How Lovely Are the Messengers. Felix MendelssohnâSATB, kybd. 0-8006-7775-7 $1.75 h $2.25. How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place. Psalm 84. Carl J. Nygard Jr.âSATB, fl and pno. 0-8006-2381-9 $1.95 h $2.50. How Lovely Is Your Dwelling. Paul BoumanâSAT
Improving the Learning Curve: Using MIDI, Sequencers, and Synthesizers to Broadcast Choral Parts in Rehearsal ................................................................... 31 ~~~na~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
LITERATURE FORUM Cover art by David Sebald. Art accompanying Town article is S. L May's painting of Racedown. where William and Dorothy Wordsworth lived from 1795 ro 1797.
A Select List of Twentieth-Century Music for Mixed Chorus and Small Instrumental Ensemble ..... 33 by Teresa Bowers
The Choral Works of Antonin Dvorak: An Annotated Discography ........................................... 45 by Nick Strimple APRIL 1997
PAGE 1
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
AFFILIATED ORGANIZATIONS
ANTICIPATED that the 1997 National Convention in San Diego, California, would be one of the greatest in the history of ACDA, and it certainly lived up to our preconvention expectations. Records were shattered in all categories: the highest sales in program-book advertising, the greatest number of exhibitors, and the largest number of registrants and international guests. The 1997 National Convention will be remembered and tall{ed about for years to come. ___~ne_conventioQyenueswerellrst-:rate.Ihe San Diego-ConventionCenter,-1ocated. on sparkling San Diego Bay, and the San Diego Concourse, home to the Civic Theatre and Golden Hall, provided wonderful settings for interest sessions, reading sessions, and magnificent concerts. The historic Gaslight District proved to be an enchanting and popular setting for gatherings of friends. One of the mostm6Ving-momehtsofthe cCinventi6nwa:s-thepterhierihg ofclie-tWo Raymond W Brock commissioned works. Jacob's Prayer; composed by Gian Carlo Menotti, was beautifully performed by the Oklahoma State University Concert Chorale, the Texas Christian University Concert Chorale, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Concert Choir, and the San Diego Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Roger Melone. The combined choirs, orchestra, and soloists Linda Poetschke and Roger Bryant also thrilled concert attendees with Herbert Howells's Hymnus paradisi. The second commissioned work, God Be with Us, composed by Stephen Paulus, received a spetacular performance by the combined Community and Two-Year College Honor Choirs, under the direction ofWilliam B. Hatcher. Other concerts featured the best in American and international choirs, proving that music and music education are still a vital part of the world community. Artistic ability and performance standards remain high due in great measure to the continued committnent of teachers and conductors worldwide to further the choral art at all levels. In addition to inspiring concerts, ACDA members were treated to a full menu of valuable reading sessions, interest sessions, and bremast roundtables. After each national convention the question arises, "Can it get any better than this?" It is difficult to imagine that it can, but it always does. I want to thank Convention Chair Jim Moore and all the dedicated members of the National Convention Planning Committee, especially steering committee members Bill McMillan and Don Trott, whose diligent efforts made this convention such an overwhelming success. I would also like to thank Wenger Corporation for providing stage equipment for the convention, and I extend appreciation to the Wenger Foundation for cosponsoring the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir. Everyone involved in convention preparations is to be commended for their tireless efforts in malcing the 1997 National Convention one for the record books.
Gene Brooks STATEMENT OF MEMBERSHIP The American Choral Directors Association is a nonprofit professional organization of choral directors from schools, colleges, and universities; community, church, and professional choral ensembles; and industry and institutional organizations. Choral Joumal circulation: 18,000. Annual dues (includes subscription to the Choral Jouma/): Active $55, Industry $100, Institutional $75, Retired $25, and Student $20. One-year membership begins on date of dues acceptance. Ubrary annual subscription rates: U.S. $25; Canada $35; Foreign Surface $38; Foreign Air $75. Single Copy $3; Back Issues $4. ACDA is a founding member of the International Federation for Choral Music. ACDA supports and endorses the goals and purposes of CHORUS AMERICA in promoting the excellence of choral music throughout the world. ACDA reserves the right to approve any applications for appearance and to edit all materials proposed for distribution. Permission is granted to all ACDA members to reproduce articles from the Choral Joumal for noncommercial, educational purposes only. Nonmembers wishing to reproduce articles may request permission by writing to ACDA. The Choral Joumal is supported in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. Recognizing its position of leadership, ACDA complies with the copyright laws of the United States. Compliance with these laws is a condition of participation by clinicians and performing groups at ACDA meetings and conventions.
President - Patricia Wiehe 2435 Glenhill Drive Indianapolis, Indiana 46240 Treasurer - Paula J. Alles 1471 Altmeyer Road Jasper, Indiana 47546 ._. ___ ._._c_c__ ~OWA
____ .____ ~_~ ____c ____.
CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION President - Janiece R. Bergland 2534 155th Street Floyd, Iowa 50435 Secretary/Treasurer - Bruce A. Norris
_. ______.__._4~0 Map~_~~~5_________ Mondamin, Iowa 51557 MINNESOTA CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION President - Allan Hawkins 500 South Jefferson Street New Ulm, Minnesota 56073 Treasurer - Richard F. Edstrom 2305 Winfield Avenue, North Golden Valley, Minnesota 55422 MONTANA CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION President - Peggy Leonardi 161 Eastside Highway. Hamilton, Montana 59840 Treasurer - Larry Swingen Box 670 Malta, Montana 59538 NEBRASKA CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION President - David H. Moore 12740 Deauville Drive Omaha, Nebraska 68137 Treasurer - Clark Roush York College P.O. Box 438 York, Nebraska 68467 OHIO CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION President - Peter G. Jarjisian School of Music, Ohio University Athens, Ohio 45701 Treasurer - Robert M. Hartigan 8770 Landen Drive Maineville, Ohio 45039 TEXAS CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION President - Randy Talley 3654 Lorna Drive Odessa, Texas 79462 Secretary/Treasurer - Chetyl Wilson 9393 Skillman, #122 Dallas, Texas 75243 WISCONSIN CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION President - Kevin Meidl 916 South Park Avenue Neenah, Wisconsin 54956 Secretary/Treasurer - Michelle Klotz 2648 North Lefeber Avenue Wauwatosa, Wisconsin 53213
Periodicals postage paid at Lawton, Oklahoma, and additional mailing office. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Choral Joumal, Post Office Box 6310, Lawton, Oklahoma 73506-0310.
Volume Thirty-seven
PAGE 2
INDIANA CHORAL DIRECTORS ASSOCIATION
Number Nine
CHOR.AL JOUR.NAL
FROM THE PRESIDENT
ACDA OFFICERS PRESIDENT Lynn Whitten College of Music, University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado 80309 VICE-PRESIDENT John Haberlen School of Music, Georgia State University University Plaza Atlanta, Georgia 30303 PRESIDENT-ELECT Jim Moore School of Music, East Texas Baptist University Marshall, Texas 75670 PRESIDENT-ELECT DESIGNATE Milburn Price School of Music, Samford University Birmingham, Alabama 35229 TREASURER Elaine McNamara 2863 NE Twenty-third Avenue Lighthouse Point, Florida 33064 EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Gene Brooks P.O. Box 6310, Lawton, Oldahoma 73506 405/355-8161· Fax: 4051248-1465 CENTRAL DIVISION PRESIDENT Charles K. Smith School of Music, Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan 48824 EASTERN DMSION PRESIDENT Michele Holt Stonington High School 176 South Btoad Street Pawcatuck, Connecticut 06379 NORTH CENTRAL DIVISION PRESIDENT Lauretta Graetz 2706 River Woods Lane Burnsville, Minnesota 55337 NORTHWESTERN DMSION PRESIDENT Thomas A. Miller Warner-Pacific College 2219 SE Sixty-eighth Street Portland, Oregon 97215 SOUTHERN DIVISION PRESIDENT Kenneth Fulton School of Music, Louisiana State University Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 SOUTHWESTERN DIVISION PRESIDENT John Yarrington P.O. Box 250768 Little Rock, Arkansas 72225 WESTERN DIVISION PRESIDENT James O. Foxx 2554 Twain Avenue Clovis, California 93611
----ll'lDlJSXRY-ASSOCTATF REPRESENTATIVE Lynn Sengstack Shawnee Press, Inc. . 49 Waring Drive Delaware Water Gap, Pennsylvania 18327 PAST PRESIDENTS COUNCIL William B. Hatcher School of Music, University ofIowa Iowa City, Iowa 52242 Maurice Casey Colleen J. IGrk Walter S. Collins Theron IGrk Harold A. Decker Diana J. Leland Morris D. Hayes Russell Mathis Charles C. Hirt H. Royce Saltzman Warner Imig Hugh Sanders Elwood J. Keister David Thorsen
APRIL 1997
ACDA Conventions Foster Great Memories t
T
HE FOURTEENTH NATIONAL CONVENTION of ACDA held last : month in San Diego will not be forgotten. Reminiscences will vary from , person to person among the five thousand members in attendance. Numerous moments of exquisite music-making and several significant happenings will vie for high ranking with previous ACDA-convention magic moments. In my memory, the most moving ACDA events from the past include the Kansas City performance par excellence of the University of Southern California Chamber Singers, conducted by Charles Hirt; the impeccable Army Chorus concert in 1977 of Schubert's music, with the hauntingly beautiful encore Bridge over Troubled 'Waters, Allen Crowell conducting; the Dale Warland Singers' intensely moving performance of Herbert Howells's Take Him, Earth, for Cherishing at the 1989 San Antonio Convention; in 1995, the singing and playing of music by Schlitz and Monteverdi in the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts by Harvard-Radcliffe's Collegium Musicum, Jameson Marvin conducting; and Brahms's Ave Maria elegantly and eloquently performed during the same convention in Constitution Hall by unbelievably young artists in the National Honor Boychoir, James Litton conducting.
San Diego Convention Highlights Those of us at the San Diego Convention may now add new memories. A huge leap forward was made within our Repertoire and Standards network with highly successful honor choirs in the Community and Two-Year College areas. We were able to hear and see in action longtime idol and revered pedagogue Eric Ericson as well as the Slovenian newcomer and master performer Andraz Hauptman. The exciting premiere of eighty-five-year-old Gian Carlo Menotti's newest' choral/orchestral work Jacob's Prayer (a Raymond W. Brock Endowment commission) was paired with Howells's spectacular Hymnus paradisi. Equally memorable were the lecture and performance-practice demonstration by Mozart scholar Neal Zaslaw. Where else but at an ACDA convention could you enjoy these extraordinary events coupled with performance after performance by more than a dozen of the best choirs in our nation. We experienced a glorious four-day celebration of the choral art. Highest plaudits are due President-Elect and Convention Chair James Moore, Bill McMillan, Donald Trott, and the other National Convention Committee members for over two years of untiring planning and expediting.
Hats Off to Gene Brooks The person who enables our national conventions, in fact all ACDA events, is Executive Director and special friend Gene Brooks. Anyone who has not been on a convention planning committee has no inkling of the ends to which our Executive Director must go to facilitate the myriad aspects of a convention. Nor does anyone who has not spent time at ACDA Headquarters in Lawton understand the complex and frantic day-to-day activities the Executive Director supervises. It was our great pleasure in San Diego to honor Gene Brooks for his twenty years of ACDA leadership. We know the two-thirds of the membership not able to participate in the convention join the fortunate ones of us who were there in saying, "Magnificently done! Thanks, Gene."
Lynn Whitten PAGE 3
FROM THE EDITOR
EDITORlAL BOARD
Editorial Board Changes T THE MARCH MEETING of the Choral Journal Editorial Board, Chester Alwes and Mitzi Groom completed their terms of service on the board. We thank them for their many hours of work and valuable input in determining Journal content. We welcome two new board members, Victoria Meredith and Lawrence Schenbeck. They each bring to the board a particular expertise and perspective that helps to maintain a balance representative of ACDXs broad constituency. Meredith . ~teaches ..at-the-University-oLWestern-Ontario".London, ·Ontario,-Ganada.-She-Gonducts an award-winning women's ensemble, Les Choristes, and teaches conducting, voice, and vocal techniques. She has done considerable work with children's and youth choirs and edits a series of choral octavos for Kjos Music. Her scholarly contributions to the Choraljournal have included articles on Purcell's opera choruses and the roles of ·Bianms ai1cl-Scnul5ertin theaeveloprrient of tnewomen's·clii>iiaufiIigt'he Iiineteentli century. Schenbeck teaches music history at Spelman College, Atlanta, Georgia. His list of scholarly achievements is highlighted by the recent publication ofjoseph Haydn and the Classical Choral Tradition (Hinshaw, 1996), the first book to appear in ACDXs Composer Series. His current research projects involve eighteenth-century vocal music and social issues in twentieth-century American music.
Upcoming Composer Anniversaries Jean Sturm of the Centre d'Art Polyphonique d'Alsace, at the Universite de Strasbourg, has assembled a complete list of composer anniversaries 1995-2000. Internet users can access it at the ChoralNet Resource Site~http://www.sdsmt.edu/ choralnetl. For writers interested in pursuing timely research in the coming summer months, following is a selected list of composers celebrating significant anniversaries in 1998. Lorenzi Allegri (1573-1648) Johann Michael Bach 06481-94) Hildegard von Bingen 0098-1179) William Dawson (1898-1992) Gaetano Donizetti 0797-1848) Thomas Ford (15801-1648)
Josephus Gallus (1550-98) George Gershwin (1898-1937) Roy Harris (1898-1979) Andrew Law (1748-1821) C. H. H. Parry (1848-1918) Tomas Luis de Victoria (15481-1611)
ASSQCIATE EDITQR Nina Gilberr University of California-Irvine Music 292, Building 714 Irvine, California 92697 714/824-3854; fax: 714/824-4914; e·mail: [email protected] MANAGING EDITQR Barron L. Tyner Jr. P.O'. Box 6310 Lawton, Qklahoma 73506 405/355-8161; fax: 4051248-1465 e-mail: [email protected] EDITQRIAL ASSISTANTS Joanna Teel Division of Music, University of Texas at San Antonio San Antonio, Texas 78249 phone and fax: 210/458-5680 e-mail: [email protected] Allison S. Lowe 3889 Clover Lane Dallas, Texas 75220 EDITQRIAL BQARD MEMBERS Richard J. Bloesch School of Music, University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa 52242 David L. Brunner Deparrment of Music, University ofCenrral Florida P.O'. Box 161354 Qrlando, Florida 32816 Corydon J. Carlson P.O'. Box 9517 Bolron, Connecticur 06043 Christine D. de Catanzaro School of Music, Georgia Srare University University Plaza . Atlanta, Georgia 30303 Sharon A. Hansen Department of Music, School of Fine Arrs University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee P.O'. Box 413 Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53201
To mirror this poetic shift in tone, Finzi pivots abruptly from B minor to B~ minor and slows the tempo dramatically from animando = c. 144) to andante sostenuto = c. 56). Thus, where only a few measures earlier the music had been blatantly rhetorical, it becomes introverted and intimate (Figure 5). The ensuing philosophical stanzas of the poem are, at times, muted or ecstatic. The structure of Finzi's choral work closely parallels the structure of the poetic ode. In Banfield's reading of the work, the central investigation into eternal life is telegraphed by the immortality motif at the beginning of stanza five ("Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting"). In fact, however, it appears at the end of stanza four and the beginning of
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is but a sleep and a for - get - ting: r - 3 ---, r - 3 ---,
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11
stanza five (Figure 6), between the end .of stanza six and the beginning .of stanza nine (stanzas seven and eight having been emitted) (Figure 7), and in the middle .of stanza nine between lines thirty-twe and thirtythree (Figure 8). Thus, Finzi uses his musical leitmetif as Werdswerth dees his reiterated literary theme in the .ode; it changes as it appears in different centexts. As Werdswerth expleres the intimatiens .of ___ immertality threugh_peeticmetaphers~eL astenishing pewer (".obstinate questienings," "high instincts," "first affectiens," and "shadewy recellectiens"), Finzi dees semething .of the s.ort by explering the different harmenic and intervallic relatiohshipsof~l1is cempesitienal device. As each statement .of the literary theme provides intellectual illuminatien fer the reader, each statement .of the leitmetif provides musical illuminatien fer the listener. Furthermere, in the .ode, the backward and ferward mevement .of the reader's theught, caused by the recurring peetic images, aids in giving a centinueusness and largeness .of mevement te the peem. In additien te the musicalleitmetif, Finzi uses his bittersweet meledy as a refrain te imitate this effect in his cheral setting. From the beginning .of the ninth stanza te the end .of the peem, Werdswerth rises, in the werds .of Gingerich, "te a supreme height .of meral grandeur."6 The startling pewer with which the peet expresses the petency .of his experiential belief is matched by the flux and reflux .of Finzi's music. The ferward surge .of the antecedent part .of each musical sentence .or sectien in stanza nine is met by the subsidence .of the censequent sentence .or sectien. Fer example, the dizzy raptures .of "0 jey! that in .our embers / Is semething that deth live," underpinned by Finzi with ebullient, sixteenth-nete palpitatiens, is met later by the pledding resistance .of "But fer these .obstinate questiens / Of sense and .outward things." The mysterieus pelypheny .of "Blank misgivings .of a Creature / Meving abeut in werlds net realised" is arrested by the hemephenic escillatiens .of" ... .our mertal Nature / Did tremble like a guilty Thing surprised." The line "... truths that wake, / Te perish never" thrusts ferward te lead, via the diatenic assurances .of the immertality metif and a selemn choral processien, te the sixteenth-nete undulatiens at "Our Seuls CHORAL JOURNAL
ravvivando
have sight of that immortal sea / Which brought us hither."
The composer affirms intellectually and musically the poet's philosophical musings on the condition ofhumankind and the nature ofexistence.
The second "joyous song" passage at the beginning of stanza ten suggests to Finzi a recapitulation of musical material from stanza three. The playful, selfconfident manner of "We in thought will join your throng" is ennobled by the aching beauty of the climactic "Though nothing can bring back the hour / Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower." The DI-major pungency of "We will grieve not, rather find / Strength in what remains behind" is answered by the chromatic propensity of "In the soothing thoughts that spring / Out of human suffering." The epilogue, stanza eleven, begins with a tranquil tenor solo and concludes with an unaccompanied choral statement that begins "Thanks to the human heart by which we live." Finzi utilizes simple compositional components-diatonic harmonies and melodic and rhythmic patterns that follow the agogic stress of the text-to close the work with a deep poignancy (Figure 9). Banfield, who favors an interpretation of the poem as a lament for Wordsworth's failing creative power, sees Finzi's final choral section as "not merely ambivalent but lame," because it "emphasizes the uncomfortable flatness of Wordsworth's" penultimate lines: "Thanks to the human heart by which we live, / Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears."7 In Banfield's reading of the ode, Wordsworth cannot come to terms with what he lost with the passing of childhood, nor does APRIL 1997
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New Issues
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Rene Clausen
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••••• New 1997 Catalogs Now Available Mark Foster Choral Catalog Compact Discs for the Choral Conductor Selected and Annotated Books for the Choral Conductor complimentary copies available
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A Classified Index of American Doctoral Dissertations and Dissertation Projects on Choral Music Completed or Currently in Progress through 1989. (1990) 177pp. by Michael J Anderson
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The Choral JOllmai: An Index to Volumes 19-32. (1992) 134pp. by Scott W. Dorsey
~o1t1loOgra.ph ::N"00_ 8 American Singing Societies and Their Partsongs: Ten Prominent American Composers of the Genre (1860-1940) and the Seminal Singing Societies that Performed the Repertory. (1994) 112pp. by William Osborne eeeeo@oeooe • • • oeeeeoeeeeooeo.oeeoseoeeoeeGee
Send check or money order, payable to ACDA, to: Monographs' ACDA' P. O. Box 6310· Lawton, OK 73506-0310 Monographs are shipped immediately upon receipt of order.
RE H EARSAL BREAKS Improving the Learning Curve: Using MIDI, Sequencers, and Synthesizers to Broadcast Choral Parts in Rehearsal by Jonathan Brown INCE its inception in the early process is analogous to reading a book to distinct sound, was difficult to distin1980s, MIDI (Musical Instrument a child. Reading specialists agree that the guish from the other parts, the singer Digital Interface) has assumed a va- more words beginning readers see and could simply move the balance of the riety of functions for music educators. hear, the better readers they become. The stereo to the right and eliminate all the One of the most helpful is sequencing. A idea is to allow them to hear the word other parts. For the chorister, the resequencer provides tools that allow the correctly, while seeing it, until they can hearsal tapes extended the rehearsal time user to record, edit, and play back music read it on their own. So too with begin- throughout the week and helped to keep notes fresh. using a MIDI instrument or a compat- ning music readers. The choir, by listening to the tapes, ible sound card. Broadcasting to the Choir In 1984, I began to sequence into my learned the music at record speed. They Recently, I took the idea of using secomputer the vocal and instrumental parts could listen to their part coming from of major choral compositions such as the right side of the stereo on their way quencing a step further. I decided to use Handel's Messiah, Bach's St. John and St. to work, or while jogging, or around it in "real time" in the rehearsal. I wanted Matthew Passions, and several others. I the house. If the part, even with its to isolate and send to the separate vocal sequenced them as a score-study exercise so that I could better understand the composition. In the process of entering all the parts, I discovered that I could isolate individual parts and listen to them separately and in context. I decided that if I was learning the score by listening to it, the choir could Performing ArtsTours Since 1955 too. Once entered into the computer, the separate choral and instrumental parts could be manipulated in a number of CHRISTMAS IN VIENNA ways. I assigned a MIDI channel to an individual vocal part. I played the part on a synthesizer set to a trumpet sound and Celebrate your next Christmas season in Vienna (or sent it to the right channel of the rePrague, Salzburg, Budapest and Munich) where the corder. I put the remaining vocal and European tradition remains strong. instrumental parts into the left channel using a synthesized piano stop so that the Perform your holiday repertoire in magnificent full harmony could be heard at the same churches, cathedrals and halls at the height of the time that the isolated vocal line was being concert season. Take advantage of lower air fares and --------"~'--""'''''''-'~~~~=~~~~=~-I-----.-.s·et:these neat cities without-the-sttmm-el~erowd~s.,--------I--played from the right channel. I made a 0 master tape, duplicated it for each singer To start planning your tour for December or January, in that section, and I repeated the process 1997/98, please contact: for each vocal line. I found that the reading skills in the Noelle Tsigounis choir improved using this method. The
S
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PAGE 31
sections their individual parts-all at the same time. One way of sending individual parts to the singers would be to give each choir member a set of headphones. That, however, would be a little impractical (wires all over the place) and expensive (there are close to a hundred singers in the choir). I decided to transmit the parts via FM radio waves.
The singers in each vocal section tuned to -the frequency
that was broadcasting their part. I asked each choir member to bring to rehearsal' a Walkman or any small radio with FM headset. Using MIDI, I linked
the sequencer to a multi-voiced synthesizer--one that accommodated ten separate MIDI channels with ten corresponding audio outputs, because the choral work I was teaching required eight channels for the voice parts and two for the accompaniment. From the synthesizer I ran the eight voice parts into four stereo FM transmitters, one into the left channel and another into the right channel. I tuned each transmitter to afrequency that W.,-"S,"'h"'i"'n«..e_____________---" SAB, two-part mixed, or unison, keyboard add to the anthem's festive character. If Daniel Moe Pilgrim, NCA 02, $1.25 performed as either two-part mixed or SATB, organ SAB, this anthem will sound sufficiently Theodore Presser, 312-41678, $1.10 Choosing a suitable Easter anthem for full due to the accessible range and a small church choir is not always an easy voicings. The anthem is also lengthy Daniel Moe offers a stirring Epiphany task. This one is a valuable find, because enough to be a complete offering for Eas- anthem well within the abilities of the of its rhythmic and harmonic interest, ter, but without being overly repetitive; small choir. His setting of a text from lilting yet accessible melody, flexible voic- its contrasting B section offers a softer Isaiah 60 is characterized by bright uniing, and quality text (with alterations) by mood as well as melodic and harmonic son proclamations (,'Arise, shine, for your nineteenth-century writer Christopher contrast. light has come") interspersed with homoDonaLd CaLLen Freed phonic writing. The voices are supported Wordsworth. The piece has a contempoAPRI L 1997
PAGE 63
by a strongly rhythmic organ accompaniment of moderate difficulty. A brief, unaccompanied middle section ("For behold, darkness shall cover the earth") provides dynamic and expressive contrast. Ranges are accessible throughout. This anthem will be easily mastered by most church choirs, yet it is of the highest musical and theological quality.
Matthew Greer
au
Be Thou My Vision Hal Hopson (arr.) SATB, keyboard, two optional C instruments Brookfield (Hal Leonard, agent), 0870491, $1.25 While Hal Hopson's arrangement of
Be Thou My Vision indicates SATB voicing, only five measures necessitate four distinct parts. The remainder of the work
Cleveland State University Department of Music
TIlliRoBERTPAGE CLEVELANDSINGERS
is scored for either unison or two-part mixed voices. Thus, this graceful arrangement of the traditional Irish hymn is very well-suited to choirs with minimal forces. Three stanzas of the text by Mary E. Byrne and Eleanor H. Hull are set, each with a different musical treatment of the familiar melody. The harmonic language is straightforward, and no excessive musical or technical demands are made on either the singers or accompanist. Twoflures_QC violins would add color to the overall sound. The instrumental parts are included in the octavo. Neither part is difficult. This is a very attractive treatment of this sturdy and unpretentious melody, use~ ful for many occasions.
David Stein
CHORAL CONDUCTING WORKSHOP June 23-28, 1997 Study with Renowned Conductor & Master Teacher Robert Page Conduct the Robert Page Cleveland Singers in Concert Three Levels of Participants Ample Podium Time For more in/ormation contact: Betsy Burleigb, Cbai/; Cboral & Vocal Music Department ofMusic Cleveland State University Euclid Ave. at E. 24tb Street Cleveland, OH 44115 Pbone: (216) 687-3998 FAX: (216) 687-9279 email: [email protected] Cleveland State University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity institution
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