Book Review: Conducting Women's Choirs, by Debra Spurgeon

Conducting Women's Choirs: Strategies for Success

Edited and compiled by Debra Spurgeon

 Published by GIA ISBN 978-1-57999-927-8, 340 pp. plus DVD, $43.95

 FROM THE GIA WEBSITE:

Conducting Women's Choirs:Strategies for Success - Book and DVD

Editor : Debra Spurgeon     

© 2012 GIA Publications, Inc.

Chapter Authors: Hilary Apfelstadt • Lynne Gackle • Lori Hetzel • Mary Hopper • Iris Levine • Jeanette MacCallum • Nancy Menk • Janna Montgomery • Joelle Norris • Sandra Peter • Sandra Snow • Debra Spurgeon • Phillip Swan • Shelbie Wahl

Contributors: Elizabeth Alexander • Elizabeth Arnold • Carol Barnett • Abbie Betinis • Derrick Brookins • David Brunner • Paul Carey • Drew Collins • Eleanor Daley • Michael Ehrlich • Stephen Hatfield • Ron Jeffers • Sharon Paul • Rosephanye Powell • Kathleen Rodde • Rebecca Rottsolk • Mark Stamper • Z. Randall Stroope • Joan Szymko • Gwyneth Walker

Conducting Women’s Choirs: Strategies for Success is a pioneering yet practical book and DVD devoted to all aspects of the women’s choir—a groundbreaking contribution and a true collaborative effort from top professionals in the field. For the first time in a book, choral leaders bring together historical, philosophical, psychological, sociological, pedagogical, and real-world considerations to the women’s choir—information missing from most choral methods and conducting texts.

Areas of focus include:

• working with beginning, high school, collegiate, and community women’s choirs
• improving the sound of women’s choirs
• suggested repertoire for women’s choirs
• composing for women’s choirs
• building community within the ensemble
• warm-ups and rehearsal strategies
• building excellence in women’s choirs

Sections also focus on mentoring, auditions, seating arrangements, historical women’s repertoire, healthy vocal development, gender issues, history, status of the women’s choir, and much more. This book features research, practical insights, and round-table discussions. The included DVD demonstrates choral techniques and teaching ideas with two women’s choirs: Aurora, from Luther College, conducted by Sandra Peter; and The University of Kentucky Women’s Choir, conducted by Lori Hetzel.

Conducting Women’s Choirs is, quite simply, essential for anyone who is involved in the women’s choir movement and the culmination of decades of experience and wisdom by leaders in the profession.

Debra Spurgeon is Associate Professor of Choral Music at the University of Mississippi (Oxford) where she conducts the Ole Miss Women’s Glee Club and teaches choral music education and conducting courses. She has served the American Choral Directors Association as Women’s Choir Repertoire and Standards National Chair (2007-2010) and as president of the Oklahoma Choral Directors Association. Her publications have been featured in the Choral Journal, Journal of Singing, Journal of Music Teacher Education, and Teaching Music

Debra Spurgeon

Debra Spurgeon has edited and compiled an amazing resource for directors of high school age and beyond women's choirs. Beginning with an historical overview of women's choirs and covering every conceivable topic, this book is a must-read for anyone in the field of women's choir music or about to enter into that world. The list of chapter authors is a who's who of the leaders in the field over the last twenty-five years, a period of growth which has been truly astounding. As women continue to outnumber men in college enrollment and also show more interest at most ages in singing choral music, the current explosion of new ideas about women and singing, new research on the female voice, and new music specifically written for women's voices by skilled composers will continue. Spurgeon's book not only tells the story of women choirs through history and tells us where we are now, both musically and philosophically, but also lays the groundwork for the next twenty-five years.

Within the various chapters each reader will find a number of subjects which interest them. Interested in the Venetian ospedali? Jeanette MacCallum's chapter on the subject, twenty-seven pages filled with concise information, will guide you through the history of that amazing period. Hoping to find a philosophy based upon the uniqueness of the women's choir and the shared experiences within them? Look to a brilliant chapter by Sandra Snow titled “We Sing Ourselves, an Essay about Teaching and Learning with Women”.

In a must-read chapter, Debra Spurgeon interviews Lynne Gackle, currently the leading authority on the changing adolescent female voice and author of the book which explores this and much more in the recent publication by Heritage Music Press, “Finding Ophelia's Voice, Opening Ophelia's Heart”. This chapter is full of great information and practical advice. Lynne, as always, graciously shares her deep knowledge on this subject.

Other valuable resources include the chapters “Mentoring the Women's Choir through Voicing, Labeling, and Seating” by Sandra Peter and “Warm-ups for the Women Choir” by Lori Hetzel. The information in these two chapters is also the focus of the DVD, with Peter's Aurora Ensemble from Luther College and Hetzel's University of Kentucky Women's Choir as demo groups.

I was honored to be interviewed for the chapter by Nancy Menk, entitled “Writing for Women's Voices: A Conversation with Composers”. Nancy drew up some very good questions and sent them to a number of composers who have written quality music for the genre, and she then compiled our answers to the various questions. This chapter makes for a good read; we agreed on a number of things, yet there were some areas where there were quite different answers by some of the composers. For me, this was great fun to read (and compare my thoughts with the others) when I received the book. The composers whose ideas are shared in this chapter are Elizabeth Alexander, Carol Barnett, Abbie Betinis, David Brunner, Paul Carey, Drew Collins, Eleanor Daley, Stephen Hatfield, Ron Jeffers, Rosephayne Powell, Z. Randall Stroope, Joan Szymko, and Gwyneth Walker.

In summation, Debra Spurgeon has created an amazing resource- at 340 pages there is so much within these pages to explore that it is truly amazing. I would imagine this book took hundreds of hours to create, but I think it was well worth it and I congratulate Debra on her achievement. She will present an interest session on topics from this book at the March 2013 ACDA National Conference in Dallas, with a panel of people who were chapter authors. If you are attending the Dallas ACDA Conference, don't miss this session.

 

 

 

Review of Luther College Nordic Choir Winter Tour Concert

The Luther College Nordic Choir, the upper-class mixed voice touring choir of this renowned musical institution has just kicked off an extensive sixteen city concert tour of the US. Starting off in Naperville, IL  near Chicago ( I attended the concert last night, and a review is posted below), they head east, winding up in NYC (St. Bart's) and DC, then slide south into the Carolinas, Tennessee, Florida and Georgia and then head on back to wintry Iowa.

If you are close to any of their venues, listed toward the bottom of this blog, try to attend. They are under the fine direction of Dr. Allen Hightower and the program include works by Weelkes, JS Bach, Chesnokov, Casals, Mealor, Whitacre, Mulholland, and more.

Luther College Nordic Choir, Allen Hightower, director

CONCERT REVIEW

I was very pleased to discover that the Luther College Nordic Choir (the 70 voice SATB touring choir) would kick off their winter tour in Naperville, IL not far from me. Who wouldn't want to go hear a great group like this on a cold Wednesday in January? I also was curious to hear them under their new-ish director, Allen Hightower. After Weston Noble's remarkable 57 years at the helm, and a period of five years under Craig Arnold, Hightower is now in his third year at the helm. In a very nice printed program, Hightower speaks about Luther choosing him even though he is a Texan and was an outsider to the Upper Midwest Lutheran choral tradition. I can say that this hire was brilliant. Hightower totally impressed me with his joy as a conductor (I was sitting right in front and could see his facial gestures), his technique- especially a left hand that shapes in such a gorgeous way, and his ease and gracious interaction with the audience. In regard to that amazing left hand of his, the only other conductor I have seen with one to match would be Edie Copley at Northern Arizona University (and coincidentally she happens to be a Luther grad).

Dr. Allen Hightower

For those of you who don't know the Luther College choral program, this is a small school (about 2,500 students) of ambitious undergrads. Often when we hear great choirs from big schools we are hearing some much older, more mature voices (grad voice majors, grad teaching assistants, etc) in the top choir.
The Lutheran singing tradition in Iowa, Minnesota, to some extent the Dakotas is remarkable. In addition to Luther, almost every college or university in the area fields outstanding choirs.

The concert began with Thomas Weelkes' "Hosanna to the Son of David". The singing was rich, and the phrasing clear but yet with subtlety. This was something that I loved about this choir and Hightower- I felt that the choir under Arnold had one mode of  bold, yet still warm singing and that it often sounded like a really great y'all come choir, in the sense that there was usually very little subtlety, nuance, phrasing, etc. Under Hightower every text and musical phrase  is understood, and I also felt that the singers (holding hands in the Luther tradition) really heard all the other voice parts fitting into their own throughout every measure of every piece. There was an organic, communal process happening- seventy voices as one, if you will.

This attention to organic phrasing paid big dividends in the second piece, an ms by Randall Stroope, "Verbum caro factum est". I'm not a big Stroope fan, and that probably stems from the fact that I know his signature harmonies, phrasings, and turns of melody well enough that he doesn't surprise me anymore. Yet this new piece, sung by this group really was gorgeous and deep. Hightower's baritones and tenors at times push the choir into a higher gear of resonance, nicely-energized vibrato, and volume. I loved the effect this had on a few pieces during the evening. I was able to ask him about this via e-mail today and his well-worded and thoughtful response was this:

"That's an interesting observation. I don't know that this happens intentionally. I suppose it's organic.  I can only hypothesize that as I tend to be a fan of the English choral tradition, our trebles tend to stay clean and clear into their fuller sound, whereas the men's voices tend to sing more fully/freely into the sound.  I think one tends to hear this in groups like "The Sixteen". The English women tend to have the clear boy-sound in their ear, but the men sing more heartily. I think that generally the women in the Lutheran choral tradition tend to sing a bit more on the "leaner/cleaner" side.
 
Perhaps this also has something to do with a search for balance that is more of a pyramid shape.  Paul Salamunovich and before him Roger Wagner talked much about building the balance from the bass up.  That's why I have more basses and altos than I do tenors and sopranos."

When the choir began JS Bach's "Jauchzet dem Herrn alle Welt" I sat there thinking that the sound was a bit square and boxy, but somewhere along the way the piece started dancing- wow! The next piece was Mullholland's "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name", with organ. I wrote "gonzo" in my program. Oh my, the sound was big and glorious, yet the tone was always musical.

Another highlight to me was  "Praise to the Lord" by Melius Christiansen. Hightower didn't just blast through this like most choirs do. There were lovely nuances to phrasing; he was able to bring out things I have never really noticed before. To perform a familiar "chestnut"  like this and bring something new to an audience fully familiar with the piece is a big accomplishment.

Pablo Casals' intimate, heartfelt "O Vos Omnes" was sung with great beauty. Casals would have loved to hear this performance- and we need to hear more Casals!

The concert ended with a fun rendition of the Rodgers and Hart tune "My Romance", with a very sweet solo by  Marissa Satern, Fissinger's "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho" and "O Lord God" by Pavel Chesnokov. Hightower has the low basses in this choir to sing Russian church music such as this. I hope to hear them sing some of this repertoire in the Church Slavonic sometime. Their encore, David Schwoebel's "An Expression fo Gratitude", featured some great chops at the piano by choir member Sophia Huang.

All in all, this was an amazing program presented as a winter's night gift by these smiling, gracious young singers and their equally gracious director. The audience of about 300 was thrilled (they even displayed excellent audience etiquette- something rare these days), and the Nordic Choir tour kicked off with a bang. Try to hear them yourself if you are near any of the venues they will sing in over the next few weeks.
Bravo, Nordic Choir!

WINTER 2013 APPEARANCES

Wednesday, January 16, 2013 / 7 p.m.
Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church
Naperville, Illinois

Thursday, January 17, 2013 / 7:30 p.m.
Holy Cross Lutheran Church
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Friday, January 18, 2013 / 7 p.m.
Peace Lutheran Church
Gahanna, Ohio

Saturday, January 19, 2013 / 7:30 p.m.
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
Ardmore, Pennsylvania

Sunday, January 20, 2013 / 4 p.m.
Asbury First United Methodist Church
Rochester, New York

Tuesday, January 22, 2013 / 7:30 p.m.
St. Bart’s Episcopal Church
New York, New York

Wednesday, January 23, 2013 / 7:30 p.m.
Lutheran Church of the Reformation
Washington, D.C
.
Thursday, January 24, 2013 / 7:30 p.m.
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church
Hickory, North Carolina

Friday, January 25, 2013 / 7:30 p.m.
The Conn Center at Lee University
Cleveland, Tennessee

Saturday, January 26, 2013 / 7 p.m.
Central Baptist Church of Bearden
Knoxville, Tennessee

Sunday, January 27, 2013 / 7:30 p.m.
Westminster Presbyterian Church
Greenville, South Carolina

Monday, January 28, 2013 / 7:30 p.m.
Palms Presbyterian Church
Jacksonville Beach, Florida

Wednesday, January 30, 2013 / 7:30 p.m.
First Presbyterian Church
St. Petersburg, Florida

Thursday, January 31, 2013 / 8 p.m.
University of Georgia Performing Arts Center
Athens, Georgia

Friday, February 1, 2013 / 7:30 p.m.
Asbury United Methodist Church
Madison, Alabama

Saturday, February 2, 2013 / 8 p.m.
Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri

Tuesday, February 5, 2013 / 7:30 p.m.
Luther College, Center for Faith and Life
Decorah, Iowa


Luther College Vocal Program

Luther College offers a wide variety of opportunities
for vocal music participation for young aspiring singers.

Choral Ensembles

Aurora, Dr. Sandra Peter, 90-voice first-year women’s choir

Cantorei, Linda Martin, women’s choir

Cathedral Choir, Dr. Sandra Peter, 90-voice sophomore touring choir

Collegiate Chorale, Dr. Andrew Last, 100-voice upperclass touring choir

Nordic Choir, Dr. Allen Hightower, upper-class touring choir

Norsemen, Dr. Andrew Last, 90-voice first-year men’s choir

Sharing the Texts of 2012-13 Commissioned Pieces

For me, choice of text is the most important and crucial  aspect of writing choral music. I often receive compliments on my text choices.Thank you to those who have noticed and said something- it means a lot to me, to know that the many hours I devote to text searching means something to you as directors and singers!

Here is a compilation of the texts I used for the commissions I wrote for various groups for the 2012-3 concert season. I have blogged about some of these, and will make links to those discussions- but here I will also just give you a chance to read through all the texts- hopefully they interest you and intrigue you as well. Some of these piece have already been premiered and the scores are now available to the choral community at large (let me know if you would like any free perusal scores), other have yet to be premiered. I will list them in the order they were composed (beginning in Spring of 2012 and just finishing up in late December 2012).

For the ACDA national women's choir consortium,
coordinated by ACDA national choir  Iris Levine:

Full Fathom Five (William Shakespeare, The Tempest)

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
Sea-nymphs hourly ring his knell:
Ding-dong.
Hark! now I hear them — Ding-dong, bell.

This piece has already been sung by four of the choirs out of the 32 consortium members- I expect a lot of performances in Spring 2013 now that holiday programs are out of the way. Thanks to Phillip Swan, Nancy Menk, Jill Burleson, and Pam Pierson, for getting the ball rolling on performances. I Skyped with three of the four choirs about the piece, and visited Nancy Menk's singers in person for a rehearsal.

For Prometheus (a professional chamber ensemble led by Paul Crabb)

Paul Crabb

Dirge for Love (Phillip Sydney)
 

Ring out your bells,

Let mourning shews be spread;

For Love is dead.

All Love is dead, infected with plague of deep disdain;

Worth, as nought worth, rejected,

And Faith, fair scorn doth gain.

Refrain: From so ungrateful fancy, from such a female frenzy,

From them that use men thus, Good Lord, deliver us!

Weep, neighbours, weep; do you not hear it said

That Love is dead? 

His death-bed, peacock’s folly; His winding-sheet is shame;

 His will, false-seeming holy: his sole exec’tor, blame.

(Refrain)

Let dirge be sung, and masses rightly read,

For Love is dead.

Sir Wrong his tomb ordaineth, My mistress’ marble heart;

Which epitaph containeth, “Her eyes were once his dart.”

(Refrain)

Alas, you lie: rage hath this error bred;

Love is not dead.

Love is not dead, but sleepeth in her unmatchèd mind,

Where she his counsel keepeth, till due deserts she find.

Therefore from so vile fancy, to call such wit a frenzy,

Who Love can temper thus, Good Lord, deliver us! 

This was my second Elizabethan text for the season, and a text area I have little explored. New York City-based composer Matthew Harris' great success with Shakespeare texts has spurred me toward getting beyond my dislike of some of the archaic language (I usually favor 20th century texts) and this turned out to be  a fun one to write. It is basically an SSAATTBB madrigal and Paul Crabbe's group sang the heck out of it and had great fun with it. I was in St. Louis for the July premiere, and then also at Missouri ACDA a few days later where they also performed it with success. I also presented an interest session at Missouri ACDA and that was enjoyable too. It will receive a performance in February on Kathy Fitzgibbons' Clark College anti-Valentine's Day program in Portland!

For Elysian Voices, a new chamber choir directed by my good friend Paul Laprade

Paul Laprade

In the Moonlit Garden (Wen Tang Yun, 813-870)

In the moonlit garden, softly she dreams of him,
Green branch of young willow, floating in the breeze of Spring.
At their parting she heard the horses neigh,
The grass was green beyond the gates.
Fragrant candles sighed in tears.
In her dream they meet in petalled path.
Their desire flows sweetly through the night,
As she trembles in his arms.

Paul Laprade asked me for a sexy piece for his group's Valentine program in February 2013- and while I found some pretty decadent stuff (God forbid I set Charles Bukowksi- haha) I decided that this old Chinese poem was perhaps not so sexy, but certainly delicious in its images and sweetness. I set the piece for SATB/cello/piano and the main melody is a series of rising phrases- certainly not the typical melodic shape.
I did this on purpose to create something new and to push myself to create using some new ideas. The piece will be premiered in early February and I think it will be very sweet.

For the 34th Annual Ithaca College Choral Festival

Ithaca College Choir, directed by Larry Doebler

Larry Doebler

'''to balance myself upon a broken world"  (original poem title "September, 1918" by Amy Lowell)

This afternoon was the colour of water falling through sunlight

The trees glittered with the tumbling of leaves;
The sidewalks shone like alleys of dropped maple leaves,
And the houses ran along them laughing out of square, open windows.
Under a tree in the park,
Two little boys, lying flat on their faces,
Were carefully gathering red berries
To put in a pasteboard box.
Some day there will be no war,
Then I shall take out this afternoon
And turn it in my fingers
And remark the sweet taste of it upon my palate,
And note the crisp variety of its flights of leaves.
Today I can only gather it
And put it into my lunch-box,
For I have time for nothing
But the endeavour to balance myself
Upon a broken world.

I had decided to make sure and not write anything blandly beautiful or ho-hum pretty for this important commission. I've heard enough blandly beautiful, overly homophonic choral music in the last ten years- maybe you have, too? The previous commissioned composers for this series are some heavy hitters- Norman Dello Joio, Vincent Persichetti, Daniel Pinkham, Dan Locklair, Chen Yi, Lowell Lieberman, Rene Clausen, Steven Stucky and many more. The very expressive war poetry (from a civilian's point of view) was very well-received by director Larry Doebler, his singers at Ithaca College, and by the audience at the premiere in early November. I was their guest and was treated so nicely. And, no one told me the piece was beautiful! What they did say was that they truly appreciated the choice of text and the expressive way I set it. I was amazed at the skill level and artistically expressive approach by all the groups at Ithaca under Larry and Janet Galvan (one of my series editors at Roger Dean Music) and this visit was a career highlight for me.

This score is now available for perusal by the choral community. I have already blogged about the
setting process here

Janet Galvan

For the Lexington (KY) High School Choir Program, Adam Beeken and Rob Vanover, directors

At the Round Earth's Imagined Corners

This is a three movement piece at a challenging level for high school singers, as per the request by Adam Beeken. The choir will sing part of the piece when they tour Chicago in  March, and then premiere the entire work in Lexington in late March. There was a very interesting process to choosing the texts for this, and Adam played a large part in how that evolved. To read more, go here where I have already discussed that process.

The Christopher Smart text:

For the Glory of God is always in the East, but cannot be seen for the cloud of the crucifixion.
For due East is the way to Paradise, which man knoweth not by reason of his fall.


The Nicene Creed text:

Crucifíxus (just this one word from the Nicene Creed which follows--

setiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato;

Passus, et sepultus est,

Et resurrexit tertia die, secundum Scripturas,

Et ascendit in cælum, sedet ad dexteram Patris).

The John Donne text:

At the round earth's imagined corners blow
Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise
From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scattered bodies go ;
All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow,
All whom war, death, age, agues, tyrannies,
Despair, law, chance hath slain, and you, whose eyes
Shall behold God, and never taste death's woe.
But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourn a space;
For, if above all these my sins abound,
'Tis late to ask abundance of Thy grace,
When we are there.   Here on this lowly ground,
Teach me how to repent, for that's as good
As if Thou hadst seal'd my pardon with Thy blood.

For the Saint Mary's College Madrigal Dinners 40th Anniversary, Nancy Menk, director

Nancy Menk

Nancy asked me for some new holiday settings of the 40th anniversary of the St. Marys Holiday Dinners.
I obliged with three settings, all of which she used for the programs. My son Aidan and I attended one of them and we had a lot of fun- enjoying not just the great food and singing, but also the jugglers who were a blast, especially when they juggled flaming torches outdoors after the program.

Th three pieces I set were:

In dulci jubilo (the original fairly odd, macaronic text in Latin and German, with new melodies by me).
I was happy to write some juicy feature moments for the altos! SSA with simple percussion

Lullay, myn liking (another old, well known text, but with an original melody) SSA, with a solo toward the end

The Angel Gabriel (The Angel Gabriel in Heaven did Sing)  SSA, two recorders or flutes

During August through now I got so much into this repertoire of traditional Renaissance (and some Medieval) Chrismas traditional texts and/or melodies that I wound up writing a bunch more of them. I will be sharing them with Nancy and with other women's choir directors and am now creating a self-published book of about eighteen of these pieces, thirteen of which are completed. They range from a cappella settings to those with a single cello, or two recorders, or some percussion- in other words, a book with a lot of variety, including a variety of difficulty levels. If anyone out there is interested let me know and I will send you some of these to read through. In the meantime, many thanks to Nancy for getting me started on this project.

Two pieces for a peace concert by the ensembles of the children's choir
organization Spirito! Singers, directed by Molly Lindberg

Molly Lindberg

Peace  (text fragments submitted by the Ragazze Singers (a younger group), compiled by me

Peace, peace
Peace, peace
An eagle soaring overhead
Peace, peace
Trees budding
Grass greening
Wind rustling
Spring coming
Peace, peace

A starry night
Music of a creek
Dancing leaves in the wind
Circles of friends
Voices in perfect harmony

Flowers
Clouds
Sisters (Brothers)
Freedom

An eagle soaring overhead
Wind rustling
Spring coming
Peace, peace
Peace, soaring
Peace, peace


Dona Nobis Pacem  (for the advanced high school age group- the phrase "dona nobis pacem", plus peace quotations by various authors):

Dona nobis pacem

On this beautiful path, I walk in peace (Thich Nhat Hanh)

Peace is joy at res, and joy is peace on its feet (Anne LaMott)

I offer you peace, I offer you love,
I see your beauty, I hear your need (Mahatma Ghandi)

We now should make ourselves empty,
that the great soul of the universe
may fill us with breath (Lawrence Binyon)

We shall find peace, we shall hear angels,
we shall see the sky sparkling with diamonds (Anton Chekhov)


These two pieces are for a peace program that will occur in May 2013. The ensembles are both excellent, and reflect the high level of skill, musicianship, and enthusiasm within the youth choir movement in the US these days. The use of amateur poetry from the group members is something I have been doing quite a bit lately, and I hope to blog about it soon. Lately I have done variations on this with the Cincinnati Children's Choir, directed by Robyn Lana, as well as The Young Naperville Singers, directed by Angie Johnson. 

The voicing for Peace is SA (with a bit of SSA)/piano

The voicing for Dona Nobis Pacem is more adventurous: three antiphonal SSA choirs (at times merging into a single choir)/vibraphone/orchestra bells/suspended cymbal (three players). The vibe part includes some avant-garde technique in one very expressive section. I'm looking forward to heaving this piece live, and not just in a Finale program playback!

So there you have it- all the, at least to me, very interesting texts I used for commissions for the 2012-13 concert season. I hope you enjoyed reading through them. I will begin writing pieces for next season soon, and hint-hint, am currently fielding inquiries for commissions for next season.

Special Concert Broadcast Tonight

Healing the Brokenhearted Concert National Broadcast

The following concert can be heard nationally  online at WFMT.com

 

Healing the Brokenhearted

January 13, 2013 at 7:00 pm

Chicago’s Young Artists in Remembrance of Children Lost to Violence

Doreen Rao

In response to President Obama’s message to “come together” and “be at our best as Americans,” seven of Chicago’s finest choirs will sing to heal the brokenhearted. In memory of the children and teachers lost to gun violence in Newtown, Connecticut, this memorial concert will feature American music, including a newly commissioned Requiem Mass by Lita Grier interspersed with a prayerful array of solo art songs and interfaith meditations.

For the first time ever, five of Chicago’s nationally recognized children’s choirs will join together in concert at St. James Cathedral. They will perform not just as young choirs singing together, but as musical citizens determined to sing with ‘one voice’ in service of the grieving parents and families who lost their
beautiful children.

The combined choirs will be joined by an interfaith roster of spiritual leaders and a cast of celebrated vocal artists. The radio broadcast will be hosted by 11 year-old Masha Lakisova, a talented violinist
and engaging speaker.

We hope this memorial concert and radio broadcast will provide solace and comfort to all who hear it.
“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”
--Leonard Bernstein

Participants in this memorial concert include:

• Doreen Rao, conductor
• Lita Grier, composer
• Wayland Rogers, composer
• Carolyn Paulin, WFMT Producer
• Eric Arunas, WFMT Engineer
• Don Mueller, WFMT Technical Producer & Location Supervisor
• Walt Whitman Jr., Soul Children of Chicago
• Molly Stone, Chicago Children’s Choir
• Emily Ellsworth, Anima Young Singers of Chicago
• William Chin, Pro Music Youth Chorus
• Jacquelyn Negus, Sharon Augsberger, Red Rose Children’s’ Chorus
• Michelle Areyzaga, soprano
• Scott Ramsey, tenor
• Levi Hernandez, baritone
• Luciano Laurentiu, pianist
• Julia Coronelli, harp
• Bruce Barber II, St. James Cathedral Choir
• Paul French, William Ferris Chorale
• Members of the Chicago Symphony Youth Orchestra, Allen Tinkham, Director

Meditations by:

• The Right Rev. Jeffrey Lee, XII [twelfth] Bishop of Chicago
• The Very Rev. Joy Rogers, pastor of St. James Cathedral
• Rabbi Evan Moffic, of Congregation Solel
• S.S. Shiva Singh Khalsa, Minister of Sikh Dharma
• The Rev. Liz Muñoz, St. James Cathedral

 

Book Review: "Mentoring in the Ensemble Arts", by Tim Sharp

BOOK REVIEW

Mentoring in the Ensemble Arts, Helping Others find their Voice
by ACDA executive director Tim Sharp
(published by GIA, ISBN 978- 57999-835-6, 173 pp., price $21.95).

From the GIA website:

http://www.giamusic.com/search_details.cfm?title_id=16597

Mentoring in the Ensemble Arts, Helping Others Find Their Voice

by Tim Sharp

"Conductors are artists—but they also have a singular responsibility to go beyond the music to nurture the inner voices of their ensemble members.

In Mentoring in the Ensemble Arts, author Tim Sharp examines the mentor/protégé dynamic and its critical impact on the lives of ensembles and their conductors. Sharp draws from research, his own experience as a choir conductor, mentor, and protégé, and his travels as Executive Director of the American Choral Directors Association. The result is a profound portrait of this rarely discussed aspect of a conductor’s life.

Coming full circle, Mentoring in the Ensemble Arts reinforces a conductor’s own desire to develop his or her own personal learning community to continually strive for excellence by being a protégé to other leaders.

The goal of this book is to help the conductor realize the full potential of the mentor/protégé relationship and to assist both mentor and protégé in achieving the best possible benefits of these relationships. The result will be better music making and more fulfilled human beings for generations to come.”

Tim Sharp

Here are the chapter headings for Tim’s book:

INTRODUCTORY CHAPTERS

Mentoring Defined
The Renaissance Bottega
Our Early Mentors
The Why of Mentoring
A Personal Word
Our Reason for Being

LISTENING FOR THE VOICE

Framing the Mentoring Environment
Generativity
The Power of the Mentor
The Conductor-Mentor and the Ensemble Protégé
Are Mentors Born or Built?

HEARING THE VOICE

Beginning the Mentoring Process and Relationship
The Mentor as Leader
The Ongoing Process of Generativity
The Mentoring Environment
The Ensemble Mentoring Environment
Why Mentor, why Protégé?

RESPONDING TO THE VOICE

Moving to Mentoring
The Imperative of Interconnectedness
Skill Set
The Protégé and the Mentor
What We Learn and What We Do
The Primary Ethical Obligation of Mentors
Guidelines as the Mentor Begins

REFINING THE VOICE

Lessons from Greatness
Locate Greatness
Mentoring to Greatness
The Continuous Mentor
The Ensemble as Mentor
Life and the Question “Why?” as Mentor

This book fills a void of information and supplies practical guidelines on mentoring within the arts environment. While there are a number of research projects and scholarly books on mentoring, this is the first reader-freindly effort to truly address the mentoring of individuals or even ensembles within the realm of a music rehearsal room, or any other ensemble art situation (dance, acting, etc). The book delineates the informal/formal- passive/active ways that individual mentoring can initiate and often evolve and sets up suggestions as to both purpose and structure of such relationships. One of the strongest features of the book is a guided exercise called a “Thought Experiment” at the end of a number of the chapters. For those people that purchase the book I recommend that you do these experiments fully and not just read through them quickly. They will be of great value as you crystallize your own thoughts and philosophies on the mentoring process.

Here are a few quotes from the book that you should find interesting:

In a chapter about the Italian bottega, or workshop, where people like a young Leonardo da Vinci learned his craft, even including a signed contract between discepolo and maestro, Sharp delineates da Vinci’s progression from discepolo to being the maestro later in life, and says,

“We learn from the mature Leonardo, who later in life becomes a mentor, by his constant posing of the question "perche?" Or why?"

And in a later chapter,

“…once he [Leonardo] identified the problem through observations, sketches, and observations, and experimentation, he sought a solution to it. I reference the habits of Lernardo because these are the same habits of the mentor and the protégé. The mentor is consumed by “perche”—“why”- and the protégé is asking the same question.”
In a chapter on generativity Sharp writes,

“Generativity is the term coined by psychoanalyst Erik Erikson  to denote”concern for establishing and guiding the next generation”. …the progress of generativity is the  imparting of proven techniques, skills and life lessons (including the “why” of the profession) from mentor to protégé”. 

And in another chapter with the theme of interconnectedness and the generativity theme, Sharp writes,

“It has been my experience that important and significant lessons are more readily “caught” than taught”, and once again, this is where the mentoring process gains credibility. By observing each other, and by staying in proximity to each other, lessons can be discovered, tested, and evaluated. In the best of  mentoring environments, this is the essential flow.”

And in a discussion of mentoring possibilities in the 21st century, Sharp suggests the possibility that:

"...the ideal mentor may emerge as a coalition of peers, including fellow ensemble members, a personal learning network, other supervisors, workplace subordinates, and colleagues of equal rank, all mentoring each other" ...the value of group mentoring is that the activity is reciprocal democratic." 

For anyone already experienced in the mentoring arena, or for those who may wish to become mentor or protégé, this is an invaluable book, for it supplies definitions, formulates questions and answers, and provokes the reader to think along with the author- who all the while conveys his thoughts in clear and persuasive English. For those within the music field, including those who work with ensembles and especially those within the collegiate academic world, this is a must read.

About Tim Sharp (BM, MCM, DMA) is Executive Director of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA), the national professional association for choral conductors, educators, scholars, students, and choral music industry representatives in the United States. He represents choral activity in the United States to the International Federation for Choral Music (IFCM). Sharp, himself an active choral conductor, researcher, and writer, has varied his career with executive positions in higher education, recording, and publishing. Prior to his leadership of ACDA, Sharp was Dean of Fine Arts at Rhodes College (Memphis, TN), and earlier, Director of Choral Activities at Belmont University (Nashville, TN). His research and writing focuses pedagogically in conducting and score analysis, and various published essays betray his eclectic interests in regional music history, acoustics, creativity, innovation, and aesthetics. He has conducted university, community, church, and children’s choirs, and continues to serve as a choral conductor and clinician in the United States and internationally. Sharp resides in Edmond, OK, with his wife Jane and daughter Emma.

Social media videos might make you believe anything!

Ah yes, we used to ask people, especially children,  if they believed everything they read. Now, perhaps we should ask, do you believe everything you see on FaceBook and youtube?

For instance:

Recently some of my musician friends have been sharing the following video on social media
and getting a bit overexcited about it and hoping to see more.

Meanwhile my take as a composer who, unfortunately, spends far too much time engraving music with Finale, was this;

1) Is there anything more to this so-called "app" than just the little that they show in the video? In other words, is this app capable of doing high powered score layout, transposition, part generation, lyric underlays, score optimization, piano cross-staff notations,  cut-away scores, and a gazillion other complicated things that Finale and Sibelius (I'm not a Sibelius user) can do? If not, it's a cute little gizmo to dork around with a simple little Bach minuet as seen in the video, but not much more, and certainly just a child's toy in the eyes of a  professional composer/arranger.

2) What can I learn by visiting the website the video mentions? Well, I didn't learn anything- there is basically nothing there!

http://www.thinkmusictechnology.com/

So, especially in regard to #2, I decided this was all a bunch of hype over a cutesy, sophomoric Apple-ish trendy gizmo that may not even really exist (yet?).

So I have basically not shared this video and haven't commented on it- I didn't want to call anyone out for thinking it was way cool. But today I saw the following  item from Philip Rothman's blog debunking the product and video, and the evidence is pretty damning. It just goes to show you that many people looking to get some cheap publicity today blindly substitute social media flash for substance, put the cart before the horse, and as one commenter suggested, failed the market test of "under-promise and over-deliver".

Here is a link to Rothman's entire blog, and below are some excerpts for you: (oh by the way, my first music software program allowed a total of four backward edits, so if you screwed somethting up you often had to start laying out an entire piece over to get what you really wanted!):

  
Makers of music handwriting app video used Sibelius and GoodReader to create dramatization

by Philip Rothman

The makers of the video, an entity called ThinkMusic Technology, did not mention that the video was a dramatization. In fact, they led excited followers on Twitter to believe the app, as demonstrated, was real:

Techinmusiced @techinmusiced

2 Jan 13

@ThinkMusicTech if this app is for real, music notation is going to be redefined on the iPad. bit.ly/VfyI4G

ThinkMusic Tech @ThinkMusicTech

@techinmusiced oh it's for real! Stay tuned for more info coming in the next week or two!

2 Jan 13

• 
  

I am now certain that every single one of the music notation examples shown in the video, were, in fact, simply images exported from Sibelius using settings identical to, or very close to the defaults of the House Style “Standard Opus (Times)” and modified using GoodReader, a widely popular annotation app. No actual handwriting recognition, MIDI input, or other app functions were taking place. Everything shown in the video was a clever simulation, and not at all indicative of any working app.


Several requests for ThinkMusic to comment specifically on whether or not the music examples in the video were a series of images produced using Sibelius, and manipulated using conventional software, went unanswered.

ThinkMusic has not demonstrated that they can develop a working app, but they have succeeded in several areas. First, they have shown an ability to create an impressive marketing campaign and capture people’s interest through social media. Second, they have identified a desire for a successful product that would actually do what they have dramatized in their video. Moreover, they have some genuinely good ideas about how such an app might function. Avid’s Scorch and MakeMusic’s Finale SongBook are read-only apps and are tied into each company’s proprietary file format. MuseScore says that they have an app in development, but it is called “MuseScore Player” and so, it too will presumably be a read-only app. Notation apps such as Symphony Pro and Notion have yet to gain wide acceptance in the market.

Perhaps we will see an app “coming soon” from ThinkMusic or another developer after all. However, a fully functioning app is long way from a product idea (even one as cleverly dramatized by ThinkMusic) — especially if the app is to function with the ease and fluidity demonstrated in the video. If ThinkMusic does produce an app, was their reliance on Sibelius’s output and GoodReader’s drawing mode in marketing the app’s key features (especially without a disclaimer) a forgivable indiscretion? Or does it fundamentally undermine their product? Only the market, and perhaps some lawyers, will decide.

Mini-Review iof Seraphic Fire's new Christmas Recording

A few weeks ago I reviewed “A Seraphic Fire Christmas”, a Grammy nominated recording from last year (CD and iTunes) from by the Miami-based professional choir led by Patrick Quigley. Today I will give you a mini-review of their brand new Christmas recording, “Silent Night”. It's not too late to get this in time to listen to for this Christmas, especially if you use the iTunes download option.

http://www.seraphicfire.org/store/

Track list

The First Nowell

I Wonder as I wander

Preces (and Responses)

Hymn to the Eternal Flame

Glory to Thee, My God, This Night

Ding Dong Merrily on High

Carol of the Bells

Gitanjali Chants

Little Child in a Manger

Veni, veni Emmanuel

O Magnum Mysterium

Shiloh

Sweet Little Jesus Boy

Niño de Rosas, from Three Mystical Choruses

Silent Night

The singing on this recording is resonant and full, the intonation impeccable and the sound recording superb. Seraphic Fire has set the bar high for themselves with each recording, and this one is no exception. It is especially rewarding to hear them match their singing to the personality of each piece- quite evident in the most dramatic, passionate piece, Steven Sametz' setting of the Spanish text Niño de Rosas, with a robust solo by Lexa Farrell. Because Quigley's professional singers are so adept in so many vocal styles, he can sculpt the sound of each piece to his precise liking.

There are some tracks here that alone justify purchase of the CD. A striking performance of an old chestnut, Victoria's “O Magnum Mysterium” is sheer perfection, magically balancing both linear and horizontal axes of the late Renaissance counterpoint. Likewise, the sheer beauty of tone and tuning of modern American harmonies in Stephen Paulus' little gem “Hymn to the Eternal Flame” is magical. Gitanjali Mathur's soaring, glorious descant on the final verse brings chills to the spine. While there are a number of songs which may be unfamiliar to the average listener, there are still plenty of standards to satisfy those who want to hear new recordings of music they are already familiar with. Among these the standouts are performances of John Rutter's arrangement of “I Wonder as I Wander”, the Wilhousky arrangement of “Carol of the Bells”, and Quigley's own arrangement of “Silent Night”.

Seraphic Fire just keeps getting better and better as they enter their second decade. Patrick Quigley continues his tradition of letting the music speak without overreaching or getting in the way. His magic is in finding just the right sound and approach to each piece the ensemble presents. Bravo, Seraphic Fire!

More on Patrick Quigley:

Patrick Dupré Quigley is the Founder and Artistic Director of Seraphic Fire and the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, has been described by the Miami Herald as, “a musician with a constellation of qualities rarely found in a single conductor: an enthusiastic and audience-friend personal style, a scholar’s instinct for rooting out obscure but worthy music, a scrupulous and historically informed approach to works that span a wide range of musical periods, an ability to bring out the best in his talented platoon…and a showman’s canny sense of how to appeal to audiences"
”
 This past year, Mr. Quigley was nominated for two 2012 Grammy awards for his work with Seraphic Fire and the Professional Choral Institute: Best Choral Performance for Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem, and Best Small Ensemble Performance for A Seraphic Fire Christmas.  Seraphic Fire was the only chorus in North and South America to be nominated for a 2012 Grammy award, and Quigley was the only conductor to be nominated for two separate recording projects.  Under his direction, Seraphic Fire has released ten recordings on the Seraphic Fire Media label, with three additional recordings forthcoming this year.
2012 sees Mr. Quigley making guest appearances with the San Francisco Symphony’s Community of Music Makers series, Cincinnati’s professional Vocal Arts Ensemble, and two separate appearances with the San Antonio Symphony.  With Seraphic Fire, Patrick will conduct over 65 performances across the United States.

Quigley is the recipient of the 2004 Robert Shaw Conducting Fellowship, given annually by the National Endowment for the Arts and Chorus America to one conductor between the ages of 25 and 40 who demonstrates the potential for a significant professional career.  At 26, Mr. Quigley was the youngest person to receive this award.  Most recently, Mr. Quigley was awarded Chorus America’s 2011 Louis Botto Award for Innovative Action and Entrepreneurial Zeal, recognizing his artistic and institution-building achievements with Seraphic Fire.

Patrick received his M.Mus in conducting from the Yale School of Music and his B.A. in musicology from the University of Notre Dame, and is a graduate of the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy’s Fundraising School.

More on the Ensemble:

Entering its second decade, Seraphic Fire has become one of South Florida’s most important performing arts organizations and has a national reputation for choral music excellence. Led by Founder and Artistic Director Patrick Dupré Quigley, Seraphic Fire brings the best ensemble singers from around the country to South Florida to perform repertoire ranging from Gregorian chant to newly commissioned works. This past year, the ensemble’s recordings Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem and A Seraphic Fire Christmas were nominated for two 2012 GRAMMY awards. Seraphic Fire was the only choir in North or South America to be nominated, and the only classical ensemble in the world to be nominated for two separate projects.


In addition to a critically-acclaimed chamber choir, the organization has established Firebird Chamber Orchestra, which collaborates with Seraphic Fire on choral-orchestral masterworks as well as independent concerts of orchestral repertoire. The orchestra, like the chorus, is made up of top-tier performers from around the country who fly into Miami for intensive periods of rehearsal and performance.
Seraphic Fire is also committed to educational outreach: the Miami Choral Academy, Seraphic Fire’s inner-city education initiative, aims to change lives of underprivileged children by offering daily afterschool choral music instruction at disadvantaged Miami-Dade County public elementary schools. The program currently serves 200 children in five after school choirs.

Additionally, Seraphic Fire has established the annual two-week Professional Choral Institute & Artistic Director Academy which trains aspiring pre-professional singers and conductors with the aim of giving them the musical and business skills to make professional choral and ensemble singing their full-time vocation. The Professional Choral Institute is the only such program in the United States.

Would I like to own the Lanza Family's Guns?

Yes, this is usually a blog about the choral music world, but sometimes it isn't. A few people have told me to keep politics out of this part of my life and this blog, but, sorry-- no can do, no please you. And in fact, this ISN'T political- it's about life and how some people's lives end in an evil instant when bullets-- many, many bullets, enter their body.

Hey citizen, do you need a rifle to shoot a deer? Yeah, go buy one. If you want to shoot Bambi or his mom, go ahead. If it makes you feel powerful or you like to make your own venison jerky, I'm not stopping you. Need a gun in the house to "protect" your family? Yeah, go buy one, but you might want to read this first:

Startled Father Fatally Shoots His Daughter

Published: November 09, 1994 in the New York Times

• t

A girl who jumped out of a closet and shouted, "Boo!" when her parents came home in the middle of the night was shot and killed by her own father.
Fourteen-year-old Matilda Kaye Crabtree's last words to her father were "I love you, Daddy."
No charges were brought against her father, 53-year-old Robert Crabtree. The Ouachita Parish Chief Deputy, Richard Fewell, said the case would be turned over to the District Attorney as a matter of routine.
"It's sad," Mr. Fewell said. "This is something every kid has done. I don't know how the father is going to live with it."
Matilda and a friend, whose identity was not disclosed, were supposed to be spending Saturday night at the friend's home but had decided to go to the Crabtrees' while Matilda's parents were away, Mr. Fewell said.
When Matilda heard her parents drive up around 1 A.M. Sunday, she and her friend came up with a practical joke: They hid in her bedroom closet and made noises to make her parents think someone had broken in, Mr. Fewell said.

 Or this more recent event in South Africa:

A Centurion man accidentally shot dead his young daughter on Friday morning when their house was broken into, Gauteng police said.

Lt-Col Lungelo Dlamini said the man was awoken by a commotion at his house on Glover Street.
"He went upstairs to fetch his firearm and while he was there, he heard the commotion again near the door. He fired a shot which hit and injured his... daughter," said Dlamini.
"She was taken to hospital in a critical condition, where she died. We have opened a case of culpable homicide."
Dlamini said the five robbers fled the premise with a handbag, which belonged to the man's wife. No arrests had been made. Beeld newspaper reported that the father had heard dogs bark, went downstairs to investigate and spotted a robber in the house, in the early hours of Friday morning.
He ran back up to his bedroom, slammed the door and took his firearm from the safe. At that stage, his seven-year-old daughter had woken up and wanted to go into her parents' bedroom.
When she turned the door knob, her father thought it was one of the intruders and fired a shot.
He opened the door and found her lying there. According to Beeld she had been shot in the head.

 And you might want to know this research info:

Having a gun at home not only increases the risk of harm to one's self and family, but also carries high costs to society, concludes an article in the February Southern Medical Journal, official journal of the Southern Medical Association. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health, a leading provider of information and business intelligence for students, professionals, and institutions in medicine, nursing, allied health, and pharmacy.
"Firearm-related violence vastly increases expenditures for health care, services for the disabled, insurance, and our criminal justice system," writes Dr. Steven Lippmann of University of Louisville School of Medicine, and colleagues. "The bills are paid by taxpayers and those who buy insurance."

Guns at Home Increase Dangers, Not Safety
 
Based on a review of the available scientific data, Dr. Lippmann and co-authors conclude that the dangers of having a gun at home far outweigh the safety benefits. Research shows that access to guns greatly increases the risk of death and firearm-related violence. A gun in the home is twelve times more likely to result in the death of a household member or visitor than an intruder.

Returning to Sandy Hook:

An official with knowledge of the investigation tells The Associated Press three weapons were found inside Sandy Hook Elementary School and a fourth weapon was found outside. These weapons are critical evidence as investigators try to unravel why Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six school workers Friday after killing his mother at their home. The official was not authorized to speak on the ongoing investigation and spoke only on condition of anonymity.

The murder weapon:

_ Bushmaster .223-caliber: lightweight with a high capacity, it also is popular with law enforcement and the military, and is commonly seen at shooting competitions. Two men convicted in a series of sniper killings in the Washington, D.C.-area in 2002 used a Bushmaster .223-caliber rifle that they fired from the trunk of a car at randomly picked victims. Some models have a detachable magazine that can hold up to 30 rounds. The medical examiner in Connecticut said it appeared all the children and school staff were shot with the same high-powered rifle, some repeatedly, some at close range.
Also found in the school:

_ Glock 10 mm: a larger and more powerful weapon than the widely popular 9 mm, it is in many respects similar to the 9 mm. It is a lightweight and comparatively affordable weapon that is often used for target shooting and for personal protection.

_ Sig Sauer 9 mm: considered an upper-tier, quality product, it's comparatively expensive, and its range of uses include elite military and police units.

The Bushmaster and two other weapons were found near the body of Lanza, who killed himself at the school.

So perhaps we don't yet have final, official confirmation of what guns were on the scene and what Adam Lanza exactly did with those guns, but I decided to look up these weapons and see if they might be appropriate for me to own to shoot deer or squirrels, and have in my home with my nine year old boy in case of an intruder or rabid bear or alien invasion.

The Bushmaster .223 AR-15 Rifle

Form the company website, a section called "Our World":

Military

Bushmaster military carbines and rifles are helping defend freedom around the world. Proven in the most severe conditions, rugged and reliable Bushmasters are lightweight, accurate, and easy to shoot and maintain.
So whether duty calls you to the jungle or the desert... to mountain snows or urban landscapes... highly adaptable Bushmaster weapon systems are battle tested and field ready.

Home Defense

With a Bushmaster for security and home defense, you can sleep tight knowing that your loved ones are protected. Bushmaster offers everything you need to ensure the safety of you and your family. Our high-quality pistols, carbines, and rifles are extremely reliable, easy to shoot, and include lightweight carbon models that are perfect for women. And with their intimidating looks, all Bushmasters make a serious impression. Any gun will make an intruder think. A Bushmaster will make them think twice. [Your prankster daughter will even think three times before she pranks you again].


 Accuracy and reliability? Whether your prey is a prairie dog at 600 yards or a charging hog that's lost his sense of humor, [or a roomful of small children] you can rely on your Bushmaster for both pinpoint accuracy and quick follow-up shots. 

From my research I have found that this is a military rifle known as an AR-15 and that today the AR-15 and its variations are manufactured by many companies and are popular among civilian shooters and law enforcement forces around the world due to their modularity and notoriety in being associated with US military. In other words, if you want to feel cool and all Rambo military-like, buy this gun, get your sunglasses and fatigues on, and nobody will mess with you. You won't just be able to kill Bambi with it, you can kill all the animals in the forest with one big sweep. Fully modified Ar15's are capable of firing 800 rounds per minute! This also makes me realize that Adam Lanza could have killed EVERYONE in that school that day if many of the teachers had not been so heroic and able to get so many children out of harm's way. God bless them.

I don't want this gun in my house. I don't want this gun in my neighbor's house. I don't want anyone to have this gun unless they are a SWAT team member or a member of the military. PERIOD.

  

The Glock 10mm semi-automatic pistol


Although it was selected by the FBI  for use in the field following the 1986 FBI Miami Shootout, their training unit eventually "concluded that its recoil was excessive in terms of training for average agent/police officer competency of use and qualification", the pistols that chambered it were too large for some small-handed individuals. These issues led to the creation and eventual adoption of a shortened version of the 10mm that would evolve into what is today the .40 S & W.

So this is a gun rejected by the FBI for various safety and practicality reasons. Why does it still exist? It mostly seems to be another thrill machine (for people who get off on gun thrills) to own.

For some reasons, this gun is still used by some law enforcement agencies, and is often touted as a "hunting gun". Yeah, right.


I don't want this gun in my house. I don't want this gun in my neighbor's house. I don't want anyone to have this gun unless they are a SWAT team member or a member of the military. PERIOD.

 Hey, take a read of this (this guy has weird fantasies, most likely on a daily basis)

Inside The Gun Locker: Carrying A Glock 10mm

By: bboatman
12/7/2010 03:01 AM

Rumors of the death of the 10mm pistol cartridge and its replacement by the .40 S&W are premature. The talented Ten has simply moved out of town.

When you get out beyond the limits of the city, a .38 or 9mm in your holster seems awfully small. As the most likely theater for a potential armed confrontation opens up from city sidewalk, to high speed freeway, to lonely country road and wide open spaces, even the capabilities of a .40 or .45 may be stretched. When the threat of danger lurks, not in the aching veins of some desperate junkie or the evil eye of an adolescent asphalt-jungle predator, but in the paranoia of a gang of land-grabbing marijuana farmers or the stamping feet of a belligerent range bull – out where the bad guy is more likely to be armed with an AK-47 than a pipsqueak pocket rocket, might even weigh a thousand pounds and wear a set of horns suitable for impaling and tossing your big new truck – you cannot be overgunned. If you carry a revolver, this is .357, .41 and .44 Magnum country. If you carry a semi-automatic pistol, this is the land of the 10mm.

The Sig Sauer 9mm

This is another gun chiefly used by military around the world. It is used by the Navy Seals, but I think their intent is to  use it to kill bad people, not seals.

I don't want this gun in my house. I don't want this gun in my neighbor's house. I don't want anyone to have this gun unless they are a SWAT team member or a member of the military. PERIOD.


OBVIOUS CONCLUSION: NONE of these firearms were truly meant to be in the hands of everyday citizens. They, and the devastating bullets they fire rapidly, were designed for military and law enforcement use. But companies like profits and they are happy to take your money if you need these guns to make yourself happy (see below). Anyone who clears a background check can own these weapons of mass destruction. And you can buy them at many gun shows without much hassle. Why did Nancy Lanza need these military guns? Why on earth would she let Adam have continued access to them considering what we seem to know now (and what she had to have known to some extent) about his mental instability or at least his outsider personality traits. Her role in this comes into question just as much as her son's, at least in my opinion.This was a disaster that did not have to happen. And yet little children, their teachers, and the whole community of Sandy Hook is paying a price which cannot be fathomed. Shame on us, as a country, if we let Sandy Hook and other recent killings happen, and NOT do something to prevent them in the future. Please contact the White House, your senators and representatives and tell them how you feel about this gun and mental health issue.

Happiness is a warm gun
Happiness is a warm gun, yes it is
When I hold you in my arms 
 When I feel my finger on your trigger
 I know nobody can do me no harm
 
Because happiness is a warm gun, momma
Happiness is a warm gun
-Yes it is.
Happiness is a warm, yes it is...
Gun!
Well don't ya know that happiness is a warm gun, momma? (yeah)

- Lennon (murdered at age 40 by a gun) & McCartney

FUN FACT: With less than 5% of the world's population, the US  is home to roughly 35–50 per cent of the world's civilian-owned guns

From the Washington Post today: Adam Lanza lived among guns. His mother, Nancy, collected them. She showed them off to her landscaper. “Guns were her hobby,” said Dan Holmes, the landscaper of Nancy Lanza’s sprawling yard here on the edge of town. “She told me she liked the single-mindedness of shooting.”