It’s probably a safe assumption
that most of you have some sort of access to the Internet. It’s
probably even more certain that most…don’t have a lot
of spare time to “surf the Web,” unless perhaps you’re
a master at time management.
However, a growing amount of useful
resources can be found online, so if you’re not using the Web,
you’re probably depriving yourself of a useful tool that has
the potential of improving your effectiveness as a conductor, educator,
and musician.
The self-proclaimed “Internet
Center for Choral Music” is ChoralNet.org, with which I have
been involved since its inception at the 1993 ACDA National Convention
in San Antonio.On the ChoralNet website,
you’ll find categorized links to choral-related resources that
could be useful in planning, recruiting, organizing, rehearsing,
performing, management, touring, and just about every other aspect
of choral endeavors.
In addition to links to other websites,
much of the information on the site is from the archives of Choralist
and ChoralTalk, two of the e-mail discussion lists that have been
in operation for over 10 years. You can learn more about those lists,
subscribe to them, and search or browse archived messages. Some significant
changes are being planned to those lists for 2005, including categorizing
them in a manner similar to the ACDA Repertoire and Standards system.
One of the largest collections of
links on the ChoralNet website is the “Directory
of Choirs on the Web,” which presently links to over 4,000
choir websites from 76 different countries. (To submit your choir
to this list)…please use the “Submit a choir
link” form on the site.
Another international choral music
website of great significance is MUSICANet.org, a “Virtual
Choral Library” containing information about composers, publishers,
and authors of choral texts, but more importantly, information about
over 140,000 publications of choral music. The information on individual
pieces of choral music includes such details as the level of difficulty,
duration, and publication information, but sometimes also translations
and even pronunciation of the text, and links to sound clips or full
recordings. Once you have registered with the MUSICA website, you
have free (but somewhat limited) access to the vast amount of information
found there. If you want unrestricted access to the information,
you may purchase a DVD-ROM for use on your personal computer (for
$99).
MUSICA is a project of the International
Federation for Choral Music, located online at IFCM.net. The ICFM
was founded in 1982 “for the purpose of facilitating communication
and exchange between choral musicians throughout the world.” The
organization sponsors many different projects (including ChoralNet)
and choral music symposia, with the triennial World Symposium on
Choral Music coming up this summer in beautiful Kyoto, Japan. I have attended three of the World
Symposia and was each time impressed by the quality and variety of
choirs and workshops.
Our national organization is online
at ACDAOnline.org, where you’ll find an increasing amount of
useful information, including discussion forums, information about
conventions, and the Choral Journal Interactive section, which contains
additional links and resources related to articles from the Choral
Journal. Useful information can be found in many of the R&S committee
sites, and you can contact National, Division, and State officers
via e-mail links.
This brings me to the local level:
your very own websites. Some of you have already taken the plunge
and created websites (or delegated that task) for your own choirs
and choral programs. Putting information online can be a daunting
task, but has a variety of rewards, including: increased public exposure;
enhanced communication with your singers and their families; and
improved supportive resources for your ensemble members (such as MIDI files for part learning, links to choral recordings,
or translations of current repertoire).
Be advised that copyright laws do
apply to websites! You can’t legally put recordings of copyrighted
works on a website without the express permission of the copyright
holder, unless it’s only a brief excerpt (30 seconds or less).
This restriction even includes recordings that you intend to use
only for educational purposes. Every member of ACDA, upon joining,
has agreed to the following clause:
“As an ACDA member, I will comply
with the copyright laws of the United States of America as they pertain to printed music or the downloading
of music off the Internet.”
As a Web designer and host, I’m
involved with multiple musical organizations that use internal e-mail
lists to communicate with one another, which is far better than using
the “Address Book” of your e-mail software to send to
groups of people. The e-mail lists can be managed online…in
the case of the middle school music program where my brother teaches,
this is done by a volunteer (parent) “Communication Coordinator.” I’ve
set them up so that a password is required in order to broadcast
a message to any of the e-mail groups, one being created for the
students and parents of each of his class periods. The system filters
out e-mail viruses and spam, and is much quicker than the traditional “phone
tree” they used previously.
Another example of use of the Web
as a work saver is in gathering information for concert programs.
A growing number of websites contain translations of non-English
choral works, and you can usually find those translations by using
a good Web search engine, such as Google.com. If you find a translation
that you’d like to use in a concert program, you should follow
the contact information found on that website to ask permission to
use the translation in your program, unless they’ve obtained
it elsewhere. In that case, you should be sure to obtain permission
from the source of the translation, or find another one (there are
often dozens available of popular works). At that point, copying
and pasting the text into your own concert program should be very
easy.
In this article, I’ve scratched
the surface of some of the Internet-related topics that I think could
be of interest to the Arizona choral music community. For example,
did you know that there are over 8,000 free downloadable choral scores
at the Choral Public Domain Library?
dtopping
(at) choralnet (dot) org
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1. Ownership of a program is key to its growth and development. Develop
strategies to have the singers involved with and responsible for their
own successes and failures. Avoid blaming. Accentuate problem-solving.
2. Blend is not a four-letter word. Blend is not
bland. Choirs sing with blended sound when every member of the chorus
sings the same pitch at the same time with the same dynamic and the
same articulation with the same vowel sound. To ask voices to match
each other in vocal color is to remove an important ingredient in vitalized
choral singing.
3. The essence of the choral program is music selection.
You have the responsibility and the privilege to make the curriculum
anew each semester by the literature that you choose. In the process
you are shaping not only voices, but lives. Does the choir have the
ability to sing well the literature that you have chosen?
4. Be wary
of choosing a piece of music because a. the singers, b. the parents,
c. the administration, d. the Rotary Club, or e. the local TV affiliate
wants you to perform it, unless you also think it is a good piece
of music. The above is null and void if the piece is an alumni tradition.
5. The singers will mirror the energy that they
perceive coming from the podium. Pace yourself. You have great energy
in September; so do your students. How do you keep it through December,
through April, through June? Singers will never give you back more
than you give to them.
6. Never critique the past. Always critique
the future. Yesterday's performance was the best that it could be
in the time allowed and under the circumstances provided. And if that's
not true, then that's food for future decisions. Enjoy the music
that you make today, and be vigilant about how it can be better tomorrow.
7. Of all the factors that you consider in choosing
a piece of music, the most important is text. Never sing a piece that
has a text that puts you off or that you cannot relish for the 2-3
months required to bring the piece to performance. You may treat the
text in a symphonic sense or in a poetic sense. The way that you treat
words goes a long way toward the quality of the musical experience.
8. Don't follow me; you will be behind. (R. Shaw)
Singers make the rhythm; singers establish the beat. Ensembles who
have mastered the concept of corporate rhythm have the opportunity
to make distinctive music.
9. During rehearsal, when you stop to critique
the music, you can say one of five things: higher/lower, earlier/later,
softer/louder, brighter/darker, shorter/longer. When you stop, determine
which of those five you want to say and say only that one. Then sing
again. If the singers do well, say so or keep going. If they don't
do it, stop and repeat yourself, using slightly different wording
if necessary. This comment does not apply to brief explanations about
the history of the piece, meaning of the poem, or an inspirational
message. However, in general if your rehearsal is balanced less than
75-80% singing to 20-25% talking, then you may want to reexamine
your rehearsal procedure.
10. Your are what you read; you are what
you think. The thought manifests as the word; The word manifests
as the deed; The deed develops into habit; The habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care and let it spring from
love born out of concern for all beings; As the shadow follows the
body, as we think so we become. From the sayings of the Buddha.
______________________
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Robert Russell is Professor of Music in the School of Music
at the University of Southern Maine
Robert can be reached at:
rrussell (at) usm (dot) maine (dot) edu
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 This
is an amazing thing, since from the 1st day of class, 'Alex' (not his
real name!) has been the weakest singer in the Freshmen Choir. Since
our high school has NO feeder program in the elementary schools that
send kids here, and NO general music either, for that matter, we get
a lot of kids who take Freshman Choir who have NEVER sung an identifiable
note in their life. Always a challenge (and a potential thrill/disaster!)
We are not always successful in instilling a 'love of singing', but
we do manage to win more than we loose. Alex is a WINNER! Alex, like
a lot of 14 boys, has a significantly new and bigger body! Big hands,
big feet, big heart. Takes some getting used to, for him as well as us.
Now, in Freshmen Choir, we start singing within 75 seconds
of the bell! "Welcome,
Freshmen! We're so glad you're here! I'm Mr. Berg. Please sing with me!"...and
off we go. Plenty of time to talk later, but we SING from the get go!
Just exercises and explorations at first, announcements later, more
singing and the beginnings of 'voice checks'. During voice checks, 'Alex'
took his turn; it was loud, courageous and nowhere near the pitches requested.
So, I tried to time it so that he was singing as the bell rang to end
class. Then I just asked him to finish as everyone else was leaving and
I'd write him a note into his ! next class.
Then we had "the talk!!". "Alex," says I, "can
you tell that you're not singing the same note I'm singing?" Deer-in-headlights-stare.
Nope, he hasn't a clue what language is coming from my face!
So, we go to the LARGE grand staff on the wall and play
a little game. "Let's
play a game, Alex. Let's play tag. Here's how it works; you sing your
favorite note and I have to find it." Same vacuous stare, with slightly
raised eyebrows.
"Just say 'LA' for 10 seconds and I have to find it on the piano" (sometimes,
they just can't sing "LA", but they're willing to hum! It's
works also). Give and example, he grins and does it! As suspected, his
'note' is somewhere between B-C3. OK.....a place to start! Then I take
his chubby index finger and place it on the "C" space on the
F clef staff.
"This is your note, Alex! Call it by it's name!" I sing "C",
he sings "C" (sometimes, this takes some adjusting!) "Great!
Now just for fun, sing "C" and then move your finger up to
the line and sing "D". He actually does it!
With a little more exploration and cajoling, (I get all excited while
this is going on!) Alex finally realizes that he is singing three identifiable
pitches!
Then I say to him, "OK, Alex. These are your notes. You have two
jobs. Watch your music carefully; whenever these three notes appear,
sing out! When the bass part uses any other notes, sing softly. We'll
keep working every day to add more notes to your arsenal! All this took
about 4 minutes! Sent him to class with note and a little encouragement.
He's thinking "my teacher just took extra time with me....wow!"
Also, and this is important, I arranged to meet him for 5 minutes every
day before he goes to lunch. (Sometimes, we have to do it before school,
or after school, or on a study hall.....whenever! It just has to be a
regular schedule for about 3-4 weeks!)
Over the next couple of days, Alex discovers that he
has a very lovely low "E2". Seizing the opportunity, I say to him, "Alex!
What a GREAT NOTE! I need boys who can sing that note! Desperately!!
But, a low "E" is pretty useless without a high "E4" to
match it! That's your job, by the end of this quarter, you need to be
able to sing two octaves, "E-E-E". Let's keep working"
Alex doesn't quite have all of both octaves yet, but he has a goal
and HE can tell that he's making progress...and so can the other kids
in the class!
In fact, he LOVES it so much that he keeps singing all the way down
the hall after choir class....every day!
The teachers have asked him not to do this; just too much youthful
enthusiasm, I guess. But I LOVE it, 'cause he loves it and it transcends
the walls of any classroom! THIS boy will sing the REST of his life!!
Amen, and Amen......Golly! I love this job!
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Ken Berg is R&S Chair for Senior High
Choirs for Alabama's ACDA. He is director of the Birmingham Boys Choir.
Ken can be reached at:
ken (at) birminghamboyschoir (dot) com
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For as long as I can remember, my New
Year has never begun on January 1. The New Year for me begins with
the start of the school. As a student each new school year brought new
hopes, anticipations, resolutions, dreams, and goals. The beginning of
a school year was a time for rededication and recommitment to my music,
my studies, and myself. It was a time that challenged me to once again
fill to overflowing my “inch of space
in my moment of time.”
As we gather here this morning on the verge of this new school year,
half a world away over 10,000 athletes, coaches, and trainers from 203
countries, and some 150,000 spectators from around the world are gathered
for the Olympic games in Athens, Greece. For many of us Athens is city
of which legends, albeit seemingly mythical, were made – Plato,
Aristotle, and Socrates in Philosophy, Aeschulus, Sophocles, Euripedes,
and Homer in Literature, Pythagorus in Mathematics, Herodutus in the
writing of ancient history, Alexander the Great in military strategy.
Athens is home to such ancient architectural structures as the Acroplylus,
the Pantheon, and the Parthenon – the mere images of which evoke
both an immediate recognition of and unmistakable relation to the ancient
Greek capital and an equally visceral, fearful reminder of a 9 th grade
social studies test that required us to differentiate between Ionic,
Doric and Corinthian columns while only viewing the swigglies at the
top of some marble slab, or trying desperately to recall the difference
between Zeus and Apollo.
In a world where we can find countless reasons and lines of demarcation
that cause us to include those like us and exclude those
who are different – color, race, language, nationality, political
or religious beliefs, income, education – the history of our own
city, Birmingham, has taught us that such prejudices lead only to hatred,
bigotry, and, when taken to the worst of extremes, violence. Music, like
sports, has always been an art that transcends and nullifies such classifications
and prejudices. When we create music we dare to expose a depth of ourselves
that others are often uncomfortable exposing. And, as musicians we understand
the value of each voice no matter how different or unlike our own.
We live in a society of “I want it now”! Drive throughs,
drive ups, all you can eat, microwavable waffles, jiffy pop popcorn,
infomercials at all hours promising you that you can lose 50 pounds in
3 days, buy a house with no money down, send a check and receive a mail-order
college degree and learn the play the piano in three easy lessons. Our
society wants it all and wants it now. The problem is . . . that is not
how it works. You can’t lose 50 pounds in 3 days and you can’t
learn to play the piano in an hour and half. The very best things in
life are hard. They require work, time, patience, practice, and persistence.
People who fail don’t do so because they decide to fail. They fail
because they decide not to do whatever it takes to succeed. Often the
difference between success and failure is not that much. To a swimmer,
a tenth of a second may be all that it takes to set a new world record.
In the long jump, an inch can make a difference winning gold or silver
or no medal at all.
In my years in the classroom, I have found that those who fail often
put forth 90% of the effort needed to truly succeed. For whatever reason,
they are not willing to do what it takes, to make the sacrifice to go
the remaining 10%. The battle is won and dreams achieved in the final
inches of the race. It is the hardest part and requires more work than
all the other combined. Those who are truly successful in our chosen
field are those who are willing to commit that extra two hours of practice
each day, one more lap in the pool, or one more time around the track.
What we do is hard and it is hard for a reason – if it weren’t
everyone would do it. I’ll tell you a secret - to be truly successful
in this business of music you need two things – talent and an indefatigable,
burning desire to work hard. One without the other is sure failure, but
given both in good measure is an equally sure recipe for success.
Frequently a student will visit with me and say, “I think I’d
like to be a music major – do you think I should?” I answer, “Is
there anything else you can do that will bring you lifelong happiness?” If
their answer is “yes”, I strongly encourage them to go do
it. If their answer is “no” then music is right where they
belong. Music is fun. Music is beautiful, inspiring, motivating, uplifting,
and challenging. Music is also a lot of work but the rewards that come
from music, beautifully made, are like no other in the world.
When we are brought to think about history – the thousands of
years since the first Olympic games - we are reminded that our time here
is short. In the almost inconceivable time that has passed since the
beginning of humans on this earth to the infinite time that will come
after we are gone, our moments here are but an inch. What we do in our
inch is what is really of value. The mark we make on our world, not how
quickly we achieve it, is what those who come after us will measure and
remember. Great men and women of history were often great not because
they were the smartest or the richest of even the most talented. They
were great because they dared to dream dreams that others thought silly,
set seemingly unachievable goals that others thought unattainable, and
committed themselves to work harder than most others were willing.
As we find ourselves at another new year’s eve, I challenge you
several things: resolve to take all you can from a vast storehouse of
knowledge and talent that our faculty possess and are willing to share
with you for the asking; resolve to set your own goals, establish your
own strong work and practice habits, not based on what those around you
are doing or not doing, but on what you know you need in order to truly
succeed; resolve and dare to expose yourself and your passions through
your music; resolve to say “Thank you” more and offer excuses
less; resolve to break out of your comfort zone by doing something everyday
that scares you; resolve to take the time to make and nurture true friendships;
resolve to do something that helps someone else but benefits you in no
way; resolve to venture into the last 10% that leads to true success
and greatness. In doing so, you will have filled your inch of
space in this moment of time.
I wish each of you the very, very best in this New Year. |
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Jeff Reynolds is
Associate Professor of Music and Chair of the Department of Music at
the University of Alabama, Birmingham. He gave this talk at a music orientation
session for music majors in August of 2004.
Jeff Reynolds may be reached at: jwr(at)uab (dot) edu |
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