"Come Away to the Skies: A High Lonesome Mass"

In September of 2011 I was in the Portland area for Chor Anno's yearly brilliant concert since it included the premiere of my double choir reworking of William Billings' When Jesus Wept. Howard Meharg is the very fine conductor, founder, and musical director of Chor Anno, but my friend Reg Unterseher was the conductor for my piece, which takes the Billings canonical tune into very new and interesting harmonic and rhythmic territory. After the wonderful Chor Anno performance, Patrick Dill, a DMA student at University of North Texas studying with Richard Sparks, also performed the piece quite successfully with a UNT choir. Anyone interested in a perusal score please let me know either here or at paulcarey440@yahoo.com.

The title for the Chor Anno concert was "Come Away to the Skies: Sacred Music of Early America" basically utilizing part of the title of a new piece by ACDA executive director Tim Sharp and Wes Ramsay- Come Away to the Skies: A High Lonesome Mass. I have been meaning to blog about Tim and Wes' wonderfully creative piece for a long time- and now finally here it is!

Composers John Muhleisen, yours truly, Tim Sharp, and Wes Ramsay
(sorry it's not hi-resolution)

Come Away to the Skies is intended for concert presentation or within a liturgical service. Most of the performances so far have been in the concert mode, and recently added special slide shows and lighting designed by Tim and Wes have made the work an even greater success with audiences. The piece is not meant as a tongue in cheek novelty item with a fake feel to the bluegrass music- the music and texts have substance and creativity and truly represent the melding of traditions in the best possible sense. With that said, don't expect anything stuffy and academic- at the Chor Anno performance little grannies in the audience around me were tappin' their toes, especially to the Credo! The piece, which embraces both simplicity and also sublime matters of faith as well as musical folk tradition in this country, was a major highlight of the Chor Anno concerts.



 You can find very tasty  performances of all the movements of the piece on youtube, as performed by the Southern Nazarene University Choir, nicely directed by Jim Graves. That's Tim on the banjo in the video of the Credo!

FACTOIDS:

Inquiries about the piece and arrangements to perform it should be made by contacting Wes Ramsay at  augustpr@bellsouth.net. Wes sends a list of the choral movements and information on the rental of the instrumental parts. He then sends the material to a download site after a director determines a performance.

 

The piece is for mixed choir and double bass, guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and banjo. The instrumental parts can be modified and enhanced by players with improv skills (especially the fiddle part). There is no keyboard reduction. To me, the choral parts are very well-written and not difficult. I felt the Agnus, which incorporates the beautiful tune, What Wondrous Love is This,  was the epitome of grace and well worth performing either as part of the whole piece or by itself; thus I asked Tim right away whether they would allow excerpting of movements.There are plans to allow the Credo and Agnus Dei to be excerpted, with possibly other movements to follow. And just to clarify- although the titles of each movement are in Latin, the lyrics are in English.

  


2012 performances of the work were held at Seattle’s First Baptist Church, Berry College in Rome, GA, the Idaho ACDA Fall conference in Sun Valley, Tulsa, OK, and Ashville,NC.  2013 performances already set to take place will be in Gainesville, GA; Portland, OR; Columbia, MO, and Wichita, TX.

Tim will also be in London/Dublin in late December 2013 into Jan 2014 conducting both the Messiah by some dead guy named Handel AND Come Away to the Skies. You can read about it here.

NOTES  (© Goliard Music Group) by TIM SHARP [abridged for this blog by PC] 

Come Away to the Skies: A High, Lonesome Mass

This collection of music is a winsome set of folk-hymn arrangements originating in the mid-nineteenth century collections of the Sacred Harp and Southern Harmony, and organized around a significant liturgy of the church. The hymnbooks from which this music is found were unique to the southern region of the United States.

Tim Sharp

As Come Away to the Skies: A High, Lonesome Mass invites you into the hearing and singing of these timeless hymns, place yourself musically into a time when a singing experience paid little attention to the length of time of a service, but rather, invited you to enjoy community and extended gathering time through the learning of songs in singing schools, through shaped notes, and occasionally through days and even weeks of religious services. There is nothing nostalgic, however, about the poignancy and integrity of text and tune on which this collection is based.

The service known as a High Mass comes from the ordering of the Christian church liturgy into a standardized theological and dramatic liturgical flow. Many faith communities share this liturgy, in one form or another. Certainly, the Roman Catholic Church is known historically for the service of the mass, but Protestant groups such as Lutherans and Episcopalians also share the service. The adjective “high” before the word “mass” partially indicates a service that is chanted and sung, as differentiated from a service that is mainly spoken. The historic texts, usually known by their Latin name, form the various sections of the traditional mass: Introit, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei.

The working title for this collection plays on the word “High Mass”, by inserting a term unique to the history of the bluegrass musical style, which is the word “lonesome.” This description, coined by Bill Monroe, the so-called “Father of Bluegrass Music”, is the idea of bluegrass music as a “high, lonesome sound.” Monroe is referring to his own vocal quality and range, as well as a modal melodic contour, a quality shared by bluegrass vocalists such as Ralph Stanley, Del McCoury, Ricky Skaggs, and also heard in female musicians such as Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, and Dolly Parton. The subtitle, A High, Lonesome Mass plays on this combination of both service and sound.

The folk-hymns used to carry forward the ideas of the individual sections of the mass—“Kyrie”- “Lord, Have Mercy”; “Gloria”- “Glory to God in the Highest”; “Sanctus”-“Holy, Holy, Holy”-“Benedictus”-“Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord”; “Agnus Dei”-“Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world”—possess the same theological themes as these historic sections. These folk-hymns used come primarily from the Scotch-Irish theological and musical traditions, found uniquely in the American South, and published in the hymn collections mentioned above. Such hymn collections flourished throughout the American South in the mid-nineteenth century, and are repositories of some of the greatest hymns of that era.

The ballad and song tradition that migrated with early Irish, Scotch-Irish, Welsh, and English settlers into the southern Appalachian areas of Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, was as natural as the transposition of their verbal languages and customs. The thousands of songs that flooded into the valleys of the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers came from the lips of generations of folk performers of Southern Appalachia, and found their way into the culture and ways of the American South.

At first, cultural isolation kept music contained in the hills or in wilderness settings. But over time, population patterns caused a convergence of the various pods of population and cultures. Religion took a powerful hold on the settlers of these areas and in 1801, great revivals became popular in rural parts of the South. These gatherings resulted in a body of wilderness spirituals and folk hymns such as “Jesus Walked that Lonesome Valley”, “I Found My Lord in the Wilderness”, “Do Lord, Oh Do Remember Me”, “Down to the River to Pray”, and many, many more.

In the mid-nineteenth century, differences found in the American North and South were not limited to politics. There were differences in matters related to music and music instruction, as well. These differences were particularly distinct in matters related to hymn and gospel song publication and practice.

In the North, the European traditional practice of round-note notation prevailed, as well as a hymn tradition based on slow harmonic rhythms, parallel thirds and sixths and the use of common major keys. This tradition, known as the Reformed or Progressive Movement, promoted musical instruction through public schools, choral societies, music normal institutes, and the publication of sacred, educational, and popular music.

The South was more conservative and maintained the folk traditions and customs taught by the old 18^th century singing schools popular throughout the southern regions. This tradition was characterized by rapid harmonic movement, parallel fourths and fifths, and minor and modal keys. Hymn notation in the South was characterized by the Character Notation Group, or as it is commonly called today, shaped-notes. This method of music education and music reading was based on such pedagogical methods as letter and numerical notation, as well as four and seven shape-note tune books. Nashville, TN, maintained these traditions in both singing schools and hymnal publication. In the North, hymnbook publications were rectangular, but in the South, the distinctive hymn and gospel book publications were oblong in shape, and captured the nickname of “long-boys.”

Folk-hymns used for this collection as statements for the traditional mass texts are Come Away to the Skies (MIDDLEBURY), Brethren, We Have Met to Worship (HOLY MANNA), Brightest and Best of the Stars of the Morning (STAR IN THE EAST), What Wondrous Love is This (WONDROUS LOVE), and Do Lord, Oh Do Remember Me. Additional tunes and stylings are inspired by this tradition, and settings are based upon bluegrass stacked harmony, bluegrass rhythms, and other unique stylistic qualities, including “high, lonesome” modal vocals. Instrumentation requires the classic bluegrass combination of acoustic guitar, mandolin, fiddle, banjo, and double bass. Spoons, washboard. Bones, or snare may be added as desired.

Texts and tunes forming the basis of Southern Appalachian folk-hymns and the bluegrass music that came from the Appalachian areas of western Virginia, and eastern and middle Kentucky and Tennessee, share common features. These include the elegant simplicity of the poetry and theology of the hymns; the modal, folk-song quality of the tunes; and even the interval of the rising fourth at the beginning of many of the tunes, theorized to be not so much a compositional idea, but rather, as a “gathering tone” for the group to find their starting pitch. And, there is the underlying theme and tone of hope, and optimism for a better place and a happier day.

Happy New Year!

(photo: normal happy newt, not newtus gingrichus)

Happy New Year to all!

Here is what is going on in my little corner of the music world:

Since I last wrote you in June 2011 I have had some great experiences and met so many wonderful people. Here's a quick recap (often with links to the blogs I wrote regarding them):

June and July was my regular gig teaching the amazingly gifted choral students at the North Carolina Governor's School in Raleigh. This year's students, a women's choir of 24 voices, was beyond spectacular. I have never led a choir so committed to deep probing rehearsal, to an impeccable level of performance quality, to each other, and to having so much fun all along the way. We learned and performed repertoire far beyond the HS realm- one piece in particular was a premiere which was written in response to the tsunami in Japan and the piece was quite difficult-certainly a professional level score. These kids just rolled up their sleeves and worked like crazy to learn this score. Yes we struggled at times, but no one ever suggested we give up. It was truly a memorable summer for us. By the way, we memorized every score for the summer except for the premiere piece. I would also like to thank my assistant for the summer, Beth Philemon.

In September I visited the Portland, OR/Vancouver WA area for the Chor Anno premiere of my double choir piece "When Jesus Wept" (a modernization of the Billings' tune). Everyone there was so friendly and committed to learning this piece of mine, which is also not terribly easy.

(Chor Anno)

Special thanks to Howard Meharg, Reg Unterseher, April and Greg Duvic, Margaret Green and a slew of other folks. I still have to finish blogging about this experience and tell you about Tim Sharp's "Come Away to the Skies", which was performed as well and with Tim there on banjo. So look for that blog soon.

October marked the release of the latest Atlanta Sacred Chorale CD "Awake the Dawn" (da Chiesa DCSR 119). The chorale, led by Eric Nelson, did a wonderful job on my piece "Morning Person", (published by Roger Dean) with a text by New Orleans poet Vassar Miller, retelling Creation in a new, highly imaginative way. I channelled Canadian dude Healy Willan and Sondheim while writing this (yeah you'll have to hear it to figure that out- go buy the CD!). Other composers on the CD include Rutter, Chilcott, Bernstein, J. Hairston, some guy named Lauridsen, Lee Dengler and more. Visit www.atlantasacredchorale.org for more info.

In November I attended the National Collegiate Choral Organization conference in Ft. Collins, CO (multiple blogs starting here). This was a blast and hearing Robert Taylor's University of Charleston Choir and Graeme Langager's University of British Columbia Singers were big discoveries for me. Everyone had a great time at NCCO and the future looks very bright for this organization. Congrats to Buddy James, Lisa Graham, Mitos Andaya, Bill Bausano, Bill Dehning, Sarah Graham, and James Kim for putting on such a great program.

December held a slew of performances and premieres of my music- thank you to all who performed my holiday music- and I am proud to have written quality pieces that do fall out of the realm of strictly Christmas, such as "Winter Solstice" (SSA/harp or piano which was performed a lot) and "Unending Flame" (a non-dorky Hanukkah piece which got multiple performances by Ethan Sperry's Oregon Repertory Singers-- thanks Ethan!).

What's up for the next few months? Plenty!

Roger Dean is releasing in a week or two these new titles (too bad there is not an SATB title there):

"Rain" SSA/piano Uptempo, jazzy and very fun (commissioned by the Cincinnati Children's Choir, directed by Robyn Lana). This piece would be for HS and up women's choirs.

"May I be Happy" SA/piano In two parts, the first is a slow-ish Eastern Orthodox benediction of sorts, and the piece then becomes more lively to the text of a Buddhist chant. This piece was commissioned by a great young choir in Hong Kong last year. This piece would be for grade 6 and up treble choirs. Both titles will be in place for ACDA conferences in Feb. and March.

Roger Dean is currently my main publisher- they have been so supportive. If you would like a free perusal copy of these new releases, or single copies of all of my Roger Dean scores (treble and mixed titles), let me know. They are happy to mail out scores. I can also sign you up to be on their mailing list to receive all the new releases by all their composers. In an age when most publishers are very stingy about supplying free scores, Roger Dean is a breath of fresh air.

In February I will be presenting an interest session at the North Central ACDA conference in Madison, WI. This will be my first time at a NC ACDA conference and I expect it will be great. My session will be on ways to enable your choir to take more initiative and allow you, as teacher, to do less heavy lifting. It's influenced by teaching theories at NC Governor's School and by ideas from Rick Bjella (now at Texas Tech) and Sandra Snow. In April I will be presenting the same session at the Tennessee MEA conference in Chattanooga.

All through the spring there will be a number of performances of various pieces, including premieres. One I am very excited about is a performance of "When Jesus Wept" (the piece I mentioned up above) by the University of North Texas choir directed by DMA candidate Patrick Dill. Richard Sparks suggested that Patrick look at this piece and he has decided to do it- so I am thrilled to see another advanced SATB piece getting a performance by an excellent choir. If you would like a free perusal pdf file of this piece let me know.

In May I will be wrapping up my one year stint with Angie Johnson's Young Naperville Singers as their composer in residence. Last night I just finished the fourth piece I have written for them for this season. It has been a blast working with the various choirs in the program and I look forward to even more fun interaction with them between now and May.

Just a few things left to say:

This here blog is fun to do but very time consuming-- I am on the lookout for anyone who would like to guest blog (a few people have, and done great jobs) about anything they would like to share. So if you have ever thought of doing a choral music blog but didn't really want to commit to keeping one going- here's your chance to just jump in and guest blog here. I get about 25-250 readers a day, FYI. Here is a link to a recent guest blog by Kira Rugen about her trip, as a member of Anuna, to sing for and interact with the children in the tsunami/nuclear radiation affected area of Japan. Kira did a great job communicating this story.

I am now taking inquiries and orders for commissions for the 2012-13 concert season. If you would like a new, exciting piece of music for your choir contact me. Commissioning (and also consider doing a consortium commission- it saves you money) is very rewarding for all and I do my best to make each piece special in some way. I am also entertaining inquiries for composer in residence situations- either in the Midwest area or anywhere, as a composer in cyber-residence I guess you could say (hey, with Skype anything is possible). I am also available for short residencies at high schools or colleges here and there around the country since I love to travel. Also, I am happy to work with you and your choir on a piece of mine via Skype (no charge of course). The piece doesn't have to be in perfect shape--this is about the process, yes? Skype is a great tool for us all and it's really great fun to interact and have a realtime relationship with a choir that might be 2,000 miles away from me!

So I hope you all have a great finish to your concert season- best wishes as you continue to make magic with soundwaves! And I'll leave you with this kwazy lil clip which has been going pretty viral this last week (so you may have already seen it):

The Portland, Oregon Area Classical Scene- good reading!

As you may recall, I was out in the Portland, Oregon/Vancouver, WA area (plus over east to the Tri-Cities, WA area as well) in September for the premiere by Howard Meharg's Chor Anno of my modernized version of William Billings' "When Jesus Wept" (conducted by Reg Unterseher). I met so many great people and had a blast exploring downtown Portland and other areas. This trip also led to a premiere last week of a new piece "Winter Moon ", directed by April Duvic with the Clark College Women's Choir in Vancouver, and this past Sunday plus this coming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday Ethan Sperry's Oregon Repertory Singers are preforming my Hanukkah piece "Unending Flame" (great text by Sherri Lasko) on their holiday concerts. By the way, Ethan told me that he now can't say that he hates all Hanukkah pieces, now that he has discovered "Unending Flame"!

What I have for you today are some recent news articles about the classical music scene in the Portland area. The second article, an interview with chorister Stephanie Kramer, is one that Ethan shared on FaceBook recently, and the first, from the wall Street Journal online, includes some quotes from Kathy FitzGibbon, a great choral director who I first met way on the other side of the country when her women's choir from Clark University in Worcester, MA was a participant, along with other colleges in the area, in the premiere performance of my "El Limonar Florido" both in Worcester and then on tour of Spain. Kathy was instrumental (haha) in teaching the choirs how to play their cricket clickers in the dream sequence portion of one of the movements (and yes, cricket clickers do figure into another piece of mine- the bestselling kids piece "Peace on Earth..and lots of little crickets"). O f course beyond my silly andecdote, Kathy is immensely talented and a very sweet person.

Here are the articles- hope you enjoy reading them:

From the Wall Street Journal Online Dec., 13, 2011

by Brett Campbell

'We love classical music. We love playing classical music. We love listening to classical music. We are tired of the elitist and inaccessible nature of the classical world. We believe that there are many that would enjoy classical music if they could access it in a setting that is comfortable for them. We believe classical musicians should be allowed to perform in a setting that is more casual—where the audience is allowed to have a drink, eat a scone, laugh a little, and clap a lot. We believe everyone can enjoy the music that we love." So began a 2006 posting on Portland's Craigslist that became the manifesto for Classical Revolution PDX, which today draws on a roster of more than 200 classical musicians for its chamber jams and other performances, including a concert called "Sympathy for the Devil" featuring music associated with you-know-who.

That show was a co-production with Portland's Electric Opera Company, which plays classical music on electric guitars and other rock instruments. More than a dozen such alt-classical ensembles have emerged here in the past few years, enlivening a city better known nationally for bikes, brews, baristas, beards, the television show "Portlandia," and a thriving indie-rock scene that boasts such bands as the Decemberists. The city teems with organizations presenting new music, old music in clubs, or both.

The Portland Cello Project's all-cello performances of original arrangements of everything from Beethoven to Britney Spears regularly sell out some of the city's biggest clubs and attract guest vocalists from the city's indie-rock scene. The group has been touring nationally for the past three years and is recording its fourth CD. Its holiday concerts this Friday and Saturday will feature music by composers ranging from Bach, Khachaturian and Lili Boulanger to Lil' Wayne.

Opera Theater Oregon stages cheeky, low-budget productions of classic operas (including Wagner's "Das Rheingold" reimagined as a "Baywatch" episode). Several vocal ensembles, drawn from the city's strong choral-music scene, devote considerable programming to contemporary, often homegrown music. The young Cascadia Composers organization will stage at least eight concerts of music by Oregon composers this year. Improvising musicians have a jazz composers orchestra and an avant-garde presenting series. Two more new-music groups launched this year, and this fall three different organizations presented programs dominated by new music by women composers—electronic, choral and contemporary classical—most from the Pacific Northwest.

This fall also saw CD releases and national tours by both Vagabond Opera, a "Balkan Arabic Klezmer-based, original absurdist cabaret ensemble," led by Eric Stern, a former opera tenor, and the March Fourth Marching Band, which plays original and cover tunes of funk, rock and dance music on its brass instruments.

What's fueling Portland's alt-classical surge? "There's a growing sense with the current generation of performers that those jobs they trained for aren't there, so you have to make your own opportunities," says Katie Taylor, former producing artistic director of Opera Theater Oregon, "and while you're at it, build a new audience."

The West Coast's most affordable cultural center, Portland offers numerous attractions to exploratory classical musicians. "The city itself is a desirable place to live, particularly to those interested in the arts and being around other artists," explains composer Galen Huckins, who runs Filmusik, which sets old films to original live music by various local composers at historic theaters. "Having so many top-tier players around, many of whom have full-time jobs outside of music, means that there's a wealth of players excited to be part of new groups and experiment with emerging organizations."

Many of the alt-classical adventurers share a collaborative spirit. "Relative to other places where I've lived and worked, Portland has an incredibly vibrant and dynamic alternative classical-music scene," says Katherine FitzGibbon, who moved to Portland from Boston in 2008 to direct choral programming at Lewis & Clark College.

Her Resonance Ensemble regularly programs contemporary and 20th-century choral music, and collaborates with poets, painters, dancers and other artists. "Everyone wants everybody else's group to be successful," she says. "Everybody's looking for ways to deepen the performing experience and the audience experience as well."The entrepenurial newcomers are building on groundwork laid over the past 20 years by the busy new-music ensembles FearNoMusic and Third Angle, which have shown listeners that "art music has re-established its claim to beauty," says Third Angle director and Oregon Symphony violinist Ron Blessinger. "Audiences and artists have gotten away from the attitude that it has to be incomprehensible to be art. Our geography helps. We don't have proximity to major cultural centers, so we have this laboratory here where the independent creative culture of Portland gives you permission to be creative."

Opera Theater's Ms. Taylor predicts that the alt-classical scene will continue to blossom. "I would expect more busking and original film projects, and more happening online," she says. "And you'll see more traditional groups applying these alternative methods to build their audiences. I also think heavy turnover is going to become the norm."

The venerable Portland Opera invited both Opera Theater Oregon and Electric Opera to perform at a street party outside its season-opening concert. The 40-year-old Chamber Music Northwest and old-line Portland Piano International, seeing the younger audiences flocking to alt-classical performances, have been presenting less-traditional concerts in some of the same venues.

Still, Ms. Taylor's own experience shows that chronic underfunding makes the alt-classical scene as risky financially as it is musically. Staging even a small-scale opera costs a lot more than bringing a string quartet into a club, and after five years shepherding Opera Theater Oregon to increasing artistic success and burgeoning audiences, she still wound up in debt, and stepped down as producing artistic director this summer.

"Our last show involving filmed elements required sophisticated equipment—software, HD cameras, lighting—the sheer number of people involved made it superexpensive just to feed them, which is the only pay people got," she says. "The longer you do something, the less likely people want to pitch in for free."

Such obstacles don't seem to discourage Portland's many alt-classical musicians. Next spring, composer Bob Priest's annual March Music Moderne festival, involving both alternative and traditional classical groups, will incorporate at least two dozen new music-spiced events featuring about 100 20th- and 21st-century works.

"Portland has never liked being told how to behave or what to do," says pianist Maria Choban, locally renowned for electrifying performances of contemporary and classic repertoire. "I think this is why it's so fertile for spawning a 'bad-boy' alt-classical music scene. We might be the geographic location most likely to give classical music a much needed blood transfusion, in the same way Seattle was for pop when it spawned grunge."

From Oregonmusicnews.com

by James Bash

Portland is a haven for choral singers, including the select few who are paid to sing in choirs. One of the very best singers in this specialized profession is Stephanie Kramer. I’ve heard Kramer sing at a number of choral concerts and have found her name listed in several recordings, including the latest Portland Baroque Recording of the St. John Passion. So, I got in contact with her to find out more about her work as a professional choral singer.

Tell us a little about your background as a singer. Have you been singing for a long time?

Kramer: I’ve been singing as long as I can remember. Music is a part of my heritage. My mom sang in her high school choir and her church choir. My grandmother taught piano and played organ at the same Lutheran church for sixty years. She started when she was twelve and played until she was seventy-two.

I grew up in little towns, singing in school and at church. Growing up Lutheran played a big part. As Garrison Keillor says, ‘Lutherans are bred to sing in four-part harmony.’ I also had a great high school director, John Baker at Rex Putnam, who taught us music theory and sight singing.

I went to Concordia University in Portland for a couple of years and then transferred to Portland State University where I sang under Dr. Bruce Browne. I sang for him in the PSU Chamber Choir. That led to singing in Choral Cross-Ties, which was a professional vocal ensemble. I ended up singing with Choral Cross-Ties for ten years. One of the highlights of my early career was returning to my high school and performing with CCT as a professional choral singer.

How many choirs are you singing with now?

Kramer: I’m singing with several professional choirs. I mainly sing with Cappella Romana, under the direction of Dr. Alexander Lingas, and Resonance Ensemble, under the direction of Dr. Katherine FitzGibbon. I also frequently sing with Trinity Episcopal and Cantores in Ecclesia. Looking back over my career, I’ve sung with many of the groups in town: Oregon Repertory Singers, Portland Symphonic Choir, Portland Pro Musica, and Portland Opera Chorus. I’ve had quite a few church choir jobs.

There must be times when you could be in a rehearsal or concert every night of the week.

Kramer: Right! Certain months can be very busy. Last March I had a crazy schedule… performing, touring, and recording the St. John Passion with PBO, and then going directly from that to a tour to San Francisco with Cappella Romana. I think that I had something every night. August was like that too, with the William Byrd Festival and preparing for the Greece tour with Cappella Romana. December, of course, is always full. This is my fourteenth year in a row to sing the Messiah with PBO, and I never get tired of it!

So some gigs have taken you to foreign countries?

Kramer: I’ve been to France with Cantores in Ecclesia, and to London, England and Greece in two separate tours with Cappella Romana. I also took some wonderful trips when I was in the PSU Chamber Choir, including a tour to the Czech Republic.

Are you a soprano or an alto?

Kramer: I sing a little of both. I have a pretty big range and an ability to blend with different vocal timbres. I’m singing alto this week in the Vaughan Williams Hodie with the choir at Trinity. Next week I’m singing soprano in Handel’s Messiah with Portland Baroque Orchestra. Then I go back to singing alto for the Rachmaninoff All Night Vigil with Cappella Romana.

Do you ever do solos?

Kramer: I’ve done some – usually within the context of a choral concert. But I’ve never truly had the desire to be a soloist. Over the years, I’ve found that singing in small ensembles is really my niche. Ensemble singing requires a different skill set than singing solos. It just suits my personality better.

Have you every counted how many languages you’ve sung?

Kramer: Oh no! I’ve lost count of that a long time ago. But some of the more interesting and challenging languages I’ve sung in are Czech, Finnish, Serbian, Russian, and Greek. Having a good ear to hone the language skills is a great asset.

Do you teach voice?

Kramer: No. I’ve never felt that I had the gift of teaching. So that is not something that I’ve been inspired to do. But I have mentored a few younger singers, and am a hundred percent supportive of music and arts education in our schools.

Then do you have a day job in addition to your choral singing?

Kramer: Yes. I work part-time at Oregon Catholic Press in its recordings department. Many of my professional singing friends teach voice or conduct school or church choirs. I’m also the Managing Director of Resonance Ensemble, and I do some administrative work for Cappella Romana.

I feel extremely blessed to have a job in music.

How many recordings have you done?

Kramer: I’ve probably done more than fifty recordings with Oregon Catholic Press. I’ve been singing for them since 1996; so it adds up after a while. I think that I’ve done about twelve CDs with Cappella Romana. The most recent release is our recording of the Bach St. John Passion with Portland Baroque Orchestra. Cappella Romana also just recorded a new CD when we were on tour in Greece. It’s been a wonderful year!

Are recordings more difficult than singing for a live audience?

Kramer: Yes! I find that it’s difficult to keep the same energy that you have when you are in front of an audience. Sometimes I try to picture the people who might listen to the recording – like my mom. That seems to help me.

Recording sessions have their pitfalls. Sometimes (especially in large works) you have to take sections of music out of order. That can disrupt the flow of the music. And of course it’s always frustrating when you have to stop in the middle of a great take because of a motorcycle going by or a rooster crowing.

A rooster crowing?

Kramer: That happened on the Greece tour. We were recording in a lovely little country church on the island of Paros, and a rooster crowed during one of our takes. We all burst out laughing. Singing, and all of the experiences that come along with it, is one of the greatest joys of my life.

My great trip to Oregon and Washington

As you know from my last blog entry, I was invited out to the Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA area for the premiere of my unusual double choir arrangement of William Billings' When Jesus Wept. For the folks of Howard Meharg's Chor Anno this concert was also a big deal because ACDA executive director Tim Sharp would be there, and not just to visit- Tim would be present for, and performing as well, in the premiere of his “Come Away to the Skies: A High Lonesome [Bluegrass] Mass" -you can read some more about it here:

http://www.columbian.com/news/2011/sep/23/fish-tale-nets-music-for-chor-anno/

I decided to make this a work/networking/fun trip, so I got to Portland on Wednesday night and was picked up at PDX by April Duvic, choral director at Clark College in Vancouver.

On Thursday morning I worked with Margaret Green's amazing high school choir at the Vancouver School of the Arts. Margaret let me jump in and teach them some challenging warmups that I like, and we talked about music and ideas from Alexander technique, and I listened to them sing a piece, after which I worked with them on expression and other things. We really had a lot of fun getting barefoot and letting the sound start from our feet up (ooh, they liked the barefoot thing!) and since this is a long class session (I think it was over 90 minutes) we were able to really connect and pack a lot into the class session. I really liked the students in this class and I love what Margaret is doing with them- they all love music AND work hard for their achievements.

I then hopped on the very convenient mass transit to downtown Portland and strolled around. This was my first visit there and I felt that an older dude like myself needed to find a ponytail rental shop in order to fit in.



(I found a picture of this old guy on Google, whoever he is, with ponytail- but most of the old dudes in Portland didn't braid theirs)

If I were younger I would have needed some tattoos and piercings. But the people seem really cool and I love their diverse ways- “Keep Portland Weird” is a cool slogan, and we could use some more weird in Chicago, that's for sure.

I visited the small Chinese gardens there- very quaint and lovely. I also went to the Portland Art Museum,visiting all four floors of both buildings, using the stairs instead of elevators.

Next I did a couple of geocaches in one of the parks, and then took a break for people watching at sidewalk cafe. I then walked up to Powell's Books. I think this is the largest used and new bookstore in the country and it is way cool. Their selection was monumental and any nerd, geek, or Marian the Librarian could live here for a week.


But the weather was great so it was time to get outside for more strolling. I eventually wound up at a jazz club with a pretty decent group, though they put a little more cliched funk into their mainstream jazz than I cared for. I finally strolled down to where Greg Duvic (April's husband) works a late shift and we drove back up to Amboy, WA where they live. All in all a great day!

Friday started out with more sightseeing. Greg loves the Japanese gardens up in the hills to the west of downtown Portland so we headed there. The Japanese garden was large and the best I have ever been to, even surpassing the impressive Anderson Gardens in Rockford, IL. There's a lot more to do right there up in the hills, so we also strolled around the famous Portland Rose Test Garden- not that I am a rose fan, but that was fun too. We also smashed a few pennies in the souvenir penny smasher (Aidan loves smashed souvenir pennies!).

We then headed downtown since Greg needed to start his shift at the federal building where he is a security expert for the federal judges, which is a second career for him. He was a career police officer and investigator for the Portland Police Department. Greg's stories were amazing, and I was envious of his accomplishments in making the world a safer place.

So now it was time for more strolling and I wound up at the same outdoor cafe where I was doing my people watching the day before. I then headed over to Deschute's Brew Pub which was already massively busy at 3 PM.




Deschute's

I was to meet my old composer/conductor pal Reg Unterseher there, along with two new members of Chor Anno, since Reg and these two young and talented newbies, the very friendly Justin Raffa and Molly Holleran, live all the way three hours east in the Tri-Cities, WA area and were driving in for the Friday night Chor Anno rehearsal. While waiting for Reg, I did a sample flight of Deschute's brews and was impressed. They certainly are well above average. Reg found me and off we went for a funky dinner at The Tin Shack on the east side of Portland and then drove up to rehearsal.

The rehearsal went really well. Since my piece, directed by Reg, was new, I had never heard it for real except in my head and via Finale software playback. I was pleased that everything “worked”-- and I really did have some concerns going into this because the piece, as a double choir arrangement, is a bit complex in spots. There are a number of pages without barlines (but with a pulse), and at times various voice parts do not share downbeats. This was part of the reason for using few barlines or using dotted barlines at different points for various voices. It's not like singers haven't seen a score like this before, but I admit that at first it looks a little odd and challenging. Of course, that should draw the curious singer into the piece, and get them to explore it more- including exploring how their own voice part interacts contrapuntally with other parts. And this was also a goal for this piece- to take a simple round and write even more variations of counterpoint with the material. I am more and more convinced that today's American choral composer/arranger needs to get down to business and write more counterpoint- we have become so monophonic in the last fifteen years that it's pretty scary. When one finally tires of ear candy full of piled chords and lack of independent line, where does a singer or director turn for some counterpoint? Certainly not to any other of our new works- our output is out of balance today in this regard. So this is an area I want to continue to work within- writing creative choral counterpoint and giving altos lines to sing, giving basses lines to sing, etc, and not just writing blobs of homophony which usually give no voice part (other than perhaps the soprano part) an actual line to sing!

NEXT BLOG: The Saturday and Sunday concerts, including a Meet the Composer session

Chor Anno- a great program this coming weekend

Today, Sept. 21st, I'm leaving Chicago to visit the Pacific NW for the first time in my life- something I've wanted to do for years. I will be at the world premiere of my modernized, quite contrapuntal double choir arrangement of William Billings' "When Jesus Wept" in a concert by Chor Anno, founded not long ago by Howard Meharg.

The idea behind Chor Anno is brilliant- take 25-30 professional choral singers/directors with chops and do one kickass concert each early fall. When else could all these busy directors find the time to be in a choir- they are too busy leading choirs all year!

Here is some info from the Chor Anno website about some of the piece on the upcoming concert which will be presented both Saturday and Sunday. Note that ACDA prez Tim Sharp also has a piece on the program and will be there!

Part of the program will include "Come Away to the Skies: A High Lonesome Mass," by Dr. Tim Sharp, Executive Director of the American Choral Directors Association.

Dr. Sharp, is well known in choral circles, not only as head of the 20,000 member ACDA, but as a conductor and composer.

The great thing for us is that Tim Sharp will not only be here for the premiere of his work, but he will also play the banjo as part of the accompanying bluegrass style group. Yes, you'll hear a marvelous combining of musical styles...wonderful choral writing and the poignant and mesmerizing sound of bluegrass instruments accompanying the choir.


But that's just part of the concert!

Early/Late American

The program will range from early American to present day compositions by American composers such as John Muehleisen (Seattle), Paul Carey (Chicago), Richard Nance (Tacoma), Vijay Singh (Ellensburg), Ola Gjeilo (New York)...all contemporary, as well as a work by the incomparable Leonard Bernstein.

Here is [part of] the program:

Come Away to the Skies - and early American hymn arranged by the legendary double-choir Alice Parker

Saints Bound for Heaven - a melody from Walker's "Southern Harmony" of 1835, arranged by Mack Wilberg

When Jesus Wept - William Billings, from the New England Psalm Singer of 1770, but with an amazing new twist...arranged for eight-part, double choir by Paul Carey. This is a premiere performance. (Paul will be in attendance for the Vancouver concert!)

Hark, I Hear the Harps Eternal - the robust and powerful hymn arranged by Alice Parker

Come Away to the Skies: a High Lonesome Mass - a west coast premiere of Tim Sharp's latest work. Tim uses his expertise as a scholar in early American music, taking hymns such as "Brethren, We Have Met to Worship," "Do Lord," "Hail, the Blest Morn," and "What Wondrous Love," and placed them in the framework of the mass. The result is a stunning 20 minute work.

INTERMISSION

Alleluia - by Hyo won Woo is a departure (along with the next two works) from our American themed concert...but we just had to perform 'em. This piece was premiered at the ACDA national convention by the Incheon Chorale of Seoul, Korea, in 2009. Powerful and very exciting. This may be another west-coast premiere performance.

The Beatitudes - by contemporary Estonian composer, Arvo Paert

Northern Lights - a composition by Ola Gjeilo

Carpenters of God - by our friend Vijay Singh

River Moons - is written by John Muehleisen, a Seattle composer who is becoming widely known. This piece was premiered and recorded by the Choral Arts Ensemble of Rochester, MN, in 2006. It's a setting of the poem by Carl Sandburg, who turns the image of the moon reflected in the water into a vivid memory from his youth.

The rest of my nine days in Oregon and Washington will be spent working with two excellent HS and college choirs,geocaching, sightseeing,and hanging out with my partner in crime, fellow composer Reg Ungerseher (who is the conductor for my piece). I guess when I am with Reg back at his home in Kennewick, WA I will see Mt. St. Helen's and many tumbleweeds (he does NOT live near the coast).

Here is the link to Chor Anno

http://www.choranno.org/program.html

I will try to blog while I am there!