Newsies

I’m excited to see Newsies next month in NYC!

Choral conducting

Tags

conductors, music interpretation

After several interviews and auditions (wherein I was an observer) during the past two years, I offer these random thoughts to conductors on the general topic of choral conducting.

• Only stop the choir in rehearsal when you have something germane and/or pertinent to offer, and then offer it immediately without hesitation.
• Less is more.  Learn this simple premise in your study of gesture, and use it generously, or should I say succinctly?
• Speak clearly when addressing the choir.  And speak with authority and weight.
• Mumbling is for when you grill or clean the house by yourself.  Mumbling to yourself has no place in the choral rehearsal, because it weakens your authority and weight.
• Rehearsals are for the choristers.  Work out choral conducting gestures and music interpretation decisions in advance.
• Inasmuch as is possible, rehearse the whole choir, rather than a small subset or a section.  If rehearsing a section is unavoidable, try a) also rehearsing a complementary section at the same time, so that both groups will become more secure, and also hear harmony rather than melody; or b) having the remainder of the choir sing a homing pitch around which the offending section can warble.
• Give specific instructions.  “Watch that pitch” tells the choristers nothing.  “That pitch is flat in the altos,” or “The E in ‘end’ needs to be brighter in all three lower parts” gets a specific result.  Better yet is to tell us what is wrong and how to fix it.
• Do not subdivide.  Subdividing only slows down the whole choral enterprise.  Save the subdivisions for the key moments when that little trick is absolutely necessary.
• Show the breath and tempo indicator at exactly the same plane where you will place the entrance.  If you do not, we will not be perfectly together on our entrance, and you will likely blame us for following your lack of clarity.
• We choristers appreciate a smile, and love being looked in the eye.  Most humans do.  So please do that.
• Listen to us first.  Let us sing as much as we can without stopping us.  Then respond and guide.
• When possible, say “We need to . . .” or “The music needs . . .” rather than “I want you to . . .”.  This is about the music, and the group of people who are making it together, not about you as a conductor.

These are all lessons that I have attempted to impart to my own students along the way, whether in a basic conducting class or in advanced doctoral-level conducting lessons and rehearsals.  I do my best to live out these simple rules in my own conducting and rehearsing, so I offer them without hesitation.

What’s growing

Here are scenes from the yard today:

 

Asiatic lily.

Coleus, and creeping Jenny.

Impatiens.

Cyclamen.

Hardy mums.

Dahlias.

Asiatic lilies.

Verbena.

Dianthus.

Hydrangea.

Mourning dove.

Alyssum.

Full week

The full week continues.

I spent Monday and Tuesday in Lee’s Summit, traveling home Tuesday evening and arriving well after dusk.

Wednesday included a morning at home, then office time, then church work for eight hours as I help with a music staff search.

Thursday was office time at school, then a final preview performance of Sweeney Todd at OTSL, then church work for nine hours.

And I’m off to church again this morning to help wrap up this search.  We have an evening liturgy tonight as we consecrate the new columbarium.  And then I will dine with a friend and watch the season finale of GLEE.

So much for a week off for summer break…..

Thy perfect love

Jesu, my love, my joy, my rest,
Thy perfect love close in my breast.
That I thee love and never rest;
And make me love thee all things best,
And wounde my heart in thy love free,
That I may reign in joy evermore with thee.

Truman Farm

I had a few spare minutes yesterday before I was due at Aunt Esther’s, so I stopped by the Truman Farm in Grandview.  In all 40+ of my years around Kansas City, I’ve never stopped there.

The self-guided tour is brief, but the history is real.

Truman’s outhouse and chicken coop.

Visit home

Tags

home

I arrived in Lee’s Summit late Sunday evening after visiting my dear friend (one of those old friends with whom one has no secrets and loads of water under the bridge) B in Columbia.  Some of my step-mother’s family were also staying at the house on Sunday evening, so the place was full.

Over the course of the next two days, I visited with both sisters and with my father & stepmother; took Beth’s kids to a movie and for ice cream; rough-housed with my youngest nephew; lunched with Todd and saw his new place on Wyoming in Kansas City; visited Aunt Esther; and picked up one of Aunt Esther’s rocking chairs from my cousin.

And then I listened to opera all the way home after listening to musical theater all the way across the state on Sunday.

I’m awfully glad to be home in my own house now, and to see my darling Samson, and to witness the beautiful yellow lilies in full glory in the flower beds.

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Home

I’m pretty weary after an evening drive home from Lee’s Summit tonight, so pics of the family will have to wait until tomorrow.

Here’s a shot of me with my 100-year-old great-aunt Esther today!–

With Aunt Esther, May 22, 2012. She’s 100 years and 28 days old.

Pierce my ear

Tags

church, god, theology

Pierce my ear, O Lord, my God.
Take me to Your door this day.
I will serve no other god.
For You have paid the price for me.
With Your blood You ransomed me.
I will serve You eternally.
A free man I’ll never be.

What’s growing

The yard is mowed and trimmed and primped.

Asiatic lilies are lively right now.  Many of the perennials have taken root and are putting out new leaves and blooms, although they won’t come into their own until summer 2014, if the old adage is true: “the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, the third year they leap.”

My marigolds aren’t faring well in the little terra cotta chicken.

The cyclamen have taken off, though.  And the dahlias are really doing well except for two that the rabbits may have fatally attacked for their tender leaves.

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