Today in Part Four of my blog about current choral music publishing trends, we hear from Northwest Choral Publishers, a four person venture based in Washington state. This is a great group of very talented composers/conductors. Here's their story:
The idea for Northwest Choral Publishers was hatched in conversations between Karen Thomas, John Muehleisen, and Reginald Unterseher at conferences and concerts around the Northwest. Reg had written an article in 2010 for the NW ACDA newsletter called “Enhanced Music Scores: More Than Notes On Paper Could Ever Be” just before the first iPad was announced.(Here is the article—you have to scroll down a bit.)The article imagined a future where the buying and selling of music was a transaction directly between composers and performers, among other things. Over a few years of discussions, it seemed to us that group efforts could be more efficient for composers and for the conductors and performers we wanted to reach. Other groups of composers were forming, and we decided that being physically located close to each other and having a regional identity was useful, as was the idea of keeping it small to start with and expanding from there if it worked for us.
John Muehleisen
In our conversations, we all felt that we independent composer-publishers are nearly invisible to conductors, especially outside our own regions. Even traditional publishers rarely market and advertise composers and their compositions unless they have already established name recognition. Most tend to be in the same large, murky catalog pool, with little done by the publishers to distinguish one composer from another. The bottom line is that for composers who mostly publish through traditional publishers, and for all of the NWChoral.com composers who have pieces with traditional publishers, their works are no more visible in the marketplace than those of composers who self-publish.
We looked at the variety of ways others were addressing these challenges, spoke with our composer colleagues around the country, gratefully incorporated ideas that seemed like they would work for us, and looked for our own way in other areas. The essence of our collaboration was finding the areas where we could be better together and still maintain our financial and artistic independence. We realized that together we could afford channels of visibility, marketing, and advertising that would be too expensive for each of us individually. We decided to have a joint web site with a joint catalog and links to our individual web sites, all tied together with a unified visual style. Purchases are done on ourindividual web sites, which makes our financial arrangements easier to handlethan having a joint business model.
Together, we are purchasing ads in major choral publications and on websites, sponsoring a conference reception, and splitting the cost for web hosting and site design/development. We have already reaped considerable savings, and we foresee additional savings in the future. More importantly, distributing the cost burden enables us to pursue more extensive marketing and advertising strategies than we could do on our own.
An aspect that is harder to quantify is the effect this new publishing model has on our writing. In important ways, we feel that giving our artistic vision precedence over traditional publishers’ sales models makes for better music.
We have had some encouraging results already. Karen's "Lux Lucis" for women's choir has not been picked up by traditional publishers, due to the challenging nature of the music. The launch of NWchoral.com has tremendously boosted sales of this piece in the past year - there are dozens of 2014 performances in the US and Canada, including touring performances.
Karen P. Thomas
So far, Reg’s best selling NWChoral.com work is“The Steady Light,”which has versions for accompanied and unaccompanied choruses. It has been featured in reading sessions around the country, and performed at ACDA and NAFME conferences in a variety of forms. With a piece that has many voicing and accompaniment options, a traditional publisher would not realistically be able to make them all available. From a web site, though, we fill the orders to the specification of the conductors.
Reg Unterseher
Last year, we had conversations with composer Brian Galante,who we knew was a natural fit with the group. His new web site just went live a few weeks ago, and he is now part of the NWChoral.com catalog. We have an ad in an upcoming Choral Journal, we have joined ACDA as business members, and we plan some activities at the upcoming ACDA National conference as well as state and regional conferences. We look forward to what the future brings, and feel that our arrangement puts us in a great position to change as the music publishing and distribution model changes.
Thursday Morning at the ACDA 2013 National Conference in Dallas
Well this was my big day- the panel session I proposed to ACDA over a year ago and which was accepted to be presented was set for this day at 10:30 AM. Was I nervous abut this? You betcha. And had I been nervous about it off and on for weeks? Again, a big yes.
But first I made myself get up and go to Our Lady of Guadeloupe Cathedral (I have a soft part in my heart for that lady) to attend the women's choir reading session, as I have a big personal investment in the world of women's choirs (I founded and directed a professional women's choir in Chicago back a few years ago and have written dozens of pieces specifically for women's voices). This 8 AM session was heavily attended (awesome, as many of us are just not 8 AM people) and Iris Levine and her division R and S people did a great job leading the session. I was especially proud to see my pal Lisa Fredenburgh leading some pieces and was very impressed by Janice Vlachos' skills at the piano. This was the second reading session I had attended that was far above and beyond the usual mediocre reading session experience that many of us have come to hate. Bravo to all involved.
Once this was done, I really had to vamoose back to the Sheraton to get all my ducks in a row for my session. There were handouts to grab from my room and get into place, panel members to brief for one last time, and of course last minute snafus- when we showed up at the space there was only one mike and it was tethered into the audience area. Between me, the session presenter Joan Catoni Conlon, and session fixer-upper Tom Shelton we got the Sheraton to get us two more mikes pronto- thanks to Joan and Tom!
Before I go any further, here is the handout from our session- I hope you may explore some of the links here!
2013
ACDA INTEREST SESSION
Paradigm
Shift: The New Conductor/Composer Dynamic
Thursday
10:30 A.M.
Sheraton
Hotel - San Antonio Ballroom
MODERATOR: PAUL CAREY
PANELISTS: ABBIE
BETINIS
DR.BUDDY
JAMES DR. DEBORAH SIMPKIN KING JOAN
SZYMKO
REGINALD UNTERSEHER
Independent Music Publishers:
www.imp.coop
(music of Abbie Betinis, Joan Szymko, Edie Hill,
J. David Moore,
Elizabeth Alexander, Jocelyn Hagen, Linda Tutas Haugen, and Timothy
C. Takash)
As our start time of 10:30 approached we saw that we had a great turnout, even though there were many other very interesting sessions competing against us for attendees. We jumped into our topic with glee and everything went very well. My panel members were gregarious, entertaining, and thoughtful, and my batch of second round questions for them didn't even have to be pulled out- each panel member was so good AND passionate about their subject that I didn't have to worry about the session stagnating or becoming boring.
I also worked hard to maintain some time toward the end for Q and A, even though I failed to preserve as much time as I really wanted for this. The real mark of success to me was this astounding fact- after the session was over, at least half of the audience stayed and talked to me and the panel for an hour after the session ended. I had never seen this happen before, usually people get up and leave and go onto something else. But we had provided so many great new ideas that people wanted to stay and talk about them, and also share their own insight into the new ways that composers and conductors are working together.
Deborah Simpkin King, Buddy James, Joan Szymko, and Reg Unterseher
I was thrilled to greet some folks from the audience afterwards who I had no idea would be there - people like Kathleen Skinner of the excellent Canadian group Kokopelli (who have performed my music), Paige Mathis, and many more. I was also pleased that many fine composers such as Sydney Guillaume, Paul Aitken, Joe Gregorio, John Muelheisen, the amazing Donald Fraser (we visited the pub afterward!), and my Irish friend Michael McGlynn were there too- and I was glad to meet, for the first time, young composers like Jake Runestad and Joni Jenson. I was also happy for the support that someone as experienced as Joan Catoni Conlon could provide- I sense that Joan liked our session and she was in support of what we were discussing. Thank you, Joan! Also Philip Copeland was in attendance- Philip has been an outspoken supporter of new ideas through his posts in ChoralNet in the last few years. I hope that Philip will soon start posting more on whatever topics interest him- he has a great mind.
Just so you know, here are the main topics that each person covered:
Reg Unterseher discussed the first-ever paperless composer/conductor collaborative reading session, held by NW ACDA. Reg humorously also noted that on the very same day Steven Russell held an almost identical event on the east coast.
Joan Szymko related how the use of Skype is revolutionizing the ability of choirs to work more directly with composers and she discussed some of her projects she is currently working on that related to our topic.
Deborah Simpkin King talked about her Project Encore- a database and advocacy for second performances of important works beyond their premiere performance. This was big news to most everyone in the room. Deborah has also told me that interest in her project has exploded since the interest session was held.
Buddy James talked about NCCO (National Collegiate Choral Organization) and its publishing venture which is publishing and promoting works of high quality with the composer receiving all revenue after costs. Once again, most of the people in the room did not know about this endeavor.
Abbie Betinis talked about IMP, the Independent Music Publishers co-op that she and others founded not long ago and which has been very successful.
All in all, I believe the session was a massive success and I want to publicly thank Buddy James, Deborah Simpkin King, Joan Szymko, Reg Unterseher, and Abbie Betinis for a job truly well done. I hope to continue working with these folks in any way I can over the next decade. I also want to publicly thank Tom Merrill who guided this session and all its details over the last 12 months- Tom you were great to me. And I would also like to thank Joan Conlon and Tom Shelton for their support as well. Also thanks to Howard Meharg for the photos you see here.
COMING UP: THE REST OF THURSDAY NOW THAT THE PRESSURE WAS OFF!
THIS NEXT POST WILL INCLUDE THE EPIC BRITTEN WAR REQUIM PERFORMANCE
Here's a very nice article about Justin Raffa and the Mid-Columbia Mastersingers, a great group which keeps getting better and better in the Tri-Cities WA area (that's Washington state my dears, in the dry tumbleweed zone a couple hours drive east of Starbucks/Microsoft central). And I should know from tumbleweed there, as I took them on at my composer friend Reg Unterseher's house in Kennewick and lost the battle a year ago while in the area (but that's another story).
Justin has a great knack for programming- and he's still very young- keep your eye on this guy!
From the Tri-City Herald:
JUSTIN RAFFA MAKES MUSIC A MAGICAL EXPERIENCE
Justin Raffa has what is sometimes called a Mana
personality. Such people tend to be the keepers of our collective hopes
and dreams. They are charismatic and pour themselves into their
pursuits. They are rare and unmistakable in their effect.
Less
than five years ago, Raffa moved to the Tri-Cities from Arizona, took
over the helm of what was then called Consort Columbia, changed the name
to Mid-Columbia Mastersingers and quickly turned the choir into a
finely polished, stylistically gorgeous ensemble.
In other words,
he and the Mid-Columbia Mastersingers are a force to be reckoned with.
The Tri-Cities has long had more than its fair share of excellent
amateur performance groups. But Raffa evidently has his eyes on a
bigger prize.
If you want to be part of the sea-change to a
vibrant, Big City-style arts scene in the Tri-Cities, you won't want to
miss the Mid-Columbia Mastersingers next concert, which is Feb 9-10 in
Kennewick. It is beautiful and amazingly ambitious. The program is
called “Double Feature” because the entire concert is comprised of
pieces which are sung, unaccompanied, by two choirs of 16 singers each.
To this end, the Mid Columbia Mastersingers are joined by the
Spokane Choral Artists, a talented and relatively new group founded in
2009 and directed by Max Mendez of North Idaho College.
Although
it is splendid, this is not an easy concert to listen to. The works are
all in non-English languages, including Latin, German, French, and
Italian. The text and translations appear in the program.
In
addition, the concert is supertitled. In case you have not seen this
technique, it means that the English translation of the sung words will
be projected onto a wall or screen above the choirs. The texts to these
pieces are as beautiful and ambitious as the music and must be
understood as part of the enjoyment.
Much of the music,
particularly Figure Humaine – The Face of Man by Francis Poulenc, is
complex, with odd and alluring harmonic changes that are immensely
challenging to sing. The program also includes works by Palestrina,
Schumann, Vaughn Williams, and Mascagni.
The works are very
European, strong, and uplifting. It would be easy to sing them too
loudly and overdramatically. But Raffa will have none of this. His
choir has a rare mixture of passion and restraint. They sing in
gorgeous waves of sound.
Their performance of Schumann’s Four
Songs for Double Choir is particularly lovely. Their rendering of
Vaughn Williams’ Mass in G Minor is a little uneven but makes up for
this by being hauntingly beautiful in places.
The two choirs
perform “Double Feature” on Feb. 8 in Spokane’s St. Aloysius, a
Romanesque church with magnificent architectural details built during
that city’s Age of Elegance. The program moves to Kennewick’s
architecturally unique mid-century church, The Parish of the Holy
Spirit, for the final concerts at 8 p.m. Feb. 9 with a 2 p.m. matinee
Feb. 10.
Raffa gives a talk on music appreciation beginning
about a half hour before the program starts, so arrive early if you want
to include this in your concert experience.
Admission is $20 for
adults and free for students K-12. Tickets are available at
www.midcolumbiamastersingers.org, by calling 509-460-1766, or at the
door.
And if you are in the area- check out The Atomic Ale Brew Pub:
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 Loveis 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.
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 18th
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.
Saturday morning at 9 AM Chor Anno gathered for a day-of-concert three hour rehearsal. Not much fun to sing that early, but this is how a professional group puts things together- intensive rehearsals during the week-of, not a seemingly never-ending once a week rehearsal like a community choir does things.
Musical interpretations were falling into place- probably the trickiest piece was still the Hyo Won Woo Alleluia, simply because any singer rhythmic inaccuracy, even from just one singer, will be totally exposed and noticed. But with each run through the piece was getting better and better. My piece was also sounding good- just some sagging pitch problems in the gnarliest bit of chromatic imitation, due to the fact that at the junction of voice imitation there is a vertical tritone for a moment,. making it tough to establish the new tonal center that each voice tries to claim as new territory. I knew this was not an easy passage when I wrote it, but of course I wasn't trying to make this piece easy! (Btw, please let me know if you would like a perusal copy of this score- contact me at paulcarey440@yahoo.com)
After the rehearsal, some of us went up to Brian Mtichell's awesome farmhouse with acreage on a high hill overlooking the river. Brian runs a wonderful choral program at Mark Morris High School in Longview, WA and he is also R and S for high schools for Washington ACDA. There is a maple tree on his property that must be over 150 years old I would guess. The few hours there were just what the singers needed- a little food, rest, and quiet.
Then it was time to get on back to our venue in Vancouver, WA and present a pre-concert talk sponsored by Meet the Composer Foundation. The event was well attended and the hour or so was moderated by Reg Unterseher with the composers in attendance being Tim Sharp and Wes Ramsey, co-composers of the High Lonesome Mass, Seattle-based composer John Muhleisen, and myself. The concert program contained other pieces by living composers, many from the NW, but they were not present for the talk or concerts (Vijay Singh and Richard Nance, to mention two).
The talk was great and the audience mostly wanted to know about our process for composing. We all seemed to have different answers to all the question but there were plenty of things in common too. I felt that we had a comfort zone and clear mutual respect for each other and the audience loved that we didn't see each other as competition, rather as brethren of the compositional art I suppose you could say. I was especially interested in how Tim and Wes co-compose as I have never tried to do such a thing. After an hour Reg had to go warm up, but the audience wanted us to keep talking and they veered us toward the area of publishing and the self-publishing that many of us are already doing. The audience was fascinated by this area and seemed to be cheering us on in the general quest to become independent from the traditional publishing houses. I think one telling factor here was a question posed by an audience member- she asked if we ever get commissions through any of our publishers' efforts. The answer across the panel was a resounding no- it's never happened. Seeing as how commissions are the biggest earnings item for a living composer, this was a pretty telling fact- not a single one of us have ever had a publisher pull in a commission for us- wow! Before this talk I had not intended at all to bring up publishing issues- many people know I am getting more and more militantly anti-traditional publisher so I didn't want to sound like I was on the offensive in front of a Meet the Composer audience. But the audience wanted to hear about this issue and I think everyone on the panel spoke fluently, fairly, and without avarice on the subject and where the future is going to be for us individually and for the choral world as well.
Finally concert time came. The church was filled- maybe 300-400 audience members (you would never achieve that in Chicago) Chor Annon was sounding great and my piece was early in the program- the third piece. They preformed my "When Jesus Wept" beautifully and as it trailed off with two soprano solo voices (one from each choir- thus quite antiphonal and echo-ish) Reg gestured a conductor's release to the end of the piece. Then there were at least 3-4 seconds of total silence and then some audible "wows" whispered hear and there, and then the applause. For a piece that has some drama and also has a quiet ending this is what you hope for- that extended silence where everyone soaks up the last phrase and appreciates the music enough to give the ending a stillness before we enter back into real rime. Obviously I was very pleased with the choir, Reg (who totally "gets" this piece), and the audience!
The rest of the program was rock solid and well-received. It included the Tim Sharp and Wes Ramsey "Come Away to the Skies: A High Lonesome Mass" and I'll write more about it in the next part. It's such a new and interesting work that I think it deserves a blog post of its own.
After the Saturday concert we all wound up at the Vancouver Hilton for celebration. I got to chat with national ACDA president-elect Karen Fulmer about her plans for the Dallas 2013 national conference. She and Tim have some great things planned. Karen also sings in Chor Anno.
The program was repeated Sunday in Longview, WA and the music was blossoming even more. On my piece the singers were becoming more and more comfortable and becoming more expressive of the drama packed into that short text. Once again we had a large appreciative audience- Chor Anno is well-liked and they deserve the support they get from their audiences!
Earlier that morning Tim Sharp, Reg, and I had a nice brunch overlooking a small sailboat harbor (you can decided whether the sailboats were small or the harbor). We had a great time chatting away, and we even talked about things other than music once in awhile. Reg and I especially love Tim's support for composers, his interest in the future of choral composition and how ACDA can build more mentor/partner support for that in various ways.
After the Sunday concert Reg, Justin, Molly, and I headed back to the Tri-Cities area, driving along the highway that follows the beautiful Columbia River back east. Before the sun set I got to enjoy the spectacular views of the river and cliffs, and we stopped at the Multnomah Waterfall for a few minutes to enjoy the view.
Up next: Before I continue my travelogue, I will backtrack to talk about the "High Lonesome Mass"
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:
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
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