Moving forward

Hello, musical movers and shakers!

It's going to be quite the week in my little Colorado world -- the long-anticipated Tudors Conference gets underway on Thursday, and I'm up to my elbows in catering menus and university paperwork, but it looks like it might be a go! It's looking to be quite a thrilling time -- and for the musically minded, the conference will finish with a free Tudor Music Concert. I'm particularly excited to be welcoming the Firesign Vocal Quartet to perform a motet by Thomas Tallis and (especially!) William Byrd's Mass for Four Voices.

Anyhow, all this is by way of saying I think it's a good time for another Ottman true-blue sight-reading week -- something that takes just a few minutes and lots of focus, but no prep time.

Rising Level 2's

Chapters 5 and 6 are your playground! Remember to follow these steps:

1. Select your example

2. Check the key (remember to look at the final!) and the meter

3. Choose a moderate tempo, taking the smallest rhythmic division into consideration

4. Once you've set your key and your tempo, start, and keep going no matter what!

Rising Level 3's

If you're feeling nervous, use Chapter 12. If you're feeling sassy, check out Chapter 13.

Remember to follow the same steps as above, and if you use Chapter 13, add a sub-step to #2: look for accidentals, how long they last, and how they resolve.

Rising Level 4's

Chapters 15 and 16 have lots to work with, and they cover quite a spread of difficulty -- in general, the earlier examples in each subsection are simpler, but not always...

Follow the steps above, but as you scan the rhythmic landscape, you may also want to take syncopation or other more complex figures into consideration in choosing your tempo.

The most important thing is probably to just keep going...don't sweat the mistakes!

The Armed Man

Hello, solfa crusaders!

Whew! This week has been a whirlwind! Classes are in full swing, choirs are all back in session as of tonight...the plates, they are a-spinning!

The most unusual thing I've been up to so far has been a presentation I gave to Douglas County music teachers on repertoire-driven musical literacy. These nice people sat through a lot of me talking and asking them lots of strange questions (you know, the kind of stuff I torture you poor AKI people with for 3 weeks straight every summer) and giving them various "gifts" (see previous parenthetical statement). It was a really good learning experience for me, and at the end of the day's activities, a very nice woman who teaches elementary general music stayed behind to talk to me for awhile. In my tired end-of-the-day state, I probably overshared my personal convictions about musical literacy -- basically, that I think of it as comparable in many ways to teaching people in impoverished conditions to read and write language, thereby empowering them to make their lives better (and I probably said something about overthrowing their oppressors, too...I guess that means my default setting in a state of mental fatigue is "Norma Rae"...). And, to my hindsight's surprise, this woman not only didn't start backing out of the room, she seemed to really agree. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised at the general aura of receptivity over the course of the day. It seems that musical literacy may be an idea whose time has come.

Now, in my life as a graduate student, I am currently in a very cool class on vocal music in the Renaissance, and the focus of the first half of the class is polyphonic mass settings based upon the "L'Homme Arme" tune. Chances are you've come across this tune at some point in your musical studies, but I know I'm learning tons of stuff about it I never knew before...the folks writing these mass settings really went nuts with this tune, and folks in the 20th and 21st centuries have spilled a lot of ink over trying to figure out whose setting came first and what the significance of this tune was to the people who were using it (among other issues). I'll take the risk of over-simplifying and say that the tune definitely seems to have acted as a rallying point, a means for people to say that they were in on something, whether it was a musical idea, a military goal, or a political opinion. So, since I seem to be a little extra Norma Rae-ish these days, I thought we might have a little fun of our own with the Armed Man.

Rising Level 2's

Check out this link:

http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/images/sheet/ock-mlhk.pdf

Sing through the original melody, which you could think of as basically being in 6/4, but felt in 2 -- the number of dotted-half-note beats is 32 (31 + 1, actually -- for specific political reasons, it seems...if you're curious, look up The Order of the Golden Fleece). I'd sing it as so-so' Mixolydian (feel free to transpose if it's more comfortable).

Now, look ahead to Ockeghem's Kyrie and sing through the tenor line (note that it's in 3/2). With the exception of the last 4 bars, what's going on with the tenor line as it relates to the opening melody?

OK, now the fun begins -- go back to the original melody and add a B-flat to the signature. Now sing the melody with the B-flat (I recommend re-re' Dorian). What do you think? Do you like it better this way? As it turns out, lots of composers decided to use the tune this way, too....Ockeghem did, too, later in this same mass, but not in the Kyrie.

Go ahead and sing through the other voice parts as written. Heck, have a little L'Homme Arme sing-along with some of your pals!

Rising Level 3's

Go through the same steps as the rising Level 2's.

Now, in addition to singing the melody in so-so' Mixolydian and re-re' Dorian, I'd like you to also experiment with a two-flat signature (Aeolian) and a one-sharp signature (Ionian). What works the best for your ear? Apply your favorite rendition to a sing-through of one of the other voice parts of the Kyrie. What happens?

Rising Level 4's

Go through the same steps as the rising Level 2's.

Now, in addition to singing the melody in so-so' Mixolydian and re-re' Dorian, I'd like you to also experiment with a two-flat signature (Aeolian), a one-sharp signature (Ionian), and a two-sharp signature (Lydian). Lydian is particularly difficult....why? Would they have used this version in the early Renaissance? Why not? Apply your favorite rendition to a sing-through of one of the other voice parts of the Kyrie.

All Levels

Knowing what you now know about the opening contour of this melody, do you hear a striking resemblance to the chorus of this well-known tune:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOO8-Jp-xsg

Hmmmmm.....

Oh, and you can listen to a cool performance of the whole Ockeghem Missa L'Homme Arme here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68N791msDt0

Just keep following the links in the right sidebar to find the Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei. Now that you know the tune, can your ear pick it out of the polyphonic texture? Do you notice that the notes on the page for the Kyrie are somewhat altered in this performance, especially at cadences? What are the singers doing?

Enjoy!

Cooperation makes it happen

My dear friends:

It occurs to me today that I am extremely lucky.

School started back up this past Monday, which means a return to the helter-skelter busyness of my commuter-student lifestyle. And, a lot of big events are looming on the horizon, so there's a lot to think about. However, my path in the past week has been littered with little collaborative miracles. For example:

A colleague of mine completed a choral piece he wrote for my grad student choir to sing and for me to conduct and brought the first copy to our little basement office, and now I get to begin the process of helping to bring it to life. I think this is about the coolest thing ever.

A whole group of my choral pals and I gathered one evening to pool our collective skills for a listening/logistics/pedagogical strategizing party for an upcoming performance of the Bernstein Mass. Imagine: 9 conductors and 1 professional singer all in a room for the purpose of listening to a major choral work and deciding how best to handle its various challenges, and everyone not only contributed positively to the conversation, everyone had a good time.

And moments ago, a friend of mine who lived down the hall from me in a certain Hungarian monastery emailed me a document with an exhaustive poetic translation and analysis she'd put together for me, someone she hasn't seen or really spoken to in years. Why? Because I asked, and that's just the kind of person she is.

So, it seems that the fabric of this blockbuster of a semester is already shot through with threads of phenomenal generosity -- generosity of time, effort, and spirit, and I'm already amazed. It gives me hope, and it fills me with gratitude, and I'm hoping to spin this week's assignment to give all of you a chance to give and receive in this same spirit.

Rising Level 2's

Make a call or shoot an email to one of your classmates to see if s/he will be your buddy for this assignment. If you can't find a buddy, I'll happily fill in!

Prepare the following Ottmans:

8.20, 8.21, 8.26, 8.27

Make a phone date or two with your buddy and sing the melodies for one another. Encourage and help each other out, and offer helpful feedback. Share any tricks you used with your buddy. Then, take a few minutes and catch up on life!

Rising Level 3's

Make a call or shoot an email to one of your classmates to she if s/he will be your buddy for this assignment. If you can't find a buddy, I'll happily fill in!

Prepare the following Ottmans:

13.37, 13.38 (to modulate or not to modulate on the 3rd line....that is the question....), 13,39, 13.40

Make a phone date or two with your buddy and sing the melodies for one another. Decide whether to modulate or not and discuss the advantages to your choice. Encourage and help each other out, and offer helpful feedback. Share any tricks you used with your buddy. Then, take a few minutes and catch up on life!

Rising Level 4's

Make a call or shoot an email to one of your classmates to she if s/he will be your buddy for this assignment. If you can't find a buddy, I'll happily fill in!

Prepare the following Ottmans:

16.43, 16.44 (work on it in 4/4, but try to make it into 2/2, as notated) 16.48 (conduct, and don't go too fast!), and 16.51 (look at the whole thing before choosing your tempo)

Make a phone date or two with your buddy and sing the melodies for one another. If you think you'd like to modulate, discuss that decision with your buddy and see if s/he agrees. Encourage and help each other out, and offer helpful feedback. Share any tricks you used with your buddy. Then, take a few minutes and catch up on life!

Enjoy!

Give Peace a Chance

Hello All!

It's a snowy day here in Colorado, and it comes at the end of both winter break and a long weekend at a retreat here in town. And, as befits a snowy day, I'm staying in and preparing for the first week of a new semester. I'm also feeling pensive and sad in the face of yesterday's violence in Arizona, and like many, I fear we are reaping what we've sown. The way people talk to and about one another has been casually violent for a long time -- I know it's a part of my own vocabulary since I was a little kid. No one bats an eye when someone says, "Ugh! I think I'm gonna commit a murder!" or the like. It's just a way we vent our frustration, right? Maybe not. Maybe violence in our language and in our thoughts is a bigger problem than we realized. Maybe it has everything to do with how out of control we feel and how angry we are about some things.

Personally, I think it looks like a symptom of the political climate, but I believe the political climate itself may only be a symptom of a larger disease: passivity. See also apathy, the absence of meaningful engagement or expression, an inability to use one's own mind and heart to create and find purpose. It might seem that any individual's lack of personal fulfillment is far from a newsworthy item, but the sad truth is that yesterday's shooter certainly didn't act from a place of fulfillment. And maybe it's true that no amount of hugs or art classes or music lessons could have healed the sicknesses in his mind, it's probably true that there is much that could have been done to prevent what happened, and it is our responsibility to reflect on the circumstances that lead to this kind of violence.

Any statement of this kind is inevitably going to be an overstatement, but here it goes anyway: I believe Kodály was correct in his assertion that a world that is more cultured has the potential to be a world that is more peaceful. I believe this has less to do with the calming powers of music itself and much more to do with the fundamental human need for expression, the need to make meaningful subjective decisions, and the need to be secure in one's identity. Art is what enables people to fulfill these needs, especially when human beings actively engage in making art in whatever way is meaningful and appropriate for them. Voting for your favorite performer on "Dancing with the Stars" or "American Idol" does not get the job done, and while there's nothing wrong with these activities on their own, people treat these passive pastimes as a substitute for real live artistic activities. They neglect the part of themselves that needs attention, that needs to be creative, that needs permission to reach out and make mistakes, and so it channels itself into other things. It transforms into unbridled emotions and unconscious judgments, because the creative self is always a little kid -- and I don't have to tell an audience of educators what little kids do when they're ignored.

So, the assignment this week is the same for everyone:

All Levels

1. Listen. Spend time this week dosing yourself with music that soothes you and inspires you. Go to pandora.com and create a free account and make radio stations based on artists who move you, who make you want to dance, who make you want to cry, whatever. Open yourself up to the experience of listening as you get ready in the morning or as you settle down for bed at night. Listen with your child, with your significant other, with a friend. Just a few minutes makes a difference.

2. Create. Spend time this week making music on your primary instrument. If that's stressful, use your favorite secondary instrument. Just jam out a little bit. Dig out your favorite piece from your senior recital and play or sing through it. Get together with some friends and sing some canons over cups of cocoa. Sing in the shower or in the car. It doesn't have to be anything earth-shattering, it just needs to get you making a little music that's just for you.

3. Reflect. At the end of the week, or during a rare quiet moment, take a little time to think about the impact your listening and creating has had on you. Did you find it hard to do? Was it rewarding? If you like, write down some thoughts about the experience. Call a friend and talk about it. Shoot me an email. Whatever you like.

If you hate it when I get all soft-core and touchy-feely on you, I offer my apologies. I'm happy to send some Ottmans your way if you'd like -- just let me know. It just occurs to me that we have to set the example for healthy creativity if we expect it from others. We have to make peace in ourselves if we want to see peace in the world around us.

Scales of Rejoicing

Happy New Year!

The end of the Christmas season always makes me think of the closing of W.H. Auden's "For the Time Being", an extended poetic work Auden intended to be the libretto for an oratorio by Benjamin Britten. I learned about this work from my first solfa teacher and have been somewhat obsessed with it and the collaborations between Auden and Britten (including Hymn to St. Cecilia, one of my all-time favorite pieces of music) ever since.

"For the Time Being" contains the characters from the biblical Nativity story: Mary, Joseph, Gabriel, shepherds, Magi -- there's even a chilling and gorgeous stanza spoken by the Star in the east, but this ain't your mamma's Christmas story. The turmoil of the early 20th century and the struggles of human beings at that time to adjust to technology and its effects on culture are infused into the story, along with Auden's own personal struggles with faith and societal acceptance. "For the Time Being" is certainly and identifiably a product of its own time and circumstances, but for me, it also transcends that time, especially when Auden says this:

"...In the meantime
There are bills to be paid, machines to keep in repair,
Irregular verbs to learn, the Time Being to redeem
From insignificance. The happy morning is over,
The night of agony still to come; the time is noon:
When the Spirit must practise his scales of rejoicing
Without even a hostile audience, and the Soul endure
A silence that is neither for nor against her faith...."

Early January feels very bleak sometimes, when it's just after New Year's and everyone is trying to get to the gym, re-establish routine, eat more carefully, save money, be nicer to their relatives....it's a time of great energy and great promise, but the departure of holiday glamor can make for a rough go. I think that's what Auden meant by "scales of rejoicing" -- a new season of work has begun, and we are the ones who must find joy in it, 'cause Johnny Mathis doesn't sing any songs about January.

So, since this is the solfa blog, after all, let's see what we can do with a few scales of rejoicing:

Rising Level 2's

Your scales of rejoicing are: A major, E major, B major, F-sharp major, and C-sharp major.

Each day, use your tuning fork to find and establish one of these keys, then sing the scale in solfa & letter names.

Finally, find an Ottman example of your choice in that key and sing through it in solfa (or in letters, if you're feeling frisky).

Rising Level 3's

Your scale of rejoicing is Mixolydian mode (refer to "Modes Made Easy" in the right toolbar if you need to refresh your memory).

Each day, use your tuning fork to find and establish 2 different tonics (try to get through 12 possible starting points over the course of the week, avoiding double-flats) and sing Mixolydian mode with two different solfa systems, then in letter names.

After that, find an Ottman example of your choice that shares a tonic with one of your scales of the day and sing through it. If you're feeling ambitious, try changing the example into Mixolydian mode (meaning that you change "ti" to "ta")...obviously, this will work best if you choose examples in major keys.

Rising Level 4's

Your scale of rejoicing is Lydian mode (refer to "Modes Made Easy in the right toolbar if you need to refresh your memory).

Each day, use your tuning fork to find and establish 2 different tonics (try to get through 12 possible starting points over the course of the week, avoiding double-sharps) and sing Lydian mode with two different solfa systems, then in letter names.

After that, find an Ottman example of your choice that shares a tonic with one of your scales of the day and sing through it. Now, go back through the same example and change any "fa" to "fi". Does it sound modal, or does it sound like you're just tonicizing the dominant?

And, to close with yet more rejoicing...welcome to Baby Addie and congratulations to Mama Megan!!!