mis

a spirit and therefore he is God. king and therefore he is God.â&#x20AC;˘ love and therefore he is God. musick and therefore he is God.

the instruments are by their rhimes, the shawm rhimes are lawn fawn and the like. the shawm rhimes are moon boon and the l ike. the harp rhimes are sing ring string and the like. the cymbal rhimes are bell well toll soul and the li ke. the flute rhimes are tooth youth suit mute and the l ike. the bassoon rhimes are pass class and the like. the dulcimer rhimes are grace place beat heat and t he like. the clarinet rhimes are clean seen and the li ke. the trumpet rhimes are sound bound soar more and t he l i ke . the trumpet of God is a blessed intelligence and so are all the instruments in Heav1 n.

-2-

Nowthis, at least in terms of "the boy throws the ball," is relatively obscure. All the words are certifiable; all of them possess dictionary equivalents; the grammar is uncluttered and precise -- but the meaning is obscure. Still, it is not so obscure as out-and-out "nonsense" -- which plays a considerable part, as anyone can attest, in folk-music: There was a wee cooper wha1 lived in Fife. Nickety nackety noo noo noo An' he has takenagentle wife. Hey willy wallacky Ho John dougal alain Quorashety roo roo roo. Still, in that first place, except for occasional nonsense or intended surrealistic obscurity, most of music's texts have a definable and paraphrasable meaning. The second meaning that language bears in music is one that has accrued to it through tradition and association. In essence this is a social and institutional tradition: that is, it belongs to a number of people, both past and present, who have shared a given body of understandings, rituals, beliefs -- and communications. Names obviously have this sort of association: Jim Thorpe, Sergeant York, Yankee Doodle, T.R., FDR, JFK, Whirlaway, Big Red, Han o 1 War; consider, for instance, the difference in flavor, patina and eventual meaning between "Honest Abe" and "A. Lincoln" -- same person, different emphases. --But also consider what happened to Edgar Guest's Motherhood on the way to meet Philip Wylies's Momism; consider how loaded a word "extremism" can become in a few weeks, or how unfunny a word like "vigah" became in a few moments last November. The member of the Optimist Club does not find his motto fatuous; the horror of "Babyland" in Forest Lawn Cernetary is not apparent to all anguished Southern California parents; the Boy Scout oath to the twelve-year old is not initially a covenant to be "honest, trustworthy, obedient" etc. etc., but a magic formula that makes him a member of a troop -- world-wide, and uniformed. Similarly but positively, "Requiem aeternam ••• " is by no means limited to "Rest eternal give them, Lord," but is centuries-full of the meanings of death. In Rejoice in~~ Christopher Smart talks about the "language of flowers." Well, there is also a language of dying; and since 1250 (surmised date for the writing of the Dies Irae sequence) for most of Western Civilization a "requeim" text has been the source, center or formalization ,of the language of death. It carries, I feel sure, not only the commitments of those who at present share its literal religious formula, but since it is a formalization familiar to governments, societies, sects and celebrants outside its specific institutional domain it carries also the accumulations, adhesions, qualifications and addenda of the entire family of man, including, I should think, lines on an eighteenth century gravestone on Nantucket My days in infancy were spent While to rrr:,parents I was lent. One fleeting look to them I gave And then descended to the grave.

-or four days in November, or the diary of Anne Frank x 10,000,000o

-3The third of language's meanings to be dealt with in music is even less open to measurement ~nd analysis, because it is not subject to the evidence of incident or history. It is the proposition that, just as there is a language of death, so also is there a language of language. In its most primitive form we know this as onomatopoeia, "the formation of words in imitation of natural sounds -- hiss •••• buzz •••• plop •••• bob-white. 11 However, all the elements which give langua'gea greater intensity of communication give it also greater value and greater meaning. Rhyme, rhythm, meter, assonance, alliteration -- are warp and woof not merely of style, but also of meaning. Lewis Carroll's

"non-sense"

is not necessarily

without

all meaning;

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabs: All mimsy were the borogoves And the mome raths outgrabe •••• : Dylan Thomas1 .fern Hill appoints simple words to unique, oblique functions, but their rhythm and intonation is part of their meaning; and one who has heard the sound of Dylan's voice, reads more richly: · Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green, The night above the dingle starry, Time let me hail and climb Golden in the heydays of his eyes, And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves Trail with daisies and barley Down the rivers of the windfall light~ And as I was green and carefree, famous About the happy yard and singing as the In the sun that is young once only, Time let me play and be Golden in the mercy of his means, And green and golden I was huntsman and Sang to my horn, the foxes on the hills And the sabbath rang slowly In the pebbles of the holy streamsg

among the barns farm was home,

herdsman, the calves barked clear and cold,

All the sun long it was running, it was lovely, tt e hay Fields high as the house, the tunes from the chimneys, it was air And playing, lovely and watery And fire green as grass~ And nightly under the simple stars As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing t he farm away, All the moon long I heard, blessed among st ables, the nightjars Flying with the ricks, and the horses Flashing into the dark.

-4And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all Shining, it was Adam and maiden, The sky gathered again And the sun grew round that very day. So it must have been after the birth of the simple light In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm Out of the whinnying green stable On to the fields of praise. And honoured among foxes and pheasants by the gay house Under the new made clouds and happy as the heart was long, In the sun born over and over, I ran my heedless ways, My wishes raced through the house high hay And nothing I cared, at my sky blue trades, that tim ~3 a.:Uows In all his tuneful turning so few and such morning songs Before the children green and golden Follow him out of grace, Noth:l-ng I cared, in the lamb white days, that time would take me Up to the swallow thronged loft by the shadow of my hand, In the moon that is alw~ys rising, Nor that riding to sleep I should hear him fly with the high fields And wake to the farm forever fled from the childless land~ Oh as I was young and easy in the mercy of his means, Time held me green and dying Though I sang in my chains like the sea. Who is to say how much of the intensity of the Dies irae text comes · from sense, and how much from sensation: the lopsided eccentric swing of three-line rhymings; the hammering, riveting strokes of alliteration and assonance which begin stanza two -- "Quant us ••• ~ quando ••• ~ cuncta •• e ~11 Dies irae, dies illa Solvet saeclum in favilla Teste David cum Sybilla. Quantus tremor est futurus Quando judex est venturus Cuncta stricte discussurus. Certainly "association". in tongues.

there is a meaning in language which is independent of "sense" or It inheres (in) sound itself, -- a babble of ecstacy, a speaking

All these meanings of language -- sense, association and sound -- could be in text, of course, independent of a collaborative composer. Therefore, the fourth and perhaps most important meaning of language as related to music is the contribution of the composer -- his intent and his meaning. This is at the essence of our interpretative problem.

-5Let us admit at the beginning that almost without exception the composer begins with the text. "In the beginning is the word," and the composer assumes responsibility for making it flesh -- or, at least, appearance. -But if we should begin our interpretative procedures with the text, then we are in great danger of denying ourselves the composer's commentary. Should we take the position that because the Requiems of Mozart, Verdi and Faure have substantially the same text they also have the same meaning, we are in a prime posture of artistic insolence and human emaciation. There is, of course, a more apparent tie between words and music in the song literature than in the choral complex. The art-song, the folk-song a..~dthe popsong more frequently will effect between tone and text an expressivity and shape which is parallel, Analogous and occasionally nearly identical. -But even within their fieids there is an independence of musical and textual symbols. Perhaps the most primitive of song-forms is the strophic-, verse- or stanzaic- lyric or narrative. Within this form, since the same short tune must serve several verses and a multiplicity and variety of texts, if we grant the song's communication we must admit that the tune has a structure and meaning of its own. "Structure" is a key-word here; squiggles called "letters" a meaning, ing numerical symbols, then there is a formula -- a structure -- in sound

for if we grant to an assemblage of little or if we grant meaning to a formula involvno reason why we should not grant meaning to and time.

The great composer, then, beginning under the inspiration of text, atte mpts to fashion a musical structure that will match his text not syllable by syllable, accent for accent, duration for duration or intonation for intonation, but rather will match it spirit for spirit and structural soundness and expressivity for structural soundness and expressivity -- even though one structure be of the symbols we call words and the other a structure in tone and time which we call music. That this is so, recall Mozart's opening measures of the Rex Tremendae: three incredible tonal explosions of "Rex-hood" which certainly are unprescribed by the letter of the literal law. Recall what energy Beethoven, in the Missa Solemnis manages to implode into his several isolated shouts of et~ It is the fervor of the early evangelist or campaign orator, 11Moreover~ ••• - Absolut ely unbelievable ~ --But I promise you that ••• 1 Moment by moment the composer is writing his commentary upon the text. It is written in musical terms with musical symbols: pitch, duration, accent, tone. To find his meaning we must first reproduce these symbols. (This is one of the reasons I feel the choral art begins not with voice lessons but with music lessons.) I wondered when I -started this four-stage missile in to the air where it would fall to earth, and I now find a remarkable coincidence of theory and function. Our responsibilities as choral artists engaged with musical text are precise and four-fold: One: to deliver the sounds of the text so that th ey at least make sense available, or so that the text could be understood if one isolated it f rom compli cating and competitive factors, like five words at once, or three brass bands over "let me whisper to you once more , 'darling, I lo ve you. 111 Two: to deli ver the text with the fervor standing of its contemporary inferences.

of its historical

seed and an under-

-6Three: to deliver with energy and ecstacy the fantastic vocal kaliedoscope of language, the microcosmic babble and bauble of man's conu~unication, sound for sound's sheer delight. Four: to deliver the composer's scribed in his musical language. The know-how here is not nearly would makeafurther letter.

intent,

understanding

so difficult

and passion

as the want-to

as pre-

-- but these

ANNOUNCEMENTS: GUESTS: We should like to make our Monda.ynight rehearsals open to all who would like to attend, but unfortunately this is not possible. Space and fire laws make it necessary to limit the number of guests attending each rehearsal. Please arrange in advance for any guests that you would like to bring with you. Too many gaests on a given night can mean that everyone might be asked to leave. We ask that

you do not bring

No guests are admitted consent of the conductor.

guests to the Sunday sectional

to the rehearsals

"with orchestra"

rehearsals. without

the express

SUNDAY TICKETS: The Sunday Afternoon Concert tickets you have received represent the complimentary ticket, to which you are entitled, for each of the performances in which you participate, plus a bonus of four concerts. third

An exception is the performance of the Beethoven Ninth, which will have no performance because of the Carnegie Hall concert on February 8. The first

concert

on the Sunday Afternoon

series

will be:

LOUISLANEConducting EUNICEPODIS, Piano RAFAELDRUIAN,Violin Concerto for Violin and String No. 1 in A minor, BVW1041

Orchestra

J .s. Bach

Concerto for Piano and String Orchestra No. 1, Op. 35, with Solo Trumpet

Shostakovich

Concerto for Violin, Orchestra, Op. 21

Chausson

Piano and String

IJEWYORKCONCERT: The Musical Arts Association will provide transportation, hotel accommodations and meals for all of you who participate in th e Car negie Hall concert. This is true from the time we leave Severance Hall, in bus es, for the airport, until we return to Severance Hall, in buses. Sunday Monday

October October

18 19

5: 00 p.m.

8:00 p.m.

Women All

October 22, 1964 By recollection we have promised two additional letters: the first a discussion of the theory of rhythm, and music as a Time-art; and the second a study of the practical ways and means of good choral enunciation. At this point, however, we have but one rehearsal before we Join the orchestra for the Mozart Requiem, and I'd like to direct our attention to what must be the essence of music-making. The ability~ phrase (to unleash a triplethretaphor) is center, circumference and radii of the musical art. It is the art of phrasing which communicates, which makes sense and stirs emotions, which provides a "belonging 11 and a "direction" to the consecutive symbols of the score. It is phrasing that proves the artist. In the few moments that are left, let's begin an "Introduction to Phrasing". It is obvious to all of us that some singers and instrumentalists are exceptional in this regard . (Fischer-Dieskau, Mack Harrell, Pablo Casals, Fritz Kreisler are and were phenomenally convincing and communicative artists~) Out of consecutive notes they produce a musical sentence, and that sentence leads somewhere (somewhen?). This is the problem: to make things hang together -- and go forward. -Phrasing is also that part of music-making which very uniquely -- not quite capable of analysis, but incontestably -- involves the whole person. We are about to consider those elements of our musical craft which are capable of manipulation and whose ensemble results in "phrasing", but we will still be a long way from identifying the Sammyand what makes him phrase. (Ulysses, wasn't it? "I am a part of all that I have met;/ Yet all experience is an arch wherethro 1 / Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades/ For ever and for ever when I move.") Our purposes are these: One, we want to "make sense". That is, we want to establish proper relationships. The things that belong together must be reproduced in proper proportion and function. The several notes of a melody are not isolated, unrelated phenomena. Their meaning lies in association. Letters into words, words into sentences; notes into motives, motives into phrases. We want to make sense. We want to discover and provide a belonging. Two, we want to move forward. If music truly exists in time -- from Now to Somewhen -- then its life and logic are concerned with becoming. The Now always must justify the Next and seminate the Soon, and successive horizons of Soons should ultimately reveal the Whole. Our study of music is a study of getting from Now to Then (future) along the path of inevitability and beauty. We want to provide a belonging and a becoming. Our rule of thumb is this: Since we are dealing with a function through time, then all of music's elements are also 11in function" and "becoming". All of them (almost) must be in constant change. (We'll identify that 11almost" in a moment.) The point is that music is animate, it is a growing or withering, a quickening or slowing, a to- or a froing, a being born or dying. The signal of life is change. Change is the "constant" of phrasing.

-2-

the most convincing, -proper or artistic of temporal relationships. (This latter is a solace, but it is not permissible as an excuse, for our liberty in the expressive use of Condition II is dependent upon our discipline with respect to Condition I.) Relative durations and periodicities are prescribed in traditional music. In many instances -- by prescribing tempo -- 11actual 11 mechanical, measurable durations and periodicities are also-prescribed. In any event their relationships are given~ -And it is to be presumed that the composer could have written them otherwise had he so desired. Therefore, our initial task is clear: to be as precise as is possible and human. The problem arises in coordinating the rhythmic responses, reflexes and sensitivities. of over two hundred people. Our various physical and psychological temperments, at any given rehearsal, or moment thereof, would range from choleric to apathetic. What has to be achieved by drill and discipline and more drill is a sense of the metric division of time which is relatively unharrassed by sightreading insecurities, and relatively dependable in spite of temperamental bouyancy or depression. (One of the reasons I allowed Monday night's rhythmic drill to go on too(?) long was the necessity of provlng to everybody -- including Jerry and myself, whose tendencies are to push forward to defeat drag and perhaps win vitality -- what a wide wide river this is and we're all in it.) Anyone of you can construct at no expense . whatever the most convincing and animate of metronomic devices: a pendulum. At the end of a three- or four-foot piece of thread or string tie a small reasonably heavy object: a nut, bolt or fishin g sinker. By lengthening or shortening the string and thereby the arc of the pendulum you can simulate a wide variety of tempi. And by taking the bottom of the arc as the 11beat 11 or moment of pulse you can improvise all sorts of exercises of pulse-division. You can drill regularity. You can experiment with 11 cross-" rhythms: two against three or three against four. By lengthening or shortening the pendulum while in motion you can experience a ritardando or accelerando of pr oportion., The fin e thing about this pendulous do- it-yourself metronome is its natural and life-like swing. The watch-type.,spring-swing pyramid, electric buzzer or flash metronomes are not nearly so viable or persuasive. (Tos canini never used one of the mechanical gadgets, always carrying a pendulum device like a retractable tape measure, calibrated in metronomic sp eeds rather than inches.) The bas i c problem of rhythmic cohesion in large musical groups i s not one engendered by the disparity in sight-reading abilities, but one traceable to the basic inabilities of most people to divide an appreciable moment of time by two or by t hree. The blessed assurance is that, unlike some prospects of salvation, t his can be learned and, more importantly, self-tau ght. Five minut es a day for a fortnight should double most everyone's accuracy in this regard. Once t hat is done and delivered we may deserve -- and be able to utilize -- the solace (Condition II) that "a foolish consistency is the hob-goblin of li t tle minds." -Whi ch leads t o an additional observation concerning last Monday night's obvi ous rhythmic dislocations. It is that after the constant and general ru shing of the first 15 minutes of rehearsal -- particularly in extended sixteenth-no te patterns -- from then on, only isolated shorter motives were being rushed, fr e quently under reas onable mel odic urgency.

-3stance -- of having six beats in three-four time organized two-plus-two-plus-two, rather than three-plus-three) our accentuation will alter. Instead of "strong-light-light, strong-light, strong-li.gl:lt-light 11 we will sing "strong-light, strong-light." Obviously this may have dynamic manifestations, but they will be manifestations of what is fundamentally a change in rhythmic stress. (For instance, we might achieve a very similar effect by singing "long-short, longshort, long-short. 11) If my understanding is correct there is a kind of basic psychological response to the inner-stresses of metre itself. These stresses are not nearly so concious as those of dynamics. Anyone can tell, for instance, whether such and such a piece (in most instances) is written in duple or triple metre. This recognition will not depend upon the performerâ&#x20AC;˘s stress of the first beat of each measure, but would be present if all beats were stressed equally -- by metric and melodic organization. It makes a good deal of difference in a five-eight sequence whether one recognizes the fives as three-plus-two, two-plus-three, or as in one celebrated case six-take-away-one. Therefore, metre analyzed and understood yields which is also one of the maneuverables of phrasing.

stress

Under TEXTconsider: 1.

Syllable

stress

Very frequently one will find himself stressing the normal syllabic properties of a word when it is thoroughly contradicted by melodic or metric considerations. Occasionally, as in Stravinsky, one will find himself improperly stressing text because it is demanded by melodic or metric considerations. As noted above, this sort of stress must issue either in duration or dynamics -- either in longer or louder. Still, it is primarily literary or verbal in genesis, and deserves to be considered under factors of Text which can be manipulated in the interests of phrasin'g:-2.

Punctuation This is the placing of commas, dashes or periods -for textual or poetic reasons -- within a melodic line. It is obviously one of the "variables" of phrasing and frequently quite personal. It will also manifest itself in momentary ritard and accelerando and in momentary dimenuendo and crescendo. Its genesis, however, is literary or poetic, and therefore Textual.

Style of enunciation This also is extremely sensitive to change. I am speaking not primarily of differences between languages but of differences within languages. It makes a great deal of dif-

-4ference whether one uses the ecclesiastical Roman Latin of the Verdi Requiem or the scholastic Latin of Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex. The enunciative colloquialisms and mannerisms of the folk-song -- more pervasive hummed consonants, varying treatments of the sounds of 11R11 and final "NG" -- would be completely out of place in the choral music to Mendelssohn's Varieties of Midsummer Night's Dre~ -- and vice much versa. text make obligatory changes in actual sounds, durations, rhythms, and inflections. These alterations all become a part of phrasing. Consider finally

the aspects

of TONEwhich are capable of manipulations:

1. . Intonation

We are accustomed to regard intonation as a keyboard absolute, but anyone who has done even a bit of barbershoplifting knows about the raising of leading-tones and 1 Truth the flatting of sevenths. is, pitch is functional, and one can use this function expressively. There is in addition, the device of portamento ("the voice gliding gradually from one tone to the next through all the intermediate pitches") -- more successful musically downward then upward, though upward can end in a convincing dramatic scream â&#x20AC;˘. And there is, of course, deliberate flatting or a trailing off into speech intona t ion for dramatic purposes. Pitch can be a phrasing device. 2.

Color The large chorus, by many musical standards, is a relatively mono-chromatic instrument. Still, it is capable of a considerably greater variety of tonal color than many choral-vocal institutions have utilized. Primarily, flexibility and variety depend upon a sensitivity to matters of literary, historical, national and personal style. There simply are ~r should be) different timbres to the chansons of Debussy and the waltzes of Brahms. Not all of this difference is occasioned by the difference in language, though it is a large part thereof. One spends the better part of one's vocal education acquiring a "line", "linking the top to the bottom", smoothing out "the break" -- all of it to acquire a decent, consistent and dependable sound. At the same time, it seems to me that the voices which have the finest techniques also have a wide range of color among their resources. Certainly the chorus is capable of "bright and .dark" "reedy and woofy'' "nasal and throaty". This is reasonable equipment of phrasing.

Vibrato ation.

This is very much open to study and further investigAgain , singers spend a good deal of time acq uir ing

-5a satisfactoryor controlling an unsatisfactory-vibrato, and instrumentalists (among the vibrato instruments) do likewise. Yet, so far as the choral literature is concerned we all know how vastly periods and styles vary in the propriety and character of vibrato. The singers of 11popular" music have developed a wide variety of vocal "styles", many of which depend upon the containment and unleashing of vibrato at will. In the few experiments which we have attempted following our exposure to Pablo Casals and his principle of vibrato variability (according to Alexander Schneider) we have seen that a chorus can control vibrato to an appreciable extent, and use it as an expressive device without exerting undue vocal pressure upon individual voices. The technique, furthermore, of singing the first fraction of a pitch substantially without vibrato is one of the most valuable aids to intonation and leaves the balance of the duration of the note open to expression -- and phrasing -- via vibrato.

Dynamics This is by all odds the most critical, important and pervasive of phrasing's inventory of techniques. It requires a chapter all to itself. It is the constant play of the intensification and relaxation of dynamic values which reveals the physiognimy of the phrase, which -- to refer back several pages -- is the principle agency and proof of the belonging and the becoming. Crescendo and dimenuendo under the keen control of amount and rate are the prime tools of phrasing.

There is one audition to which I always look forward whenever it comes time to hear veteran members. No matter what the repertoire, whatever portion of the year's materials is requested is always sung by this person with the care, affection and sensitivity which one hears occasionally from an exceptional soloist in a distinguished song. No willy-nilly pell-mell and scratch to hit the pitches. Rather, phrase after lovely meaningful phrase. Howpersonal music then becomes. What joy it gives to the performer, what satisfaction it brings to the listener. There is really

no point

in making music any other way. R

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Sunday

October

5:00 p.m.

Chamber Chorus

Monday

October

8:00 p.m.

All / COCC