Welcome, dear students!
It's new year's eve, and everybody's talking about it....including me, it seems. This is, perhaps, a little silly, since today really just feels like another new day, and it will come and go as winter days do (but with extra bluster here in Denver....gusts over 60 MPH, they say). Everyone feels a certain urge to take stock of things -- which my astrologically minded friends might say has more to do with Saturn frowning down at us little earthlings as we labor under the influence of Capricorn than it does with the somewhat arbitrary turning of the year. But, who am I to fight this influence....as you all know, I seldom turn down a chance for some good reflection.
2011 was turbulent, violent, and downright frightening at times. Revolutions and disasters and deaths of prominent people seemed almost commonplace. Hope and fear have danced wildly, as it seemed like every day brought news of some new financial resolution or disaster for the global market. I remember frequently thinking to myself, "Is every year this eventful? Why don't I remember anything like this before?" And, it could be that my own state of affairs as a person finishing a terminal degree (in other words, coming to the end of my last journey as a student to academia's never-never-land) is the cause of my take on 2011 -- I am certainly guilty of being mostly out of the loop on world events when my own little life has me otherwise occupied, and maybe a part of me is just waking up to what everyone else has been saying for years. However, I hear a lot of people around me saying similar things about this year in particular....2011 was a doozy.
So, what to do? We are musicians and artists, not economists or world political leaders. We aren't even engineers or doctors. What can we do? Why does our intonation or rhythmic acuity or performance practice matter in a world that is eating itself alive? I ask myself these kinds of questions a lot (here and elsewhere), and every once in awhile, I get a sliver of answer...
Last night I had dinner with a good friend, and she had spent an absurd amount of time that afternoon at the DMV, during which she passed the time by talking to someone next to her in line. The person she spoke with was a veteran of the war in Afghanistan, and he had some very interesting things to say about his experiences there, particularly about the ways in which the US is "helping" the Afghan people. Specifically, he mentioned that US troops are building schools, which sounds like a lovely thing, right? Well, there's a bit of a problem...there's no money or infrastructure to put books, teachers, or students in these school buildings and run them as schools, and the intended students are part of a culture that doesn't conceptualize education in the same way we do, so the western concept of a school is something that just doesn't compute. So, the buildings wind up standing empty, or they wind up getting repurposed by insurgents, and US troops then have to blow up the buildings they just built. This guy was really frustrated about all of this -- frustrated enough to tell a stranger in line at the DMV about it, and honest enough to say that he didn't know what the answers are. I certainly don't have the answers either, but I can take a stab at diagnosing the cause.
When I first arrived in Hungary for my 10-month stint, I showed up expecting to be disoriented. I expected to need to learn about my environment, adjust to new things, find my way around, etc. I was not at all ready for the constant gnawing feeling that it took me weeks to acknowledge, and probably months to name. The problem was this: nothing about my environment told me that I was who I said I was. The signs on the street, the people around me, the procedure for buying produce at the grocery store -- all those things were foreign, they had been the way they were long before I got there, and would be that way after I left. It had nothing to do with me, and that scared me to death, and I didn't know why. In retrospect, this was just culture shock, but many Americans go through their entire lives without working through a case of it, so we have no idea how "American" we actually are. We live our lives calmly unaware that our pragmatic choices are extremely value-laden. We can't buy a carrot or wash a sock or drink a glass of water without having assumed a whole slough of things about the world around us, and those assumptions are almost 100% unconscious. We think we're being objective, we think we're being pragmatic, and we're actually preaching a gospel we don't even know we believe.
So, what's art got to do with it? Well, what do we learn from art? We learn subjectivity. We learn exactitude. We learn expression. We learn about difference. We learn about interpretation. And, while we still probably have to be caught in the act a lot of times before we really start to get it, this training does give people a basic construct for the idea that different isn't necessarily wrong or bad, and that subtle changes really do matter. It's funny, isn't it? Artists get a pretty bad rap for having "artistic personalities" and for following crazy whims and making irresponsible life choices, but an artistic education might be the best hope any person has for understanding and respecting other people. Why? Because as long as your judgments are unconscious (and therefore you just think of them as "logic"), they control you. As soon as you learn to acknowledge judgments as judgments, it might knock you off-balance, but then you get to be in charge...and you can change your own mind. Like the writer of this poem says, you keep working on it, even though someone might get hurt. You examine yourself, become responsible, and you are able to help others do the same.
My friends, 2011 is at her end. We have worked hard, and we will continue into the new year. I invite you to be the reflective people you are, in your personal lives and your artistic lives, and to allow one to infect the other. Be happy. Enjoy your lives of teaching and music-making. Work on yourself, build up your weaknesses and celebrate your strengths and the strengths of others. Nurture yourself and your students with beauty and goodness, so that you can be strong enough not to shy away from difficulty and ugliness. Say yes. Love each other.
All Levels:
Just some listening assignments this time around....
Cells Planets - Chanticleer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl12ZXZeqa4
Conspirare/Craig Hella Johnson
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_qfeE0TjyY
Sweet Honey in the Rock
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCVvoL_F5gA
Happy new year!
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Delving in...
Hello, Solfeggists on Holiday!
I don't know about you, but I'm having a little trouble conjuring up much ambition for work at the moment -- it's been a busy concert season, and the Christmas weekend was more demanding than I'd anticipated. These winter holidays are one of the best and hardest times of year to be a choral musician (or really, any kind of musician), and I've always loved the fact that I get to help make them special for other people. Beginning in high school and on through college, it seemed to me that the end of concert season was the end of Christmas, and I wished it would just go on and on. Well, that particular wish seems to have come true, and now I wish I could fully recapture the joy I used to feel in doing this work.
If I know me, however, the only way to make this wish happen is the right proportion of rest (I'm blogging in my pj's on this fine late morning, which always helps!) and pushing through the tasks at hand. You see, we are lucky, you and I. We have work to do that has a fairly obvious and direct link to meaning and beauty, and a lot of the time, we get to see the end product. That's a lot more than many people can say about their professional lives -- in fact, some of those folks come to us and the work we do on their own time because they want a taste of what we get to experience.
To be honest, it takes all my discipline to believe in this little pep talk, and it's not my intention to make anyone (including myself) feel guilty for taking some time to regroup. We all need that. But, I know that when I wallow too thoroughly for too long in the world of pajamas and TV, I just wind up getting depressed. So, wallow....somewhat....and then maybe put the TV on mute for 30 minutes or so and delve into a little listening, singing, and analysis to feed your inner musician. You might be surprised at how good it feels.
All you folks will need to track down your Music for Analysis book....
Rising Level 2's
no. 166, p. 106 (Schubert - Dance in D-flat)
no. 170, p. 109 (Rameau - Minuet in G minor)
Your procedure:
-Sing through the melody in solfa (these pieces are both very much in "cantilena" style, meaning that the melody lives in the top voice, and it's quite singable as long as you make some judicious octave decisions).
-Play through the piece and mark cadences (the preceding singing step will hopefully make that easy).
-Go phrase by phrase and apply Roman numerals, stopping to re-assess if anything doesn't make sense (e.g., if you find yourself marking a whole lotta iii chords, or if you think you've found a ii-I progression...).
Rising Level 3's
no. 233, p. 165 (Bach - In dulci jubilo)
no. 234, p. 166 (Bach - Christ lag in Todesbanden)
Your procedure:
-Sing through the melody in solfa (In dulci jubilo is very straightforward, and you may use either A-la or D-la or a combination for Christ lag).
-Play through the piece and mark cadences
-Go phrase by phrase and apply Roman numerals (which should be fine for In dulci jubilo) OR solfa chords (highly recommended for Christ lag)
Rising Level 4's
no. 357, p. 289 (Strauss - Morgen)
Because this piece is a little on the complex side...
-Listen to any one of several lovely YouTube recordings of the piece (many of them won't be in this key, but don't be thrown).
-Sing through the melody in solfa (I'd start in the key indicated by the signature, but on a chromatic syllable...when things get wacky at the end, use your listening experience to inform your solfa).
-Do a letter-name chord analysis first, and then go back and try to apply Roman numerals where it seems logical to do so. Take particular notice of the final chord and its figured bass configuration. Why do you think Strauss wrote it that way? Do you think it has to do with the text of the song (a translation is conveniently located at the end of the piece)?
Enjoy!
I don't know about you, but I'm having a little trouble conjuring up much ambition for work at the moment -- it's been a busy concert season, and the Christmas weekend was more demanding than I'd anticipated. These winter holidays are one of the best and hardest times of year to be a choral musician (or really, any kind of musician), and I've always loved the fact that I get to help make them special for other people. Beginning in high school and on through college, it seemed to me that the end of concert season was the end of Christmas, and I wished it would just go on and on. Well, that particular wish seems to have come true, and now I wish I could fully recapture the joy I used to feel in doing this work.
If I know me, however, the only way to make this wish happen is the right proportion of rest (I'm blogging in my pj's on this fine late morning, which always helps!) and pushing through the tasks at hand. You see, we are lucky, you and I. We have work to do that has a fairly obvious and direct link to meaning and beauty, and a lot of the time, we get to see the end product. That's a lot more than many people can say about their professional lives -- in fact, some of those folks come to us and the work we do on their own time because they want a taste of what we get to experience.
To be honest, it takes all my discipline to believe in this little pep talk, and it's not my intention to make anyone (including myself) feel guilty for taking some time to regroup. We all need that. But, I know that when I wallow too thoroughly for too long in the world of pajamas and TV, I just wind up getting depressed. So, wallow....somewhat....and then maybe put the TV on mute for 30 minutes or so and delve into a little listening, singing, and analysis to feed your inner musician. You might be surprised at how good it feels.
All you folks will need to track down your Music for Analysis book....
Rising Level 2's
no. 166, p. 106 (Schubert - Dance in D-flat)
no. 170, p. 109 (Rameau - Minuet in G minor)
Your procedure:
-Sing through the melody in solfa (these pieces are both very much in "cantilena" style, meaning that the melody lives in the top voice, and it's quite singable as long as you make some judicious octave decisions).
-Play through the piece and mark cadences (the preceding singing step will hopefully make that easy).
-Go phrase by phrase and apply Roman numerals, stopping to re-assess if anything doesn't make sense (e.g., if you find yourself marking a whole lotta iii chords, or if you think you've found a ii-I progression...).
Rising Level 3's
no. 233, p. 165 (Bach - In dulci jubilo)
no. 234, p. 166 (Bach - Christ lag in Todesbanden)
Your procedure:
-Sing through the melody in solfa (In dulci jubilo is very straightforward, and you may use either A-la or D-la or a combination for Christ lag).
-Play through the piece and mark cadences
-Go phrase by phrase and apply Roman numerals (which should be fine for In dulci jubilo) OR solfa chords (highly recommended for Christ lag)
Rising Level 4's
no. 357, p. 289 (Strauss - Morgen)
Because this piece is a little on the complex side...
-Listen to any one of several lovely YouTube recordings of the piece (many of them won't be in this key, but don't be thrown).
-Sing through the melody in solfa (I'd start in the key indicated by the signature, but on a chromatic syllable...when things get wacky at the end, use your listening experience to inform your solfa).
-Do a letter-name chord analysis first, and then go back and try to apply Roman numerals where it seems logical to do so. Take particular notice of the final chord and its figured bass configuration. Why do you think Strauss wrote it that way? Do you think it has to do with the text of the song (a translation is conveniently located at the end of the piece)?
Enjoy!
Monday, December 19, 2011
To tell the truth...
Greetings, dear readers!
It's a snowy winter's evening here....just right for the week before Christmas, the darkness of the winter solstice almost at its full strength. I think I just might have finished all my Christmas shopping this afternoon, and while there's still Christmas Eve and Day left in the realm of holiday singing obligations, things have finally slowed down. The cycle of the year brings around lots of memories as it moves, and in my line of work, those memories sometimes appear unexpectedly in the form of people who I associate with a past time or former place showing up to concerts in my here and now. And, since the nature of the season inevitably leads to some exhaustion, verbal filters sometimes don't work so well.
This is all sort of an oblique way of saying that I said a little more of what I meant than I really should have at least one time yesterday, and I feel a little bad about it. I'm inclined sometimes to blame my penchant for excessive honesty in these moments on my parents' choice of a name for me, which is derived from Gabriel, angel of the annunciation. Naming a kid after a celestial being who had to start most of his sentences with, "Fear not!" seems like kind of a set-up to me. I've met a few other folks in my time whose names have the same derivation, and we do seem to have this in common...the urge to proclaim sometimes just overrides common sense.
I'm mostly not serious about this, but I'm a little serious about it. People sometimes engage in behavior that is not the best choice for a given situation. People have default settings that steer them consistently in a particular direction, and while it is possible to override those settings under optimal conditions, tiredness has a way of bringing out whatever is most natural or most habitual. For me, that often includes telling the truth...the whole truth, and way more truth than anyone really wants, in far more detail than is necessary or helpful. There have been situations in my life where this tendency has served me excellently -- and probably many more situations where this tendency has gotten me into trouble or made other people feel awkward or created other kinds of problems. We all have stuff like this, I believe. In A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle deals with these kinds of hard-wired personality traits through the character of her protagonist, Meg Murry, who is in the throes of pubescent angst, and is very unhappy, even downright ill-tempered, for much of the book. However, at the moment of crisis, it is Meg's temper and stubbornness that actually winds up saving the world. L'Engle still refers to these traits in Meg's personality as "faults," but it makes me wonder: can the traits that save us truly be considered faults?
To look at the same idea from a different angle, consider a group exercise/pep talk my dear guest blogger, Ted, likes to have with his choirs sometimes:
"Ok, will everyone in this room who is perfect please raise your hand?"
[no one moves, nervous giggles ensue]
"Well, I have news for you. You're all wrong. Each of you is exactly who you need to be. Do you always do perfect? No. But, you all are perfect, right now, today, at this very moment."
So, no matter what we do -- all of us, any of us, even the jerk who stole your parking spot, or the moron who screwed up your account at the bank, or the nasty lady who yelled at you for cutting in line at the coffee shop even though you apologized and said you didn't see her -- we are operating from a good place. We're doing the best we can under the circumstances. It is not easy to believe, and it isn't a release from responsibility or a license to do whatever we want, but...
We're perfect.
And there's nothing that can be done to change that. You can't screw up.
Pretty liberating...and when you get to thinking about it, extremely scary. Sometimes we all feel like freaks/jerks/morons/nasty people...but this is what we've got to work with. And, speaking of work:
Rising Level 2's
Take a look at this piece:
http://www3.cpdl.org/wiki/images/sheet/han-mf10.pdf
Many of you will recognize it -- you're probably used to hearing a soloist sing essentially the same material before the chorus comes in....
For our purposes, use this scheme for the key changes:
in m. 5-6, all parts will move into A Major
at the pickup to m. 19, all parts will return to D Major
in m. 26 and 29, the G-sharp and C-natural are just chromatic inflections
So, you may do as you wish with this piece, but in the spirit of today's blog theme, consider this: what comes the most naturally to you in solfa class? Singing? Analysis? Memory? Sight-singing? Dictation? Whatever your strengths are, design some activities for yourself with this piece that give you a chance to delight in what you already know you do well.
Then, ask yourself about your weaknesses in the solfa classroom. Whatever these might be, design some other activities that will help you build your skills in these areas.
Rising Level 3's
For you, a setting by William Byrd of the same text, but in Latin:
http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/images/9/9a/BYRD-SUR.pdf
You're on your own for key area choices (though I will tell you that the opening signature is a little deceptive....perhaps even a little Dorian....), but follow the same procedure as the rising level 2's -- seek out your own strengths and weaknesses, and use this piece as a tool to work with both.
Rising Level 4's
And for you, a polychoral setting by Palestrina of the same text, also in Latin:
http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/images/sheet/pal-surg.pdf
You, too, are on your own tonally, and should follow the same procedure as the others -- use what you know best and do best to access what is harder for you. After all, this is what it's all about.
Notice that the text of all three pieces has everything to do with the theme, too:
Arise, shine, for your light has come!
It's a snowy winter's evening here....just right for the week before Christmas, the darkness of the winter solstice almost at its full strength. I think I just might have finished all my Christmas shopping this afternoon, and while there's still Christmas Eve and Day left in the realm of holiday singing obligations, things have finally slowed down. The cycle of the year brings around lots of memories as it moves, and in my line of work, those memories sometimes appear unexpectedly in the form of people who I associate with a past time or former place showing up to concerts in my here and now. And, since the nature of the season inevitably leads to some exhaustion, verbal filters sometimes don't work so well.
This is all sort of an oblique way of saying that I said a little more of what I meant than I really should have at least one time yesterday, and I feel a little bad about it. I'm inclined sometimes to blame my penchant for excessive honesty in these moments on my parents' choice of a name for me, which is derived from Gabriel, angel of the annunciation. Naming a kid after a celestial being who had to start most of his sentences with, "Fear not!" seems like kind of a set-up to me. I've met a few other folks in my time whose names have the same derivation, and we do seem to have this in common...the urge to proclaim sometimes just overrides common sense.
I'm mostly not serious about this, but I'm a little serious about it. People sometimes engage in behavior that is not the best choice for a given situation. People have default settings that steer them consistently in a particular direction, and while it is possible to override those settings under optimal conditions, tiredness has a way of bringing out whatever is most natural or most habitual. For me, that often includes telling the truth...the whole truth, and way more truth than anyone really wants, in far more detail than is necessary or helpful. There have been situations in my life where this tendency has served me excellently -- and probably many more situations where this tendency has gotten me into trouble or made other people feel awkward or created other kinds of problems. We all have stuff like this, I believe. In A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle deals with these kinds of hard-wired personality traits through the character of her protagonist, Meg Murry, who is in the throes of pubescent angst, and is very unhappy, even downright ill-tempered, for much of the book. However, at the moment of crisis, it is Meg's temper and stubbornness that actually winds up saving the world. L'Engle still refers to these traits in Meg's personality as "faults," but it makes me wonder: can the traits that save us truly be considered faults?
To look at the same idea from a different angle, consider a group exercise/pep talk my dear guest blogger, Ted, likes to have with his choirs sometimes:
"Ok, will everyone in this room who is perfect please raise your hand?"
[no one moves, nervous giggles ensue]
"Well, I have news for you. You're all wrong. Each of you is exactly who you need to be. Do you always do perfect? No. But, you all are perfect, right now, today, at this very moment."
So, no matter what we do -- all of us, any of us, even the jerk who stole your parking spot, or the moron who screwed up your account at the bank, or the nasty lady who yelled at you for cutting in line at the coffee shop even though you apologized and said you didn't see her -- we are operating from a good place. We're doing the best we can under the circumstances. It is not easy to believe, and it isn't a release from responsibility or a license to do whatever we want, but...
We're perfect.
And there's nothing that can be done to change that. You can't screw up.
Pretty liberating...and when you get to thinking about it, extremely scary. Sometimes we all feel like freaks/jerks/morons/nasty people...but this is what we've got to work with. And, speaking of work:
Rising Level 2's
Take a look at this piece:
http://www3.cpdl.org/wiki/images/sheet/han-mf10.pdf
Many of you will recognize it -- you're probably used to hearing a soloist sing essentially the same material before the chorus comes in....
For our purposes, use this scheme for the key changes:
in m. 5-6, all parts will move into A Major
at the pickup to m. 19, all parts will return to D Major
in m. 26 and 29, the G-sharp and C-natural are just chromatic inflections
So, you may do as you wish with this piece, but in the spirit of today's blog theme, consider this: what comes the most naturally to you in solfa class? Singing? Analysis? Memory? Sight-singing? Dictation? Whatever your strengths are, design some activities for yourself with this piece that give you a chance to delight in what you already know you do well.
Then, ask yourself about your weaknesses in the solfa classroom. Whatever these might be, design some other activities that will help you build your skills in these areas.
Rising Level 3's
For you, a setting by William Byrd of the same text, but in Latin:
http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/images/9/9a/BYRD-SUR.pdf
You're on your own for key area choices (though I will tell you that the opening signature is a little deceptive....perhaps even a little Dorian....), but follow the same procedure as the rising level 2's -- seek out your own strengths and weaknesses, and use this piece as a tool to work with both.
Rising Level 4's
And for you, a polychoral setting by Palestrina of the same text, also in Latin:
http://www1.cpdl.org/wiki/images/sheet/pal-surg.pdf
You, too, are on your own tonally, and should follow the same procedure as the others -- use what you know best and do best to access what is harder for you. After all, this is what it's all about.
Notice that the text of all three pieces has everything to do with the theme, too:
Arise, shine, for your light has come!
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Building Memories
Greetings, dear students!
Here we are, already up to the third Sunday of Advent! How did 2011 go by so very quickly?
I'm guessing that many of you are headed into a week full of concerts, and almost all of you will be dealing with stir-crazy students hopped up on too much sugar and the promise of the imminent winter break. This being the case, I'll try to keep things extra short and simple.
So, I was sitting in a church service this morning and we sang a hymn tune I particularly like (I've included it below for the rising level 4's), and I decided to see how much of it I thought I could sing from memory in letter names (and by sing, I mean audiate -- I think the person giving the sermon wouldn't have appreciated my little game very much if it had happened out loud). It only took a few minutes, and I was able to do it in a moment when I had to be sitting someplace quietly, but where I could divide my aural attention -- this would be a great bus-riding activity, or possibly driving, but be judicious on that one...I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting into an audiation-related car wreck. It's also nice to have a lovely new tune committed to memory, and that way you can share it with a friend or loved one.
The procedure will be basically the same for all levels. Take a couple days with each of the steps below:
Step 1: Listen to the tune a few times until you have it memorized (words are optional for my purposes, but you will probably want to learn them for your own use). Determine the form of the piece and start to think of it in phrases as you memorize, since that will help you with the steps below.
Step 2: Start to solmize the tune phrase-by-phrase. The rising 2's and 3's will keep the same solfa all the way through, but the 4's may choose to modulate if they wish. If you opt to modulate (which you could do more than one time, as it turns out...), be sure to keep track of where you've gone by remembering your original "do" -- otherwise, you'll be a little sunk for the next step.
Step 3: Once you can fluently sing the piece by memory in solfa, try singing it in rhythm names. Then, find a comfortable key for your voice, and start singing the tune in letter names. If things get muddled in the middle (especially for you 4's!), try for the first and last phrase and work inward. Once you're pretty sure you've got it right, write it down and check your notation (I'll leave the tracking down of a notational source to you so as to reduce the temptation to give up too soon).
What tripped you up? What was easy? Did you find it easier to commit the notes or the words (if you used them) to memory? Did you find that your memory of the tune was tied to your memory of the text? My hunch is that they will go together, simply because of the kinds of tunes being used.
Rising Level 2's
Take a listen to this lovely tune from Annie Lennox's new album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7s_zaF74gc
Rising Level 3's
I'm not crazy about the long pauses at the end of each phrase, but I think the voice on this old LP is quite sweet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_u07i1YdGY
Rising Level 4's
Again, there are some funny phrase things happening here -- if you find a recording of the tune "Jerusalem" (which is the same tune) that's more straightforward, feel free to bring it to my attention:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lpUk3UTJ14
I apologize for being so churchy...if you'd prefer to substitute something a bit more secular, but of a comparable level of difficulty, please feel free!
Enjoy!
Here we are, already up to the third Sunday of Advent! How did 2011 go by so very quickly?
I'm guessing that many of you are headed into a week full of concerts, and almost all of you will be dealing with stir-crazy students hopped up on too much sugar and the promise of the imminent winter break. This being the case, I'll try to keep things extra short and simple.
So, I was sitting in a church service this morning and we sang a hymn tune I particularly like (I've included it below for the rising level 4's), and I decided to see how much of it I thought I could sing from memory in letter names (and by sing, I mean audiate -- I think the person giving the sermon wouldn't have appreciated my little game very much if it had happened out loud). It only took a few minutes, and I was able to do it in a moment when I had to be sitting someplace quietly, but where I could divide my aural attention -- this would be a great bus-riding activity, or possibly driving, but be judicious on that one...I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting into an audiation-related car wreck. It's also nice to have a lovely new tune committed to memory, and that way you can share it with a friend or loved one.
The procedure will be basically the same for all levels. Take a couple days with each of the steps below:
Step 1: Listen to the tune a few times until you have it memorized (words are optional for my purposes, but you will probably want to learn them for your own use). Determine the form of the piece and start to think of it in phrases as you memorize, since that will help you with the steps below.
Step 2: Start to solmize the tune phrase-by-phrase. The rising 2's and 3's will keep the same solfa all the way through, but the 4's may choose to modulate if they wish. If you opt to modulate (which you could do more than one time, as it turns out...), be sure to keep track of where you've gone by remembering your original "do" -- otherwise, you'll be a little sunk for the next step.
Step 3: Once you can fluently sing the piece by memory in solfa, try singing it in rhythm names. Then, find a comfortable key for your voice, and start singing the tune in letter names. If things get muddled in the middle (especially for you 4's!), try for the first and last phrase and work inward. Once you're pretty sure you've got it right, write it down and check your notation (I'll leave the tracking down of a notational source to you so as to reduce the temptation to give up too soon).
What tripped you up? What was easy? Did you find it easier to commit the notes or the words (if you used them) to memory? Did you find that your memory of the tune was tied to your memory of the text? My hunch is that they will go together, simply because of the kinds of tunes being used.
Rising Level 2's
Take a listen to this lovely tune from Annie Lennox's new album:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7s_zaF74gc
Rising Level 3's
I'm not crazy about the long pauses at the end of each phrase, but I think the voice on this old LP is quite sweet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_u07i1YdGY
Rising Level 4's
Again, there are some funny phrase things happening here -- if you find a recording of the tune "Jerusalem" (which is the same tune) that's more straightforward, feel free to bring it to my attention:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lpUk3UTJ14
I apologize for being so churchy...if you'd prefer to substitute something a bit more secular, but of a comparable level of difficulty, please feel free!
Enjoy!
Monday, December 5, 2011
Beginner's Mind...and Deeper Magic
Greetings, solfa sojourners!
I apologize for the lateness of this post....it was quite the week in my little world.
First, I am now officially (drumroll....)......A.B.D. (all but dissertation)! This means that the comprehensive exam process is now completely behind me, and there's just a collection of projects and papers standing between me and a shiny new set of letters to follow my name: DMA. I'm currently curled up on my couch with a glass of Spanish wine and a variegated collection of dark chocolate (courtesy of a much-loved colleague), but The Josquin Companion is glaring at me a little from my bookshelf, and I well know that I'll have to get cracking if I really want to get 'er done in time for a May 2012 graduation.
However, the four concerts and two church services I sang this weekend have earned me an evening of moderate slovenliness (and a breakfast tomorrow morning of these...), and also a moment of reflection -- courtesy of, in part, the aforementioned church services.
The orals portion of the comps process is more than a little nerve-wracking, although I was incredibly fortunate to have an extremely gracious and supportive committee of professors who I believe to be truly invested in my success. Still, though, the prospect of two hours in a room with five extremely smart people tasked with finding out what you know is pretty sobering. I definitely felt the pinch (especially over the "game" one professor decided to play: he told me to study choral music from 1000 CE to 2010, and he had planned to pick four years at random from that millennial span, whereupon it was my job to talk about what happened in those years. In the actual exam, he picked 1190, 1757, and 1910...if you're looking for something musicological to do, do a little digging on these years and see what you come up with...). Interestingly, however, there was a moment in the middle of the exam when I was feeling at a loss for one thing or another, and this thought occurred to me:
"Thank goodness for having more questions to ask."
Not that I'd started to wonder whether or not I know everything....I harbor no delusions on that front. However, there's an unavoidable jadedness that comes with all these years of post-graduate education and the rigors of study and practice and working too hard. Familiarity just breeds contempt, no matter what one does. So, this is analogous to what the preacher on Sunday called "Deep Magic" (in the Narnian sense)...sowing and reaping, the inevitability of a pattern based on natural law. But there is, as Aslan said, a magic deeper still. Sometimes, through the grace of something unforseeable, we are shaken out of the pattern, and we see something new. It isn't the pattern that has changed, as it turns out. It's us. We look at something well-worn and well-known and our perspective is reborn. We are able to be present in a different way, and we are beginners again. A well-known Zen teacher spoke about this phenomenon, too -- he calls it "beginner's mind," and he claims it is always with us. This kind of shift (a move towards enlightenment, if you will) is always about to happen.
So, in this spirit:
Rising Level 2's
See if you can find these in your handouts from Level I:
Canon 109
Canon 106
Canon 75
Sing through each one, remembering the twists and turns of each. Are the things that tripped you up once still troublesome, or have they changed? Do you perceive the phrase structures the same way you once did? Do you hear or see anything new? Sing through one of the other canons on the same xeroxed page and compare the experience of singing something familiar (if distantly so!) with singing something new. How has your musicianship evolved? How has your approach changed, if at all?
Rising Level 3's
Break out your Classical Canons book and track these down:
Canon 115
Canon 117
Canon 179
Follow the same instructions as the rising 2's.
Rising Level 4's
Track down your Kodaly 15 2-part Exercises, please....
Look at exercise number 12 and sing through both lines.
How well do you remember them? Which parts are the easiest to remember? What makes them memorable? How has your experience of this piece changed since July? Now look at number 15 (which I think we looked at only in passing, if at all). How will you approach it? How does it differ from number 12, both in terms of difficulty and in terms of its construction? Does the appearance of accidentals elicit a different intellectual/vocal response from you now than it did in July? How have you changed since then?
It is my hope that you'll be pleasantly surprised by what you discover through these activities -- and even if you're not, my money's on the fact that you've all grown and changed and improved since I saw you last, even if it doesn't seem obvious at the moment. The hard part of this musical journey we're all taking is that we don't always get to enjoy our own progress. However, it's still there. The moment of revelation is always at hand. The deeper magic is never not at work.
I apologize for the lateness of this post....it was quite the week in my little world.
First, I am now officially (drumroll....)......A.B.D. (all but dissertation)! This means that the comprehensive exam process is now completely behind me, and there's just a collection of projects and papers standing between me and a shiny new set of letters to follow my name: DMA. I'm currently curled up on my couch with a glass of Spanish wine and a variegated collection of dark chocolate (courtesy of a much-loved colleague), but The Josquin Companion is glaring at me a little from my bookshelf, and I well know that I'll have to get cracking if I really want to get 'er done in time for a May 2012 graduation.
However, the four concerts and two church services I sang this weekend have earned me an evening of moderate slovenliness (and a breakfast tomorrow morning of these...), and also a moment of reflection -- courtesy of, in part, the aforementioned church services.
The orals portion of the comps process is more than a little nerve-wracking, although I was incredibly fortunate to have an extremely gracious and supportive committee of professors who I believe to be truly invested in my success. Still, though, the prospect of two hours in a room with five extremely smart people tasked with finding out what you know is pretty sobering. I definitely felt the pinch (especially over the "game" one professor decided to play: he told me to study choral music from 1000 CE to 2010, and he had planned to pick four years at random from that millennial span, whereupon it was my job to talk about what happened in those years. In the actual exam, he picked 1190, 1757, and 1910...if you're looking for something musicological to do, do a little digging on these years and see what you come up with...). Interestingly, however, there was a moment in the middle of the exam when I was feeling at a loss for one thing or another, and this thought occurred to me:
"Thank goodness for having more questions to ask."
Not that I'd started to wonder whether or not I know everything....I harbor no delusions on that front. However, there's an unavoidable jadedness that comes with all these years of post-graduate education and the rigors of study and practice and working too hard. Familiarity just breeds contempt, no matter what one does. So, this is analogous to what the preacher on Sunday called "Deep Magic" (in the Narnian sense)...sowing and reaping, the inevitability of a pattern based on natural law. But there is, as Aslan said, a magic deeper still. Sometimes, through the grace of something unforseeable, we are shaken out of the pattern, and we see something new. It isn't the pattern that has changed, as it turns out. It's us. We look at something well-worn and well-known and our perspective is reborn. We are able to be present in a different way, and we are beginners again. A well-known Zen teacher spoke about this phenomenon, too -- he calls it "beginner's mind," and he claims it is always with us. This kind of shift (a move towards enlightenment, if you will) is always about to happen.
So, in this spirit:
Rising Level 2's
See if you can find these in your handouts from Level I:
Canon 109
Canon 106
Canon 75
Sing through each one, remembering the twists and turns of each. Are the things that tripped you up once still troublesome, or have they changed? Do you perceive the phrase structures the same way you once did? Do you hear or see anything new? Sing through one of the other canons on the same xeroxed page and compare the experience of singing something familiar (if distantly so!) with singing something new. How has your musicianship evolved? How has your approach changed, if at all?
Rising Level 3's
Break out your Classical Canons book and track these down:
Canon 115
Canon 117
Canon 179
Follow the same instructions as the rising 2's.
Rising Level 4's
Track down your Kodaly 15 2-part Exercises, please....
Look at exercise number 12 and sing through both lines.
How well do you remember them? Which parts are the easiest to remember? What makes them memorable? How has your experience of this piece changed since July? Now look at number 15 (which I think we looked at only in passing, if at all). How will you approach it? How does it differ from number 12, both in terms of difficulty and in terms of its construction? Does the appearance of accidentals elicit a different intellectual/vocal response from you now than it did in July? How have you changed since then?
It is my hope that you'll be pleasantly surprised by what you discover through these activities -- and even if you're not, my money's on the fact that you've all grown and changed and improved since I saw you last, even if it doesn't seem obvious at the moment. The hard part of this musical journey we're all taking is that we don't always get to enjoy our own progress. However, it's still there. The moment of revelation is always at hand. The deeper magic is never not at work.
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