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September 1, 2010 Dear Colleagues in “Music in Worship,” by Joel Ulrich, R&S Chair for Music in Worship
So, as “keepers”, “teachers”, “singers” and “leaders”, our work is and always has been the work of helping our singers find “the song”. This is a never-ending, always-in-progress conversation and work. Throughout the history of the world, the “song” was always part and parcel of the world the people lived in. The August 11 Seattle Times featured an article about the Quileute Tribe on the Washington coast. A quote from David Hudson, current Quileute Chief, caught my attention: “We live our culture here. We have our ocean, clams, smelt, Halibut. Native Americans and peoples of all continents of the world have understood the “identity” and the singing for “hours and hours” concepts throughout the history of the world. The Lord gave us the song as a means to keep our hearts and minds on Him and to enable His people—when alone and when in community—to keep Him as our true identity. Truly, His people have sung for HOURS and hours throughout the history of the world. “The Lord has put a new song in my mouth, The song of the Lord lived out faithfully in community will be a song that is not only heard, but also seen—what a concept. May the Lord find us faithful in that song—our world today needs the song as much as it ever has in the history of the world! As we begin our choral year together, let’s share with each other the various ways in which the song is “seen” in the midst of our work with church choirs. Send me your thoughts and insights as they come to you through your work this year, and I’ll share them with our choral community. My fall, winter and spring articles this year will follow these basic themes:
January 21, 2011 Preface to Winter, 2011 (January 20, 2011) —it’s so important for us, as directors, to keep asking ourselves the “right questions” in our work with choirs. It’s too easy for us to get into our routines and habits shaped by the need to get the anthem ready for Sunday. So, nothing “new” in this article, but hopefully the question “How are we helping our singers to find their song?” will serve simply as an opportunity for us to “be our own worst critic” (…and that’s ‘critic’ in the true and best sense of the word ) as we continue our life-long work with song. Winter 2011—How are we helping our singers to find their song? “As I observe the conducting profession, specifically the choral music genre, I have seen many fine teachers and “conductors.” Their choirs sing beautifully with impeccable intonation. I have taught many conducting students who possess technical conducting gifts; that is, their hands work well. Coordination and symmetry of pattern is seemingly effortless. Yet, whether it be a children’s choir or an adult professional chorus, many times there is something missing in the sound: that something which provides a brilliance of color and accuracy of pitch that is unmistakable, if one is listening. What is missing? What is missing to those who really listen is a humanness to the sound—a sound that is born because of the conductor’s selflessness and understanding of human love through music.”(1) Further in the book, he shares: “Most conductors believe that as they conduct, the following paradigm is in operation: Conductor->-------------------------->------------------------------------>Choir As the choir sings, the conductor provides spiritual energy which is then returned by the choir. Such a paradigm places all the responsibility for music making on the conductor, and the choir accepts little if any responsibility for what happens. Their job is merely to ‘return’ what was given to them by the conductor. Allow me to suggest a different paradigm: “In this paradigm, the choir is held accountable for supplying the energy and soulful synergism in the music-making process. The conductor then actively reacts to their spontaneous human spirits. The choir creates the music, and the conductor actively reacts and evokes from the singers sounds that are born out of their soul. It has been my experience that if the choir is given this responsibility, and is asked to commit to the process in the most profound way, they will accept that responsibility and sing beyond expectations. Such performances then become centered around the lives and souls of the singers and not the ego or personality of the conductor. In such performances, the composer (i.e. the song) is then given an opportunity to speak.” (2) John Graulty reminds us in his article Don’t Watch Me! (Music Educator’s Journal, June 2010), “One of the main objectives of rehearsal should be to encourage the ensemble members to become maximally engaged participants in the music-making process through increased self-awareness, thus freeing the conductor to focus on those responsibilities that are uniquely his or her own. …I have found that ensemble members tend to approach the ensemble rehearsal process somewhat passively, thinking that it is primarily the conductor’s responsibility to do the bulk of the listening, monitoring and correcting.” He goes on to say “Conductors also play a significant role in creating a podium-centered atmosphere by encouraging ensemble members to become overly reliant on them. Due in part to well-developed egos, a lack of confidence in the ability of the ensemble members who actually make the music, or simple naiveté, many conductors insist on placing themselves at the center of the music-making process all the time, correcting this, dictating that, controlling You can read the whole article in the Journal, but I share these thoughts simply to help us think about how we’re helping our singers “find the song”. Hopefully, you will share back with us the ways in which you’re helping your singers be “accountable for supplying the energy and soulful synergism in the music-making process.” and to become “maximally engaged participants in the music-making process through increased self-awareness”. Edward Cetto and Gabrielle Dietrich offer ways in which our warm-ups each week can be part of the “ownership” process (Aural Theory Training in the Choral Warm-Up: A Warm-Up Curriculum, Choral Journal, May 2003): “Unfortunately, warm-ups for many of us, are in a rut, the major scale being the culprit. Too often, we warm up only the vocal mechanism, singing the familiar chromatically ascending major scales and arpeggios along with the piano in rehearsal after rehearsal. Endless chains of five-tone major scales may challenge the voice, but not the mind. The chromatic major rut disengages the brain by exact repetition of the same mundane pattern, never accessing the endless multiplicity of varying major and minor patterns appearing in the repertoire. Furthermore, “monkey hear, monkey do” of traditional five-tone chromatic warm-ups never seems to move from unconscious to conscious comprehension. It is alarming that an ensemble may move through all twelve major keys several times over the course of a warm-up, yet never consciously acknowledge any key, let alone the movement from one tonality to the next. This lack of cognitive engagement does nothing to build the singers’ overall musical understanding. Again, you can read the whole article to see the specifics—if you e-mail me, I can send it to you—but they go on to share how they use the pitch-pipe/tuning-fork rather than the piano and how they use solfege (moveable ‘do’ as Guido intended) as the basic tool to help singers move from “unconscious imitation to conscious inner hearing”, etc. If solfege has not been the standard for tonality/literacy in your work, “love where you are and grow from there”. Solfege is greatest single “gift” to enable our singers to “take ownership” in finding the song. When we become “bi-lingual” in solfegio, a whole new level of musicianship takes place. Cetto and Dietrich go on to say: “As students [church choir members] sing in solfa, transference from unconscious imitation to conscious inner hearing takes place as singers repeatedly label the same relationships with the same syllables and internalize those relationships.” As singers move from the piano “crutch” to “conscious inner hearing”, a whole new level of singing begins to take place. Depending on individual learning styles, some singers will take longer in the process, but some, too, will find immediate “return” on their investment. Below is a self-analysis questionnaire we use to help them in this process: Self-evaluation/critique is a meaningful form of growth/development. The concept of “loving where we are and growing from there” is an essential concept to have constantly before us if we are to reach our potential as choral musicians. When we become “satisfied” with where we are, we cease to grow as meaningful members of the choral community we’re involved with. So TRULY love where you are—but just don’t be content to “stay” there, as conductors and as singers. The following questions will assist us in the work of “growing from there”: 1. Are you identifying the “Do” note from the key signature in your music more “sub-consciously” now? (REMEMBER: Key sigs don’t tell the actual KEY a song is in—they only tell what note is “Do”, if we use the Circle of 5ths correctly.) 2. Are you becoming more “tonally” conscious?
Helping our singers “find their song” involves helping them take ownership of aspects that often default to the conductor. Let’s help them “learn to fish” rather than just feeding them. Share how you are doing this with the rest of us.
Fall 2010—Keeping the Horse in Front of the Cart James Jordan (The Musician’s Soul) talks about the importance of soul in the song—what the Quileute talk about, too: I have great concerns for music education. At the risk of over-generalizing, music education has understandably focused itself on techniques of teaching, and sometimes on the methods of teaching and its consequent learning. However, the profession has not remained focused on those basic, bottom-line elements which allow children and adults [church choirs…] to make music that really has little, if anything, to do with the reading and replication of the right pitch and right rhythm. Music in the classroom and ensembles can be “made”, but it is created and generated from the very souls of those that produce it. Soulful human beings create profound music, regardless of their level of musical achievement. Such music is, at the same time, honest and direct, and speaks in the most direct way to all that hear it. The pedagogy of conducting has likewise focused on the teaching of technique. In many quarters, it has focused on a teaching of conducting devoid of sound. A conductor does not “conduct”; he/she, by the nature of his/her being and his/her sprit, causes people to sing; he/she evokes sounds that hopefully, are reflective of each person’s individual life experiences. Granted, technique and the mechanics of conducting must be taught and respected. However, the stuff that allows for the creation of great music is rarely dealt with in the teaching of conducting. What is usually easiest learned is hardest taught. Soulfulness is a hard thing to talk about and teach.” --The Musician’s Soul, Intro. I have found in my over 42 years of working with church choirs that “soulfulness is a hard thing to talk about and teach” at times—not always, of course. I have also found that the song has been a most “releasing” idiom to begin the “soulful” conversation in the work with music. Through technique (vocalization—breath, resonance, space, etc., etc.; solfege—finding tonality, sight-reading, etc., etc.; theory—key sigs, counting, etc.,; and tactus—pulse, rhythm, etc.), we are able to find the song more truly, but sometimes the song conversation is taken for granted and the means becomes the end in-and-of itself. We can all tell our “stories” about our encounters with this problem: “soulful” choral performances were not always the most musically proficient, and musically proficient ensembles have not always been the most soulful. “Keeping the horse in front of the cart” is constant work in many ways. In regard to text, Monteverdi reminds us that “The Word, the Text, with all its values and qualities, should be the Master and not the servant of the Musical Harmony”. Keeping the soul in front of technique is the constant work of choirs. And of course, even when the cart’s in front of the horse, they are never miles apart, but the order is really important if we want to reach the “destination”. The conductors who influence us the most bring more than technique to the work—they bring personality/soul. Our work is to bring that to our singers. So, 1) nothing “new” here. So often, in all of life, remembering to do what we already “know” is the work; and 2) this is life-long work—we never get there completely, but getting on the “right road” is important in reaching the destination. Share your insights with us—this is an on-going conversation, not just an “article”!
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You're the "keeper of the song," a sacred trust by Joel Ulrich, R&S Chair for Music in Worship
“Who am I? I am the SONG, the Lord’s song, the song of creation, the song of salvation, the song of victory and deliverance, the song of praise, the song of thanks, the song of supplication, the song of joy and gladness, the song of worship. I am the song of the morning stars, the song of Moses and the sons of Israel, the song of Deborah and Barak and of Hannah, the song of the Levitical musicians Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and the sons of Korah; the song of Kings David and Solomon; the song of priests and prophets; I am the song of choirs and congregations, the song of God’s own people. I am the new song, the joyful song, the sacred song. I am the SONG UNENDING. (His entire poem and convention address is attached for those of you who’d like to see it again.) And you, my colleagues in this ancient guild, are the keepers of the SONG, the teachers of the SONG, the singers of the SONG, the leaders of the SONG in the church today.” The second article shared thoughts about “Singing Is Listening”: “A little less singing + a little more listening = a little more music”! The article shared some reflection on a page from “Dear People…Robert Shaw”, a biography by Joseph A. Mussulman. This excerpt was taken from a letter written by Shaw to his choir: “It is a work of frightening difficulty [Bach’s Singet dem Herrn ein neues Lied]…and a couple of weeks prior to the concert, we had rugged rhythm and a fair-to-middling sonority—but very little Bach. What we had was not a motet—but a contest. So, as “keepers of the song” and as those who help our choirs to “sing a little less and listen a little more”, we find that our choir-year flies by as we participate in the only true “life-time sport”: singing! Hope you’ll all plan on coming to Tacoma this summer for our annual Summer Institute so we can all share our “stories” and find the refreshment that will bless our year-long work together. As we realize at each rehearsal: we need you—you need us! See you in July! |
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January 25, 2010 A little less singing + a little more listening = a little more music! Dear Colleagues, |
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Last fall, I shared Bruce Leafblad’s riddle “Who Am I?” which he shared at the 2003 National Convention. Scott Dean—Music in Worship, SI 2010 presenter—shared parts of the riddle at this past summer’s SI. Leafblad concludes the riddle with: